In secondary school, I joined the choir and received my fair share of jokes and teasing since I was in an all-boys school and choir was thought to be rather wimpy. But I took it all in my stride. I had a grand time when we put up Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. It's a really fun musical, since it combines all sorts of music genres, from Elvis Rock n Roll or Jamaican Calypso-like songs, or a French song. I was one of the Brothers in the cast, and there is a great sense of camarederie in slogging through long hours on stage, getting your lines and positions right, working through the dance steps together. You work for months together and everything pays off on shownight. We staged the musical in our school's annual Performing Arts Night, and our school had our own concert hall of sorts, called the Centre for Performing Arts.
We even took the musical on tour towards the end of the year. KFC sponsored us to come down to KL to play 2 nights at one of the concert halls here. I can't remember where it was, and I know it was for charity, but the buzz was unimaginable. I remember walking in one of the shopping malls before the weekend shows, and then we caught a picture of us on a KFC poster promoting the show.
I'll never forget the chit-chat and the building excitement as the hours slowly dwindle down to showtime. We all have to start putting on our makeup, getting into our Egyptian costumes, making sure the props are all in place, and most importantly, make sure our voices are all warmed up. We could not eat spicy or fried food while we were on tour.
It is showtime and the curtains go up, there is thunderous applause which builds o a crescendo, and then the music creeps in, and then our Narrator sings: "In the story of a boy whose dream came true..."
There is nothing like being on stage, feeling the weight of hundreds of eyes on you, and the audience glued to every word and note. For that magical hour or two, you just live and breath on stage.
[Next installment: my choir experience during college]
We even took the musical on tour towards the end of the year. KFC sponsored us to come down to KL to play 2 nights at one of the concert halls here. I can't remember where it was, and I know it was for charity, but the buzz was unimaginable. I remember walking in one of the shopping malls before the weekend shows, and then we caught a picture of us on a KFC poster promoting the show.
I'll never forget the chit-chat and the building excitement as the hours slowly dwindle down to showtime. We all have to start putting on our makeup, getting into our Egyptian costumes, making sure the props are all in place, and most importantly, make sure our voices are all warmed up. We could not eat spicy or fried food while we were on tour.
It is showtime and the curtains go up, there is thunderous applause which builds o a crescendo, and then the music creeps in, and then our Narrator sings: "In the story of a boy whose dream came true..."
There is nothing like being on stage, feeling the weight of hundreds of eyes on you, and the audience glued to every word and note. For that magical hour or two, you just live and breath on stage.
[Next installment: my choir experience during college]
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