{"id":27242,"date":"2006-12-12T14:20:35","date_gmt":"2006-12-12T14:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/?p=27242"},"modified":"2024-07-04T13:52:09","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T05:52:09","slug":"the-60-second-plug-integrated-expressions-little-mission-impossible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/articles\/2006\/12\/the-60-second-plug-integrated-expressions-little-mission-impossible\/","title":{"rendered":"The 60 Second Plug: Integrated Expressions’ “Little Mission Impossible”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Little Mission Impossible<\/em><\/strong>: should\nwe Expect the Impossible? Tell us more about the musical.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Little\nMission Impossible<\/em> makes the\nimpossible possible on stage. It’s a children’s musical adventure that sees the\njourney of Ai Ya-Ya, a little pixie, in a quest to maintain the colours of the\nworld. She runs into numerous obstacles and characters — some with the intent\nto distract her. Will she finish her mission?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world\nis losing its colour and fading into black and white. Any insights as to why\nplaywright Dennis Lai came up with this premise for the musical?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ha ha! I’ve never asked him — though I’ve always\nsuspected it is an analogy to his own loss of innocence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us a\nbit about the production’s music, set, and costumes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of late nights went into making it all happen. A\nlot of healthy arguments, too! Do watch out for the details, it has everyone’s\ncombined touches. Music: catchy, and it comes with very dance-able steps. Set:\nmagic, with many changes (small teaser: imagine a world where every living\nthing walks about with a picture frame around its face). Costumes: hand-sewn\nand meticulously put together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Integrated\nExpressions is collaborating with Little Eyes Play House on this production.\nWhat has working together been like? Will we hear of future collaborations, or\nis this the end?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The custody proceedings over Ai Ya-Ya would be too\npainful if this is to be the end — so no, you’ll never stop hearing from us.\nThe collaboration between IE and LEPH is not unlike that of a married couple,\nbut our synergy is extremely productive — and, since the concerted mission is\nto build a future for children’s theatre, there is a lot of love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us a\nbit about the cast.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone is quirky, everyone can sing, and everyone is\nhyperactive. Everyone also harbours a secret wish to wear Ai Ya-Ya’s dress. For\nme, the interesting bit about our cast and production team is that almost everyone\nhas very interesting day jobs, ranging from ballet teachers to architects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was a\ntypical day on set like?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Body warm-up. Voice warm-up. Don the costumes. Voila\n— the characters come alive!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every rehearsal takes approximately five hours, and\nrehearsals have been intensive for the last three months. It has been an\nextremely long process, so we want to make sure we give our best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ve\nheard complaints that there just aren’t enough arts-related events for kids in\nMalaysia. What’s your take?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s stop Barney from taking over the world!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re trying to solve this problem with more\nchildren-related productions. Children need more out-of-the-class experiences\n— so, from us, musical adventure productions are just the beginning. We’ll be\nattempting different genres in the future, to jolt little kids’ minds into the\nunlimited world of creativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are a\nformer radio DJ, columnist, host, emcee, actress, writer, director, mother, and\nwife. Did we miss anything? How do you deal with the chaos?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m a slave to my passions. Selective hearing can\noverride chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who are\nsome of your influences? Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sylvia Chang, the Hong Kong film director, for her\nstorytelling and her sense of pacing. Carmen Soo, for her ability to appear in\nmy head every time I pen a script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are\nyou up to next?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More children’s theatre productions, a few TV dramas,\nand one movie — all in the span of 2007, hopefully. Fortunately, I am not the\nimpatient type, and I do like to stop and smell the roses, so I will not beat\nmyself silly if my plans go awry. In the end, all that matters are the smiles\nof satisfied little customers after a show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s\nirony to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irony is the fact that I love my daughter so much —\nbut I’m also jealous of the love she’s getting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is\none of the weirdest rumours you’ve heard about yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That I am pregnant — again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us a\nreally bad joke you heard on set.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knock, knock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who’s\nthere?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annie who?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annie thing you can do, Ngai Yuen can do it better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When this\nold world starts a-gettin’ you down, where’s your favourite place to hide?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In familiar surroundings. My 12-year-old Honda Civic is a place where I can cry my eyes out. I need to let out my frustrations and negative energy, and I need to do it alone. Otherwise, malapetaka! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Published: 12.12.2006 on Kakiseni <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Little Mission Impossible: should we Expect the Impossible? Tell us more about the musical. Little Mission Impossible makes the impossible possible on stage. It’s a children’s musical adventure that sees the journey of Ai Ya-Ya, a little pixie, in a quest to maintain the colours of the world. She runs into numerous obstacles and characters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":10,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,3558,3568,3535],"tags":[591,3634,3632,228,3633,233,46],"language":[7523],"writer":[7614],"class_list":["post-27242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-interview","category-musical","category-theatre","tag-children","tag-dennis-lai","tag-integrated-expressions","tag-interview","tag-little-eyes-play-house","tag-musical","tag-theatre","language-english","writer-juliet-jacobs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39073,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27242\/revisions\/39073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27242"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=27242"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writer?post=27242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}