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How Does One Create Highly Talented Individuals?
The 2008 Beijing Olympics has been awe-inspiring. Incredible world records have been broken. Brilliant sportsmen like Michael Phelps from the USA, and Usain Bolt from Jamaica have held us spellbound.
Even Singapore grabbed a little bit of the limelight when it won a silver medal in table tennis. Never mind many of our table tennis players were born and bred in China.
I have been listening to a considerable amount of discussion asking why Singapore isn't doing so well not only in sports, but in other fields such as the arts, film, and science.
One of the excuses given as to why Singapore has not produced its own international talent is that Singapore has too small a population. The theory is that geniuses are produced in a sort of mathematical ratio of one per x million population.
This cannot be true. Take Jamaica, for example. It only has a population of 2.8 million, and yet it has recently won 11 Olympic medals, compared to Singapore’s one medal. Even Ireland, New Zealand, and Croatia, with a population slightly smaller than Singapore have won more medals.
And it is not confined to just Olympic medals, but right across the board, including Nobel prizes and outstanding artists and filmmakers, and scientists. Singapore lags behind in all these fields.
| Country | Jamaica | Ireland | New Zealand | Croatia | Singapore |
| Population | 2.8 million | 4.2 million | 4.2 million | 4.5 million | 4.6 million |
| GDP per capita | $7,700 | $43,100 | $26,400 | $15,500 | $49,700 |
| Olympic Medals (2008) | 11 (6 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze) | 2 (bronze) | 9 (3 gold, 1 silver, 5 bronze) | 5 (2 silver, 3 bronze) | 1 (silver) |
| Nobel Prizes | 1 (Derek Walcott educated in Jamaica) | 8 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Internationally Famous Musicians | Sean Paul, Bob Marley | Sinead O’Connor, James Galway | Natasha Bedingfield, Kiri Te Kanawa | Riva, Stephen Kovacevich, Ivo Pogorelic | Melvyn Tan |
| Famous Scientists | Cicely Williams | Lord Kelvin, Frederick Donnan | Ernest Rutherford, Maurice Wilkins | Vladimir Prelog, Lavoslav Ruzicka | SS Ratnam |
I think the problem lies in Singapore’s educational system. But first, allow me to say what I think is good about our educational system. It is universal, affordable, and the standard of mathematics and science teaching is of the highest quality.
Where it falls short is in the area of sports, arts, and creative thinking. My friend (CKJ) has a son who was very creative, making toys, modifying instruments and coming up with new and improved versions. However, when he entered primary school at the age of 6 years, suddenly his creativity vanished. His father said: “it was simply a question of ‘this is the answer, this is what it is, just memorize it.’”
Indeed school children are crammed with an inordinate amount of facts resulting in information overload. So much time is devoted to memorizing that there is scarcely enough time left for anything else. One example of this is that children are made to remember every single part of a microscope including the names of the little screws and other minor components. They are tested on these relatively unimportant facts, instead of being allowed to explore the microscope, the microscopic universe, and then be guided to think through and work out the principles of optics.
If a science experiment goes askew, the typical Singapore student would just copy the “correct” results obtained by a neighbour. Unfortunately this means that the student would miss out on an important learning opportunity, namely to work out what went wrong, and how the error could have been rectified. The solution to what goes wrong in an experiment is obviously not found in a textbook, and requires hard thinking.
Encouraging students to think for themselves, to devise their own experiments, to work out solutions to problems, and to troubleshoot faults, is distinctly lacking in most Singapore schools.
There are other areas of parochial thinking. For example, it is often assumed that creative thinking takes place almost exclusively in the humanities and not in the sciences. Thus science teachers do not place much emphasis on practical observations, do not challenge current theories, and do not prod students to produce original ideas and works.
Another example of blinkered vision is the overemphasis on the commercial value of everything. For example, scientific research in Singapore is only undertaken if it has to potential to make money. Pure research is frowned upon, because it is perceived that it takes too long to achieve commercial success. This restriction of research trickles down to all thought processes, and everyone edits out any ideas that do not obviously lead to profits.
A third problem is that every project must be measured by key performance indicators (KPI). This includes the performance of teachers, which is measured by how well their students do in exams. Research projects are also subjected to such evaluation. This means that certain results are anticipated, and it distorts the focus and direction of research, which, if it is meant to make profoundly original discoveries, will be thwarted.
Turning to sports, there are several reasons why Singapore has not produced its own indigenous sportsmen. Most of our international-standard representatives are born outside Singapore, and are granted citizenship in the hope that they will represent Singapore. A lack of facilities is not one of the reasons. Indeed Singapore is ranked seventh highest in the world with respect to GDP per capita. We have excellent sports facilities that my Jamaican sports friends would envy. So what is the problem?
