No More Monkeying Around

After weeks of working on the script of Treasure from the Eastern Palace [the story of how Sun Wu Kong, the Monkey King, got his supreme weapon], we finally had a complete run on 3 June, with lights and all.

The process saw us working with poles, doing some martial arts training, sparring, punching and kicking. It also brought out the sea creatures in some of us. Sea horse, turtles, jelly fish, dolphin, mermaid etc.

Here are some pictures of the final run taken by Lena [Thank you].

 

June, the story guide.

 

Monkeys working on their punches on Flower-Fruit mountain.

 

Training together as a group requires precision and alertness.

Sun Wu Kong training the monkeys to defend themselves and their mountain.

Hiiii-yah! Sparring with care and alertness.

The old wise monkey knows exactly where Sun Wu Kong can find himself the ultimate weaspon.

Enter the sea creatures.

Weaving in and out of the waves.

Finally Sun Wu Kong arrives at the Palace after swimming and getting lost.

Brining out the best weapons in the Palace.

After he has tried all the weapons offered, Sun Wu Kong still finds them too light.

The Dragon King takes advice from his Mother, the Empress Dowager.

Making the journey to the bottom of the sea.

Going deeper and deeper, approaching the Pillar that supports the Sea.

Found at last. The Ultimate Weapon that takes command only from Sun Wu Kong.

 

The story ends with Sun Wu Kong thanking the Dragon King and going back to the Flower-Fruit Mountain.

From the sea, we now go upwards toward the sky. We are currently working on the script: A Trip To The Sky.

Up, up and away!!!!!

The Howling Wolf

Once, there was a wolf that howled and howled. The baby animals in the forest asked their mummies what sound that was. And the mummy animals told them that a big, fierce and bad wolf lived up the mountain. Everyone was terrfied. A tiny mouse was not afraid and he went up the mountain and found the wolf. It wasn’t big nor fierce nor bad. It howled because it was lonely. So the mouse befriended the lonely wolf and together they played and played and played… AH OUUU!!!!

The Eastern Sea

We did more work “in the sea” on Tuesday. Uncle Julius choreographed the sea waves, a dance of the sea creatures and how the scene transforms into the Dragon King’s palace.

Narrator:

There was a little river on the island that led directly to the East Sea. So Sun Wu Kong dived into the river. Along the way, he met all kinds of sea creatures.

After swimming for a long time, Sun Wu Kong lost his way and had to ask for directions from the sea creatures…..

Gabby our gorgeous mermaid…

An Underwater Palace

On Tuesday evenings, we continue to work on creating an underwater world where Sun Wu Kong goes in search for the most powerful weapon from the Dragon King. Slowly but surely, this world is coming alive with beautiful sea creatures such as turtles, a jellyfish, a mermaid, a whale, a starfish, seaweed, colourful corals and gentle waves…

Props and costumes being laid out before rehearsals began.

Moon Shadows and Fingers Alive!

There are many ways to tell stories. So instead of the usual telling-it-straight-from-the-book, we decided to try another way - - through Puppets!

For our 2.30pm class, after the theme on WIND, we are now on to the MOON. So what better way to tell stories about the moon then through Shadows?

 

Kai Li enjoying her flight.

Backstage surprise!

