{"id":26189,"date":"2017-04-01T11:32:07","date_gmt":"2017-04-01T03:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/?p=26189"},"modified":"2021-04-09T10:52:35","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T02:52:35","slug":"all-the-worlds-a-stage-pam-oei","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/all-the-worlds-a-stage-pam-oei\/","title":{"rendered":"All The World\u2019s A Stage: Pam Oei"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019ve been performing<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0for as long as I can remember. It always came naturally to me. I was never a shy child and I guess you could say I had exhibitionist tendencies!! I was very much my parents\u2019 performing monkey \u2013 by the age of two, I could recite the pledge and sing the national anthem on demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I gathered up the courage to go full-time as an actor<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0when my mother passed away after a long fight with breast cancer in 1999. Prior to that, I was always terrified of doing theatre full-time. During my six years at architecture school, I was performing in shows, but always on the side. I even practised as an architect for a year. All that changed when my mother died. It made me realise that you can spend your whole life working and looking forward to your retirement \u2013 and then you die. So I decided to just go for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first outing as a professional actor was<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0a three-part comedy by Michael Chiang. I played Miss Junction 8 in a skit called\u00a0Beauty Box<\/em>. That was the first time I really experienced the effect an actor can have in saying a line. If your timing is right, everyone laughs, and you\u2019re receiving this amazing energy from a room of 400 people. That\u2019s a real high!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making a living in the arts<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0can be tough. Some months, it can be really lean in terms of income. You have to be very disciplined and save your money when it does come in, which isn\u2019t always easy. That\u2019s one reason I became a TV whore for a few years. I did many, many Chinese dramas as a full-time actor for the now-defunct MediaWorks. The scripts were terrible; I don\u2019t think I could bring myself to say those lines today. But working in TV definitely had its perks \u2013 it paid for the car I\u2019m still driving now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performing live, on stage, is<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0immediate. As an actor, I get to go on a complete journey in every single show. I get to tell the story I\u2019ve been tasked to tell. In film, everything is shot out of sequence. It\u2019s a director\u2019s medium, whereas theatre is an actor\u2019s medium. You can act your heart out on screen and still get cut out of the final product. But, in the theatre, you\u2019re right there, interacting with your fellow actors and the audience. It\u2019s instant gratification, too \u2013 you say a line, and you can receive laughter, tension or anger in return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One of my most memorable on-stage mishaps involved<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0a missing prop in the 2000 production of\u00a0Titoudao<\/em>, in which I played Hokkien opera star Oon Ah Chiam. Just imagine how\u00a0jiak kentang<\/em>\u00a0people like me and Beatrice Chia had to memorise our lines \u2013 we had to do it phonetically!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One night, Beatrice\u2019s character was supposed to produce a betrothal letter from her sleeve \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t there! None of the lines in that scene would have made sense without the letter. I started panicking because I couldn\u2019t imagine Beatrice improvising in Hokkien! After some hesitation, Beatrice said, \u201cWah wu sim, ai kahwin<\/em> (I have heart, I want to marry).\u201d The only problem is that \u2018kahwin\u2019 is a Malay word<\/em>!! I was practically having a heart attack on stage!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we finally got to the dressing room, I was half-laughing, half-yelling at her: \u201cWhy you speak Malay during Hokkien opera scene?!\u201d Her response? \u201cI was trying to make it rhyme!!\u201d We laughed until we cried. In that moment, I pledged my eternal friendship to Beatrice Chia!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pam (far left) dancing up a storm with the Dim Sum Dollies
Image \u00a9 Dream Academy Productions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s our job to make it look easy but<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0being a Dim Sum Dolly is one of the most difficult things I\u2019ve ever done. I really have to multi-task. Not only do I have to remember my lines, I have to sing harmony and dance. I\u2019m not a natural dancer, so I have to work very hard \u2013 much harder than my fellow Dollies \u2013 when it comes to choreography. There have been a couple of times when I\u2019ve forgotten my blocking and exited on the wrong side of the stage. I can still remember the horror on the dressers\u2019 faces, because I\u2019m wasting precious seconds in a quick change!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
No horsing around \u2013 Pam (far right) with the cast of Animal Farm<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The show that changed my life is<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0Animal Farm<\/em>\u00a0by W!LD RICE. I played Squealer in the original 2002 production. The way Ivan Heng directed the piece made it so universal and so much bigger than what was on the page. My friends were shocked that we managed to get it staged. But\u00a0Animal Farm<\/em>\u00a0is an O-level textbook! Somehow, just saying the lines in a Singaporean accent made everyone freak out.\u00a0Animal Farm<\/em>\u00a0helped me understand how important theatre can be, and also opened my eyes to the political landscape in Singapore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Becoming a director myself<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0was like being pushed off a cliff by one of my dearest friends. Thanks, Ivan! I was really terrified throughout\u00a0Hansel & Gretel<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 my first show as a director and it\u2019s a huge musical featuring\u00a0two<\/em>\u00a0casts of kids! I\u2019m a control freak, so it took me a while to learn how to let go. But I\u2019ve since gained more experience with\u00a0The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes<\/em><\/a>, and I\u2019ve found that it\u2019s actually very rewarding and fun if I surround myself with a good creative team. I\u2019m really looking forward to directing\u00a0Boeing Boeing<\/em><\/a>\u00a0next. As an actor, I\u2019ve rarely had more fun on a stage than in this show. I can\u2019t wait to work on this fantastic comedy with a brand-new cast of actors!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pam Oei has worn many hats as an artist \u2013 from Dim Sum Dolly to rock star, she\u2019s even performed in quite a few Chinese TV dramas. She chats with us about acting, directing and making a living in the theatre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":26190,"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":[257,256,59],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26189"}],"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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}