{"id":4592,"date":"2017-12-08T02:34:03","date_gmt":"2017-12-07T18:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wr\/i-d-like-to-know-zelda-tatiana-ng\/"},"modified":"2019-12-09T15:58:34","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T07:58:34","slug":"i-d-like-to-know-zelda-tatiana-ng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/i-d-like-to-know-zelda-tatiana-ng\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019d Like To Know: Zelda Tatiana Ng"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you have a ritual as a performer?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Not really \u2013 it depends on my mood and also what I feel I need to do on any particular day. For instance, if my voice feels a bit off, I will ensure I do more vocal warm-ups before I go on stage. But there is one thing I like to do before every show I do. I like to go to the centre of our stage and stand there, looking out to the very last row in the theatre and absorbing the entire space. It\u2019s a kind of meditation, I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What keeps you up at night?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, before opening night, I\u2019ll have weird dreams that are related to the production I\u2019m doing. Something else that keeps me up at night is if I have an early flight in the morning! I know that I\u2019ll be heading to another country the next day, and I can sometimes get so super excited that I can\u2019t sleep!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re throwing a dinner party for five guests \u2013 dead or alive, real or fictional. Whom would you invite?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Eason Chan come immediately to mind \u2013 they\u2019re my idols! For the final spot at the dinner table, I\u2019d invite Genghis Khan. I studied Chinese history when I was younger, and I think he was a real-life superhero. We talk about the concept of \u2018yuan fen\u2019 (\u7f18\u5206) in Mama White Snake<\/em>, which refers to the fate between two people. And I must confess that a part of me believes I may have been one of Genghis Khan\u2019s concubines in a past life!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is one of your pet peeves?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When other people lack awareness of themselves and how they\u2019re affecting your personal space \u2013 like if they walk very slowly in front of you, or if they\u2019re just looking at their handphones. And I get so annoyed sometimes when I queue up at the ATM. Why do some people count their money in front of the machine?! What are you going to do even if the amount is wrong? There are also people who use more than one card\u2026 or put the same card in twice! Why ah?! I don\u2019t understand!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are entertaining a visitor from overseas, what’s the one place in Singapore you would take them to?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I would bring them out to eat. Specifically, I would introduce them to Peranakan food \u2013 which, I think, is quite unique to Singapore. While we eat, I can tell stories about the Peranakan culture and heritage, and maybe after that, we can go explore Chinese and Malay cuisines as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screen
Figuring out how to act, sing and<\/em> dance during\u00a0rehearsal with Siti Khalijah Zainal<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What is the one thing you’ve done in the past few years that you’ve never done before?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve never done a musical, or been in a pantomime. Mama White Snake<\/em> is both. So it\u2019s been very exciting for me. It\u2019s also challenging, of course, because I\u2019ve never had to act, sing and dance, all at the same time, before. When we first started rehearsals, I would remember my lines \u2013 and then forget to sing! If I remembered to sing, I would forget to dance! But the process has reminded me of all the training I\u2019ve done throughout the years \u2013 including the dance lessons I took at the age of 19. It was like riding a bike again for the first time in ten years. It took a while to get back into the rhythm of things, but it was great to have it all come back to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us about the theatrical experience that changed your life. <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When I was 15, I watched my first theatre play \u2013 The Arsonist<\/em>, by Max Frisch. It was the first production by what has now become The Theatre Practice, and Kuo Pao Kun had translated the play into Mandarin. My Chinese drama teacher brought me to see the show at the old Drama Centre. It was an amazing experience \u2013 even today, I can still remember very clearly how I felt then. I realised, while watching the show, that I wanted to be an actor. That\u2019s why I\u2019ve always thought that, in my lifetime, I have to direct The Arsonist<\/em>, just to complete that circle. And I\u2019ll be doing that next year. NAFA invited me to be the guest director for the 2018 final-year production. They wanted an ensemble piece, and I went through so many texts, from Greek tragedies to Shakespeare. In the end, I proposed doing The Arsonist<\/em>, using Pao Kun\u2019s original translation. I\u2019m really looking forward to it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you could import something that you can’t get in Singapore, what would it be?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I would want to import the Northern Lights here. Oh, and it\u2019d be great if we could import a real unicorn into Singapore too. [laughs]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Mama White Snake\u2019s nefarious Madam Ngiao, Zelda Tatiana Ng is doing something she\u2019s never done before. She chats with us about taking on new challenges, her fascination with Genghis Khan, and more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4590,"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":"","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":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","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":[1,9],"tags":[125,127],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4592"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}