Reflections 2020: My 2nd drama production in Hope Church

Finally am getting down to penning some thoughts for my role on the big screen last year. In case you missed it, here's the trailer:

 

One of the first few LIVE moments on set

After my first Christmas drama production in Dec 2017, I didn't think I would be involved again since I thought that re-using the same face for the next year's Christmas project isn't ideal? But I did get invited to audition for a role in Dec 2018 Christmas production, by which I was pleasantly surprised. And the role is very different from my previous ah beng role - this time, I'd be auditioning for the role of a singing toy soldier. HAHA.

However, I already had a ski trip to La Plagne, France, all planned out - tickets booked and I was really looking forward to it. So, circumstantially, not possible for Dec 2018. And yes I did have a really good time skiing with Joy Xuan Ni, Jonathan Wong and his ICL gang in France hehe⛷️⛷🎿

Fast forward to October 2019, I received a WhatsApp message from Wei Yeat, our church staff member involved in special creative projects:

I was ok because I thought that I would be casting as a very small role. So in my mind, I was envisioning a quick audition, a few rehearsals and we're ready to roll out my calefare role. Haha. Why'd I think that? Because in 2017, when I auditioned for a role in the Christmas production, it was around Aug-Sep 2017. By early Oct, we already had our scripts and have started with rehearsals already.

This time, the invitation came in mid-Oct 2019. So, I thought, I was only some calefare that they realized they needed as they went along with the rehearsals. I was miles away from the truth. Turns out I was auditioning for the LEAD ROLE!

One of the flyers for Christmas 2019 @ Hope church

I was telling Wei Yeat something like "Bro, mid-Oct already leh. Where got time to do all the rehearsals?" In the previous production, we had 2.5 months of rehearsals and now we're left with 1.5 months!

He then assured me that this production isn't drama-heavy like the previous one I did. This production is film-heavy. So, there will be a lot of pre-recorded segments and filming, which isn't so rehearsal-intensive. Yes we still needed to rehearse for the shoot, but it's totally different from rehearsing for a live drama production.

With this assurance I was like "Ok, sounds good" and headed for the auditions. Since it was 75% on film, I can make all the mistakes I want and we can do re-takes. But if it was a live-act, I only got one shot and I needa perfect that shot.

Rehearsal @ Axis!

I passed the auditions of course, if not there'd be no blog post at all. LEL. Although a film production isn't as stressful as a LIVE drama production, I was about to learn that the stress is in a different form. Yes for film productions you can do re-takes, but there is a limited number of re-takes you can do because of the no. of scenes on the schedule.

If we take too long for one scene, it'll eat into the time for the next, and the next and the snowball just grows larger with each delay. And the sun isn't gonna wait for you - if you take too long, the sunlight in the first scene VS the sunlight in the last scene might be a different hue.

Imagine we're filming a series of fight scenes and they're all to be shown in a 1min segment. Can't be your first few cut scenes show afternoon sun and then the last 30s of the segment shows an evening sun right? LOL. This is where it gets kinda stressful - nailing each take within the shooting schedule.

The first shoot was the most memorable for me because it involved a lot of action scenes and it was the first time I had my hair baptized in coloured wax to turn it silver. Yes, SILVER colour as per my insta story shot below. Lel.

 

If you're wondering "why silver"? It's because I'm playing a character called "IcemanZ". IcemanZ is an online avatar that "Brian" controls. Yes, I also play "Brian" who is the protagonist in this production.

AND, I also play a 3rd character called "Chad" who is Brian's alter-ego - or rather, the voice inside his head. This last character is only revealed at the last scene when Brian has a meltdown and confronts his inner voice and asks him "Who are you?" To which Chad replies "I am you Brian...Who are YOU?"

Yeah, so these are the 3 characters I play:

1. Brian: Typical Singaporean-Asian boy with typical naggy & negative Asian parents. Struggling with his studies but VERY good at games which takes him to stardom
2. IcemanZ: Online avatar for a first person shooter (FPS) game that Brian controls
3. Chad: The inner voice or "person" inside our heads that whispers advice to our souls

Ok so back to my first shoot with the team! It was shot at Labrador Nature Reserve on a weekday morning till evening. Everything was going smoothly - our fight scenes, our shooting scenes, etc. until suddenly 2 NParks officers came and told us to stop. THIS IS WHERE THE REAL DRAMA IS. LOL.

I immediately turned my gun at them and started shooting at them! The rest stared in total disbelief as I continued to act my character out...

JUST KIDDING. HAHA. But I could totally imagine myself doing that LOLOL. So yes, the NParks officers did approach us, but the "me shooting at them" part is the drama that took place inside my head LOL.

Anyway, after some questioning and dialogue, the NParks officers just politely told us to not do our shooting in the forested, off-track areas as they were out-of-bounds. And they also mentioned that NUS is doing some environmental project there so there are sensors and stuff planted in the ground to monitor the area.