I believe it is in the mindset. Sports is not valued as a profession worth pursuing. Most parents would discourage their children from devoting too much time to sports, as they fear this would erode into time for academic studies. Only recently has a sports school been started, but it is too early to evaluate how successful this will become.
Sports teachers are sometimes over-restrictive in their selection of students. If a child wants to participate in a particular sport, he would only be allowed to take part if he were already highly proficient in that sport. Beginners are rejected.
By and large, the same comments also apply to the arts. Parents tend to discourage their children from becoming too involved in the arts, and many teachers prefer to accept only those students who are already proven to be adept in that art. The emphasis is almost entirely on performance, and little value is placed on the creation of original art.
So where do we go from here? Singapore needs to re-evaluate its educational system, to place more importance on independent and original thinking. In this, it needs to sharpen the use of the tools of thought, which includes a higher level of language abilities, artistic, music and bodily-kinaesthetic expression.
An individual should receive a well-rounded, balanced education. Creativity can be cultivated, but it requires a fertile environment that is friendly, encouraging, and allows freedom of thought.
Like the gymnast leaping and somersaulting on a narrow wooden beam, an educational system needs to achieve a similar delicate balance. It is a balance between freedom and discipline, between active self-exploration and passive rote learning, between creative thinking and repetitive drills (divergent versus convergent thinking), between the learner chosing what to learn versus the educator dictating what needs to be learnt.
To achieve this balance is difficult. Any changes in the educational system or method of teaching, will only bear fruits decades later. Therefore, one should not base long-term educational decisions on short-term exam results. It is well recognized that many of our best inventors, entrepreneurs, businessmen, scientists, artists did poorly in exams.
To plan for the future, one encounters a further complication. The fulcrum of what constitutes a balanced education shifts from time to time, making it difficult for educators and administrators to know where precisely to position it in anticipation of future developments. A good example of this is the rise of information technology and computer education in the past few decades.
There is one more factor to consider. To rise to the absolute top of the heap, one needs to be highly motivated and persistent. Listen to the swimmers, athletes, pianists, who all say that they have to train for hours everyday, often giving up other activities and a social life. You might ask: “How can this be regarded as a balanced life?” You would be absolutely right. You cannot have your cake and eat it. At least not initially.
Before I return to the question of balance, there is yet another element to consider. I have been fortunate to have been taught by top scientists, including Nobel prizewinners, and have met a few highly successful entrepreneurs. Almost without exception, they are outstanding original thinkers. They have a keen sense of humor, and they have an unconventional way of thinking. They dare to think differently.
My friend (CKJ) tells me the story of a team of Formula 1 racing car engineers. When designing increasingly powerful engines that make their cars go faster no longer helps one win a race, because all the other cars are equally powerful, this team of F1 engineers met and brainstormed. Instead of concentrating on acceleration, the team’s designers realized that if they turned their attention to deceleration, they could increase the overall speed especially when turning corners. They therefore focused on brake development. If their car could brake just that little bit later at every corner of the track, it would be able to spend that fraction of a second longer at top speed than the other cars. If they added all the corners of a race track on each lap, they could go around it maybe 2 or 3 tenths of a second faster than the other cars of equal engine power, straight-line speed and cornering speed. In F1 terms, where there are over 70 laps, this is a lot. The point here is that it was a bit of really creative thinking by engineers, and indeed their car went on to win.
Talent alone is not sufficient. From the above, it is patently obvious that while innate talent is important, it is not a sufficient condition for winning the Olympics or a Nobel Prize. You need training to develop that talent, you need persistence, and you need to think creatively.
Where can education help? I believe that the key to success in education is to remain flexible, to embrace new developments, not to lose sight of balancing the mind and body, and never abandoning the fundamental precepts of cultivating independent thinking, encouraging hard work and persistence, fostering a spirit of creative thinking, a lively sense of curiosity, and a mind that is continuously questioning.
That is the challenge!
Kenneth Lyen
25 August 2008
Did Confucius think about multiple intelligences over 2 thousand years before Howard Gardner?
Confucius (551-479 BC) taught that the perfect gentleman had to excel in the following “arts”: mathematics, poetry, music, calligraphy, archery, charioteering, and rituals.
Howard Gardner (1943- present) suggested that each individual had multiple intelligences, and that these included mathematics, verbal-linguistic, music, visual-spatial, bodily kinesthetics, intrapersonal and interpersonal.
Is it possible that Confucius’ notion of a well-rounded person possessing many talents, might be the precursor of Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences? If so, his ideas were conceived over 2 thousand years ago. Think about it.
| Howard Gardner (1943- ) | Confucius (551-479 BC) |
| Mathematics | Mathematics |
| Music | Music |
| Verbal-Linguistic | Poetry |
| Visual-Spatial | Calligraphy |
| Bodily Kinesthetics | Archery, Charioteering |
| Interpersonal | - |
| Intrapersonal | - |
| - | Rituals |
Shanghai Blues
Why do we buy tickets to watch a musical? What do we want, what do we look for?
