EUGENE GOH

Leading the production were directors Zachariah Wee and Renee Ong.

After searching online for suitable plays, the ExCo decided on A State of Mind, four short plays focusing on mental health issues, including less-talked-about ones.

"We wanted to do plays with messages we believed in," Renee said.

However, there were many issues along the way. They had to find a suitable location for rehearsals during the summer break as most people had moved out of hall. Both directors also contracted COVID-19 in the same week, leaving Srinidhi "Sri" Ragavendran, their cast manager, to lead rehearsals.

But, as Renee saw it, the team pulled through.

After months of preparation and rehearsals, it was finally show day. With the only full-dress rehearsal of the day completed, the cast formed a circle on stage and had their final vocal warm-up led by cast member Isabella Goh. They did their usual routine, including breathing exercises, to prepare themselves for their performance afterwards.

Midway through their warm-up, Sri suggested conducting a short reflection for everyone. The cast moved closer to one another, held each other’s hands and closed their eyes before Sri led them in the reflection.

Everyone began to immerse themselves in their thoughts. The atmosphere became much more serene as compared to the fun and laughter minutes ago as they reflected. For cast member Wayne Lim, this was an emotional moment as he reflected on the journey the cast had taken to reach show day.

As the crew chatted while eating, light manager Alvira Fong (centre) exclaimed that she felt the urge to vomit, possibly due to nervousness. This was her first time handling theatrical lights. She felt that she lacked practice, especially since more adjustments were made to the lighting in the morning. Alvira was worried that she might miss her cues during the performance.

"I remember at some point I regretted joining lights. I was overwhelmed by the feeling of uncertainty," Alvira said, adding that it was difficult to visualise the plan without being on-site.

Yet, things were not smooth sailing even when she got to work with the lights at the theatre a day prior. During the setup, Alvira had to ensure that the spots where the actors and props were would be lit up during the play.

As she was unfamiliar with the system, the setup was slow. She had to constantly refer to her plan to figure out which light was being adjusted, and this took up some time.

"It was quite stressful for me to get it right the first time," Alvira said.

On the flip side, things went relatively smooth for the sound team. The audio had been prepared beforehand. All that was left was to connect sound manager Kelly Ng's computer to the system.

However, the team only had a few rehearsals to practice. Like the lighting team, they only got to work with the system a day prior since it was not available in school as well.

"The most difficult part was not having enough time to rehearse everything, like with lights and sound. So, the cues were very confusing," Kelly said.

Fortunately, they managed to pull through, as Kelly recalled after the performance.

Back in the dressing room, the cast of Sadness is the New Normal were resting before their performance.

The room was dimly lit with lights at the dressing table. Relaxing music was played but aside from that, everything else was silent.

Seated in front of the mirror,cast member Jerold Lim was in deep focus. Recalling after the performance, he said that he was calming himself down and entering Boon's world.

"It’s this weird thing where actors need to believe that their character and the world they are in are real but also be aware of the practical aspects of the play like pacing, audience expectations and more," Jerold said.

Backstage, the props team, led by Philycia Tan, was making their final preparations as well. The lights had been switched off and the noise was kept to a minimum.The crew could be heard by the audience in the concierge through the sound system if they were too loud.

Hence, armed with flashlights from their mobile phones, the props team quietly scooped out food from their dinner boxes to be used in Sadness is the New Normal.

Meanwhile, the style team, led by style managers Vivien Soo and Ezekiel "Zack" Sen, made final adjustments to their clothes-changing area before taking a group photo.

"It felt surreal, that it was about to be over since we slaved for the last few months for it," Vivien said. 

As style managers, the pair had to "slave" to make the characters look believable with their outfits and makeup. With the artistic direction set, they began asking the cast if they had the outfits they were looking for but the pair received more than a few "no". 

As such, they went to thrift stores to buy whatever they could, but that proved challenging as well. 

"We underestimated the lack of things in thrift stores because we thought everything would be available," Zack said. Fortunately, they were eventually able to find everything, with some sourced through borrowing.

For Vivien (far left), makeup was harder to manage. They had to ensure that their makeup did not look out of place. For example, they wanted to exaggerate Isabella's makeup as Ah Moi, who suffers from delusional disorder and believes that she is Whitney Houston, initially.

"But then it wouldn't fit with the rest of the plays. So, we toned it down to just a very bright eye-look," Zack (far right) said.

Rehearsals were a challenge as well.

"The full-runs where we had to do makeup was when everything descended to chaos," Vivien said, adding that doing just partial makeup and styling was already very taxing. It became clear to them that they needed to properly assign roles for their team.

Once the final preparations were completed, the ExCo gave the green light for the doors to be opened at 5.45 pm. The audience started to stream into the theatre from the concierge, as many chatted in anticipation of the performance. And at 6.45 pm, as most audience members were already in the theatre, the show began. 

For the cast, this was the culmination of their months-long preparation and rehearsals

For Jerold, it all came down to gestures as Boon shares his suicide plans and traumatic childhood with the audience. This allowed Jerold to inject a bit of himself into Boon

As he spoke, Jerold would gesture passionately, as he would usually. While unintentional sometimes, Jerold believed this, and how invested Boon is in his plan, made him a charming character.

There were gestures created just for Boon as well, as Jerold sought to make Boon more than just a character on paper. This included Boon's breathing to calm himself down. 

"It's not how I breathe to calm myself down but what I chose to give him because it seemed like a good fit," Jerold said.

Tammie Tang wanted to show that Leah, whoself-harms, was in a lot of pain. Tammie saw that there were many unresolved issues in Leah's life - her father's abandonment, her mother being domineering and insensitive, and her struggles in school.

However, it was difficult for Tammie to get into character.

"There's so much emotion involved, and normally, I'm not feeling these in my own life," Tammie said.As such, she created a playlist of songs to listen to before rehearsals if time permitted. It contained songs she believed Leah would relate to as a teenager with a broken childhood.

"That's how I get into character because then I'm only focused on feeling like shit," Tammie added.

Playing a character who had suffered a loss proved to be difficult for Isabella. She plays Ah Moi, who developed delusional disorder after losing her daughter to an accident. Ah Moi believes that she is Whitney Houston and forgets about her daughter's death but eventually recalls it, breaking down in the process.

To reach that emotional state, Isabella had to imagine losing a family member, which was something she did reluctantly.

"I do need to find a balance between how much of myself am I going to give to the character. How much am I going to let it affect me," Isabella said, adding that she had to remind herself that it was just a story.

Following the conclusion of The Greatest Love of All, the cast and directors walked onto the stage for the curtain call. Applauses from the audience were aplenty as the cast and directors thanked them for their support.

As the cast and crew met their loved ones outside the theatre, they were showered with praises. Some also received praise from the original playwrights who were present, like Wayne for his portrayal of Pa, Boon's father. For others, joy simply came from the successful run

"The best moments were the times when we got the reactions we were looking for from the audience during the play as planned. It felt like validation; like we had directed the cast properly," Renee said.

The cast and Zachariah taking a final photo together in the dressing room after curtain call.