Cinderella

Singing has always been a staple part of my life. From the young age of 8, I joined the primary choir of St. Peter’s College and then proceeded to sing in the College choir, and the Peterite Chorale. I also was part of the various choirs in church. That was the one thing that stayed constant. It also meant that I was exposed to choral music and very few types of other music such as  Barbershop quartets and the likes. OK, i’m getting carried away here. Let’s get moving.

I first met Natasha Senanayake (whom I now fondly call “Nats”), when she walked into the place I worked at previously (Redline Technologies) to meet Thishan who was one of my best friends and who was also my co-worker. Natasha had just released her EP “One Tuesday” and I remember listening to it on replay and I managed to get an autographed copy of it. Seeing her in person was akin to me coming face to face with a celebrity. The three of us got talking and maybe a few weeks later, she came to the store again in a panic with a issue in her laptop. Through a humorous mix up, she had somehow managed to minimize a window in Sibelius and couldn’t get her music to play. Me being the tech nerd I am, managed to fix it without too much hassle and we all had a good laugh about it.

It was here that the ball started rolling. Thishan told Natasha that I have a singing voice and that he “thinks that I can sing”. To this day Natasha thinks I got offended when she asked me if I can sing, whereas in reality I was shy about it. Moving on, a few months later, I got a call from Natasha asking me whether I would like to be a part of her next musical project. Ever curious about music, I immediately agreed. She then told me that I had to audition. A mild panic set in. I am an introvert by default and being antisocial is my nature. That being said, singing in front of a crowd also somewhat terrifies me. However, I made up my mind, and agreed to it. Auditions for “the production” had already started but I was unable to make it to any of them due to work constraints. However, we both agreed to a date that was flexible and I would have my audition there. If I was selected, I would have to stay for the practice immediately afterwards.

As usual, my mind went into overthink mode as I thought of what I would sing, what would happen if they didn’t like my voice and what if I just made a fool of myself. Having all these thoughts at the back of my mind, I said “screw it, imma do this anyway” and on the 22^nd of May 2017, I made my way over to Nat’s place.

After I walked into the house, I was introduced to Natasha’s sister Anushka and we chatted for awhile and then it was time for me to sing. I did my bit and patiently waited. A few anxious moments, and that was it. I WAS IN!.

As I waited for the first ever practice, I also realized that I had no clue what I was singing for, or what I would be a part of. Nonetheless, I took my seat and waited patiently for the others to arrive. Speaking of which, despite Natasha reciting the names of the others in the cast, I had absolutely no clue who they were apart from Harin Amirthanathan as we were good friends. The rest of the members all came and we were all introduced to each other and we sat according to our respective parts. Me being a Bass, I was with Harin and Aushadie. Once the music was given to us we ran over one or two songs and sorted out the various parts and put them together. So far, so good and we sounded pretty good as well. The second half of the practice was where Anushka came into play.

“We are all actors, dancers and singers”. Those were the first words she told us. She spoke with intense passion for acting and theatre and it made us feel that anything was possible.

Apart from this, Anushka or Anu as we fondly called her, taught us a lot about team building and theatre tips and tricks and most importantly, taught us how to keep our energy levels up and feed off each other’s positive energy to improve ourselves. As we only had around two months for the entire production, this essentially meant that we would be practicing from right after work to late night till the show was over. Despite the fact that this would mean me needing to find ways to balance my work life, I was up for it.

Anu’s next announcement was that the Saturday following the first practice would be a movement practice. My worst fears were confirmed: I would have to dance. Now to others, this may not seem like a problem. But I have abysmal dancing skills and equally horrendous movements skills to boot. Still, I was up for the challenge and Saturday dawned, bright, early, and somewhat loud as the next door neighbors were up to their construction work.

I made my way over to the practice. It was there that Anu introduced us to Umeshi Rajeendra, aka our Choreography director. She started off with a series of warm ups that in all honesty made me feel like I had run a marathon. In just 30 minutes, I was a sweaty mess. As I looked around, I realized that the others were too. While the warmups did make us feel energized after they were done, during the warmup, I was aching in places I never knew I had. After a small water break it was time to get down to brass tactics. Umeshi taught us a few steps that felt easy to learn at the time, but they she kept going, and going, and going. By the end of it, we had a total of 7 dance steps that we had to remember and master. I learnt them all and performed them with the grace of a baby sloth. I actually had half a mind to drop out of the dance-y bits and just be a part of the chorus but something kept telling me to go on, and so I did.

Days became weeks and we attempted to master both the musical and dancing portions of the production. The biggest scene for us to master was the Town scene for a song called “The Prince is giving a ball/Now is the time”. I would play the role of a merchant who had a cart he would push on stage and then run into Sachi, who was selling newspapers. After a brief altercation, we would go our separate ways and carry on with our work. The town scene required a LOT of energy and almost mechanical pinpoint movement which would look horrible if not done correctly. Once this was done, it was time to move on to the next big scene: The Cinderella Waltz. This is where Cinderella and Prince Topher aka Christopher Rupert would have their first dance at a ball held for the prince to find a suitable bride. When I was told that I would be in the Waltz, I almost fell over laughing at myself. There was no way in heaven or hell that I would have the physical capability or knowledge to remember all the steps for a waltz. Umeshi seemed to read our minds and took a compartmental approach where she made sure we were confident in one section before moving on to the next. The first few lessons were confusing and also awkward for me. Fortunately, my dancing partner Roshalie was pro at this and with her help, I managed to remember most of the steps.