Personally I want to be entertained, to watch a musical with a good story well acted, a variety of stimulating songs beautifully sung, and exciting movement and dance.
Shanghai Blues fails on all counts.
Adapted from a 1984 Hong Kong movie written by Raymond To and directed by Tsui Hark, Shanghai Blues is a Mandarin-language musical set during the Japanese invasion of Shanghai, and the years shortly after the war. Wen Chong, a young patriot and a violinist, meets a young woman, Tu Yun, under a bridge. Both are trying to hide from the invading Japanese. In the dark, and unable to see one another clearly, they fall in love. They promise to meet again under the same bridge after the end of the war, but they are separated before they can discover each other’s name. In due course, Wen Chong returns to Shanghai, unaware that the woman he loves is the nightclub singer living in an apartment just below his. In the meantime, another young lady, Dan Lei, has come to Shanghai looking for her fortune, and Tu Yun is persuaded to share lodgings with her. Dan Lei meets Wen Chong and they fall in love.
The start of the musical is quite well done, and the plot setup is not bad. However, the musical goes downhill from then on. The problem is for how long can you suspend disbelief that Wen Chong and Tu Yun fail to recognize one another? They live literally on top of each other, and they work at the same nightclub, Wen Chong as a waiter, and Tu Yun as a singer. But nothing happens between them for nearly the entire show. When you add in Dan Lei as a potential love triangle, that simply does not work because Wen Chong and Tu Yun remain as uninvolved colleagues.
For a musical that comprises a string of bland songs sometimes sung out of tune, punctuated by a few Maoist-style patriotic songs sans the political passion, and you are heading for two hours of boredom. The lyrics are simply appalling, because they do not rhyme, are far too general, do not advance the plot, and do not even sit comfortably with the melody. The distribution of songs is unbalanced: too many in the first half, and insufficient in the second half. It must be noted that neither the composer nor the lyricist are credited in the program notes or the official website.
The main characters are poorly drawn. We do not know what motivates them. We do not know why Wen Chong is still unattached and looking for Tu Yun after eight years of the Japanese war. Nor do we know why he is willing, at the drop of a hat, to jettison Dan Lei, when he has seemingly fallen in love with her. This poor characterization extends to all the other characters. It is not salvaged by dialogue that is trivial and uninteresting. Although there are a few humorous moments, they are few and far between.
The war is curiously out of the picture throughout the musical. Then, after the war, when the communists rise to prominence, this too is glossed over and given facile treatment. The white industrialist is the scapegoat for all the capitalist ills, and on the day he is to take Tu Yun to London with him, he disappears completely. Some of the main actors overact like a Chinese soap opera. The dancing style is distracting, and often the wrong dance style for the given music.
It must be said that William So, Emma Yong, and Celine Rosa Tan sing and act reasonably well. The supporting cast and ensemble are accomplished. The orchestra sits right in the middle of the stage, which is all right, but sometimes I wish it were out of sight because the musicians’ lighting diverts one’s attention away from the actors.
The major reasons why this musical fails, is the lack of conflict between the characters, the poor use of the drama of war and the communist ideology, and a plot that is much too simplistic and utterly predictable. It is burdened by bland music, poor pitching in some of the singers, suboptimal direction, inappropriate choreography, and a set design that is interesting but too distracting.
In short, this musical is a disaster. It needs a radical revision to make it work.
Playwright: Raymond To Kwok-Wai
Director: Goh Boon Teck
Music Director: Philip Tan
Choreographer: Jeffrey Tan
Cast: William So, Mindee Ong, Emma Yong, Celine Rosa Tan, Oliver Pang, Daniel Jenkins, Darius Tan, Judy Tan, Chua Choon Hui, Gordon Choy
10 January 2008
Five Foot Broadway Mini Musicals 2008
http://musicaltheatrelimited.org/
You are invited to submit short musicals for FIVE FOOT BROADWAY MINI MUSICALS. The deadline for submission is 17 March 2008. Registration fee for the first 3 musicals submitted by Singaporeans waived.
This is a new initiative inviting composers and writers to submit scripts for original musicals, lasting from 10 to 15 minutes. The invitation is for the general public, secondary schools and tertiary institutions. Says Stella Kon, Chairperson of Musical Theatre Limited, "This will create a setting where new writers for the musical theatre can come together. Moreover, writing mini musicals is a great way to get beginners started in this craft. The Mini Musicals provide a testing ground to try out the collaboration of the creative team, in the complex task of bringing together the elements of story, music and lyrics."
All submitted entries will be reviewed by a Selection Panel, and up to 6 of them will be presented in June 2008 at the Esplanade, in conjunction with the Singapore Festival of Arts 2008. (Please see http://musicaltheatrelimited.org for more details on the submission process).