The moment the NParks officers approached us, I was already praying in my heart against this "spiritual attack" from the devil. Thank God everything turned out fine and thank God we already done most of the important "forested area" scenes! Hallelujah! Haha

Finished our first outdoor shoot at Labrador Nature Reserve!

The next shoot trumped the first shoot man. The Labrador shoot was from 10am-5pm. The 2nd shoot at Hope @ New Tech Park (NTP) was from 7pm-5am!! Yes it was an overnight shoot!

This shoot was the biggest one already because it involved the most people - full cast: including extras, directors, camera crew, dancers, image crew (to do our make-up & hair), facilities, etc. IT WAS CROWDED! A happy kind of crowded. Haha.

Here we shot A LOT of scenes. I had to change from one outfit & hair colour to another because I was playing 2 out of the 3 characters on this 2nd shoot. Shall let the photos & videos tell the story:

BTS: Xiang Er (Denise) & I (Brian) holding hands scene

Emotionally intense scene after Brian fought off several thugs at a club & rescued Denise

BTS: IcemanZ taking out his enemies

How to achieve smooth videography without a gimbal HAHA @WeiYeat @HorngJye

END OF SHOOT! Time check - 5:42am!

Sorry for killing you guys off so quickly HAHA

So that was the 2nd and most intense shoot of all. And it's also the first time I stayed overnight at Hope Church @ New Tech Park. LEL. And no I didn't have to take leave for the shoot - it was shot from 1st Nov 2019, Fri night till Saturday morning.

The next shoot is only 4 days later on a Thursday evening at CT Hub - which means I gotta prac my lines and memorize the emotions & expressions and stuff by then - or at least get a good grasp of most of it - which is a challenge because I got a really packed calendar ahead of me.

My work schedule - overseas business trips, LG schedule, several weddings to host/attend and MPC stuff. So my schedule is packed to the brim - 50% of it rehearsals & filming. Lol.

The best part is my MPC facilitator is pushing me like an angry sergeant to meet our marriage mentor and I'm like "Yo, what's the deal with rushing to meet them? I've got much more things on my plate than meeting my marriage mentor now?"

Mr. NS then went paggro by saying something along the lines of "It's not respectful to make them wait" and stuff. And I was like "Whoa, I didn't know I had a timeline to meet my marriage mentor?" So, if I don't meet them within this year, my marriage will crumble?

So doing life is by your timetable, not mine? If they can't wait, then just call it off then. We can always find our own marriage mentors who can meet our timeline isn't it?

Zinky & I backstage. She's one of the singers for service 🙌

I really have no idea why is there such impatience in that man. To what end? What was he trying to achieve? Beats me man. Guess we needa put more leaders with proper fruits of the Spirit like patience at such positions? LOL.

We did, however, get in touch with our marriage mentors eventually (not long after) and it turns out that they weren't in a rush to meet us at all. They were just waiting to be updated. So much for "being disrespectful for making them wait"? Haha.

Anyhow, if they had a timeline, they should've laid it out clearly then. Don't start barking when things don't go your way. Communicate things early and you won't needa bark later. And I don't like to rush things, especially if there's nothing to gain from rushing. More so with an insane schedule like mine.

Back to the filming at CT Hub. Was a good shoot because this is one of the easier shoots. Haha. Filmed the talk show scene and the gaming scenes. Ez pz. Lel. Here are some BTS snap shots in between the filming sessions:

Filming done in about 3 hours. Settled. But I remember during this period I was also having problems in my work side of things - my Italian counterpart was giving me problems. He is a cranky old Italian man that works by his emotions and not his brain sometimes. And his emotions had to work out during this period 🙄

My company represents this Italian company called "Quick" and in industry terms, this Italian ah pek is our "principal". So, we are the authorized distributor for Quick's equipment in South-East Asia. So what happened is this:

After we closed a huge deal and settled with the customer the terms of the deal, then this cranky old man told us "Oh, you need to pay for our technicians to fly in from Italy to commission the equipment." And I was like "Why didn't you tell us this earlier? We already settled the payment terms with the customer and now you come and hit us with more charges?"

His reply was something like "This is such a huge deal and the margins are huge! You're telling me you don't have money to pay for 2 men to fly to Singapore?"

Well, that isn't the point. The point is, if you'd mentioned this earlier, we'd have factored in some €4000 for this requirement. Now, you're making us incur a loss of €4k! Which is about SGD$6.4k!

Twinning with Ah Bok - one of the directors for this project

And the thing is, the commissioning has always been done by us anyway. Not sure why this time was so special. If it were that special, tell us in advance then! Seems like this Italian asshole old man just wants to rip us off - it wasn't the first time he ripped us off anyway. But justice belongs to God and I believe it will served back to him in other ways. 

Thankfully, due to several circumstances, they were forced to rely on our Singapore team to do the commissioning anyway. So, we didn't have to incur those expenses for nothing. Thank You Lord. But this whole tiff lasted for about a month and weighed quite heavily on me for a while. But I figured that this dying old man wasn't even worth me getting angry at, so I left it in the Lord's hands. Lel.

