Tag Archives: Gostan Forward

Kat Tales – Of Lunches Under Trees

[This is a continuation from Kat Tales – To Dance, Perchance to Dream .. ]

 

 

Just a few left before Kat Tales comes to a close. I know it’s been

stretched but I think I prefer it that way. Otherwise it’s be just too

stressful for me to detail all it one go, and the way I’d like.

 

Anyway.

Kat finished her dance practice. At certain times I felt

like I was on drugs or sleepwalking because of the lack

of sleep. And then the Gostan Forward crew came into

the Black Box. I had not met Mark for a while, probably

7 long years, so it was good to see him.

After a bit of chit-chat I disappeared into the shadows so

they could do their work, didn’t want to disturb anyone.

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I loved the idea of Mark’s 5Arts & Kat’s Ombak Ombak

coming together for a play. The KL-Penang connection.

The arts. Freaking brilliant. 
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Marion D’Cruz came in so serenely, and almost as if

she gliding in. She began to prep herself, lying down,

humming, stretching, singing, walking about. I like

to watch people who have that inner zen in them,

it’s very relaxing and inspiring to watch.

After a while, and after all of them had gotten lighting and

other things sorted out, it was lunch time.
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Under this gorgeous old tree on the USM campus.

Ombak’s Ban Siang had prepared lunch for us,

and the spread was most wonderful. We sat on mats,

to eat and chat.
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5Arts’ rather cheeky and eccentric Roger was quite the joker,

doing the buddha pose under said tree. I had to stop myself 

from laughing every time I glanced at the fidgety lad because he would

always be doing something funny or weird or the other.
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After a lovely lunch comes a lovely …. Thank You Ceremony!

Inspired by erm, other official events, both sides resorted

to shake-hand-and-pose behaviour, complete with

cheesy grins and cenderamata (souvenirs)! 
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Look at that tree! One of the reasons why I love Penang …

those trees. They are manna for the eyes.
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Yeah okay, so I wasn’t joking about the cheesy smiles and poses,

alright.

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After lunch, the crew got right back to work, preparing inside

and out for the performance. As Marion and Anne continued

to prep themselves inside, others got ready for the arrivals.

I was so tired, but excited to watch the show. And so

later I took my place inside in *ahem* a special area.

Right in front and beside the projector, haha, where the view

was good.

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Many students had come. This was good.
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And so with much flurry, and as the crowd settled in …

it was time to begin.

You could perhaps see the collective mind bubble

coming from the students … ‘what is Gostan Forward?’

 

 

 

[To be continued ...  in Kat Tales]

Kat Tales – A Special Black Box

 [This is a continuation from Kat Tales - Breakfast & Updates ..]

In Penang, 26-27th July 2009

 

. . .

It was around 11-ish in the morning still,

and the show was still hours away.

Kat said we were going to the theatre anyway

because she would be in another dance

performance soon and wanted to try some

ideas in the space. “Sorry you’ll have to just bear

with me lah,” she said.

I told her, in no uncertain terms, to shut up lah and

stop saying sorry because I was memang there to spend time with her.

We entered the USM compound, all lovely and very residential looking

compared to other university campuses.

Most university campuses I’ve been to mostly look

a little cold and detached as a whole, the buildings all separated from each other,

looking rather unwelcoming.

It’s like the collection of buildings

operate as strangers awkwardly holding hands, rather than

beckoning students with warmth and synergy.

The USM campus’ biggest plus?

It has these lovely giant trees,

with massive surfacing roots outstretched,

trunks thick and knobbly, and with voluminous

crowns of branches and leaves that lace the sun.

The type of trees that beg to be stared at and touched.

But more of that later.

 

 

Kat introduces me to Panggung Sasaran.

She described it earlier to me as historic, the first black box theatre in the country.

I had imagined this old beautiful theatre,

with stained walls, bricks or aged wood,

but this was not the vision that greeted me when we stepped

out of the car.

I saw the words ‘Panggung Sasaran’ spelled out on this curious

white little building trying desperately to look like a

piece of ancient Europe.

Truth be told, I looked at it, with its white Greco Roman columns

and vented front portion, and thought to myself “Err…this is it?”