Now is the time, the time to act. The infamous town scene that we were determined to perfect.

As time went on we moved into the month of July and things were slowly and steadily coming together. Practices usually involved the sections where we had both movement and song so as to perfect them. This ranged from a march, to the town scene, to the ballroom waltz, to a pursuit in the forest, complete with lanterns and also a call to arms announcing a banquet. The rehearsal space we were at almost our third home (the second being the Senanayake residence). We would practice in one area and then quickly head over to the other side as they had just switched off the AC and the cool air was still present in the room. We also worked out a system to bring food such as fruits and biscuits along with water so that we could energize ourselves during rehearsals.

Practice alone, a production does not make. One must also take notes on how to perfect one’s actions

To say that things were smooth sailing would be a lie. From Danny slipping and chipping his tooth, to me spraining my ankle, to us forgetting dance moves, we had our share of mistakes, mishaps and accidents. We also had our share of happy memorable events. Perhaps one of the most memorable ones is when a dancer, Jemiah by name, had an accident that sprained her leg. The sheer amount of pain she was in was unbearable to watch. Fortunately, there was a doctor close by and we did all we could to soothe her pain. At that point, we all felt united. A single body with one heart and we all did what we knew best: we sang. We sang and sang and sang. We harmonized, we improvised and we bloody well-made Jemiah feel loved beyond anything. I actually recall stopping for a moment and just watching the TJ chorus (Theatre Junction Chorus) united as one singing and bringing happiness to this girl who was in pain. It truly was a magical moment. We were still singing when the doctor walked in and he even commented saying that we sound amazing.

Birthdays were another reason for us to sing. The moment the birthday boy or girl walked into rehearsals, we would spontaneously burst into a 4-part harmony of “Happy Birthday” which usually made the recipient cry tears of joy or just stare open mouthed. We would also do an impromptu Whatsapp voice recording of whatever song popped into our head and then proceed to harmonize to our heart’s content and then send in on the Whatsapp group. As you can see, we clearly were a musical bunch, mostly jobless and with way too much time on our hands, but musical nonetheless.

Like I said, we were jobless. Musical, yes, but jobless too.

We even managed to organize a Paan party at Cult Studios during one practice. If you don’t know what a Paan party is, it’s basically a bring your own food kinda thing. The key ingredient of course, was Paan or bread. Just picture a group of 20-something year olds, sitting in more or less a circle, eating to their hearts content and just having an absolute ball of a time. The food ranged from parippu, to chicken to pol sambol and even a concoction of brandy infused iced coffee (courtesy of yours truly).

The last two weeks of July were the most exciting, and also the most exhaustive. We were also introduced to the orchestra and our first rehearsal with them was nothing short of mesmerizing. Because we were so used to practicing to Nats playing the piano during rehearsals, hearing the real thing in real life was mind-blowing. It also made us realize that “Holy shit, this is actually happening”. Day by day as we practiced, Anu, Nats and Umeshi would take notes, tighten up any loose ends and drill it into our heads so that everything would be perfect.

Tec week was probably the most magical (apart from the actual show dates themselves) as we could see the actual props and sets that we would be using for the play. From brilliantly crafted trees, to Vishan’s beautiful costumes, everything was falling into place. Before we knew it, we were at opening night. I was excited, scared, nervous and happy at the same time. After our makeup and costumes were done, we gathered in the main rehearsal room and spent a few minutes recollecting and thanking the Lord for the opportunity that he had given to us.

Towards 7.30PM, the hype was building and we were ready to show our talents to the audience. Adding to this was the fact that Opening Night had been completely sold out. You could cut the tension in the room with a knife. Nonetheless, we kept our cool and performed to the fullest that we could. The result? A standing ovation on opening night. This was it. All our hard work was paying off. In fact, out of the 6 shows that we performed, 5 were completely sold out (the remainder being the matinee performance).

Being on stage made me realize indeed how truly blessed we are and that with a lot of hard work, perseverance, and a little bit of magic, anything is possible. Looking back over the past two months, and given the chance to go through it all over again, I would do so in a heartbeat. It’s amazing how close you become to people who share similar interests and who have so much in common. They say that friends are the family you choose for yourself, well, the people I met because of this production have a special place in my heart and they are my family. In fact, one of them is literally my family because I found out that she’s my cousin.

I am eternally grateful to Nats, Anu and Umeshi for bringing us to where we are and for all their support and advice. As Kumudini David or Kumu sings in her song, “There is music in you”. So I say thank you for the music and if music be the food of life, then by all means, do play on.