Backstage bustle

Audience’s perspective

Focus and concentration

Making the puppets come alive

~~~~~~~~~~ ========= ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As for the second class, we have also been telling stories in a different way, with our hands and fingers - Hand Puppets!

On certain days, we even explored “ticketed” shows. The children learned about getting a ticket, waiting in line, entering a dark theatre space and getting to their seats. Yes, we even had numbered seatings.

The lion pounced on the cow

Audience interaction

Even the little finger has a story to tell

Getting more sofisticated - aunty Jean telling the story behind the screen

Puppets on stage

Manipulating space

What the audience sees

It’s Boogie Time!

Yesterday, our Dance Group had a show at Toa Payoh. As usual, they thoroughly enjoyed getting made up and snapping pictures!

Grandfather Twilight

Last Saturday, Uncle Julius told us a beautful story about Grandfather Twilight. Every day at twilight, Grandfather Twilight would take his key, open his wooden chest and take out a pearl. Then, he would walk into the woods and release the pearl into the sky. This pearl would become the moon that shines on earth through the night.

We acted out part of the story using shadow theatre and it was great fun! Pictures show Wei Kang dressed up as Grandfather Twilight. Do you see the pearl glowing from his box?

Master Wong Fei Hong would have been very proud!

Monkey Training 101 continues …

We have been hard at work. Training, working with “weapons” and lately, going underwater.

Here’s a glimpse of some of the things we have been doing… just some.

Happy Birthday Uncle Julius!

Yesterday was uncle Julius’ birthday. We surprised him with 2 birthday cakes and lots of choking hugs and kisses! Look at some of us enjoying our cake…

Sandra & Samantha

Wei Kang

Kai Li & Jeannie

Lennard

Horatio, the scarecrow

We have been working on the theme of “Wind” for the last few weeks.

One of the stories was about a scarecrow named Horatio.

As a scarecrow, Horatio was stuck in one place all his life until one day, a strong wind blew him off into an adventure.

In the adventure, Horatio visited faraway places and met many new friends.

We attempted to dress up as Horatio and joined him on his adventure.

Which one of us makes the best scarecrow?

 You be the judge.

 Chia Kai

 Hana

 Kai Li

 Wei Kang

 Wei Xuan

Meeting new friends, seeing new things mean learning new words. Here are some:

 Some of the friends Horatio met.

So do be careful when the wind next starts to blow… you never know where it might carry you to!

Muscle Mania

Last Tuesday  session was a heavy weight session.

Everyone posed and preened. Wowing the audience with their muscles.

Have a look:

  Yuen Sheng, looking all serious.

  Arassi, such ferocity!

 Ali concentrated.

 Judith, focussing.

 June with her Kung Fu pose.

 Wei Jian, mustering up his Qi.

 Joy, such poise.

 Thian Kee, strong but friendly.

 Ming Fei, with her Hip-Hop pose.

 Aaron, the latest member of the Tuesday group, gathering all his energy.

 Laura, don’t be fooled by her simple pose.

 Arun, proving to one and all that size is doesn’t matter. It’s the style!

 Last but not least, Jean. Giving all she’s got.

After showing off their muscles, they proceeded to a bigger challenge. Lifting one of the heaviest rod in the world.

Monkey Training 101 update

Wow! It’s been more than a month since the last entry. Hahahaha…

What have we been doing? Training, that’s what.

Secret training. Hahaha… And we are definitely making progress.

No pictures but here are some of an artist’s impression of what we have been doing…

Hint: Notice the Flowers? The Fruits? And the Mountains?

And the artist is none other than Miss Gabby Allan.

Be patient, more updates will come. All in good time.

Until then, back to training… in the mountains!

Cool Shades and Scary Monster

The weather is turning hot. The raining season is coming to an end.

What does this mean?

Time to bring out those SHADES!

For the Saturday group 1, we continue with the theme of The Sun.

More words were introduced and a new story.

But first, see how cool we all looked.

Then we told the story about the 10 Sun babies and why crows make so much noise in the morning.

 The Crow.

One of the Sun brothers.

THE TEN SONS 

This is the story of the 10 sons of the Emperor in heaven.

Every morning at dawn, the Queen would wake up one of the boys and let him walk across the sky from East to West.

This journey warms the earth, giving it light and energy for growth. And it goes on for many, many years until one day when the eldest son suggested to the brothers that it was so boring to walk alone and that they should all walk together.

So the next morning, before the Queen woke up, all the brothers got out of bed and made the journey from East to West together.

They had so much fun and could not hear the cries of the people on earth who were dying of heat and thirst.

When the Emperor found out, it was too late to do anything. He made a painful decision to have the boys shot down by the Great Archer, Hu Yi (according to the book).

So Hu Yi received 10 arrows from the Emperor and with his bow, he headed out to the highest mountain. There, he began shooting the Suns down.

Everytime one of the Suns got hit, it broke into many pieces and these pieces turned into Crows.

As Hu Yi continued to shoot, the Emperor realised that if all the Suns were shot down, the Earth would freeze and be in darkness. So he stopped Hu Yi after he shot the nineth Sun.

So now, there is only one Sun left to take the Journey. And everytime it rises from the east, all his brothers, who are now turned into Crows, would call out to it, making a lot of noise.

The End.

 Then for the second class, we revised our Chinese New Year song and we told the story of the Monster Nian.

Here’s our version of what it looks like.

Behind the mask was Teacher Serena Ho, who was standing in for Aunty Jean, who fall prey to the Flu bugs.

We ended the session with Sze Chyi giving us a number from The High School Musical.

We may consider having a Showcase at the end of every session to allow anyone to share with the class, anything from dance, song, poems, stories to martial arts!

Any suggestions?

Monkeys in the making

After a round of warm-ups conducted by June, which included sit-ups, we started our monkey training on Tuesday.

Reeeeach…

Go Judith, go!

A helping hand goes a long way…

MONKEY TRAINING 101 - Lesson 1

We gave everyone a pole and worked on how to safely maneouver it so as not to hurt each other.

Then we practise passing it from one hand to the other.

Monkeying around

For the Tuesday class, after about a month and a half, it was great to see everyone again.

These are the sights we missed: 

 

Welcome back Ming Fei!

Thian Kee had gone to Shanghai and had bought gifts for everyone.

Zooming in. . .

Thank you Thian Kee.

So after a round of “Hellos” and hugs, photo-sharing as well as gift-giving and physical warm-ups, we sat down to share what each had done during the break.

Penang, Malacca, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Bali, Ipoh, Shanghai. The places some of us visited.

We ended the session by distributing the script: Treasure From The Dragon Palace; a story about Sun Wu Kong, the Monkey King. Here are some images of what he might look like:

 

The cartoon version

 

The painting

 

Chinese Opera

 

The comic book

 

The anime… fierce!

So it’ll be difficult to tell anyone to stop monkeying around for the next few weeks, because that’s exactly what we’ll be doing!