Funny twist to twelfth Night
BORED of performing the same old plays? Twelve students took the road less travelled when they performed a comedic play to commemorate Shakespeare’s 400th death anniversary onn Tuesday.
Adapted from Shakkespeare’s Twelfth Night, the plaay, “Psycheinsand delic!” centres on twi Alexis Alex Hilar who weree separated at a young age.
Set in the 70s, the comedicc turn takes place when Aleexis decides to disguise herself as a man as she finds it difficult to lannd herself a job due to her gender.
The 70-minute playy waspern formed by American Degree Transfer Programmee students from Taylor’s University, wwith the cast and crew coming froom its theatre course conducted byy Pat Chan.
Chan is a lecturer at Taylor’s University School of Liberal Arts and Sciences. One off Chan’s students, Bryan Tiang ZhangZ Quan, 18, directed the play. ing Thea cast businessof 12 peopl majoor said direct leindeed was hectic but he was glaad for the cast had brought life to thhe play.
“We wanted to do something difp ferent. We did Macbeth last year so we didn’t want to repeat it and Romeo and Juliet is too common,” he said.
The dedicated students researched on Shakespeare plays that the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre hadperformed and narrowed their options.
“It was between Julius Caesar and Twelfth Night. We went ahead with the latter because of its comep dic content,” Tiang added.
Tiang said they had added musical elements to the play “to make it interesting and lively to reflect the era we based the story on”.
“We don’t want this show to be just a normal show but one thatpeoplep will never forget.”g
Chan commended her students “for breathing fresh air into the production”. “The brainstorming session began with dooddles which led to the outline of thee story. They came up with ideas whhich were truly workable,” she saaid. The enthusiasttic lecturer revealed that muuch of the scenes in the play were spontaneous moments caught while writing the script. She addedd that her students’ strengths and immperfections were portrayed in the play. The students saaid that they learnt a lot underr Chan’s tutelage. Tiang said thhe most important lesson he leaarnt was to keep calm. One of the writers and lead actors Joel Wong, 19, ssaid that a diaue logudiaue had to have realiistic lines that one wouldd say when faced with a situation. “Therre is some flexibiliay ty for us to plaflexibiliay around with the words according to how we feel when we are in tthat scenario,” added the computer science major.
He added that the initial stages of memorising a script and its dialogue is an obstacle but the lanky lad keeps Chan’s advice close to his heart.
“She would tell us that acting is reacting. The moment we know the story and the events, we are reacting towards the situation,” he said.
Liberal Arts major Kimberly Fhong, 19, who played Alexis, remembers Chan’s advice on their first theatre lesson –– “perfection is boring”.
“She also taught us to never be afraid to look ugly because if you’re always self-conscious, you will not be able to get into the skin of your character,” she added.
Chan shared that her advice on perfection traces back to her younger days when she was actively involved in ballet.
“It always had to be perfect and I grew up thinking I had to be perfect. That in life, is detrimental,” she said.