Anyhow, the CT Hub filming session wasn't the last filming session. We still had one more filming session at Lavender near the ICA building, by the huge canal. Here's a snapshot of it:

This one was tough because the scene was laden with emotions - there was quarreling, outbursts of anger and quite a lot of lines to spew. Lel. I also remember there was some disagreement between the directors on the filming direction for these few scenes, but thankfully, all turned out well in the end.

By the way, so far, I've only mentioned the filming sessions, not so much the rehearsals. There were also a lot of rehearsal sessions which I didn't mention as these aren't as noteworthy as a filming session? Haha. Rehearsals is where we trash things out and make things work. Filming is capturing the product of the rehearsals.

But it is really the rehearsals that matter the most but yet, it is the least insta-worthy. LOL. Just like in documentaries of successful people, they usually only highlight the key moments - they don't show you a 4 hour long footage of this guy working out his code on his computer and going through the de-bugging process. The real work is almost always boring.

Me with my "younger" self, played by Aloy - the young Brian

Once the rehearsals & filming are all done, what's left? On-stage rehearsals and full dress rehearsals! This is where we get to meet everyone - the sound crew, make-up crew, dance crew, etc. Woo hoo! Make new friends! Lel.

This is my 2nd involvement in Hope's flagship Christmas production already and I've seen the same several types of Christians that you'll meet in church:

1. Mr./Ms. Popular with celebrity-complex: They're generally nice but they only wanna hang with people that are handsome/pretty and popular like them. Won't follow you back on Instagram / Facebook / Twitter. Overflowing with vanity.

2. Mr./Ms. Know-It-All or Mr. I'm-more-senior-than-you with superiority-complex. They're always finding opportunities to correct you and "help you improve". Usually talking down to people of lesser status but pandering to those of higher status.

3. Mr./Ms. Uptight. Everything must be done according to their way & their timing if not they'll be upset. They forget that people have their own reasons as to why they do what they do and they forget how to communicate cordially & positively.

4. Mr./Ms. Naggy. Something like no. 2 but they're doing it not so much out of superiority complex but stems more from their need to just talk, be heard and be recognized. But like no. 2, they like to pick on people with lesser status.

5. Mr./Ms. I'm-here-to-have-fun. They're awesome people to be around. But when the going gets tough, when clashes arise, they take a back-seat and hope things will go back to normal. Not much ownership or conviction about the cause they're serving in.

6. Mr./Ms. Nice. They're always very nice, helpful, nodding their heads and faithfully doing things they're assigned. They're usually bullied & picked-on by no. 1-4. They don't exert themselves and like no. 5, they take a back seat in clashes or arguments as they're conflict-averse by nature.

BTS shot: Main cast - Xiang Er & I with our directors Wei Yeat, Faith Bok & Sherilyn

7. Mr./Ms. Try-Hard. They're generally nice and don't attack people like no. 2-4. They will try hard to impress or make friends. They're usually those of a lesser status.

8. Mr./Ms. Legit Absentee. They're usually not around but ALWAYS have a legitimate reason for their absence that you as a leader can't disapprove of - e.g. they're sick/not feeling well, attending to an emergency, family problems, friend problems, etc. They do sometimes come for key meetings and moments where it is to their liking.

9. Mr./Ms. Task-Oriented. They're super focused on finishing their task and once they're done, they're out. They won't bother helping others or getting involved with others not related to their team/task. They make sure they do their job well, protect their turf and lose sight of the bigger picture of working as a team. Kinda like what you see at work. So Church ministry is another job to them.

10. Mr./Ms. Politics. They're toxic and are always playing manipulative tactics. They might do their job really well and then make insinuations as to why this person not doing as well. They do a lot of paggro back-stabbing and suggest things to show they're better or this person is lousy. They do all these to get attention and make the way to the top. Power-hungry people.

11. Mr./Ms. Gossip. They love talking about juicy news about others. They might not be power-hungry but they info-hungry. The "secrets" they hold make them feel important and they enjoy that status.

12. Mr./Ms. Spiritual. They over-spiritualize things. Over-asking questions like "Where is God in this picture?", "What does God have to say about this?" and over-praying super long prayers that traps everybody in a hold-hands position and reducing the group's task-productivity. They might earnestly be (over)seeking God or they might just be hijacking the meeting to feel important by praying long prayers to be heard and seen as spiritual

13. Mr./Ms. Leader. These rare breed of humans are the people we need in leadership positions. They are clear on the vision God has given them in context of the Church & their task, they're also aware of the different types of people they need to manage & know how to communicate effectively to the different people types and lastly, they execute & delegate the tasks effectively. I'll highlight one such person later in my post.

Photo with Zinky before service starts!

There are definitely more categories of such people but I shall stop classifying them here. LOL. You see such people in schools, in your workplaces and in your social circles everywhere. But the key thing is, they're in church - a place where they can learn, love, forgive & be forgiven - outside of the church, they'll probably just continue to fester and eventually die a toxic death. LOL.