School House Rockz
Singapore Kids Central's first made-for-TV musical to be televised 17 Feb 2008. Music and lyrics by Kenneth Lyen, Desmond Moey and Jack Ho. Book by Lynette Chiu, Alina Heng, and Raihan Halim. Directed by Yeo Lay Har and Sharon Tan. Music director Iris Koh, choreographed by Trevelyan Neo. Starring Inka Mader, Shawn Tok, Foo Fang Rong, Shraddha Ramsundar, Amni Mumpuni, and Rosalind d'Almeida.
The title song of School House Rockz written by Jack Ho:
http://kidscentral.mediacorptv.sg/microsites/SHR/index.html
Teenage Magazine
Filming School House Rockz
Rehearsing School House Rockz
Shooting School House Rockz
Inka Mader
Shawn Tok
Foo Fang Rong
Chesty Nutty Bang Bang
Comments by Kenneth Lyen
Singaporeans, as all of us know, have a deficient sense of humor. Especially our civil servants. They spend their lives sitting through one meeting after another, keeping as quiet as a switched off handphone, careful not to voice any personal opinions, and not to take any initiatives. Creativity is absent from their vocabulary, and unpublished studies have shown that this is probably due to a gene deletion.
The Media Development Authority (MDA) is a special subset of the civil service, and is responsible for nurturing the creative industries in Singapore. In other words they are trying to convert Singapore from a left brain to a right brain nation. Unfortunately, the term "creative civil servant" is regarded as an oxymoron. Thus, the senior civil servants in the MDA have decided to dispel their public image as unimaginative dullards, by performing a rap. A rap? You’re joking? No, they wrote an original rap song, danced to it, and filmed it. Serious. And some kind soul posted it on YouTube:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ksw2UqTyhhc
They did not realize that they had exposed themselves to Jonathan Lim. Poor devils. Jonathan used back their own weapon, a rap, and unleashed a torrent of word bullets, scoring hit upon hit on these sitting ducks. Bang! Bang! Quack! Quack!
Flush with victory, Jonathan, an experienced serial killer, brandishes his satirical guns (real guns are banned in Singapore), and goes on his annual rampage, shooting the pompous and the arrogant with verbal chestnuts.
Indeed Jonathan is so successful, that some people liken him to a literary terrorist. It is rumored that Michael Moore may be preparing a documentary called "Dicko", named after Jonathan’s favorite target. No relation to the other Lee family, which he also takes pot shots at.
He takes potter shots at JK Rowling. And he confuses poor Sir Ian who drifts from Gandalf, to Magneto, Dumbledore, King Lear, and to Sarin.
Jonathan is at his best when he tackles Beauty World. At a fraction of the cost, he is able to densely populate the stage with six performers, and keep you in stitches throughout. So much so that you cannot even enjoy a nice nap.
I especially like his skits on the Pirates of the Caribbean, Greased Lightner, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, If There’re Reasons, and 881251. I like the comment on the President’s Star Charity, which precipitated a bout of raucous laughter.
It is a madcap evening. Jokes arrive wave after wave, like a perpetual tsunami. You barely survive one wave, when another one comes and knocks you down. You are sinking into this torrent of intelligent subversion, and your mind drowns in a sea of parody.
But... we have a problem, Houston.
The first problem is that in order to best appreciate the jokes, you need to have seen all the films, plays and musicals referred to. In other words, to derive full value for money when watching Chestnuts, you need to do your homework. I have a suggestion for Jonathan. Please give us advance notice as to which movies, plays and musicals to watch. Or perhaps you can run a pre-show educational course, plus a post-show course, where you can slowly explain all the jokes to dimwitted people like myself. Better still, please provide us with lecture notes followed by a test, so we can see if our score improves from year to year. A Diploma awarded by the Academy of Chestnuts would be a bonus.
The second problem is that the projected English translation of skits in Chinese, is almost unreadable. Hence most of the jokes are lost. I was sandwiched on all sides by non-Singaporeans, and they did not laugh at the Chinese-language skits. Jonathan, you may have to think of some way to translate the jokes into English auditorily, and not rely on the projections.
Chestnuts has grown from a 2-man show to a 6-person show. Jonathan shares the stage with Judy Ngo, Rodney Oliveiro, Celine Rosa Tan, Yeo Yann Yann, and Joakim Gomez. All are brilliant and have perfect comic timing. The music arrangement by Bang Wenfu is just out of this world. Production values are getting better and better. Thanks to Adrian Tan.
Chestnuts is an institution. I think that all Singaporeans should go and watch this year’s Chesty Nutty Bang Bang. Have a really good laugh. Laugh at authority. Laugh at others. Laugh at yourself.
"We are not amused." - Queen Victoria.
