Preview 1, 19 February 2020
7pm – 10:30pm
Rumah P7:1SMA
The preview begins at 8pm, and Haizad used the time before that to add in some final notes before the collaborators prepared for the showing. For now, they will be eating the noodles during the Spoon segment with spoons, following the band name, and some brought up the point that it will be difficult to do so as compared to using forks (however that challenge could signify difficulty itself). As for the Search segment, Syimah would now be singing along to the song through headphones, similar to the very first task they carried out at the beginning of the creative process. After trying the segment with the additional note, the collaborators then used the remaining time to rehearse the Umbrella segment before warming up. The warm up was different compared to most of the warm ups they have had; this time it incorporated facial and vocal warm up in the form of counting to and from 1 and 8 while doing jumping jacks, followed by keeping in rhythm to one song, most likely as a precursor to the New Boyz segment.
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The audience members for the first preview were Fezhah Maznan, Fared Jainal & Zaini Tahir, and Haizad gave a brief introduction to the work and the space such as its intended venue and the television screen being a stand in for a projector screen (as well as to ignore the Stage Manager being in their line of sight due to technical constraints.
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Observational thoughts and notes from the preview:
- Organic interactions/camaraderie vs Serious tone (with regards to the collaborators/performers:
o The informal interactions they had during the breaks in rehearsal were no longer present, which added some seriousness (and possibly tension or uneasiness) to the work and atmosphere.
§ It was later clarified with one of the collaborators that those interactions they had during rehearsals were not supposed to happen for the actual performance.
- Syimah was squinting her eyes during the New Boyz segment, and it may not necessarily be due to her wanting to see clearer.
- Is the New Boyz segment over rehearsed?
o The movements are somewhat fixed to each collaborator and the intervals they each have are more consistent.
§ What is not so fixed now are the accents and “duration” of each movement.
§ It could also demonstrate the chemistry the collaborators now have with each other.
§ Could this possibly extend to Jiwang as a whole?
- Were the performers warming up/prepping themselves up in between segments?
o Were they taking actual breaks, during the performance, in full view of the audience?
- Fezhah was amused by the umbrella opening at the end of the Medicine segment.
- Fezhah’s relationship with some of the songs were clear as she acknowledged/reacted when some of the segments started.
- Hasyimah and Adi (the Stage Manager) were also entertained/amused at the performers’ actions and expressions, perhaps from seeing them in a different light.