This is the fun & not-so-fun part about serving: you get to meet lotsa people - people who'll like you, love you, inspire you, encourage you and vice-versa...and also people who'll piss you off, hate you, discourage you, hurt you...and the best part is? They all do it in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah! LOL.

This is why I wasn't all perked up and ready to go serve in church. Because I know what it's like. But the thing about meeting new people is, for the many that will rub you the wrong way, there's also the priceless few that will enter into and change your life's trajectory.

So, overall, I think it's still worth the risk sifting through the sea of faces to find those few blessings that will warm your heart and remind you that God is still good. LOL.

It's amazing how God can use a bunch of us filled with our different levels of insecurities, understanding of God & His kingdom, different levels of carnality (led-by-the-flesh) and still make it work. It is indeed the hand of God that works through our layers upon layers of brokenness to make something beautiful in the end.

Ah Bok, Wei Yeat, Xiang Er & Me on set

Personally, I think Wei Yeat did an amazing job at coordinating this whole project. He is no. 13 type of Christian that I met! He has so many stakeholders to manage: pastoral team, ministry heads, production team, crew members, cast members, etc.

And in each team or ministry or group, there will be expectations for him to live up to, personality & character problems to manage and timelines to meet. Yet he pulled it altogether and maintained a good posture of positivity and encouragement.

He was always encouraging us with the classic Hope sentence "Thank God for you!" LOL. But beyond that, he does get to know you on a personal level and builds a friendship so the usual "Thank God for you!" statement doesn't feel like a corporate-speak.

It also helps that he's a drama-funny guy because it helps to make us all laugh & ease tensions. But most importantly I think he's a good listener.

The 2 Brians with his parents. They're all fantastic dancers by the way, except me :( LOL

The thing about being a church staff, much like being a PA (People's Association) CC staff (like me, back then) - is that you'll be surrounded by a lot of volunteers that will come with all sorts of agendas, problems and insecurities and most of the time, a lot of them just want to be heard and to be understood.

The reason why I did well in my job as a constituency manager in my CC is because I listened to my committee members stories and rants - even when it isn't linked to work. It is simply because I took the time to listen to them - that they felt understood and most importantly they felt valued - that they threw me their best support.

Same for Wei Yeat I think he did a great job listening and asking a lot of us the right questions and because of that, we in turn threw in our best support for him.

The stress-level is sometimes really great on him but he always maintained his composure and positivity even in the face of criticism and expectations. So kudos to you Wei Yeat!

I've no idea what happened here but seems like those 2 wanna lick me LEL

The next hero of this production is definitely Horng Jye - the video champion. He not only shoots the videos, he also does the editing and caption-ing! SUPER HARD WORK BRO.

Horng Jye's the boss in the army sniper hat

I've had a my fair share of doing video editing for my company and IT IS UTTERLY TIME CONSUMING. Some more mine is just a 1-2 minute marketing video versus this project - about a 30min worth of video footage to edit?

By "edit", I don't just mean adjusting the colours and all, I mean adding the sound effects, adding the video effects in the action scenes - zooming in, slowing things down, adding emphasis elements like bullets flying, explosions, etc. Dayum, one hell of a Hollywood-level editing there.

The best/worst part is the tight timelines he has to meet because not all the scenes are shot together. They were all shot (by him) over the course of about a month I think. And he has to get the footage ready before Christmas service on 21st & 22nd Dec!

Really hats off to Horng Jye man. The stress level is so damm high. If I can't finish editing certain parts of the video by a certain time, I'd probably be not able to sleep LOL.

Yep, where am I at now? Probably at the on-stage rehearsals, full-dress rehearsals already? LOL. Ok so here's more snapshots:

Brian struggling in his online game competition

Brian reacting to his daddy's stroke

The choir members doubling up as actors cheering for IcemanZ in this online competition

All these rehearsals and filming culminates to this moment - DAY 1 of the actual performance/production! I didn't break a sweat because I've rehearsed my parts on stage several times already. Now, it's just about not missing a beat and maintaining my act.

Here's some BTS footage of us on the actual days of the performances. I plural-ed "days" and "performances" because we performed 5 times over 2 days. Yes we have 5 services - 3 on Saturday, 2 on Sundays. Lol.

One of the dancers' warm-up routines: PLANKS. DED.

Yes, it all culminated to those few moments on stage. All the many hours of sweat, filming and rehearsals is all for the audience. And I don't mean it in just a purely production house or drama artist context, but I mean it in the Kingdom context as well. We all did it for the lives & souls of the unsaved that will be walking into the church doors to witness this miraculous story of Christ through a production-storyline.

I don't know how God will use the production to speak into the viewers' lives, but I know He will. We'll probably hear the stories of transformation in a campfire session by the shores of heaven. But for now, all we need to do is to avail ourselves and arm ourselves with the full armour of God.

To all my friends/family who came to watch me (LOL) / watch this production, thanks so much! You are why we do what we did!

The most important visitors that day - Zi Ying's fam & My fam ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ♡

With da Tampines North badminton boys

Thanks Joan & Ryan for coming!

