On this 31st October, 2005, I celebrated my Lunar Birthday (which is the 29th Day of the 9th Month in the Chinese Lunar Calendar), not to mention Halloween(!), by getting myself a totally bold new look... or I should say: bald new look!

As part of my role of "I-Ronn Six" in "Ten Brothers", I have decided to shave my head completely bald. And so, together with "Drill-Fast Eight" Teo Wee Ping, we had a pretty good makeover session performed by our stylist, Jade, who works at Philip Kingsley Salon at Ngee Ann City...

More pics below...  

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[ Feeling... * creative * ]

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As befitting the Halloween theme, we finally got our costumes together and had several full dress runs for "Ten Brothers"...

Here are some of the looks we've created for the show, without makeup and special effects yet... 

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[ Feeling... * working * ]

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To all who celebrates, this is a wonderful week indeed, with three major festivals all lined up in a row (okay okay, Halloween is not a Public Holiday... yet! =P)

Not only that, I have gone through my 34th Lunar Birthday (or was it 35th??) and looking forward to my 33rd Birthday of the regular calendar come Friday!

Meantime, here's a quick something to recommend for all food lovers, especially those who adore durians...

Yesterday, after our hairstyling session at Philip Kingsley Salon, Wee Ping and I went down to Ngee Ann City's Basement 1 for dinner, and ended up at my favourite Hongkong-styled Central Restaurant...

We immediately caught sight of the new menu item, and prompty ordered that...

Durian Fried Rice

It was a yummy dish indeed and wasn't affected by the taste of durian. In fact, the durian flavour complemented the taste of the fried rice and the abundance of chunky shrimps...

I ordered my favourite drink: Coke boiled with Ginger, while Wee Ping had the iced version. It's a delicious and warming drink, and is also good for sore throats... 

Just what we needed after all that singing and animated sounds we've been producing for our show!!  

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It's been a long week, mostly spent on rehearsals and other activities. Sometimes at the expense of my social life, and sanity... 

This week's theme for IllustrationFriday.com gave me a chance to express what I have been trying to say for a while, to those whom I care for and love... 

Broken

"Broken" ~ Edric Hsu

600 x 350 pixels 

Whiteboard Markers & Adobe ImageReady 7.0

I was determined to create a more positive entry for my illustrations, and after reflecting on this week's theme for a while, the only thing I felt should be broken was "silence"...

Sometimes it is the hardest thing to apologise, especially to the ones we love most. All it requires is for one party to open the mouth and break the ice...

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As of today, 4th November, 2005, I am officially... 33 years old!

Even as I begin receiving blessings and birthday wishes from friends, I wish to give thanks to my dearly departed Mother and Father for giving me this life and the talents and skills to cope with it...

THANK YOU!!! 

This will be a good year for me, and will get even better, I am sure!!!

To others who share the same birthday as me, I wish them every blessing and wishes for a great life ahead!!! 

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Today is a special day...

Not only is it my birthday, it is also the beginning of the stage run of Toy Factory's "Ten Brothers" performance at Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel...

As usual, I've taken heaps of photos whenever I can, and someday, these will provide endless laughter and fun and fond memories...

Enjoy... 

That's me in my own trial make-up, done in only 5 minutes. And yes, if you think my head looked shinier than ever, it's silver spray...

Here are some of the photos taken of us in full costume during our technical run. See if you can identify who's who...

Do come down these two weekends, and support this largely entertaining and fun-filled show!!! 

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Firstly I wish to give thanks to all of you who have given me your best wishes and birthday blessings over the past few days! These encouraging words are very much appreciated!

Now that the show, "Ten Brothers", has started and into the first few performances, here are some of the cast and characters for your viewing pleasure...

Introducing...

The Ten Brothers 

I will be posting more pics of the other cast and characters in later entries, so do stay tuned! 

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The Straits Times Tuesday, November 8, 2005 (Life! Page 5)

THEATRE

10 BROTHERS

Toy Factory Theatre Ensemble

Jubilee Hall, Last Saturday

June Cheong 

   The little girl right behind me started wailing that she wanted to go home when this show's 10 pirates came snarling into the audience.

