{"id":11369,"date":"2016-11-01T20:01:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T12:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wr\/?p=11369"},"modified":"2021-04-26T17:44:05","modified_gmt":"2021-04-26T09:44:05","slug":"bringing-home-the-bacon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/bringing-home-the-bacon\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing Home The Bacon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s been a busy couple of years for Frances Lee. Since her splashy debut in Pangdemonium\u2019s\u00a0Fat Pig<\/em>, she\u2019s been making waves and winning plaudits in a host of musicals \u2013 from\u00a0Beauty World<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Liao Zhai Rocks!<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0RENT<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019d be forgiven for thinking that Frances \u2013 with her big, beautiful voice \u2013 had planned all along to pursue a career in musical theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s not the case. Frances actually graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2014 with a degree in Acting. Monkey Goes West<\/em>, first staged by W!LD RICE in that same year, was her first musical as a professional actor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love<\/em> singing,\u201d she declares. \u201cBut I was in school for so long, just doing acting, that it wasn\u2019t my focus for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, life has a funny way of nudging you onto the path that might just be perfect for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe past two years of my career have made me re-think the kind of artist I want to be,\u201d Frances observes. \u201cSinging came back into focus and I love the challenge of it. So I think I want to work towards that now, towards making myself a better musical theatre performer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later this month, she\u2019ll be recreating the role of Pigsy in Monkey Goes West<\/em>, a cheeky adaptation of the beloved Chinese fantasy classic. She\u2019s evidently excited by the prospect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy favourite character from Journey to the West<\/em> was actually Pigsy,\u201d she confides with a smile. \u201cAs the comic relief, he was always there to make people laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, many of the funniest moments in Monkey Goes West<\/em> come from Pigsy\u2019s undying love of good food and beautiful women. \u201cMy character spends a lot of time eating food, thinking about food, chasing women and thinking about women,\u201d laughs Frances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look beyond his gluttony and womanising, however, and there is clearly a depth to the character that appeals to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important for Pigsy to go on this epic journey to the west because, finally, he\u2019s not serving his own needs,\u201d she explains. \u201cHe\u2019s helping someone more important than himself \u2013 he learns to focus on the bigger picture and the greater good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Making a Pigsy out of Frances with costumes, prosthetics and make-up!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Frances believes that the same hidden depths can be found throughout Monkey Goes West<\/em>. Peek beneath the colourful, cheerful surface of this pantomime, and you\u2019ll uncover many layers to its plot and characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the magic of this story comes in its many heartfelt moments,\u201d she points out. \u201cOur characters are forced to go on a traumatising journey together, but they end up becoming real friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playing the role of Pigsy is no walk in the park. To do so, Frances has to transform herself physically \u2013 apart from holding herself differently when moving about on stage, she must also speak and sing in a lower register.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What worried her the most, however, was whether she was funny enough as Pigsy. \u201cThis was my first pantomime,\u201d Frances recalls, \u201cAnd I was performing alongside the likes of Chua Enlai and Siti Khalijah \u2013 pantomime veterans who really know how to get the laughs!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She credits Broadway Beng Sebastian Tan [a.k.a. Tan Boon Piew] \u2013 director of Monkey Goes West<\/em> and no stranger to the pantomime himself \u2013 with raising her game in rehearsals and on stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAh Piew pulls no punches and he\u2019s obviously an expert on getting the laughs,\u201d she reveals. \u201cIf he thinks you can do better and be funnier, he will make sure you get there!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really look up to Ah Piew a lot<\/em>,\u201d she continues. \u201cI see him as a friend, but also a mentor who helped me to cultivate my comic timing. And because he loves this show so much and is very invested in it, I really want to make him proud!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revisiting a show is a luxury actors don\u2019t often get in Singapore. Frances is looking forward to pushing the show and her character to greater heights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis may be the same show in many ways, but why not make it better?\u201d she asks. \u201cI\u2019ve watched myself in videos of the first production and I can see many things that I want to improve. So, for every one of us, this is about pushing the show to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s all in line with the biggest lesson she took home from first performing in Monkey Goes West<\/em>. \u201cThere is never going to be an \u2018okay, this is good enough\u2019,\u201d she laughs. \u201c\u201cI\u2019ve learnt to always keep exploring and making things different when it comes to the W!LD RICE pantomime!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since making her musical debut in Monkey Goes West, Frances Lee has wowed audiences with her gorgeous voice. How did she re-discover her love of singing? What does she find most challenging about playing Pigsy? Find out here!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[57,152],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}