Yay thanks for coming Marcus & Gary (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ

Thanks Aixin & David for coming (ᵔᴥᵔ)

Also, thanks guys for all your insta-story tags LOL. Hope my acting wasn't too bad or too good that it took your eyes of Jesus HAHA.

All in all, had a good run. Made many new dancer friends since there were many dance scenes and also made several new choir friends.

May God continue to use Hope Church to reach out to the local community and the larger Christian community at large through their productions 🙏

Hope has several testimony videos that have clocked like 500K+ views on Facebook/YouTube and I pray that we will continue shouting His name in hostile times like these.

Shall end this post with a group photo of everyone who was involved in this Christmas 2019 production. Each and every one of you made this happen and I pray that as we serve and as we rub shoulders - as iron sharpens iron - may we sharpen each other to be an even more effective tool for His Kingdom against the kingdom of darkness.

Group photo of everyone involved in Hope Singapore's 2019 "A Fun-Filled Christmas" production!

Reflections 2020: My first "ministry" in Hope Church

God's never done with just landing you in a church - that's just the first step; where the potter plonks a pile of clay onto his pottery wheel. You can read about how I got yanked onto the "pottery wheel" here: https://historymakers-jonnyboy.blogspot.com/2020/05/reflections-2020-how-god-led-me-to-hope.html

In Hope church they have 4 steps called the "ABCD"

• Acknowledge Jesus as your Lord & Saviour
• Belong to a local church
• Contribute to God's work
• Disciple others to follow Jesus

Now that I was well-settled-down with my LG in Hope church, I am deemed to have completed steps "A" and "B". But, I wasn't keen on moving on to step "C" as yet. Why? Partly because I'm lazy and mainly because I've my reservations ಠ~ಠ

I have served in church for the longest time. I know how it works. I know the different kinds of Christians that I'll encounter. In fact, I was serving in high-capacity in 6 ministries in my first church until God called me to step down because I was too used to it (and more)! He did a powerful work in my life through that season and I'm glad that it was ranked #9 most read article for all of Thir.st's 2019 publications.

You can read more about my story by clicking the screenshot.

But I also know that it is through serving in church that you truly integrate into the body of Christ. God works through the struggles, the friction and the victories that you will accomplish throughout your time in ministry and that's where you will see growth in your spiritual life. After all James says it quite clearly: 

James 2:17 "...Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead"
James 2:24 "You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only."

 
I knew that serving in church is the byproduct of my relationship with God. But, I felt that it wasn't time yet? Until and unless God tugs at my heart to return to the battlefield, I'd like to stay in-camp in the comfort of my bunk. LOL.

So, God then began His tugging. As I got introduced to many other friends in church, they will always ask "So, what ministry are you serving in?" and I'll be like "I'm serving in my LG as a guitarist" and they'll be like "Oh that's great! But that's not a ministry" and I'll be like "IKR. See how it goes (ʘ‿ʘ)"

This happened SUPER REGULARLY and I knew God was using these irritating conversations to poke me into action. But, my lazy ass still wouldn't do anything as yet. So, God decided to increase His nudging intensity.

I remember during one of the BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) sessions, 1 Peter 4 was referenced during the lecture/discussion. When I read verse 10, I felt a heavy conviction and a sense of guilt befall me.

1 Peter 4:10 (NIV) "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received

to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms."

Right there and then my heart broke and I was filled with a mix of sadness & guilt as I realized that because I've not been using my gifts that I am endowed with, I'm being an UNfaithful steward.

With my BSF group mates in Bethesda Chapel \ (•◡•) /

That was a God-moment for me. It felt like the entire hall of about 400 BSF-ers in Bethesda Chapel went silent as these words of Scripture jumped out at me.

I knew there and then God is calling me back to the battlefield. But Lord, where? Where shall I serve in? Shall I join a ministry that is in need of people? Or should I join a ministry that maximizes my gifts & talents? That question was answered in the coming Sunday service.

In the following weeks after this God-filled BSF moment, God spoke through an unexpected segment in the service - the video announcements. LOL.

There was an open casting call for actors in the coming 2017 Christmas drama production! My LGL and LG mates sitting beside me straight away turned to me and poked me saying "Eh, you should go for this! Very suitable for you!" LOL.

I laughed when they nudged me. And then I remembered that it was through the Christmas 2016 (themed "The Great Unexpectation") drama production "Train to Bishan" that brought me back to the house of God. I recalled how mind-blown I was by that skit and I'm like "Yeah, maybe I want to be a part of this too!"

Putting this picture here again of the stage set-up for the "Train to Bishan" skit

But I was still apprehensive. I just officially joined Hope church in Tampines East 9 for like 2 months? I'm a newcomer here still and I don't think I'm ready for such a big role in church.