   Stomping and shouting their way on the floor, their booming boasts about their various superhuman powers created some panic among the children in the audience, to the amusement of the adult onlookers. 

   To be sure, interacting with the audience was a key feature of Ten Brothers, which is essentially a children's play about 10 lost boys searching for a sense of home and family.

   When Koh Chieng Mun as Mother and Benjamin Ng as Father began the play by asking the audience if they had eaten, they imbued the evening with a kampung-like neighbourliness.

   Later, when the 10 got lost in an imaginary forest and combed the darkened theatre armed only with dim flashlights, some children huddled under their parents' arms as the characters' fears were palpable.

   This was moral education at its most colourful and fun.

   As befitted children's theatre, director Goh Boon Teck (errata: director Loretta Tan) took care to fill the performance with gags and colours aplenty.

   The 10 brothers were dressed in the brightest of spandex suits and jumpers which were so unflattering that the audience could not help but laugh at how the colours - and the characters - clashed.

   And, like in a Stephen Chow movie, most of the laughter was milked from the visual gags and the recitations of overly long pompous names for various gongfu skills.

   For example, the family's fifth brother, Wingfoot, has the gift of flight. And he flew by hunching over in a Superman pose and letting a floor-length cape with a comet tail attached at the end cover him, thus creating the illusion of flight.

   One of the funniest gags was when the 10th brother - Weeper, who ushered in a thunderstorm whenever he cried - fought the main villain, also the village head, by whipping out two spray bottles and squirting the audience with water.

   The finale, which was a fight between the 10 brothers and the village head, had such busy choreography, one's eyes had to dart about the stage as the kaleidoscopic action built to a frenzy.

   All the actors were energetic and lively, the most notable among them being Amy Cheng, for her flirty portrayal of a vain banana tree spirit.

   But, overall, the show generally suffered from being crammed with too much in too little time. So the lessons one was supposed to take away from the performance somehow got lost amid the non-stop stunts and puns.

   The play's false endings and the device of a storyteller were intended to remind the audience that this was a morality tale and to reinforce the theme of family.

   Unfortunately, they ended up being rather annoying diversions to the plot's progress.

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The above review was based on the journalist's observations on our 2nd day of performance. She had mistakenly credited the director as Goh Boon Teck, who is the Chief Artistic Director of Toy Factory. The rightful credit should go to Loretta Tan, and she deserves mention for her endless hardwork and dedication to the production.

The show has become even more dynamic now that the technicalities have been sorted out and cleared, and the actors more familiar with running around the stage, getting in and out of costumes and working with the audio and lighting cues...

Another significant change occured on Sunday night, which was the last performance for Koh Chieng Mun as she had to get ready for an operation. Let's wish her all the best and get well soon!

Her role of Jiang Mei, the mother of the Ten Brothers, has since been filled by none other than the talented and fiesty director, Loretta Tan, with equal success and dynamism...

Of course, in every show there's bound to be mistakes or blunders. If you've watched the performance and have found anything that we could improve on, do leave a comment here and we'll work on it! 

All the performers have bonded well together over these few days in theatre, and really felt like a huge extended family. Even the kids in our show are so hyper and always eager to try something new. And every show we've done so far, we all gave it our best shot and highest energy, which left us totally exhausted and spent at the end of each performance.

The exciting fight choreography by Gordon Choy, coupled with the introduction of stage magic and pyrotechnics by Kiki Tay Productions, required every actor to be on the highest alert and be constantly on our toes. I'm sure every member of the audience could feel that energy!

And that is the real satisfaction to us performers...

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Folks who know me well will not be surprised anytime I whip out my digital camera, and what better photo moments than shots of the cast of "Ten Brothers" on stage and in full make-up and costumes?

Enjoy these... 

As promised, here are more photos of the rest of the cast in "Ten Brothers"...

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Even as we all dread the impending last show for "Ten Brothers" (it will come to the end of its run this Saturday, 12th November, 2005), all cast and crew of this show (except the kids, of course...) are already planning and looking forward to a grand cast partyafter the final curtain call!!!

