Being an Actress for 20 minutes...

23rd of October 2008

English Appreciation is one of my favourite subjects in this course. Crawling amongst various arts of English world, here I am. Literature requires me – as well as other students – to dive deeply into the sea of beautiful words, poems, short stories and drama. The most interesting part and parcel of learning English Appreciation was performing a drama which is adapted from a short story, SAVED. The story is all about love, loyalty and jealousy, blended in a hideous conflict amongst three people in order to keep their own good names. Luckily, they are saved by God at the end.
First and foremost, my group (Hafiz,Atira,Toon&Hafizah) and I read the text and discussed the plot of the story together, meeting in Tun Abdul Razak Library – always as cold as winter morning. After reading thoroughly, we completely understood. We divided the casts involved and chose a suitable character each. Even though I was not a big shot in the group, I could be considered as an eager beaver in producing the script. I had been given a role of a Guru, Paramananda Swami. Although a leopard never changes its spot, I knew I could play this role and had to change my real character into a holy person.
The script had gone through a few stages in becoming a perfect drama. We handed in the script to Mr. Alfred three times so that he could correct it. As soon as he returned our first script back to us, we – at the moment – typed it again based on the corrections given. I was one of the key persons who met the lecturer, time and again, to submit our new script. I knew that procrastination is the thief of time, so I needed to do the correction with the other four group members very fast; then, submitted the script again. Finally, the script was exultantly done after the short and sweet stages.
We were often out of idea in improving our performance. However, where there’s a will, there’s a way. As a result, we went through a few practices in class with Mr. Alfred. We managed to improve our speaking-style, blended with emotions and feelings, as well as the way we enunciate words. It was 23rd of October 2008; I was in pins and needles to perform the drama this evening. We met in the morning to do the last practice as we did not want to cry over spilt milk. We wanted to make sure whether we had memorized the script completely.
It was a bright sunny day, exactly at 3 o’clock; we went to Menara UiTM Malaysia for a recording. We were the forth group to perform. In the meanwhile, we changed our costume in order to feel the beauty of acting. I was in white, as spotless as snow. My hope was as high as the stars to perform well as we would be recorded in a recording room. Luckily, our drama ran smoothly without a single disturbance. We could see three enormous video-cameras here and there, pointing at us. It was an interesting moment that I have ever experienced.
Although I had gone through a lot of dramatising during TESL Foundation at UiTM Melaka, this was truly the most memorable experience for me. Being a recording actor for twenty minutes was the most unbelievable sparkling moment I have ever had. Therefore, the picture of being in the recording room will always be in my heart and will always remain so.

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