Dreams versus Reality

Finally can get rid of the mold and step out of home to do something useful today. I went to support Aik Leong's friend's musical play at City Hall. Hmm, initially I thought it was another play which needed great imagination to interpret what's being shown on the stage. But I was proven wrong. The play was mostly presented in a humorous and rather down-to-earth manner, with easy-to-understand language & also in a mix of styles, i.e. contemporary blended with classical. Interestingly, there's a strong component of local culture (Singlish) embedded in the play. Here's a brief description of the musical.

Paper Dreams is the latest work from NTU Hall 5 Quintsical Productions 06/07. Basically the musical involved 2 groups of people, all staying under one roof. One group passionately trying to pursue their dreams and interests, while ignoring the harsh reality of this materialistic world & another group working hard, day after day, to make ends meet to support the other group. The 1st group involved a loving couple & parents (Kok Fu & Mei Gui) & unrelated elder brother and sister (Johnny and Yan Li), whereas the 2nd group involved the son of Kok Fu and Mei Gui (viz. Ying Jun), the younger sister of Yan Li (viz. Mei Li), the childhood friends of Johnny (Lily & Ricky), who love acting, singing, dancing & painting, respectively.

The musical has a theme which revolves around "faith", which is often hoped for in times of need, but also often not seen to appear. We tend to think that future seems to be uncertain & we would be temporarily lost in direction amidst the maze of obstacles. However, this is precisely the thing that is needed most to keep us going forward. Similarly, faith is also what keeps these people to be willing to brave the ups & downs of life together.

I think this play is very a meaningful one, as it conveys an important message to us, the audience, that we should, whenever possible, pursue our passions & dreams. However, in the process of this pursuit, we must not neglect the feelings of people around us and the reality of life, which is to get a proper job and able to support ourselves, without becoming others' emotional & financial burden. As an elder brother or sister, we have the responsibility to take good care of our younger siblings and that sometimes translates to the need to relinquish our own dreams in order to allow our younger siblings to pursue theirs. To sum it up, dreams must be balanced with reality & sometimes sacrifices are necessary to a certain extent in order to achieve them.

Personally, I went through quite a bit of struggle between dreams & reality. Choosing what course to study & eventually what career to pursue was not a easy decision, considering so many constraints to satisfy, e.g. personal interests & passions, family & societal expectations, practicality of chosen field, further studies opportunities of younger siblings, financial considerations, etc. Hmm, I considered myself really lucky to have been able to come here to study Chemical Engineering, which is what I'm interested in & also practical enough as my future career.

Ok, the heavy messages & sad things aside, the humorous aspects of the play were worth mentioning. The loving couple were really the spotlight in the play! Their acting skills, the way they address & talk to each other... Mei Gui called her husband Xiao Fuuuu or Lao Goooong... They even sang "Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin"... Aiyoh, sooo mushy! Really cannot stand it, haha... They sang well too... The rest were farnie & entertaining too... Oh my goodness, sooooo talented! Then, there also also a quite-lame & somewhat a bit out-of-place scene, whereby after things took a sudden turn & became better, they had steamboat together & sang a song, also themed around "steamboat". That's farnie...

Haha, basically had a happie evening & that's really spiced up my day :)