I also haven't acted in a drama skit for like nearly a decade? All the different excuses & reservations were bubbling in my mind but then I began adding things up:

1. God's been using irritating conversations like "So, what ministry are you in?" with well-meaning church mates to call me back to serve
2. God spoke to me during my BSF session via 1 Peter 4:10 very clearly
3. My LGL and LG mates are encouraging me to serve in this role

And I'm like, ok God, I don't need a 4th encounter. I'm doing it. So, off I went to sign up for auditions. At the back of my mind I was thinking "No harm ma, I might fail the audition anyway"

Surprisingly, the auditions were held in Burger King at Kitchener Complex - near church. It was a really chill setting. I sat down and had a really chill conversation with Timothy Ong the drama director and Adria Tham one of the drama team members.

After the pleasantries and long introduction, they asked me to read some lines from the script and that's it! No wonder it could be done at Burger King! I thought I'd have to act in front of the BK customers or something and make them lose their appetite for dinner. LOL.

BK audition done! They told me I'll be informed of their decision in a few weeks' time, after everyone has been auditioned.

I guess you know what happens next. If I didn't pass the audition, there'd be no blog post ain't it? HAHA. So yeah, I passed the audition and I got the role as a gangster named "Noel". Yeah, you read that right, gangster. L. O. L. (▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿)

Say hi to pai kia "Noel" (▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿)

As you can see from the photo above, I'm only involved in 1 scene - scene number 4, so no biggie. But hey, I'm finally servin' da Lord! LOL.

The rest of my Q4 was packed with script rehearsals, acting rehearsals, lights plot, stage plot, stage rehearsals, full dress rehearsals and finally D-DAY. It was time-consuming, but rewarding. Rewarding because through all these rehearsals and time spent together, I got to know my fellow brothers & sisters in Christ much more intimately.

The stage layout for 1 out of 9 scenes

We don't just meet to do rehearsals. We usually meet for dinner before the rehearsals and we also meet to have sharing sessions where we play games, sing worship songs and really pray for the upcoming evangelistic production. It's like LG, but on a project basis.

It is through these meetings that I hear the many stories of faith behind these actors & actresses and am truly very moved by all of their heartfelt sharing. Through these stories my faith is strengthened because I know that God is doing His work evidently in not just my life, but in the lives of these good bros & sistas around me.

One of the meetings we had where we play games and really shared about how God led us to join this production

All these stories remind me that God is a person. He is intimately speaking to each and everyone one of us and changing our lives in very real ways. It's no longer just a concept or a figure of speech to say "God has changed my life" when you can match that statement to a face - to a person, a friend that you personally know. It's totally different. That's what makes testimonies so powerful.

Let me share with you 2 of the most powerful testimonies I heard. First up is Christine: mother of 4 kids (if I remember correctly LOL).

Real-life mom and also acting mom in the production

Most people would see her 3 kids, but few would've seen her 4th. Because he's bed-ridden. He was born with some sort of disease that left him in this state. So, he's been stuck to his bed ever since birth.

As any parent would, Christine was heartbroken and upset with God. She would cry and be angry with God for months following his birth. She prayed and asked God to heal her kid but her only answer was the deafening silence from above.

Over time, she slowly surrendered her burden to God and miraculously, He provided for her family and filled them with much peace. Maybe, after all, it is part of God's plan.

I saw the pain in her eyes and also felt the peaceful surrender in her soul. This is a faith that's so profound that only if you live through it, then can you fully own it.

Let me now introduce you to the protagonist of this drama - Kelvin. His stage name and real name are pronounced the same but spelt differently LOL. On stage, he is Calvin. HAHA. He only appears in the later scenes as he is playing the older version of Calvin.

Kelvin - the older version that appears in the latter part of the play

I was hitching a ride to church in his car and that's when we had a nice chat and I uncovered his story of faith. He had an affair. "Wait what? This is story of faith?" might be your first reaction. But yes, he had an affair, and then had a divorce. Then, he lived with his new lover.

If you're not getting where the "story of faith" is, stick with me. LOL. From there, God convicted him and he fell sick I think. Then he went back to his wife, apologized, made amends with his wife and they got re-married!

They're both now happily married, TWICE, and leading an LG together in Hope church! What an incredible story of repentance & forgiveness! Without the Holy Spirit's jibes and guidance, I think the story would've turned out differently.

There are many more powerful testimonies amongst the cast members but these 2 impacted me most. To know that I'm acting with spiritual giants of the faith makes this whole acting thing much less plastic - because I know they're not just my acting "colleagues", but they are living testimonies of God's power and work in our lives.

Of course, beyond the chit-chat and HTHTs there is also the serious hours of rehearsals that we all put in - establishing of our character's depth, getting into character, vocal & facial warm-ups, mini skits, etc.

One of our backstage rehearsal moments. From left: Me (Noel), Wei Yeat (Young Calvin) & Chin Teck (Wing)

From the photo above, you could tell that Chin Teck and I are dominating Wei Yeat. LOL, We're actually bad friends that influence him to club, smoke and do bad stuff basically. We're the BAD GUYS. LOL.

