A Theatre Student Prepares: The week before college begins

 

We're one weekend away from the beginning of my journey in the National University of Singapore. The last few months, ever since I got into my first choice major at NUS, I have been reading up on everything I have on hand: Stage plays by Haresh Sharma, academic journals on intercultural theatre and performance, acting textbooks by the theatre greats of the post-Stanislavskian era. At the same time, the recent shift back into Phase 2 Heightened Alert, or Singapore's version of a semi-lockdown where dining in is not allowed, had put a dampener on my theatre participation plans for the last three months and counting.

I reached out to my acting coach, Darren, to confirm that I have secured my place in his upcoming workshop, which would be co-taught by award-winning actor Oliver Chong. He assured me that I had the place, and we were just waiting for the green light from the relevant authorities. That was a relief to hear after this entire dry spell of no acting. But I was still feeling restless. Auditions for NUS Stage weren't open yet, module registration for my first semester at NUS was done.

Throughout the week, I was just pacing through LumiNUS and NUSync, making sure that I was signed up for all the open classes and ensuring that my pre-semester readings were done. I also felt kind of nostalgic. My newest workplace, the one that I managed to spend the tail-end of my elementary school student care teacher career with, was such a blessing and in the last six weeks, I have learned so many life skills that I wouldn't find in any other job. Being constantly tossed into a battleground full of children, each experiencing fragments of life for the first time and coming to me with joyful discoveries and angry tears taught me so much about conflict resolution and trained my response skills in a way that few other professions can. Children are completely chaotic, and absolutely adorable - my heart has melted in a million different ways from interacting with them, and I've walked away from this role as a better communicator, a more conscientious leader and perhaps a more empathetic individual.

And so it was yesterday when I finally finished my first-ever financial marathon. Completing a contract feels so incredibly sweet, and when payday, it happened to be payday, came in with my money for the month of July, somehow having that taste of financial independence and bringing in the real bucks into my bank account made everything worth it. As I finish this chapter of life - this wonderful eight or nine months of pure experimentation and sampling adulthood, I feel ready to leap off the springboard into the deep end. My journey is still full of unknowns - I literally just found out that I had to report for a lecture at 8AM on Tuesday, and I didn't even know where LT13 was! But hey, it's that same journey of constant surprises and discoveries that makes life more interesting.

At the same time, the uncertainty of the pandemic situation continues to cast a shadow of doubt over my career choice. How do you act when people are afraid to even step out of their homes, much less visit the theatre? But there's hope yet. Singapore is set to have an almost 80% fully vaccinated population, and as of today over two-thirds of our residents are fully vaccinated. When Pfizer and Moderna approves vaccinations for children below the age of 12, I foresee a significant uptake in that age group too - and with some hope, eventually we would cross the threshold needed for herd immunity. This would be excellent news for our local theatre groups, where we would finally be able to return to fully packed live theatres in full force.

Already, differentiated measures for vaccinated people have been rolled out - the unvaccinated will only be allowed to dine in at open air free seating places such as hawker centers and coffee shops, and only in groups of two. Restaurants and even air-conditioned food courts will be a privilege for the vaccinated. More importantly, co-curricular activities and external classes are set to loosen restrictions, especially for vaccinated people. The latest review of safe management measures will pave the way for the eventual comeback of theatre groups and acting workshops.

Fingers crossed, I might get to be back in acting class very soon.