PHASE #1. oooh's and aaah's

What if it doesn't work out??

screamed the voice in my head as I stepped across the imaginary boundary between NTU and NIE for the first time. Oh, and seriously, where is that rehearsal space??, too. 

It should probably explain my reaction when I mention that I am in no way seasoned when it comes to theater. Sure, I've had some experience, being the assistant director to the lovely Hall Productions committee of the university's Hall #2. I've worked with the backstage crew, messing around with the audio system and the script and stage makeup ( which looks truly ghastly in normal lighting, I must say ). I've worked front stage with a talented cast ensemble, while picking up a few things about stage directions and theatrical expression myself. But nothing could have prepared my stage-fright-laden heart for what I should expect in this module. 

Yet when I finally found my way to the central corridor, chiding myself for being late, my fears were drowned out by inevitable excitement. I liked what I saw. Our tutor was jolly and looked really fun! There were no stiff lecture chairs and wordy slides! We were going to begin by sitting around in a circle!

Kids, gather around now!

As my classmates streamed in and I was acquainted with their diverse backgrounds, our tutor - affectionately known as Andrew - handed out the lesson plans, I thought, oh, here it comes, the theory talk. He's going to throw us a script and assign us characters. Stage fright seeped in.

But guess what - it never happened! 

Instead of a thick stack of papers full of words, Andrew preferred to go back to basics. He took us to examine space and to interact with it. No rigid memorization of scripts, only Andrew leading us in turning the little rehearsal space magical.

The best part about class that day was the exercises. As a member of the audience, I liked to imagine that every movement and reaction on stage was fictional. Until that day. Andrew taught us a few nifty activities. Simple, but nifty indeed. I remember sending a ball of energy forward and backwards around in a circle with a clap of my hands and the aaah feeling in the air as it was passed on without stopping. More memorable still was the walking activity. Yes, walking. As we took ownership of the space at different walking paces we had to stop randomly and hope for telepathy with the class before restarting, again hopefully in unison. When that did happen, we were overcome with an oooh feeling.

We called it frisson. 

And that was when I learnt that the best on-stage reactions came not from well-scripted lines or even flawless acting, but these genuine ooh's and aah's that transpire between actors.