The Adventure Begins

2 months of hard work, blood, sweat, tears and late nights have finally come to it's conclusion. The swashbuckling epic adventure Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa is finally premiering tommorrow, the 14th of May 2009....

It's been a hard road but I think we're all pretty much ready and excited to start performing tomorrow. So please do come and support us! The show runs from 14th till the 17th of May 2009 and the times are 10AM & 8:30 PM (Thursday & Friday) and 3 PM & 8:30 PM (Saturday & Sunday). Tickets are priced at RM35 & 25 and we're performing at Lambang Sari in Istana Budaya. So again, please do come and support us. Here are some shots of our dress run today to give you an insight on what to expect....

Say Hello To Justinian

Our very own Tony Leo Selvaraj, who plays Justinian, is one of this years Cleo's 50 Most Eligible Bachelors. Sporting an afro no less. Please vote for him!!!

Yes. Yes. I.. Yes. Yes.

So we all gathered in our lovable rehearsal space to start our second rehearsal. Missing however was Baki and Tapai, our two birds of the play. Though most of us were quite tired from work or classes, we still managed to reserve some energy for the night ahead.

We started off by doing some character analysis as well as location analysis of the play. To be honest, this was the first time i've ever gone this in depth into a script before. But now i've got a bigger overview of the script, thanks to our lovely director Marina :)

I guess some of us were still kinda tired :P

Anyway, Ram, our assistant director, took us through a little concentration exercise which was quite a hilarious sight to see. We basically had to go through the alphabet one by one and remember what the other person had said before that. So as the game went, we all went to the amazon and with us we brought these items:

Aprhodisac 

Balloon

Cap

Donkey

Elephant

Fan

Goose

Hog

Internet

Japanese Air Fighter Plane (trust Tony to come up with that)

Kite

Lamp

Monkey 

Nuts

Oranges

Prime Minister

Quenn

Rasputin

Shafiqah (big guess who came up with that :P)

Tarzan

Underwear

Van Morrison (Tony's work again)

Whale

Xena Warrior Princess

Yo Yo

Zebra

I can't believe I can still remember that lot. Can't wait for the next rehearsal because it'll be my chance to torture them with some games.

We eventually got round to doing a quick script read and when I mean quick, I really mean it. A 54+ minute play got turned into a 22 minute play. It was hilarious to listen to the script being read at the speed of a bullet train.

Now, somewhere along the line in Malaysian theatre, a bunch of people decided to head to a mamak after a rehearsal. That has sparked off a tradition. So as per that tradition, after our rehearsals we all headed to a mamak near our rehearsal space. As you can see in one picture, some of us were extremely tired after the rehearsal :P

So yes, this is rehearsal life. So if you ever see a rowdy bunch of people turning up at a mamak at about 10 or 11, most probably they are a bunch of actors.

-dorian-

And So It Begins

Yesterday marked the first ever rehearsal for the cast and the crew. To be honest, I had been waiting for this moment for a while. Since I had missed the first reading a month back, this was the first time I read the script with the rest of the cast. Was quite a fun experience. 

The first order of business for the early birds was the arrange the script which had just come off the presses. Needless to say, some of us were getting a little too attached to the script.

Once we were able to let go of the scripts, we were shown a little demo of the fight sequence at the start of the play. Unfortunately the name of the two wonderful gentlemen who showed it to us has slipped my mind. But it was definitely a sight to see and I personally can't wait to see how the actors will pull it off.

Adeline Ong, our loving costume designer, was also on hand to explain our costumes to us as well as take our measurements. I won't even start to describe what my costume is like. Lets just say i've got two months to lose the flab. Thanks Adeline -_-

After all that was out of the way, it was time for the highlight of the night. The reading of the finalised script. Like I said before, it was fun to have the whole cast together for the first time. I won't give too much away at the moment, but this is one adventure that is going to be fun for children and adults alike and I cannot wait to perform this wonderful play.

Well, thats all for now. So until next time!

-dorian-

More Photoshoot Images

Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa: The Making

On behalf of the Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa team:
Welcome to our Blog!

Brought to you buy our ever-enterprising and always endearing Nick Dorian. Thanks for the hard work and quick setup, Nick! Not only is he and Carmen Chow providing our photography needs, you'll also see Nick acting in the play. More details on that shortly.

Why bother with a blog, you ask?

Well, we thought it would be interesting for onlookers to have a peek on the goings-on behind staging a play. It's not all glamour and glitz - a lot of it is hard work. There's the grueling rehearsals, the publicity and administrative stuff, all the co-ordination and legwork which all amount to stress, late nights and my having kittens about a lot of things.

Was roped in to help out with publicity and marketing, but somehow along the way I ended up being producer. It really struck me just how much I've commited to the play when I was putting my signature on the cast contracts. It was really happening and this wasn't just a small-time gig, but a production going to Istana Budaya.

I feel blessed as producer to be working with a scriptwriter/director as enthusiastic as Marina Tan is. Her exuberance and sheer tenacity are great assets, which I think she needs to focus on ensuring the creative aspect of the play is taken care of. That's why I took on the producing job - to make sure she can work on strengthening the story, guiding the cast and, in other words, bring out the magic in HMMW's story.

My job, in a nutshell, is pretty much this:

Yes, producers get a bad rep for being supposedly high-handed, demanding or pushy. Well, my job is just to smoothen things out so Marina can concentrate on being an awesome director. That means doing the administrative work, making sure we have enough money and not use up the budget on caviar at the cast party, and making tough decisions. I hope Marina still likes me after HMMW is over despite my having to say (and get away with) saying things like these:

"No, Marina, we can do without XXX."
"No, Marina, we cannot wait until Thursday."
"No, Marina, are you insane?????"

So the cast will have to get used to my appearing at rehearsals just to show my "I Disapprove" Face. Next up, we hope to have more cast members have their say on the blog about HMMW, their experiences, their characters. So stay tuned and hope to see you when HMMW opens!

A Little Peek

The cast recently headed out to take some publicity shots. Here's a little peek at what went down.