Georgette: the Musical
"There is always time for art"
Reviewed by 1. Sarah Ismail 2. Roderick Chia
Production Company: Musical Theatre Limited
Date: 10 June 2007
Place: Esplanade Recital Studio
Book and lyrics: Ng Yi-Sheng
Composer: Clement Yang
Music Arranger/Music Director: Chris Nolan
Director: Lee Yew Moon
Vocal Arranger/Vocal Director: Nicole Stinton
Cast: Seong Hui Xuan, Eu Jin Hwang, CC Leong, Joyce Liang, Lena Lim, Claire Matthews, Marvelina Pratiwi Setiawan, Windson Liong, Les Merquita, Leonard Augustine Choo, Zarelda Marie Goh
1. Reviewed by Sarah Ismail
This review first appeared in Citizen Historian, and reproduced with permission
Just who is that woman on the wall?
The play Georgette begins with this question – appropriate enough for a woman whose early life is relatively unknown. Georgette Chen is mainly known as a pioneering Singaporean artist and one of the few women of that time. As a result, it is Georgette Chen’s arrival at Singapore customs that has captured the attention of heritage boards and historians, examining her impact on the Singapore art scene and her role in Singapore history. If there is a mention of her pre-Singapore activities, it is contained in the following words – born, married, studied, left.
Part of these lacunae is due to resources, rather than the understandable desire to cast a nationalistic cloak on Georgette. Georgette’s Singapore life is well-documented – simply because she was here. By contrast, records of her earlier life lie scattered across three continents, and in all likelihood, gone.
All is left is the question that the play tries to answer - who is Georgette Chen? Throughout the play, her portrait hangs, enigmatic as the Mona Lisa herself.
A narrator begins the musical, introducing us to the mystery of Georgette Chen. From there, the story proper begins at a customs checkpoint in Paris. Georgette Chen is still the bright eyed Chang Liying, and as the customs officer asks for the purpose of her visit, she declares confidently, “To be an artist!”
That customs checkpoint is a leitmotiv of sorts, in Georgette’s life. For the rest of the musical, Georgette bounces from continent to continent, crossing customs and cultures, with a family reunion in China, an art exhibition in New York, a stopover in Malaya. Georgette was a cosmopolitan woman, an enthusiastic traveller, and always in movement.
The sheer energy of the musical brings across this multiplicity of experiences that infused Georgette’s early life. A Moulin Rouge-sque hokey number introduces as to the La Bohemia that is Toulouse-Latrec’s Paris. An awkward family dinner, where modernity clashes with traditional customs, emphasises Georgette’s status of standing between worlds. A completely unnecessary Caribbean-influenced jingle jarrs, but otherwise the music is perfectly serviceable, tapping into common musical genres.
In certain ways this is not so much a musical about Georgette, but about Georgette’s world. By examining the world she lives in, the playwright Ng Yi-Sheng deliberately, or otherwise, compels us to understand the forces that were potentially shaping her worldview. Georgette herself as portrayed in this musical is oddly uncomplicated - she is a fairly standard literary character, that of a rebellious young artist, with a great love that forms her anchor. By focusing on her world, Ng escapes certain problems of having to recreate Georgette with the little textual evidence available, but instead draws on what is commonly known about the greater world to let the audience fill in the blanks themselves.
This has the potential to turn into a messy pastiche, if not for Eugene, Georgette Chen’s first husband and the great love of her life. The strength of their marriage and their mutual affection has been documented in the form of Georgette’s numerous sketches of her diplomat husband. The essence of their relationship plays out across several continents and in a particularly charming song by the narrator. The strength of their marriage sings out bright and clear, despite career paths that sent them in different directions – Georgette in New York for an exhibition, Eugene in Australia for peace talks, and a hopeful rendezvous in Malaya. Here, too, the most unusual aspect of Georgette Chen is illustrated; a powerfully independent career woman, confident of her love and lover.
The story of their love forms the overarching narrative for the early portion of Georgette’s life, framing and punctuating the story being told. A chapter of Georgette’s story ends with Eugene’s death, and she arrives on at a Singapore customs point, much as she began, waiting to paint a new life.
That being said, something more complex than a usual “rich girl bucking against society” would have been interesting. Georgette was unconventional for her time, but unconventionality is getting, well, rather conventional when it comes to historical figures. If only the historical sources had allowed a deeper look into her thoughts on art and representation, which might have given a sense of Georgette’s importance in Singapore art history, other than being unconventional. As it is, the uninformed viewer is left slightly puzzled as to what all the fuss is about this “woman on the wall”.
But for all this faults, Georgette wins on sheer charm, thanks to Ng Yi-Sheng’s deft handling of multiple genres and the English language.
So who is the woman on the wall? The question is repeated at the end, with the chorus in front of easels, Georgette’s portrait watching overhead. Judging by the musical, Georgette could be anything you wanted her to be – devoted lover, independent traveller, patient daughter, and of course, an artist. Now, if only there was a sequel.
