My dirty little secret.

Mon, 22 Jun 2009
3 min read
2 Comments

DISCLAIMER: As I mentioned earlier, I think, like, only five people are going to be interested in this. So if you are not one of the five people, you may carry on surfing porn or the like, or whatever it is you are wont to do on the Ingterneck.

~

So. Part of the dirty little secret is that as part of OTOT publicity, we’ve been involved in e-mail and face-to-face interviews, pre-recorded radio broadcasts, etc. Now, one very interesting publicity activity/event of sorts which I’ve had to do is to answer two questions via e-mail for The Sunday Times.

My responses are going to be used in a Lifestyle section called ‘Bookends’, which contains information about books that a particular person is reading. I expect it’ll be published next Sunday, since I didn’t see it appear in yesterday’s copy of The Sunday Times.

Now, as we all may or may not know, Gilbert Koh a.k.a. Mr Wang of Mr Wang Says So fame launched his book of poetry last Fri. So, me being me, I decided to take a chance and ask the publishers if I could purchase a copy of Two Baby Hands before its launch, because the deadline for submitting my answers to the ‘Bookends’ column was way before the launch date. Suffice to say, the publishers said yes, and I became a proud owner of Two Baby Hands the week before last!


So this is the dirty little secret that I’ve had to keep for a week or so, because I thought it would’ve been rather immoral for me to gallumph around telling everyone about my purchase.

But what’s the big deal, you may ask, hypothetically, since only five persons are supposed to be reading this, and not all five of those persons may be of the question-asking genus. Some may not even be persons at all, but that is another story for another time.

Well, I’ve been reading Gilbert Koh since 2002/3 when I chanced upon “Chiang’s Heat Stroke” in an anthology called From Boys to Men: A Literary Anthology of National Service in Singapore. So it’s a big deal to me, because I’m a big fan of Singapore + Malaysian Literature, and Mr Wang Says So and Gilbert Koh and… Yeah. You get the idea. Also, I thought it was very good business sense on the part of Ethos Books so I wanted to share this with everyone, in case something similar crops up in your own life in the future.

So! I’ll be blogging about my answers and why I talked about those books some time next week (or the week after) regardless of whether the Bookends column is published or not (because the silence will give me something to talk about too). In the meantime, keep on supporting Singapore + Malaysian literature!

Book in at your own time

Sun, 21 Jun 2009
3 min read
1 Comment

NOTE: I am posting this story here for future reference. It was originally published on the ChannelNewsAsia website at this link.

Many thanks go to The WayBack Machine for archiving a copy of the webpage here.

Book in at your own time
By Serene Ong, channelnewsasia.com | Posted: 20 June 2009 0114 hrs

SINGAPORE: How many productions can boast a 100 per cent sell-out run these days? I know of one and it’s reprising its wildly successful staging in July with a new and improved version.

W!ld Rice’s Own Time Own Target (OTOT) was presented as a triple bill during last year’s OCBC Singapore Theatre Festival.

Heartened by the massive response to the National Service themed comedy-musical, the team behind the production is tightening up scripts, adding more scenes and fleshing out characters for this year’s double bill – Laremy Lee’s “Full Tank” and Julian Wong’s “Botak Boys”.

In fact, the musical “Botak Boys” is actually undergoing its third revision. It was first performed as “Singapore Boys” in the Five Foot Broadway Mini Musicals in June last year and caught the attention of local audiences.

Asked why the army genre seems to be a perennial favourite among Singaporeans, director Jonathan Lim, 35, said: “A lot of it is familiarity – you always feel warmer towards a theatre piece when it deals with something that you know… the connection is there.

“These are plays that are important to us because they really do capture something which is under-written in Singapore. No one talks about it half as much as they should, considering that practically everyone has to deal with NS, either by going through it or by having to lose family members or friends to it.

“The good thing about OTOT is that it looks straight into the Singaporean heart. It’s not just about army, there are so many characters in it – journalists, shopkeepers, uncles in the street… just faces in Singapore.”

And with the recent developments on the homeground, such as the overdue arrest of Jemaah Islamiyah leader Mas Selamat Kastari in Malaysia, those who caught “Full Tank” the first time round can certainly expect some hefty reworking of script by playwright Lee.

“There’s a lot of contextual relevance now. We’re lucky that the news (about Mas Selamat) came out the way it came out, at this time – there’s definitely more material to update!” the talented 26-year-old quipped.

Despite the lightheartedness of it all, the production touches on some serious topics and hopes to evoke discussion and critical thinking.

“In ‘Full Tank’, we discuss issues like bureaucracy and civil service – anyone can relate to that. Gender doesn’t play a part and the military theme is just a vehicle,” said Lee. “Theatre provides people with a space to talk about issues that SAF (Singapore Armed Forces) is not willing to talk about in the open.”

Lim added: “When we talked to MINDEF before the festival last year, one of the things they were quite keen about is that these plays would help to open up discussion, which may eventually lead to more suggestions, more changes.”

“All of us want to see a better system,” Lee qualified. “It’s not to criticise; it’s just that this is also something that belongs to us and we want to talk about it too.”

Catch Own Time Own Target at the Drama Centre Theatre, from July 8 to 25. Tickets are available at SISTIC.