Back

Tonight, our director finally returns to us from smoggy London and we resume rehearsals proper.

Jon says he's all refreshed and ready to play. I'm not sure the cast is feeling quite the same sense of rejuvenation as I happen to know that many of us are more bogged down than usual with work and personal concerns.

Nonetheless, there is a palpable sense of impatience and eagerness to dive back into the Mad Forest, given the time we've had to process not only the accent but also the facts surrounding the historical events the play touches on, not to mention their impact on the daily lives of the Romanian people.

Of tremendous help in getting us acquainted with the history and language of Romania was Candice's Romanian friend, Albert Simsensohn, who was eight years old when Ceausescu was overthrown. Albert spent two evenings with us, during which he gave detailed notes on the Romanian alphabet, accent and pronunciation. Furthermore, he regaled us with an eclectic range of personal anecdotes and stories that vividly fleshed out the reality behind the facts and figures we had all been reading up on.

No amount of research could have painted for us, the way Albert did, such a clear picture of the day-to-day struggle to obtain basic necessities like bread, eggs and other things that Singaporeans take completely for granted. For instance, the majority of us, who rely at least partially on caffeine fixes at some point during our day, can barely imagine living in a pre-revolution Romania, where coffee and chocolate was so hard to come by that they were actually used as bribes. Meat was available pretty much only on the black market, and bread had to be queued for; parents would despatch their children to join the line early in the morning.

Albert also gave us a glimpse into how his own family coped with the communist regime, describing how his father hooked up Christmas lights to a car battery to provide illumination during the almost daily blackouts, and how he sat Albert down at age 6 to try and explain to him why he should never ever tell anyone that he had accidentally come upon his parents tuning into Radio Free Europe and had heard the commentator call Nicolae Ceausescu a fool. (It was then that I truly understood the dynamics of the confrontation between my character, Flavia, and her son, Radu, about the importance of toeing the party line, at least in public.)

Yet living under communist rule was not all bad. Boys and girls had access to free education, and women were regularly employed in occupations that are more conventionaly male-dominated in many other countries. Unemployment simply did not exist as all citizens were assigned jobs upon completing their education.

The more we find out, the more it becomes apparent how much there is to know and understand. It is a confusing, painstaking business...but one to be joyfully embraced as part of the process of immersing ourselves in the world of Mad Forest.

Six weeks to go before we open, and I'm sure many more discoveries lie in store, both about the socio-political context of our play and about about the characters we portray. I'm excited; I know that much!

Cast bonding, anyone?

Yes, Mr. Director, the cast definitely has bonded. :)

We ARE working hard, really! This was after the session had ended.

Romanian Singaporeans? Da!

On Saturday, we made people stare. All without making excessive noise, doing anything unusual nor taking off our clothes.

Six people with strong (not to mention iffy) Romanian accents chatted freely around a table in Kopitiam while tucking into supper. In no time, it was not hard to notice anyone within earshot turn and stare and wonder where the heck we were from.

Jasmine and Candice in particular attracted the unabashed curiosity of a man who was queuing behind them at a stall while they were talking (yes, still sounding Romanian). Even more interesting was his expression when Jasmine proceeded to order her food in Mandarin.

You see, we've created this rule to help us get used to the accent. Where two or more Y&W people are gathered, only the Romanian accent is to be heard (my, doesn't that sound biblical?). No Singlish, and certainly no Indian or Filipino, which is what we tend to degenerate to when we're not watching our tongues.

This has made chatting and gossiping a great deal more tiring, but a whole lot more amusing. But more importantly, it has had an interesting effect on some of us, as Candice mentioned: because we are forced to rethink the pronunciation of each and every word, we are starting to see English as an almost foreign language, often forcing us to slow down and work harder to speak it.

Accent demonstration is available upon request. Sniggering also welcome. Just not during our show. Hopefully you won't have to snigger by the time our show runs.

* Da means yes in Romanian.

Young & W!LD's first attempt on the Romanian accent

Yes the director is overseas. So you think you can slack? Of course not! Actors' research and homework must continue. Last night was the ensemble's first Romanian accent session with our dear Candice. It is challenging and I am really looking forward to the end product in December. Here's my humble attempt to 'showcase' what we learnt last night.

Salut (Hello) to visitors of our blog! Ce mai faci (How are you)? Young & W!LD will be performing Mad Forest at The Republic Cultural Centre, The LAB at Republic Poly from doisprezece to saispreszece decembrie (12-16 December). Tickets are available at www.gatecrash.com.sg so make a date with us, va rog (please)!
Pe curand (See you soon), multumesc mult (thank you very much) and Pa (bye) !

In case you are worrying at this juncture, the entire play will be in English. The 13 of us will continue to work hard on our accent. After all, Rome wasn't built in a day. Young & W!LD, let's persevere and do a good job!

Posted by Audrey

Ceausescu's Last Speech leading to the Revolution

Not just a standy - it's installation art!

JBJ's run is the perfect opportunity to capture attention for Mad Forest, so up went our standy last night. Jon (Lim) came up with the idea of dead branches framing the piece, turning it into an installation art piece of sorts. The image is also in line with the visual branding that Ghaz came up with for our poster. Not to mention the attention that a large, woody display would attract at Drama Centre!

The initial concept:
Where did we get the branches and twigs? Suffice to say, the Vladu family was seen in the vicinity of Race Course Road scavenging among the trees...

Set-up begins in Drama Centre at the ripe hour of almost midnight.

We cut dozens of pictures of the Romanian revolution, 'weathered' them and started sticking them up on branches.

The pictures go up.

The dictator is dead.

The finishing touches...
It took loads of tweaking and readjusting to get a visually comfortable balance. And a lot of hands to pick up the numerous little twigs and leaves that flaked off onto the floor.

Finally, after hours of hard work (and fiddling with the annoying Drama Centre lights), it's done! We love how the red of the "Mad Forest" in the poster stands out against the dead wood and monochrome of the whole display. Doesn't it look fantastic?