Ng Yi-Sheng is a playwright, performance artist, and free-lance writer. Other works include 251 (the Annabel Chong story) and the book SQ21, profiling Singaporean homosexuals. He also has a completed play called The Last Temptation of Raffles, which has been read, but not performed. The reviewer strongly approved of the play, and hints broadly that it’s looking for a sponsor.
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2. Reviewed by Roderick Chia
Georgette is a musical based on the life of Georgette Chen, a pioneer Singapore artist. It opens with a young Georgette, fresh-faced with the eagerness of all her 20 years, arriving in Paris in 1927 where her extraordinary story begins.
We are shown her interactions: with a Chinese waiter who accuses her of not being Chinese after she speaks French to help settle an argument between a Parisian couple in a café; with her parents who think that painting is a dalliance and she would eventually channel her energies towards maintaining the aristocratic status of her family; and between herself and Eugene Chen, who was then the Chinese foreign minister and her future husband.
This is Musical Theatre Limited’s Georgette: the musical, featuring the life of unconventional - for her time - artist Georgette Chen, who eventually moved to Singapore and made her mark as a painter and art teacher here. This reviewer was expecting more about Georgette’s life in Singapore where she arrived at the age of 46 in 1953, but the story focuses on her life during her younger, formative years instead.
The first half sets the tone, by centring on the relationship between Georgette and Eugene. Like the protagonist and her life, it is an unconventional pairing. Eugene is an ethnic Chinese who comes from Trinidad in the Caribbean, now in political office in one of the world’s largest and tumultuous countries. He is twice Georgette’s age, and is reserved in his behavior. In contrast, Georgette comes from an affluent background but is a fiercely independent woman. Their love would prove crucial in the second half, where they draw greater strength from one another, especially when they are captured by the Japanese in Shanghai during the second world war.
Georgette is staged within the growing milieu of no-frills, relatively short (one and a half hours with a 15-minute interval) musicals in a venue that does not give many options in terms of special lighting or visual effects.
There is, however, a charming simplicity in the lyrics and acting, props and backdrop. The props are mostly boxes and a number of artists’ pallets. There is also a projector screen featuring Georgette’s paintings and other images in key scenes essential to her story, and helps flesh out the story without the need large-scale sets. An on-stage wardrobe of costume suitcases and a clothes rack further characterises this.
One suspects that anything else would detract from the writer Ng Yi Sheng’s script. His presentation of Georgette mirrors the inspiration he finds in her work, which he describes as "paintings in delicate, tender pastels done with love". The paintings she created is a blend of east and west, a style wholly her own. This is reflected in her own life, which is periodically emphasised throughout the show.
The use of a narrator (Lena Lim) from the beginning helps anchor the story, but it is Georgette (Seong Hui Xuan) herself who provides the true moorings with energy and pathos. Seong, incidentally, bears an intriguing resemblance to the one whose life she portrays. The audience sees this for themselves beginning from scene one, via a self-portrait projected onto the screen on the stage wall.
The dialogue is sharp enough to avoid the pitfalls of bombastic wordplay or convoluted structures and sentences; they serve to bring out the characters and the acting, not the other way around. Like Seong, Eu Jin Hwang uses this to good effect and played Eugene Chen with much gravitas.
Paradoxically the lyrics are largely playful and humorous but this belies the serious undertones. Notable is the family dinner scene where our protagonist, petulant, blurts out her intention to marry Eugene. Western European and Chinese customs also blend and clash, as the characters remind us when they chant-sing "don’t cross your chopsticks" in between a conversation where an unhappy Mr Zhang’s questions the non-traditional way in which his daughter and Eugene are engaged to marry.
Still, kudos should go to composer Clement Yang, music director Chris Nolan and vocal director Nicole Stinton for their superb collaboration in turning this into a gem of a musical.
Eugene dies in captivity, and after Georgette buries him, she recalls his last, unfulfilled wish for her self-portrait. When her father tells her that this isn’t the time to be thinking about art, she replies, "There is always time for art." Georgette Chen stays true to her life of art. And her art, very much like her life, is always her own.
Georgette is an intelligently written musical that succeeds in capturing the life and times of Georgette Chen. Highly recommended.
Roderick dabbled in theatre and acting in his early youth, but always wanted to be a journalist. After getting his degree in journalism, he dabbled in writing web articles and movie reviews and worked as an editor and researcher at a couple of non-profit, non-governmental organisations for a few years. Now in his (much) later youth, he has decided to wise up and go back to school and from there, dabble in other forms of writing and hopefully make more money from it later on. For now, he is content being a freelance writer and an all-round people person, in lieu of something else better to do.
