October in Ireland + UK

The cliffs of Dún Aonghasa.

If I had to name one thing I would miss the most from Europe, it's that sense of pure wonder and inner peace granted by the majesty of Mother Nature. Having lived in Singapore for practically my entire life, I have been sheltered from the elements by the little lagoon of the Malaysian peninsula and the Indonesian islands, but then only now do I realize that the world is truly so much more than I've ever imagined.

The sea. It's blue. A beautiful deep sapphire blue. The wind howls. It doesn't just rustle, it howls and screams at night. I am not used to those sounds, but I am so fascinated by every phenomenon that I'm seeing for the first time. In the last few weeks, I have had the pleasure of climbing to the peak of Dún Aonghasa, hiking up Glendalough to see the Poulanass Waterfall, walking the streets of Dublin so often that I now know the city almost as well as I know the Central Business District back home. I have experienced Dublin's Culture Night, caught a headliner show at the Abbey Theatre for the Dublin Theatre Festival, and I have watched a good number of other theatre shows including Druid O'Casey, Bare the Musical, and even a short performance by the students of the Gaiety School of Acting. Every experience was fresh, new, a sensory adventure that renewed my understanding of what creativity and storytelling truly means. Absorbing this entire new culture and its surrounding geographies and histories into my pool of knowledge would eventually feed into my writing and acting, so I am seizing this opportunity to see as much as I can so that I can elevate my work as a creative artist.

As a representative of Singapore and an arts practitioner, I seek to integrate pieces of Singapore into the most relevant parts of international theatre culture, all while bringing back new ideas to the Singaporean canon of theatre. In my acting class DRAM20170, the focus on reading the monologue for the specific context of the audition setting has been a valuable practical experience that I would not have experienced anywhere else. In my learning of Michael Shurtleff's Twelve Guideposts, I am discovering just how far my acting can go with mystery, conflict, relationship and so much more, and it feels like I am only just beginning to sift through a treasure trove, still learning to recognize the value of all the precious jewels I have just uncovered. However, the vital part of this trip is the exchange of cultures, which is why I selected Verena Tay's THE LUNAR INTERVIEWS, a play on mythology and feminism, for my monologue reading. Even in a small audience, even by a still-inexperienced actor such as myself, I hope to introduce the Singapore brand to the rest of the world. Outside of acting, central to my focus includes themes such as Singaporean theatre, Southeast Asian Theatre and Disability Arts, and I delight in presenting those issues in my other classes including Performance Across the Globe and even International Relations.

While the workload has been steadily increasing towards the midterms season, learning here is still a lot more slow-paced than at the National University of Singapore, and I have plenty of time to work on my extracurricular pursuits in and out of school. This Wednesday, in particular, is a busy day - I started my day with a class on Southeast Asian puppetry, cooked a wholesome lunch, and then I had six hours of theatre class, Irish lessons, ballet and Wushu consecutively (with a little dinner break in between). I returned home absolutely drained, cooked a bowl of boiled cauliflower, and then opened up my laptop to write my essay for DRAM10060, a class on physical theatre and Viewpoints. The essay done and submitted, I spent the evening out with my filmmaking team discussing the details of my upcoming short film. We explored our set location for the first time - a little cafe just across the road from the Abbey Theatre itself - and it was perfect. The place had the perfect mood, and the horror vibes with the basement was sublime. This film was ready to go. At dinner I ventured out to the streets of O'Connell Road and found myself in an Asian bakery, where I ordered a meal deal with a Thai milk tea (which was very well worth the cost of the meal by European standards). I had dinner, then crossed the road to Penney's where I picked up a few pieces of clothing.

Such was the pace of life studying in UCD - there was always time go out and explore, do some cool projects, travel and sip hot chocolate or bubble tea in a cafe. A short film shoot and one week later, I had my bags packed for an adventure in London and Norway. Of course, my trips are not the most stress-free of experiences: I spent my nights hammering out essays on my laptop, and explored markets, theatres, museums and streets in daylight hours. Over the last four days I have had the incredible privilege of seeing WICKED at the Apollo Victoria with (for the first time in history) three Black leads on stage. I lunched in the Shakespeare Globe Theatre, my food fresh from the Borough Market, and munched on apples given out as part of the intermission of As You Like It ("All the world's a stage/ And all the men and women merely players"). I also caught Blue Mist at the Royal Court Theatre, a play exploring the friendship and tribulations of three South Asian Muslim men. My final evening in the city of London, not including my emergency stop here at Holiday Inn London Luton, had me going out to hunt the Big Ben and the London Bridge. I have to give a special shoutout to London food - seafood paella, some incredible quality carbonara, chicken mushroom risotto, sandwiches filled to the brim with prawns. Dublin can afford to take some notes.

Tomorrow I leave London for Norway. There will be more writing when I see my Northern lights💚 Until then, I have plenty of sleep to catch up on.