I was to find out later that many were displeased

by the Panggung’s ‘new’ exterior look.

 

Kat & The Box

Kat & The Box

 

We went in and the theatre’s interior

was definitely more pleasing than its outward uniform.

It was all seductively black, brown, soft and dark inside.

As Kat readied herself to practise her dance, I went

adventuring all around the nooks and crannies of

the theatre.

 
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According to Kat, the crew had done a little

bit of cleaning up, but the theatre was still in rather bad shape.

True enough, certain spaces in the rooms and the back areas

looked like unkempt storage areas. It was rather dusty, and one

could tell that the theatre had seen better days.

However I fell in love with some of its oddities — pieces of

cellotape which stuck haphazardly on the wall,

clumps of staples punched into door arches, the determined

blackness of its walls, wires and switches.

 

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Sometimes when I travel I urge my travel mates

on with the word “Menghayati”. I think I may be a little

annoying because I repeat “Eh, have to ‘Menghayati’,

okay? Menghayaaatiiii…” And then I sit on a rock slab and

just stare or I touch a wall for ages.

Certain places are wonderful for that.

Like the ruins of Ephesus in Turkey,

or the walls of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

But a place like Panggung can just be as wonderful

to Menghayati. Its walls, its scratched wooden floors, its

messy ensemble of ceiling lights and beams, even its dirty

sinks. I was going to remove bits of rubbish from the sinks

before taking pictures, but then I realised they seem

to look rather pretty there too, somehow.

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And then, just as I was about to take more pictures,

Kat starts to dance.

I pause. And smile.

And I watch.

 

[ To be continued in Kat Tales ... ]

Kat Tales – Breakfast & Updates

[Continued from An Interlude ... ]  In Penang, 26-27th July 2009

 

I arrived in Penang all groggy, and quite repulsed by the world.

I guess that’s what a death and no sleep will do to you.

Everyone annoyed me on the plane, out of the plane, in

the airport … even the man who was just smoking outside,

waiting for someone like I was.

 

And then I saw her shiny purple beauty.

There Kat was in her gorgeous Toyota Corona Liftback,

all custom zhng-ed to suit her personality.

(Zhng, or Zhhnngggg as I say it, is ‘pimped up’ in Hokkien

Ah Lien/Ah Beng-speak aka “Zhng My Ride” or “Zhng My Phone”)

I’ll tell you something, seeing one of your most favourite

friends, smiling like sunshine in a car like that is quite something

else.

As they would say, the clouds lifted.

I hopped in, we hugged and did the usual ‘Yay, you’re here!’

and went on our way.

 
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Kat said she was sorry she had to basically drag me to

whatever she was doing today and I told her not to be silly,

I wanted to spend this weekend doing stuff she loved.

I’d be her assistant or anything she wanted, I said, I would

gladly just be her shadow.

I also wanted to record this for her as a birthday present.

 

the Katmobile

the Katmobile!

 

Kat was producing the Penang run of the Five Arts production

‘Gostan Forward’, along with her art collective Ombak-Ombak.

Gostan Forward, a performance lecture

by Marion D’Cruz (which is directed by Mark Teh and also stars

Anne James) had had a successful run in KL, and this was

their show in the Pearl of the Orient.

She was enthusiastic about it, and I was just as enthused for her.

I had missed the show in KL, and I also know Mark, so all this 

made the little trip even more meaningful.

In the car we talked about Yasmin’s death.

She was to find out through me, (since it was early in the morning

and it just happened the night before) so I detailed everything

like a little machine, already all cried out, already

tired with sadness.

She said that everything had moved so fast,

the Gostan Forward crew had just been talking about

her being admitted to hospital, and now this.

I told her I had not expected my own reaction to her death.

Kat listened sadly, the news sinking in.

I think for anyone, the news of Yasmin Ahmad

passing away needs time to sink in.

 

. . . . . . .

 

It was a nice, balmy morning, despite it all.

We first went to breakfast, which was held at a little

kopishop in Little India.

As per usual when we catch up, we spent

the first hour or so updating each other with

the latest layers of our lives.

