{"id":27356,"date":"2007-12-20T09:48:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-20T09:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/?p=27356"},"modified":"2024-07-04T13:46:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T05:46:33","slug":"the-60-second-plug-klpacs-aladdin-the-pantomime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/articles\/2007\/12\/the-60-second-plug-klpacs-aladdin-the-pantomime\/","title":{"rendered":"The 60 Second Plug: KLPac’s “Aladdin – the Pantomime”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

She’s done ‘Sepi’ and ‘Fawzia’ and\neven parodied some Broadway ditties in between. Now Doreen Tang<\/strong> takes on Paris, the Princess that is, in KLPac’s\npsychedelic “Aladdin – the Pantomime”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

~<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us about yourself.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I grew up in Petaling Jaya, in a\nclose-knit family and studied at various institutions — Methodist Primary,\nAssunta Secondary, Stamford College and State University of New York in\nBuffalo. I still live in Petaling Jaya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What first sparked your love for the performing arts?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve always been mesmerized by musicals — I adore the energy and the excitement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have a day job?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kind of. I teach vocals on a private\nbasis, and do voice-overs or corporate gigs sometimes. The hours can be a\nlittle odd, sometimes on weekends or at night. So it’s not a 9-to-5 type job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’ve been involved in quite a few productions — “M! The\nOpera” and “Broadway Parodies Lah” just to name a few — what\nwas the experience of working on those like for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each has been different. I guess\nit’s all been good. We’ve got such a variety of shows available: musicals, plays,\npantomimes, hodge-podge; and many themes to choose from – thought-provoking,\nsad, hilarious, scary even! Not to mention playing a different character each\ntime — I’ve learnt a lot in each production, which is crucial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now you’re performing in “Aladdin the Pantomime” — how did you get the part?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Aladdin’s” director, Paul\nLoosley, approached me a couple of months ago and asked if I’d like to play\nPrincess Jasmine. Later when I got the script, I learned this Jasmine had taken\non the persona of a certain “Paris”!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us more about your role, Princess Paris.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ha ha! I’m afraid to actually. It’s\numm, like Paris. You know. Dum-dee-dum-dee-dum…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hear of suspicious undergarments and ill-mannered electrical\nappliances, amongst other things, in this production. This is not quite the\nDisney version, is it? Tell us more about the story and show.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’ve been well-informed. Instead\nof a straight, Disney-styled production, this is a hilarious version of the\nsame story. There is an Aladdin (played by a girl!), a wicked wizard Abanaza, a\nGenie, a Princess, a Magic Lamp, and all the bells and whistles you can\nimagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul did a fine job (despite not\nbeing Malaysian) of “localizing” concepts in ways that can be both\nsophisticated yet simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, if you’re looking for a\nconcert to bring your kids to, but worry they’ll make too much noise, bring\nthem to watch “Aladdin”. There’s no such thing as too much noise\nhere. The pantomime’s perfect for children, since there’s lots of audience\nparticipation needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also hear that the Beatles will be making their presence felt? Tell\nus more about the music in the show.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“OH-YES!” They will.\nMervyn Peters, who’s our Choral Master, has been rehearsing quite a few Beatles\nsongs with us. Admittedly they’re not all done 100% in their original style,\nbut close enough, perhaps. We’ve taken measures to try and maintain the feel\nand mood of the pieces. Most importantly, the cast and musicians alike seem to\nhave a blast with the tunes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’ve got a stellar cast working with you, with the likes of Indi Nadarajah and Joanna Bessey, just to name a couple. Tell us more about your co-stars. What was it like working with them? Did anyone try to bully you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cast is so strong, sometimes I\nfeel like the stage is on fire! No kidding. Without naming names, some are\nsuperb ad-libbers. This is such an advantage for a show like this, where we\nfeed off the audience’s response and energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be able to throw in lines that\ncorrespond directly to the situation at hand, that’s just magic in a pantomime.\nIt makes our show special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one has bullied me so far, except\nthat wicked wizard Abanaza who keeps carrying me off the stage… as part of\nthe story, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Care to share some of your co-stars quirks with us? Who’s the biggest\ntroublemaker?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I spilled the beans now, I\nprobably will get bullied the next time round…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s a typical rehearsal like?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dominique our Breathing Master would\nstart us on some breathing exercises for roughly 20 minutes. It’d become\nevident who just had dinner, from their burps!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pat Chan, who’s our Dance\nChoreographer, would then usually get us to do a rigorous physical warm-up,\nfollowed by some vocal exercises led by any willing member of the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then for the rest of the time we’d\nbe rehearsing proper, doing scenes or songs. During the last two months we\nrehearsed some 4-6 times a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is your first time working with Paul Loosley, yes? Is he a slave\ndriver? What has it been like, working with him?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul’s very dedicated to the show.\nHe’s also pretty detailed in sharing how he thinks certain scenes or ideas\nshould work, but he’s still open to different opinions. For example, he’ll\nallow us to experiment with various ways of working a particular scene, before\ndeciding on something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I also appreciate about him is\nthe way he watches and listens during our rehearsals, before giving his advice.\nAlthough I’m sure he has plenty of ideas about how to do things, he generally\ngives his performers the benefit of the doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any funny or bizarre stories from this production to share?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s always plenty of things to\nlaugh about during the course of a production! From embarrassing costume\nmalfunctions to taking your bow during a wrong cue, “Aladdin” has\nbeen, like other productions, a lot of fun for many of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

