Romeo and Juliet was one of the most memorable experiences that I will never forget even after my schooling years. It was something different- something that wasn’t just memory work. (if you exclude the script :P) It was something that required time, patience and lots of lots of practices and rehearsals. Although it ate up most of my family time during the weekends, that was to put in effort to perfect the play.
There was one rehearsal when we were trying to get the kissing scene right. The other groups complained on how difficult it was to kiss. We thought it wouldn’t be too difficult for us. But it turned out that we spend around three hours trying to practice the kiss. It might seem hard because Jia Le to kiss me because he seems shorter than me, but no! He is (as he claims) be two cm shorter than me. The thing that was fishy was that Jia Le was too stiff. He looked as if he was saluting in a parade It was quite awkward to be kissing Jia Le because there wasn’t chemistry between us. I can’t deny that it wasn’t my fault because I was quite shy but it was fine when I tried kissing with Qi Herng
What we also did on that rehearsal was to try to finalise everything. But I was still disappointed when my idea of using homonyms and homographs because Jia Le was afraid he can’t remember the lines when he keeps pausing for the actions. Oh well, you can’t have everything in life.
The last few rehearsals were at Republic Polytechnic and Dawn’s aunt’s place where we tried to finish everything we needed to brush up. Jia Le came up with a crazy umbrella dance that was INSANE. After that, we tried in improvise it and it became some running-in-circles dance was still as mad as a hatter to me. But who cares? It’s fun to have fun with my friends like that.
It came down to the final day. There were literally butterflies in my tummy. I was worried and excited at the same time. Everyone was in his or her beautiful dresses and suits and I was… just like that. Other groups had distinctive different themes but our theme wasn’t fully displayed. Everyone was panicking and as excited like me. I tried to keep my cool, because Dawn was so antsy and I cannot be contributing to the tense and chaos. But the thing was, it has been a known fact that I have terrible stage fright. I might seem prepared and cool, but deep inside I know that I will stumble when it comes to the actual performance. I went out of the music trying to get a breather. It helped.
The performance went as according to plan, but still not optimal. I didn’t forget my lines, but I remembered I went off key on a word. I was mentally killing myself while continuing my lines. The kiss… I still thought it wasn’t good. I didn’t turn my head enough and it was too short. Not that I want it to be longer… Nevertheless, we gave whatever we could that day as a team and crew.
Now that I think about it, I have so many things I could improve on. Yuet Yan’s expression for the last conversation with nurse was just so emotional, I almost cried. I think that should have been the way. Maybe I could have knelt on the floor and start weeping like a fragile girl. Nabilah’s soft and delicate voice gave a different feel. I was only paying attention to the Juliets because the Romeos weren’t very prominent. Just kidding, Jing Yan did a great job too. Iqbal and Josephine’s groups were the only ones I watched but I am sure that the other two groups from our class did an exceptionally great job.
In any case, this was such an experience. The bonding between my teammates is now amazing. Thank you all of you, Dawn, Melissa, Shun Hui, Jia Le, Amanda, Li Ling, Qi Herng, Jing Han, Jamie and Shaun. Love you guys. I will definitely recommend it to my juniors!