Kopi Shop Rock
reviewed by Kenneth Lyen
Words: Leon Foo
Music: Melissa Liew and Jordan Tan
Directors: Megan Chia, Leon Foo
Producers: Ong Boon Lerk, Emmanuel Duncan Chua
Music Director: Melissa Liew
Cast: Eunice Ng, Francis Cheah, Teo Jin Kuang, Qin Zhiqian, Julia Kan, Susie Ann Smith, Shawn Chan, Evelyn Ong, Kelvin Kek, Chan Kin Yew.
There is a certain element of risk when watching a student production. In most instances one needs to be mentally prepared to try to overlook potential shortcomings. Fortunately, in the case of Kopi Shop Rock, one's trepidations were rapidly dissipated with the very first scene which established the furtive love between the protagonists.
Set in the 1970s, the musical revolves around two rival kopi shops, and three love triangles. Initially it seems that it is going to be a Romeo and Juliet story with the children of the opposing kopi shops falling in love. But the introduction of an external hostile force, namely the Jade Dragon Clan, immediately dismantles the Shakespearean structure.
Joshua (Francis Cheah), the son of kopi shop owner, Mr. Kwan (Qin Zhiqian), is in love with Eliza, (Eunice Ng), the daughter of opposing kopi shop owner, Rose Chan (Julia Kan). However, Eliza’s sister, Melody (Susie Ann Smith), is jealous of their relationship, and she tries to lure Joshua away.
Then there are Mr. Kwan and Rose Chan, owners of these antagonistic kopi shops, who compete with each other for customers. They have known each other several years earlier, and might have married, were it not for Rose's decision to pursue her dream of becoming a cabaret singer. They betray a residual attraction to one another, but to complicate matters, one of Rose's admirers, Towkay Teo (Chan Kin Yew) continues to woo her, and she seems to reciprocate.
The third love triangle is between Rose's niece, Sally (Evelyn Ong), and two young workers for Mr. Kwan, Seng (Shawn Chan), and Allen (Kelvin Kek).
Teo Jin Huang plays Ah Long, the leader the Jade Dragon Clan, and he goes round extorting "protection" money from the two kopi shops. He steals the show with his energetic performance. Melody, Rose Chan's daughter, seduces him, and buys time for the kopi shops to raise money to pay him. After performing a strident rap, he declares "I have no tune, but I have Melody", to hilarious applause.
The general standard of singing and acting was excellent for a student cast. The direction was superb, and the comic timing impeccable.
The script was consistently intelligent, subtle, and witty. The dialogue sparkled, and the lyrics were refreshing, like "not kopi shop inclined" rhyming with "mind". Often the unfinished sentences, the unanswered questions, the pregnant pauses, were so cleverly designed, that it tore right through the usual Asian audiences' reserve, and induced uncontrollable guffaws.
The songs were well-written, with beautiful melodic lines. The band was commendable, but investment in a higher quality keyboard might help enhance the quality of the accompaniment. My only gripe is that there were not enough songs, and I would have liked to alter the ratio of dialogue to song in favor of the latter.
One could quibble about small issues, like the excessive symmetry of the love triangles, whose resolutions were perhaps a little bit too facile. The choreography was good. The sets, though simple, were ingenious.
I thoroughly enjoyed this most memorable musical. With a little bit of reworking, I think it can make it to the commercial stage. The Law IV team must be congratulated for such a brilliant production. Not only have they have upheld the long tradition of fine original musicals, but they have raised the bar (pun intended).
Kopi Shop really rocks!
http://kopishoprock.blogspot.com/
21 September 2007
The Rise of Singapore’s New Creative Class: Beat-by-Beat
by Leong Phei Phei, The Straits Times, August 9, 2007
Medical practice and music composition may seem strange bedfellows but they found a perfect match in Dr Kenneth Lyen.
Along with his hectic full-time job as a paediatrician, the self-professed musical fanatic found time to start Beat-by-Beat, a musical incubation programme involving workshops, playreading and courses.
The group was conceptualised during a regular tennis session with three good friends - one a singer-songwriter, another an accomplished musical composer, and the third, a designer. All passionate about musicals, they decided to do something for the music scene in Singapore.
Dr Lyen recalls: "Although all of us have full-time jobs, we have never given up our love for musicals. As we felt strongly that there was a dearth of Made-in-Singapore musicals, we decided to do something about it."
And so Beat-by-Beat was born.
While response from the public was overwhelming, support was less than encouraging. Dr Lyen says: "During our first year, we knocked on all doors to ask for funding to no avail. We had the people, but we lacked the support to be given an opportunity to prove our talents to the world."
When he broke the news to members, half expecting them to withdraw, the exact opposite happened. "It was incredible. Nobody withdrew. Everybody was so passionate and all they wanted was to still put on a good performance," says Dr Lyen, with a tinge of pride.
As it was, for every night the no-frills musical was staged, it was sold out to an audience which gave it their two-thumbs up.