One of the many on-stage rehearsals. See the cigarettes in our hands? Yeah. Doing em' bad-guy stuff. HAHA

Talking about cigarettes, there's this funny story behind it where I nearly made an LG backslide HAHA. Here's the story in 4 Instagram chat screenshots from my LG mate Siqi:

The cigarette-bad-guy story

Not sure if you managed to read the above. If you're reading this post on mobile then probably you won't be able to see the words, so lemme narrate...

I was going to church for stage rehearsals I think and I was holding my prop - cigarette pack. It's a legit cigarette pack. The cigarettes? Of course they're not real LOL. They're stage-cigarettes.

Basically you can fill the stick with some fine powder and when you blow into it, the fine powder flies out and it really looks like smoke coming outta the cig. Pretty legit prop I must say. Here's a close-up of it:

Shot glasses and stage-cigarette props for da bad guys ̿'̿'\̵͇̿̿\з=( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)=ε/̵͇̿̿/'̿̿ ̿

Back to the story...I entered church with my pack of cigarettes, walked pass an LG who saw me with the cigs and were shook, thinking I'm some outsider heading to the staircase exit for a smoke. LOL.

And they said I had bad-guy vibes (▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿) Like seriously? I do? LOL. Oh well, since a total stranger said I do, I guess I do then LOL ̿̿ ̿̿ ̿̿ ̿'̿'\̵͇̿̿\з= ( ▀ ͜͞ʖ▀) =ε/̵͇̿̿/’̿’̿ ̿ ̿̿ ̿̿ ̿̿

That was just another stage rehearsal in the sea of countless no. of rehearsals. Well, that's what happens when you have a cast size of 11 people. I heard from the drama lao jiaos that this is the largest no. of actors they've casted in a single production. Wew. ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ

Yet another stage rehearsal - things are starting to take shape

I realized that at this juncture, if you didn't come for the Christmas drama, you'd have no idea what the story is about. 做么你没来咧？Better come for this year's one ah! HMU! LOL.

Anyway, this Christmas 2017 production is called "My Crappy Christmas" and it revolves around the protagonist, Calvin...Or Kelvin as you've been introduced. Why is Christmas "crappy"? Because every memory of Christmas for Calvin, is a sad one.

"My Crappy Christmas" e-flyer invite

This production starts with the old Calvin telling the audience via a first-person video recording that he is doing this video monologue to remember his past and this may well be his last video he'll ever take. He then goes on to flashback to the first scene - his secondary school days.

The scenes portray his interactions with his mum, LAN-gaming with his friends and getting his first taste of rejection by his friends because he is a LAN-gaming noob. LOL. The sound effects, lighting, backstage dynamic graphics really makes you feel for Calvin.

It then goes on to the phase of Calvin's life - his NS (National Service) days in the army. THAT'S MY SCENE. LOL. This is where he mixes with bad company - his ah-beng, gangster-ish, bad-guy army friends Noel & Wing.

From left: Wei Yeat (Calvin), Chin Teck (Wing) and myself (Noel)

We brought him clubbing, smoking and it escalated to introducing him to drugs. It was a dark phase of life for Calvin. But, he outgrew it and went on to study in university and then landed in a well-paying job in a finance & investments company - just like any average Singaporean boy would.

The production then introduces another set of casts as Calvin enters into the workforce. Here, it portrays the perils of working life - bitchy colleagues, office-romance (sort of), demanding bosses and clients, work screw-ups and it ended up with him not being able to enjoy his Christmas holidays because he had to rush finish a report which had a critical error in it.

Group photo with the cast on stage during one of the rehearsals

As with each scene's ending, his monologue video will play on screen. While the stage set-up is being changed in the darkness, the bright screen shows Calvin telling us about his next Christmas experience - one with his lover.

I think the scenes here are the most emotional because it shows the sweetness of his courtship with his girlfriend, and then it transitions to the many fights, disagreements and it climaxed when they were unable to conceive.

I think this is one of the last few full-dress rehearsals

The next scene then portrayed the mundanity of marriage-life where it revealed a little bit of his ailing health condition. Halfway through that Christmas dinner with his wife, he had a heart attack. But he brushed it off and the scene ended sweetly with them inviting each other to dance.

Here the story wraps up. The video monologue of him talking to the camera lights up the entire auditorium again...and then he tells us that he has a late stage 3 cancer. He didn't tell his wife. And he's not sure if he'll make it till Christmas this year. So, he recorded this video just in case ಥ_ಥ

Now the audience knows that this whole story is the flashback of a dying man recalling his crappy Christmases in the past and how he might not be alive till Christmas this year.

I love how the scenes portray the average Singaporean life's journey - school, NS, university, work, marriage and then death. It makes you laugh and wince because it's so real, so accurate, so YOU.

This production poses a very important question - what's life about? Is that all there is to life? As I sit here dying of cancer, looking back at my crappy, meaningless, insignificant life...my soul aches for more. It hopes, it wishes, IT KNOWS that there is something more than this.

The scene ends with all the cast members progressively entering the scene while singing the different lines of "All I want for Christmas is LOVE". Yes, we edited the lyrics of the song. Sorry Mariah Carey. LOL.