If partying at Happy Bar & Club is already your thing (it definitely is for most of us in this production! ), do come join us and boogie the night away this Saturday around 11pm to midnight onwards!!!

Can't wait to get drunk again! Hahaha!

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Hey folks, sorry for the irregularity of my posts ever since I got busy with "Ten Brothers". Now that the show's over, guess it's time I return to my routine...

It's been a really crazy week of withdrawal, and I am already missing all the fun people and hilarity we came up with during the show period...

And it wasn't an easy ride from the beginning, as many of the cast didn't speak Mandarin until this show, and we have had several changes of cast members...

Most of you would have already read about Chieng Mun's departure from the production midway to receive surgery to remove cancer from her breast and kidney. Her role was replaced by our director, Loretta, at the last minute, and thankfully she did a great job...

Other setbacks we suffered during the production included Willie getting into a motor-bike accident and injured his arms and legs, and Peter getting his palm burned during a scene on stage involving fire. Some of us had falls and other injuries too, including yours truly...

But all in all, we couldn't bear it when the show finally ended, and quite a few of us still arranged gatherings throughout this week as an effort to keep in touch...

We had dinners and drinks together, watched movies and "Lao Jiu - The Musical" together, celebrated Wee Ping's birthday at the new Altivo Bar at The Jewel Box at Mount Faber together (coincidently, there are quite many Scorpios in this production!)...

It did feel like I had a family again at last!

And then, as could be expected, it's starting to fade away...

For starters, my hair is growing back pretty fast, and is comfortable and furry to touch now...

I've gone for a thorough massage and facial to get myself back in good shape after all that heavy makeup and choreo work in the show. I helped Bryan with his Omhealth booth at HDB's Health Fair...

Moving on, I've already accepted new jobs with Peggy for her corporate shows and next year's school tour projects, and also will be hosting my ex-colleague Ezekiel's wedding in Dec, before my Australia trip...

In the meantime, I will be whipping my sketching markers out again to catch up on some illustration work that I have been itching to get back to...

Loads of photos to edit and post too, so stay tuned for more soon... 

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Most of yesterday and today was spent at the gothic and lavish looking Parkview Square near Bugis Junction, but at its function hall where Fuji Xerox was having its roadshow to promote its new copying machines and products...

What was I doing there? To perform, but of course!

With Chermaine, Darius, Cathy and Randall, under Peggy's direction, we've got together a couple of short skits to promote Fuji Xerox's Apeos and Docuwide copying machines...

And ta-da... here are the snapshots!

(I play Hercules Heng, being interviewed by Chermaine's Diana, and in comes my secretary, Cathy as Michelle...) 

(Darius's the host of this "gameshow", and the contestants are 1. SB Ngeow (Cathy), 2. Excel Tan (Me) and 3. Lulu (Chermaine). Randall's our "floor manager"...)

We can be quite a wacky bunch when we are in the right mood, and that's usually when the camera, any camera, is rolling...

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Most of yesterday morning was spent with my "best buddy", for we played football at the Padang at 8.30am, took graduation photos at the City Hall steps at 10am, and cycled at East Coast Park at 11.30am. And for the entire afternoon, we became wild drinkers mixing beer with red wine and whiskey...

Me play football? Graduate again? Mix drinks most probably, but not football! Hahaha! Okay, here's what really happened...

Moses Koh and I played best friends who did the above activities, but for a major upcoming TV commercial for Traffic Police's anti-drink-driving campaign, to be aired in about 3 weeks' time...

This will be my fourth TV ad in just this past half-year, following "Courts Ready Finance", "MCYS' I Love Children" and "The Sail Tower Condo", and I am very happy and fortunate to be working with Fluid Productions yet again after completing the former two ads with them... 

This Traffic Police ad comprises of still shots relating our "friendship", taken by Cedric Lim of Little Black Box, and vetted by the advertising folks from Saatchi. The final decision will come from the Traffic Police Commander himself...

Here are some of the snapshots taken with my digital camera during the part 1 of our shoot... 

More photos coming up, especially after getting through part 2 of the ad next week, so stay tuned!

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