Seen.By.Ice.Queen: coming to my senses

As mentioned previously, I was looking forward to taking my 4-year-old to SRT's The Little Company play - The Boy Who Cried Wolf.


Some things I expected, some I didn't.

First, let's talk about what I DID expect. My scaredy-cat boy, who is taller and bigger than most kids his age, started to freak out the moment we went to pick up our tickets from the box office. It appears his little mind is already retaining more than I give him credit for. He apparently remembers The Tooth Fairy incident and is shuddering at another 'real-life' experience with the performers.

Anyhow, when I tugged and pulled him into the theatre at DBS Arts Centre, he started doing his Ninja thing where he ducked and ran semi-squat through the rows of seats so that he's camouflaged amongst the chairs, until we finally reached our allocated seats.

When we reached our seats, he proceeded to sit me down urgently in my seat before clambering onto my lap and grabbing my arms to encapsulate him within me. I could hardly breathe as he made sure my arms were tightly wrapped around him. He also quickly removed his beloved Ben 10 watch and made me keep it in my handbag's (which was taking the seat he refused to be on) secret zipped compartment so the "Big Bad Wolf would not take it, Mummy!"


We waited in trepidation for the play to begin and my trembling todd surveyed the set and evaluated if he ought to make a dash for the exit.

Enters the Big Bad Wolf played by Filomar C. Tariao who is no where as scarily styled as the witch from The Tooth Fairy. Truth be told, he looked a little comical with his fluffy long tail and stylish boots. But his sheer presence and our proximity to the stage was enough to hold my son ransom to the intangible fear.

Despite the gripping fear, he responded to the Wolf's requests to sing "Who's afraid of the big bad wolf" and to practice screaming at the sight of the wolf. This is with credits to Filomar who engaged the kids in the audience with his song and dance sequence. Filomar who is obviously a trained dancer did jazzy numbers and ballet steps that had both kids and adults entertained and entranced. It also helps that he has good comic timing and wit and was able to poke fun at the adults while ensuring that the kids understood his jokes.

One good example was when Wolf was looking to eat a sheep in the audience and when a kid pointed at his dad, volunteering him as an offering, Wolf proclaimed that the sheep was a little too old, causing the kids to break out in guffaws (OK, so did the adults but we were trying to be more discreet about laughing at the poor guy).

Back to the point of the play. Petey, played by Tim Garner, and his Father, played by Darius Tan sets the storyline of Petey being asked to watch the sheeps while his daddy (a wood-cutter) goes away to work on a project in the castle to earn more money for the family (and with hopes of climbing the "corporate ladder" to become the Royal Wood-Cutter).

As we all know, Petey proceeds to cry wolf (although they did improvise to make it Cry Giant the first time and Cry Dragon the second) which resulted in his dad not believing him the third time when he cried Wolf for real.

I was also expecting appropriate points to make reference of these lying examples to my todd about not telling lies. What I was NOT expecting was a hidden lesson in there for parents too.

Watching the play, I discovered that the moral of the story was not just about telling the kids that lying is a bad thing. It also hinted to parents that there are some underlying triggers that may make kids lie.

Petey lied to his dad to get his attention because dad was "always busy working" and "never kept his promise" to spend time with Petey.

So to parents of kids who cry wolf, before you tell them 'shoo' the next time because "Mummy is busy", remember how many times you have broken that promise (that counts as lying too, no?) and told your kid, "I promise I will take you to a picnic next week. Promise!"

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I am a first time parent. And I believe as is the case with most first time parents, much of what I put into my parenting manual is either from advice given by well-intending people or by gut feel. Being the stubborn and opinionated person that I am, it is often the latter.

One of my major challenges recently has been getting my four-year old to NOT LIE. I started by trying to reason. And when that failed to work, I resorted to... lying.. I've thus far told him that if he lied, his teeth would all come off.. I don't think he cares much about his teeth though.. since this tactic doesn't seem to be working. o_O'"

Yes, yes.. I know I'm not setting a good example. But honestly, when you are a FT working mum like me, getting things done efficiently is of optimum importance. That, is not to say that what I am doing is right. But honestly, I am at my wits end.

