The end of term one was a bit of anti climax. I hardly wrote anything useful after January 2005 because it was a very busy time at work and I became generally lazy. Many things happened since then. I feel it is my duty, as the self appointed historian of VTC, to record some details.
Victor, our artistic director, has gone off on a hiatus of sorts. Michael chose to study and quit VTC for the time being. Olivia was kicked out some time ago. Sums has also gone academic, preparing for exams. Alia has all but gone. So that leaves us in the panicky hands of Edora, Areef who is equally a perfectionist. Good thing is Paik Yin has chosen to return. Teresa and I are trying very hard to keep up with all the classes which clashes with our work schedules all the time. David too has been on some sort of hiatus. Everybody is taking a break.
The latest thing that we are trying to do is Theatre In Progress (TIP), inspired by the same from Actors Studio: My Indon Maid. A brilliant production. After the show, David, Teresa, Edora, Sums, Michael and I, we were talking at the Mamak and it was decided that we were going to do something like it.
So days or maybe weeks later, we decided to take shelved ideas from our Main Production and turn it into a mini production: TIP. Last weekend, we had a general exercise to start things going. For me it is a new beginning. I don't know why I have this feeling that we are not as focused as we used to be. The enthusiasm and object-orientedness when we first began YAs slowly ebbed and the tide went out when Ghafar chose to further his studies. Then VTC's internal issues crop up and I feel that we began to drift away. It culminated in the firing of Olivia. Just when we thought things could not get worse, Michael and Victor has other priorities which cannot be ignored.
In the meantime, some of us in our personal capacities, did Cocobongo and Lucy, which I fear may one day haunt us. It was silly, fun but ultimately damaging, not to our professionalism as I would assume, but rather to the fabric of YAs. We saw each other under stress and I tell you it wasnt pretty. We did not escape unscath, because people hurt each other and they never realise it. And I think we are still recovering from the pain. But I have always been philosophical about conflict: It is there because we needed to learn something about ourselves and connect to each other and move on to another level that we could not have if it did not occur.
Anyways, a few days back, another conflict occurred. We had different ideas as to what was the objective of TIP. In the end it was resolved. In fact we even had a nice story which David will in turn write. I am fascinated by this whole process. I sometimes wonder how Peter Jackson (Director of Lord of the Rings - to the uninitiated) does it.
Oh gosh! Whoever reads this and become offended, it is not my intention to make us look bad nor was any malice intended. Rather, its my record of facts and events as I see them. I think there is room for improvement. Not just professionally and personally, which I guess is what everyone seeks by taking part in something like this. But rather, the bigger picture: improve the way we see the world. To expand our horizon and to view the universe as God would- an endless struggle that in the end is probably futile and hopeless. But in it there is beauty.
So let us start again. Start to see the beauty.