At the moment I can’t think of\nsomething profound, but I can tell you of a rather silly situation. The run of\n“Tunku” the musical (Aug – Sept 2007) coincided with the nation’s 50th<\/sup>\nanniversary of Independence. We were busy gearing up to be as big a part of\nthat as we could, by performing every night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constant reminders on TV, radio, and\nduring rehearsals went in one ear and out the other. Time flew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then one day in September I heard a\nradio jockey talk about how memorable the celebrations had been for this year’s\nMerdeka. And then suddenly it occurred to me that the day had passed. I had\nbeen in a musical to commemorate the nation’s 50th<\/sup> anniversary, but\nwas so busy doing that, that I forgot to celebrate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

In terms of productions, so far I\nhave “DanSing Through Broadway” in 2008, which is a charity musical\nby Farah Sulaiman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your wish for 2008?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well I’m not sure about my wish, but\nI think my resolution should probably be to stop having supper so late at\nnight!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

~<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Aladdin – the Pantomime” will be staged at KLPac’s Pentas 1 from Mon, 17 Dec 2007 until Sun, 6 Jan 2008 (Tue – Sat: 8.30pm; Sun: 3pm; New Year’s Day: 5pm; No show on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve & on Mondays. Tickets cost RM100 \/ RM80 \/ RM60 \/ RM40 (concessions)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Published: 20.12.2007 on Kakiseni <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She’s done ‘Sepi’ and ‘Fawzia’ and even parodied some Broadway ditties in between. Now Doreen Tang takes on Paris, the Princess that is, in KLPac’s psychedelic “Aladdin – the Pantomime”. ~ Tell us about yourself. I grew up in Petaling Jaya, in a close-knit family and studied at various institutions — Methodist Primary, Assunta Secondary, […]<\/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":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,3558,3535],"tags":[3091,2713,228,918,493,2136,1962,3750,3749,46],"language":[7523],"writer":[7614],"class_list":["post-27356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-interview","category-theatre","tag-doreen-tang","tag-indi-nadarajah","tag-interview","tag-joanna-bessey","tag-klpac","tag-mervyn-peters","tag-pantomime","tag-pat-chan","tag-paul-loosley","tag-theatre","language-english","writer-juliet-jacobs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27356","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=27356"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39086,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27356\/revisions\/39086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27356"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=27356"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writer?post=27356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}