This is why I am utterly grateful to SRT's timely (well, at least in my opinion and to me, that means EVERYTHING) release of a play about THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF. Most of us would know the moral of the story. So to this play, I am going for sure. I'll probably try to buy a storybook on PINOCCHIO as well in the meantime..



DATES: 30th July to 12th September 2009 – please see SISTIC for performance schedule
PRICES: Mon-Fri $18 – Weekends $20 excluding SISTIC fee (Group discounts/Family Packages available)
VENUE: DBS Arts Centre – Home of SRT
TICKETING: SISTIC at 6348 5555 or www.sistic.com.sg/www.srt.com.sg

Woohoo, another play by The Little Company I'm looking forward to taking my son to. This will be sometime in March so while waiting, here's a teaser:

Bear and Chicken Go Camping

A new play about the sun, moon and shooting stars

Written by Katerina Tiapula
Directed by Michael Corbidge

SRT’s The Little Company will stage a new production called Bear and Chicken Go Camping in March 2009. Written by Katerina Tiapula, the play is the second part of a highly successful original series that began with When I Grow Up.

Synopsis
Best friends Chicken and Bear go on a camping adventure in the Great Outdoors. Throughout the night, they make lots of amazing discoveries about the world such as shooting stars, what happens to the Sun at night and how come crickets can make such loud noises.

Written for children from 2 to 6 years old, Bear and Chicken Go Camping is a delightful and educational tale that stresses the importance of friendship even under difficult circumstances. It features a professional cast of actors who will perform catchy songs and dance routines against a colourful set.

“We have wonderful position in the market as the leading producer of children’s theatre in Singapore. We are proud of this investment in future audiences for the entire industry and are also very focused on creating new original Singaporean works for children with touring potential like the Bear and Chicken series”, says Artistic Director Gaurav Kripalani.

DATES: 5 March to 11 April 2009 – please see SISTIC for performance schedule
PRICES: Mon-Fri $22 – Weekends $28 excluding SISTIC fee (Group discounts/Family Packages available)
VENUE: DBS Arts Centre – Home of SRT
TICKETING: SISTIC at 6348 5555 or www.sistic.com.sg
WEBSITE: www.srt.com.sg

Took my son to watch the play by SRT's junior arm - The Little Company. True to it's target audience, at least half the turnout were kids.

The play had a boring conversational beginning with the kids, Ruth and Raoul played by Stephen Whiley & Julie Wee bantering like typical kid siblings would.

The funny and at times witty lines were lost on the younger kids in the audience.

Enters Dr. MacCavity played by Judee Tan, came the gripping lighting and sound effects. The setting together with the very realistically uglifying make up of Dr. MacCavity had my son totally sucked in and within moments he panicked, trembled in fear and wanted to get out of the theatre!

No amount of hugging and soothing could convince him to stay in the act and soon i had to take him out so as not to disrupt the enjoyment of the other audience.

As we were leaving the theatre, he spat out the candy i had given him just moments ago to pacify him because Dr. MacCavity said she would take the rotten teeth of kids who ate candy. My son was COMPLETELY freaked out!

One usher was very kind and came up to me when i was at the foyer soothing my son. She told me I could go back in whenever he was ready to and take a seat further in the back so he would not be at such close proximity to the 'evil' MacCavity.

We finally went back in when MacCavity left the stage and enjoyed the following scenes where Ruth, Raoul and the tooth fairy got acquainted and ensued to leave for Fairyland.

The graceful while animated Fairy, played by Tiffany Wrightson, who obviously is a trained ballerina enchanted the kids. Erstwhile, Ruth and Raoul engaged the audience with interactive sessions where we had to help them with certain tasks by either clapping, shouting or following instructions.

The sequence of hip hop, rap style performance also got many tiny hands and feet clapping and stamping.

Despite having to leave the theatre on several occasions that Dr. MacCavity made her appearace, my son enjoyed the play and even agreed later on that MacCavity was no longer scary (she smiled at the ending cast intro).

As a mom of an overly engaged and sensitive toddler, I also appreciated the initiative of the ushers who were helpful in trying to pacify my frightened son and even pre-empted me about MacCavity's appearance at the audience floor so that I was able to avoid further traumatizing my frightened child.

The best part of this play? My boy is now highly cooperative about keeping his teeth clean so that Dr. MacCavity would not be able to visit him for his rotten tooth :)

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