Vox Pop UB

Seeing how it is the holidays now, I would like to get down to how I have been occupying my time in school this Spring semester, and possibly reflect on the time spent with the activities and people I love.

Spring pretty much swooped by, so much to a point I didn’t even have time to catch my breath and take in what was happening. 

I still find it hard to believe that I am currently beginning what is potentially one of the longest holidays I have, ever since I graduated from junior college.

My time in UB has been pretty hectic, and amazing. Being part of nearly four orientation camps as a facilitator really expanded my networks, so did writing for two school publications. I am currently preparing for my final camp this quickly approaching Summer.

But… out of all the things I have done in SIM-UB, starting up Vox Pop UB is easily one of the best decisions I have ever made to get active in school, aside from academic pursuits which ties my GPA to my progress.

All of this would not have been possible without the support from my friends and community.

Vox Pop UB is a student-run initiative started by a group of friends and I who love theatre and wish to make the arts and theatre scene in our SIM-UB community livelier.

We managed to organize two guerrilla productions with the help of many UB students and members of the faculty. We created this community to provide more platforms for networking and expressing oneself through the performing arts.

The people I had with me from the start of this journey to the end were Char and Iskandar whom I met in the UB-Student Council (UBSC), as well as Lilin, one of my closest friends in UB.

Remember how I mentioned in my previous post about that itch when you haven’t done a theatre production in a long time? 

Char and I felt that way and that was how the inspiration for Vox Pop came about. We were discussing it while helping out for the SIM Open House in 2013 when we realized we both had theatre background!

Char and I took hold of the creative direction and drama training aspect of Vox Pop. While I looked at things from a bird's eye view to ensure flow, Char refined our play down to the minute details to make our play perfect.

Lilin was our Treasurer and Secretary built into one, she took care of attendance, and took over welfare without knowing it because she is really motherly by nature.

Iskandar, an active UBSC Director of Welfare, was the most informed about the administrative procedures in SIM and the UBSC, so he became our main liaison between us and the Student Council.

Thet joined us later in the second production as a committee member. He was responsible for a lot of the humor present in our second play and characters. He had been helping out as a part of the Script committee for both productions.

I have them to thank for starting up Vox Pop with me. If not for them, I would have had a difficult time trying to coordinate the events and allowing the community to grow. Having so many great teams to work with also made coordinating less daunting than it already was.

Our first production was called "Class", it was written by our talented Char and involved five extremely different personalities (picture below) who are stuck together in a classroom during what seems to be an apocalyptic setting. The themes we had revolved around the struggle of power, normality and questioning what true leadership really means.

In short it was a 15 minute play with five scenes, executed with little props and our cast was our crew!

"Class", our pilot production!

We came up with this play in two to three months, meeting up to three times a week to rehearse and rehearse. Vox Pop was still small during this time so there were only about ten of us trying to make this production happen, so we were trying to figure out how to make this happen in view of the many bumps and obstacles that we faced.

We had Beryl and Thet helping out backstage, Eamon aiding me on lights and sounds. Suan also shot our beautiful cast photographs from the profile to the group shots. 

Turnout was unexpectedly great seeing how we relied mainly on word of mouth even though we did utilize most forms of social media. Everyone grew really close and tight too, because of this I found myself two housemates (Desiree and Daphne!) to share my apartment with when I complete my degree in the States this coming Fall semester, which happens in August.

When it came to our second production, we were definitely more prepared because we knew what to expect. We had a lot more members this time because the word spread in school from the first production.

It was a 30 minute play with seven scenes!

Spring Fling 2014 Cast Promotional Poster

The story was about a boy and girl who go on a blind date, and the events which follow it. It questions societal views on marriage and dating from the perspectives of people from different generations and backgrounds. This script was jointly written by Char, Thet, Lilin and I.

We decided to call it "Spring Fling" and definitely planned our time much better. We also had a solid Crew and Publicity Team, whom I am all very thankful for.

Because we had the fortune of having more members, we had the luxury of a more substantial publicity campaign. We had online posters and daily teasers on our event page counting down to show day. Courtesy of Timothy our designer, Alvin our photographer and Denise our Publicity Head!

LIKE THIS!

Thanks Timothy for all the great work!

Our props, set design and costumes were really well planned too by Beryl (the head!), Daphne, Adeline and Denise who joined both departments. Tessa came in to help out for sounds while I operated the lights.

Eventually everyone from the various departments helped one another out and we merged into one ensemble and community, which was definitely what we had hoped.

Spring Fling also had the fortune of getting the permission of various lecturers who allowed us to use their classrooms after their class so we could conduct our full dress and technical rehearsal. Although we could not secure an official venue, we are nevertheless grateful to the Student Council for supporting our event.

Overall, the turnout for this was overwhelming as well. We managed to fill up all the seats on the first day and about 80 percent on the second day, probably because there was a UB music event happening downstairs, organized by the MUS264 classes.

Managing Vox Pop really pushed me out of my comfort zone; I learnt many things about myself and how to manage my time as well as how to work with so many talented people to create something so beautiful.

To the people in the Vox Pop UB Community... 

I love you guys and I am so proud of all that we have achieved. 

Thank you all for making my UB experience the best it can ever be and giving so many memories and friends I can keep for a lifetime.