{"id":34322,"date":"2015-07-01T14:22:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T06:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/?p=34322"},"modified":"2021-06-03T17:13:45","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T09:13:45","slug":"an-explosion-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/an-explosion-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"An Explosion of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sharifah Amani has been a professional actor for ten years \u2013 you might recognise her from such iconic Malaysian films as Sepet<\/em> and popular TV shows like Emil Emilda<\/em>. Her work has garnered Amani plenty of critical acclaim, as well as a loyal fan following to the tune of a quarter million followers on her Instagram<\/a> account. And yet, with all her experience in the industry, Another Country<\/em> is like nothing she has ever done before. Sharifah chats with us about the challenges, lessons and love she\u2019s encountered in Another Country<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did you discover about yourself while rehearsing for Another Country<\/em>?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I realised that I didn\u2019t actually understand my brothers and sisters from across the Causeway. I\u2019m from a generation that wasn\u2019t part of the separation. We don\u2019t actually think about it very much. Singapore is Singapore lah<\/em>, and Malaysia is Malaysia \u2013 we share some similarities, but we\u2019re really different. That\u2019s what I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Has that changed over the course of the production?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely. In reading the texts, going through the history, getting to know the people, trying to understand the differences and appreciating the similarities \u2013 I\u2019ve had the opportunity to learn about what happened, and how we grew without each other, and to imagine what it might be like if we had stuck together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve found that, actually, we\u2019re so alike. We have the same hopes, dreams and fears. But I think we\u2019re like siblings \u2013 we always try to one-up each other, we\u2019re competitive and we play up our differences. Ironically, it\u2019s something that happens because we\u2019re the closest to each other. It\u2019s a little bit of a love-hate relationship. I\u2019m like that with my sister. I don\u2019t feel much for any other country, I have to say, but I\u2019ve since discovered that I do, for Singapore!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did you learn from digging into the texts from Singapore?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

That Malaysians and Singaporeans are grappling with the same issues \u2013 and some of it is stuff we don\u2019t learn in schools. Some of the Malaysian texts won\u2019t be taught in schools. And I know that some of the Singapore texts we\u2019re doing are quite risqu\u00e9. That\u2019s typical of both countries \u2013 you\u2019re not allowed to speak your mind very much. But there are always the people who will do so, and it\u2019s a blessing to be a part of this whole process and to get to work with their texts!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
Sharifah and Alfred Loh play a heartbreaking scene from Lim Chor Pee\u2019s Mimi Fan<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What were some of the challenges you faced in working on this show?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve never done a show like this before. Actually, I\u2019ve never done anything like this in my life! I\u2019ve done theatre, but I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever worked<\/em> like this in the ten years I\u2019ve been working. This was like a crash course on how to behave, how important your body and your voice are, how every little thing is a tool for you to get the story across. I really appreciate what I\u2019ve learnt: how to better understand myself as an actor, to understand stories and to understand how to work as an ensemble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also panic very easily on stage. I get very scared because, if you screw up, there\u2019s no editing, no nothing! But I feel very supported and very strong in this production, because of the people around me. I\u2019m working with people who are some of my heroes in the industry, and it\u2019s awesome to get to do silly stuff on stage with them. This is one of those times when I\u2019ve actually allowed myself to have fun on stage \u2013 I play and I try different things and I get out of my comfort zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us about meeting the Singaporean cast for the first time.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We were rehearsing separately, and we\u2019d heard about Siti, Yu-Beng, Gani, Sharda and Janice. We were sending videos back and forth of us rehearsing, and we kind of wanted to meet them so much. When we finally did, it was this explosion of love. It was ridiculous, because, truthfully, I don\u2019t think we know each other very well! But I guess, because we were reading about one another for so long, we actually developed that love without being around one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you hope audiences take away from Another Country<\/em>?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When we ran the entire show for the first time, I knew this was an experience for an audience member. If I were to watch this, I\u2019d be so happy because I\u2019d be sure to get my money and my time\u2019s worth! It\u2019s intense and fun and a rollercoaster ride, and it\u2019s beautiful, because you\u2019re learning about another country, which is, actually, like your own country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, there\u2019s an amazing moment near the end of the show, when the two casts come together to perform the ronggeng<\/em>. Every time we step on stage and we look at each and every one of the Singapore actors, and they look back at us, it\u2019s just an immense ball of love. Yu-Beng, who\u2019s my partner, always tears up, because it\u2019s so poignant and so meaningful. I think that\u2019s the bit that will stay with the audience. They may argue about which cast or which set of texts is better, but when they see the ronggeng<\/em>, they\u2019ll realise it\u2019s not important, that there\u2019s a bigger picture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sharifah Amani has been a professional actor for ten years \u2013 you might recognise her from such iconic Malaysian films as Sepet and popular TV shows like Emil Emilda. Her work has garnered Amani plenty of critical acclaim, as well as a loyal fan following to the tune of a quarter million followers on her Instagram account. And yet, with …<\/p>\n

An Explosion of Love<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":35528,"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":[387,388],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34322"}],"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=34322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}