Rehearsal 3, 5 February 2020

10:30am – 1pm

Rumah P7:1SMA

The rehearsal started off with a photoshoot as there was a change in cast after the first one. The collaborators were trying to recreate the album covers from the 80s rock groups, through their poses, facial expressions and costumes (which will also be worn during the actual performance). Afterwards, Haizad mentioned that if possible, he would also like to include the mullet hairstyle that was popular and commonly seen on the artists.

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The Jiwang collective will be debuting in March 2020.

This was also the first rehearsal with the production’s lighting designer, Daryl Soh, whom P7:1SMA has also worked with for a few earlier projects. Once they were done with the photoshoot, Haizad confirmed with the collaborators that they will be using the Toyogo box to hold their props that will be used, which will be preset on stage and that they will use their own towels and bottles. In addition, their costumes will be fixed at a later date, as there is still uncertainty if they will be wearing the football jerseys and if there will be a change of costume at some point during the performance. He went on to clarify that there will be projection slides upstage and their “rest and change area” will be downstage, closer to the audience.

The songlist has been trimmed to 15 songs which is “99.3% confirmed” by Haizad. He would prefer to play the songs via Spotify for a better quality audio. He has also added in 1 song/segment, from the band Spoon, and will remove the Slash segment. The Spoon segment will consist of the collaborators cooking 1 serving instant noodles on stage and consuming it, all while using a silver spoon. He added that the Search and UK segments will have more dancing/movement.

As of now, the props used are:

- Mattress (Slam)

- Cup noodles, silver spoon and whichever cooking method (Spoon).

- Umbrellas (Umbrella)

- Candle (Alleycats)

In other news, the Friday 13 March afternoon show has been cancelled in view of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

After the rather extensive briefing, the collaborators went on to rehearse the Iklim (“climate”) segment. Haizad invited them to imagine what temperature sounds like in each of their own bodies and to translate that into movement as part of the task. They would also be holding water in their mouths throughout this segment, gradually melting/dissolving/liquefying to the floor. At the same time, each of them chose a gesture from Malay folk dance (keluk paku, lenggang, silat pose) and will repeatedly execute them, increasing in intensity and extension, which will still continue even when they are on the floor.

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As intensities rise, sizes fall.

Haizad shared with them a visualisation where there is a ball of energy within them, an energy source, which radiates heat without diminishing. The focus is not in the beauty of the movement, but to be sensitive to the heat generated within them, the floor and the flow of that energy, which will build up and end with a cathartic release.

After a few runs, the collaborators shared that the song was too short and they did not have enough time to build-up, to which Haizad suggested for them to start at an intensity and “size” of 5 instead. They then tried again in a different space to another song from the band, as Haizad was still uncertain of which song he would like to use. This time, the collaborators were to visualise the energy from their wrists. Following this, they tried once more to the first song with the additional tasks, into the Fotograf segment (he was trying out a different arrangement.

Observational notes from the Iklim segment rehearsal:

- Syimah was showing signs of struggle through facial expressions

o Resisting the urge to sing along?

o From the pain/exhaustion in the movement?

o Enduring the heat generated?

o Determination?

- Xiao Jun’s facial expression was the most consistent throughout

o Focused?

o Less prior knowledge and understanding of the song therefore not as distracted?

- There was a sense of resistance, tension, perhaps from the different forms of heat/temperature

o Could have also been from external factors i.e. surroundings/environment/atmosphere

o Muscle fatigue and the persistence to not give in

- The second song was understandably more exhausting as it is 1 minute longer, which allowed for more time to build-up/generate more heat and intensity.

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Trying once more, and transitioning into Fotograf.

The collaborators then had a rehearsal debrief before dismissing:

- There is a beauty in the struggle to maintain and go bigger.

- To not get emotional i.e. to not allow the song to affect or trigger emotions, as they (i) have to maintain a neutral expression (ii) will be holding water in their mouths.

- To not go into the comfort zone/body’s memory when executing the movements.

- The intensity is an accentuation of force à in contrast with the slow song

- They need to get used to the song to gauge the timing and intensity better.

- The second song felt more “connected”

o Haizad will consider if he wants that to be prevalent in the performance.

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Final debrief of the rehearsal.