 

It is always later, in the still of the nights,

that we venture into the deeper and more intense

conversations about love, life and the like.

So for now, we would talk about work, plans in the near future,

her marriage and my er, single status. Things like that.

 

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We talked about frustrations with work, but how

we have also learned how to make the best of things,

and how we have grown in our careers.

To learn, to not dwell on the negatives, to look

forward and to see how we can benefit from what

we have been through, what we have observed,

by meeting the people we have met.

Of all my friends, I think I come out of such conversations

in the best possible ways with Kat – we tend to

zoom out and appreciate events for what they

are, and try to put them in context.

You know how some people ask you questions

without really listening to your answers, because

they are actually setting themselves up to talk

about their views on something?

She’s definitely not like that. She’s one of those friends who really

wants to know what you think, she’ll ponder about it for

a bit, and then ask the right questions. You can see it in her

eyes – she imagines herself in a similar situation, or thinking

it through, and then offer an opinion

or thought that gently pushes the conversation to another

level.

I know this all sounds rather elementary, but

I really do believe that some friends offer you conversations

that will reveal more of you to your self than you know, and give

you more mental light bulbs. Kat makes me think.

And of course, we always laugh in between serious

topics. Kelakar lah she sometimes :)

 

. . . . . . . . . . . . 

 

We leave the coffeeshop, suitably armed with each other’s

latest fortunes and misfortunes, all up to date.

We leave for Panggung Sasaran, at Universiti Sains Malaysia.

You have to see this theatre, she said.

I was most happy to.

 

 

[To be continued in Kat Tales ...]

Kat Tales – Because you’re amazing

This is going to be the first of many parts of my birthday

present to my dear friend Kat.

Her birthday is today, and though I can’t be with her,

I can easily imagine being there with her, getting

all shades of drunk,

getting all volumes of noisy.

I didn’t know what to get her,  so I decided a while

ago to combine a long-awaited trip to Penang to see her

with a show she was producing (and which I wanted to catch) -

Gostan Forward, a solo performance by Marion D’Cruz.

Since she was excited about it, I thought I’d detail the day out

as something for her to remember.

 

 

But first, a little introduction.

I’ve known Kat since 1996. We went to Taylor’s College

together. 

She was this weird hippie chick who wore a bright pink

tee and glaring green long skirt on the first day.

Talk about lasting impressions.

Then she had to go and get toilet-papered

during our first assembly/ice-breaking – I still

don’t know what that was all about.

But that’s Kat for you – she’d always be sporting

and be a source of entertainment for all (We laugh WITH

you darling, Ahem)

Plus the toilet paper thing (which she was wrapped all over with)..

that was probably an indication of her artistic inclinations innit.

Art mah.

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To cut a long story short, we met, it was instant lup (on my

part anyway!) and proceeded to do a lot of these:

- Cruising in cars

- Scaring poor taxi drivers (Kat)

- Singing Oasis songs and the like

- Smoking kretek in dirty stairwells (Kat)

- Getting mabuk (Wahey, we likes)

- Dancing in the middle of dance floor like mad woman

   though nobody’s dancing (Kat)

- Laugh. And muse about life. And boys. Oh yes, boys.

 

We also proceeded to go to England after college.

Though we went to different places, we met up when we

could for music gigs in London, or just to catch up.

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I don’t remember ever feeling she was very far from me.

Ever.

Sometimes I remember, she would suddenly call when I

felt like I needed to talk to someone. Or

when I was actually thinking about her.

Voodoo magic woman, she.

 

I want to go on further but I only spent one full Sunday and half

a Monday with her … so I’m gonna stretch it out a bit leisurely.

This was meant to be the introduction,

and was meant to say Baby/Babi Kat, Happy Birthday honey,

I love you.

 

 

PS- You didn’t think I’d forget to mention that I never got

that whole ‘I’m not washing my hair for months’ thing

did you?! 

 

Yes, Kat believed that the hair/head’s ‘natural

oils’ cleansed her rambut, so we all had to put up with

her greasiness for a while.

Don’t worry, she wasn’t really a smelly cat.

xox

 

 

[More of Kat Tales soon ... ]