黄城戏剧营2007－你够戏心吗？

The story goes that I was somewhat “forced”, or rather, strongly persuaded to participate in this drama camp organised by the Chinese Society over at the JC section. It is obligatory that we as members of 华岗剧坊 show our support for affliated drama club 黄城. My reluctance at first to join this camp was mainly due to the fact that I would have to return to school during the holidays, which can be quite troublesome. But I guess that the extra effort to get up earlier is worth it for the experience.

For three days, we got to experience dramatic performance in a new light. Instead of the often hypnotising 编导活动 we carry out during regular CCA activities, we were accorded the chance to indulge in three days of games, TheatreSports and various lessons on technical theatre. I cannot speak for public opinon, but personally, I much prefer technical lessons to monotonous attempts to teach us some aspect of drama.

The camp participants were split into groups numbering six to seven, with certain unique names. My group was named “Bashful”, an innovative use of the word indeed! Besides Han Cheng (a.k.a. pundit’s twin), the rest of the members of my group are not from Hwa Chong Institution.

On the first and second day, we were instructed in the artistic aspect of drama by 黄美兰老师. Apparently, she comes with an impressive array of achievements. The lessons were mainly about effective blocking on stage. Nothing much to talk about here as the lessons were pretty much similar with other drama lessons, but it was great fun.

Besides the performers and art behind a play, the importance of the technical crew cannot be further emphasised. Without the lightings, the sounds, the props, a play will be dull and uninteresting. As such, we were also introduced to the various techniques applicable to produce a decent play. For props, each of us had to construct a “photo frame” from sheets of plywood. We were told to cut out a square from the material with a jigsaw, although I think that was not the best tool to use for cutting straight lines. I would have preferred to utilise a plywood saw so as to not tear the surface veneer of the plywood. Nevertheless, I think they are trying to give us a chance for exposure to power tools. Then we filed smooth the saw lines with some square files and a couple of round parallel files. Basically, it was quite a rough job even after painting over the plywood, but it serves the purpose of holding photographs very well for the ease of construction.

In my opinion, the most fun-filled activity throughout the entire camp was 《戏寻城说》, some sort of variation on “The Amazing Race” with the challenges mostly relating to skills we will find useful in the field of dramatic performance. The most memorable station was also the first we went to, where four members of the team had to line up and make up a (sometimes nonsensical) story while experiencing sensory overload from deliberate disturbances by the facilitators. It was extremely taxing on our concentration skills, but it was great fun! I actually found it easier to concentrate if I project over the noise and try to drown them out

Throughout the duration of this activity, I experienced, in my opinion, what was the highest point the team got to in terms of camaraderie. Sure, my right triceps surae is hurting from all the running and hopping, but that’s a small price to pay for all the fun

To sum this up, the camp was a noteworthy experience; The activities were fun; The lessons were quite informative; Hell, even the camp song was really great! But all that was not what made me like the camp so much. I think most people would agree that the most valuable benefit from joining this camp was knowing people: New friends, fresh acquaintances, new pals… What the extremely politically-inclined would call “networking”. But whatever you call it, it ain’t going to matter as long as positive relationships were forged.

To all the camp organisers:” You guys made this camp so great! Thanks for the experience…”

And to my camp mates:”We may not have met before, we may not know each other’s name, we may not see eye to eye; But thanks to this camp, we at least had the chance to meet each other!”