The classic curtain call pose of most productions, where all the cast members line-up before the final bow

That's it. That was the production. We're done! Wew. But we had to do 3 acts. LOL. So the photo above is just 1 of the 3 times we did that pose. LOL

As with every Christian drama production, after the play is the sermon. So in walks senior pastor Jeffery Chong and asks the audience for another huge round of applause for the drama team before he begins his evangelistic discourse.

Feedback for the drama was good of course. Heard stories of people tearing as they watched this production. Which is great! But I hope that beyond the tears, there will be a turning of hearts towards God.

Group photo of the drama crew after 1 of the 3 acts. Or is this taken right after we're done with our last act? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In spite of the good feedback, I felt that this drama production didn't blow my mind like the "Train to Bishan" Christmas production in 2016.

Why? Mainly because the script wasn't centred around a real-life story like Yolanda. If the story took a turn and we suddenly told you that this story is the true story of a member in our church, then dayum I'd be mindblown again I guess.

Because the audience enters the church and sits down, expecting just another fictional portrayal of the Christmas message. But when fiction becomes reality, BAM, that's where it blows your mind. This element was missing this time which is why I felt it wasn't as good.

But oh well, newcomers who walked in the doors of church without any expectation in mind would still be mindblown somewhat I believe. The lights, sounds, stage effects, acting, lines and most importantly, the Holy Spirit should've dealt a nice blow to their heart of hearts.

"MY CRAPPY CHRISTMAS" drama crew \ (•◡•) /

Also really thankful that many of my friends came to support my acting (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ Especially my pre-believing friends (づ｡◕‿◕｡)づ I believe that the Holy Spirit has sown a seed of salvation in your hearts that will in time bear fruit (◕‿◕)

 

Thanks for your support Mag, Ryan & friend! And of course love ya too Siqi + Yan Xiang (♥‿♥)

Thanks for coming Abigail + Sherman! Get married soon! LOL

Yay thanks girls for coming to support me! From left (excluding Siqi LOL): Mabelline, Joy Xuanni, Chae Yun & Chae Huah!

Photo no. 2, more formal now cos both our LGLs joined the pic HAHA. Thanks Joe & Yiqin for your Godly leadership!

To wrap up this entire Christmas 2017 beautifully and noisily, we had a final Christmas gathering with the entire drama production crew at Eugene's place ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪

We played charades and all sorts of other acting & guessing games and the noise level was just INSANE. Here's one of the funniest clips (to me) of that night.

Alvin was so excited that he shouted "DES-POTATO" instead of "DESPACITO" LOLOLOL. I still ROFL every time I watch this vid HAHA.

Clockwise from Chin Teck's (photographer's) left: Henry, Timothy, Sherilyn, Adria, Dorling, Eugene (thanks for opening your place!), Sherry, Popo, Kelvin, Christine, Alvin, Wei Song, Wei Yeat, Karmen!

Handwritten notes for each other!

We ended the night sweetly by playing this write-each-other-a-note activity. Everyone's given a piece of paper and we're to write our name on it - that means that the piece of paper belongs to us. After that, we're to pass the paper to the next person & they'll write a note to you. You pass the paper round until everyone has written something for everyone! Sho shweet right? LOL. I still have this paper somewhere in my stash of cards hehe (ᵔᴥᵔ)

What a way to end the year! Really got to make many new friends through this drama production and I pray that we'll all continue to make a dramatic (pun totally intended) impact on the pre-believing friends & family members around us (ง'̀-'́)ง

Thank You Jesus for 2017! Thank You for pursuing and leading me to where I am today. Thank You Lord for this opportunity to serve on stage again.

My instagram shout-out aka open-jio LEL

Come to think of it, it was really unlikely that I got any role in this production because I was only a few months' old member in Hope church. In fact, during one of the rehearsals, when I was having a chat with a few cast members and we're talking about how we got to Hope church - they were shocked when they learned that I am only a frequent member for a few months.

One of them even said "Whoa, you just joined the church and you're already taking on such a visible role on stage? Got cleared by your leaders already not?" LOLOL. It's true. It's a legit concern that'd I'd have brought up too. But yeah, my leaders gave me a good word and approved my performance debut. Haha.

Yup, that's how I first served in a "ministry". I use inverted commas because I didn't officially join the drama ministry - I'm just a cast member. The ministry members are the ones who drafted the script, do the casting calls, schedule the rehearsals, whip us actors into shape and ensure everything happens according to plan.

Feature photo of Christmas 2017 on Hope Singapore's website...AND MY EYES ARE CLOSED (一_一)

In fact now, the drama ministry has been disbanded because the church's focus is now on video productions - not so much of live acting anymore.

Talking about video productions, never knew that I'd be involved as the lead actor for Christmas 2019. Will write more about that when I've got the time to do more reflection. Hehe. For now, lemme end this post with the video of the entire drama production below.

I only appear from 10:40 to 16:03. Only about 5mins of acting but we had about 10 weeks of rehearsals! This Chinese adage never ringed this true to me until now "台上十分钟，台下十年功"