A year later, thanks to much-needed funding and support from the Creative Community Singapore, Dr Lyen and his team were able to se many more projects come to fruition. More importantly, they were able to provide a platform for many more individuals to see their dreams come true.
Dr Lyen says: "I am so glad that we pressed on despite the initial hurdle. There is a lot of talent in Singapore - what they need is training and opportunity."
Today, Beat-by-Beat has grown from strength-to-strength, and has also seen the birth of several spin-offs that have self-sustaining business modles. For instance, its "Adapt a Baby Musical" programme encourages corporate sponsors to support the development of these musicals. Its "Sing Avenue", on the other hand, aims to produce and market musicals internationally.
Dr Lyen says: "Given the opportunity and training, and very importantly, with the support of Creative Community Singapore, our productions can be as good as others anywhere in the world!"
Beauty World, which I saw successfully performed by TheatreWorks on June 5, may be the first Singaporean musical.
There have been musicals in the past that may or may not relate to the debut of Beauty World. Mostly, these are of two kinds.
The first are of largely American Broadway musicals, of which Annie Get Your Gun by ST*RS earlier in the year was an example.
The second belongs to the history of attempts to put up musicals in the Festival of Arts, of which there were two, The Samseng and the Chettiar’s Daughter, and Bumboat, in the 1982 and 1984 Festivals respectively.
Although staged by locals, both had strong foreign elements, especially in terms of directors - Australian John Tasker in Samseng, and American Tzi Ma, with Lim Siauw Chong, in Bumboat.
Neither play convinced me that we were in the presence of a truly Singaporean musical.
A Singaporean musical must be a 100 per cent local effort: in its music and songs, script, director and cast.
Beauty World has all these four - and more. I like to think that the not entirely successful attempts to stage the Singaporean musical probably produced the divine disaffection that has lead to the triumph of Beauty World.
Take the cast in all three and see the continuity. Alex and Jacintha Abisheganaden, Margaret Chan, Lok Meng Chue, Tann Yean were in Samseng; the Abishgenadens were in Bumboat; they were in Beauty World together with Chan and Lok.
There are other aspects of continuity too: Dick Lee’s music, Kalyani Kausikan’s lighting and Justin Hill’s sets for both Bumboat and Beauty World, and Michael Chiang’s script of Beauty Box (one of the plays in Bumboat).
It could be that the people who were engaged on the two previous musicals learned from their experiences and determined to work from scratch with their very own resources to give us our first musical.
But this reason, if accepted, only partically accounts for the joyous romp that Beauty World is. There are other factors.
From the opening choral number, Dick Lee transports us to the 1960s with its cha-cha rhythm reminiscent of the time when the cha-cha was the popular dance.
Choral numbers are followed by solos and duets with strong reminders of American film musicals. These not only provide occasion for singing bit heighten the melodrama.
Objection has been raised that Lee wrote ‘80s music about the ‘60s, but he has been clear about what he wants to do.
It would be unrealistic to expect him to write nostalgic ‘60s melodies in the ‘80s but what he has done is, from today’s vantage, to evolve the period two decades ago.
He gives away his intention in songs like Single in Singapore in which the singular difficulty of remaining single in Singapore, heightened by the Social Development Unit’s anxieties, finds expression in lines like "I may seem self-adjusted, strong/self-assured? Ivy, you are wrong".
Michael Chiang’s script - in his creation of scenes from black-and-white Hongkong melodrama movies, and loveable, stock characters - has the right mix of involvement and distance. Here, fun is the criterion.
Finally, Beauty World is a triumph of acting and for this much of the credit must go to director Ong Keng Sen and his cast.
There was some wavering between those who played their roles for real and those who gently mocked the characters they played, but the general effect was of uniformly excellent performances.
Mohd Najip Ali’s choreography was effective, and Tan Woon Chor’s costume details were accurate, and Justin Hill’s set appropriate.
My hope is that our first musical will lead to others and give us a succession of such efforts. Much depends on timing, on the theatre being ripe for the event. It appears we are ready for such a watchable and entertaining event as Beauty World.
[Robert Yeo has been Chairman of the Drama Advisory Committee, Ministry of Community Development, for the past 10 years. His play, One Year Back Home, was given a stage at La Mama, New York, in 1985. Another play, Second Chance, was produced in Hongkong and Singapore late last year and early this year.]
Lion City
Something has been bothering me for a while. It's a statement made by a friend who said that lions did not exist in the wild in Southeast Asia and China.
It is postulated that the ancient Chinese may never have seen a live lion, and they may only have heard reports of lions from travelers in India and further west. This explains why their portrayal of a lion (sculpture and lion dance) is so unrealistic.
However, lions did exist in west Asia and India, but not in Southeast Asia.
What is the possibility that some lions may have accidentally strayed from India into Southeast Asia? Possible because there is a contin
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