{"id":5970,"date":"2019-12-18T17:50:19","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T09:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wr\/?p=5970"},"modified":"2021-01-20T16:57:38","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T08:57:38","slug":"becoming-peter-pan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/becoming-peter-pan\/","title":{"rendered":"Becoming Peter Pan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pam Oei is no stranger to\nshows that demand a great deal of her as a performer. She\u2019s learnt complicated\nchoreography, endured knee-shredding high heels and flown through\nlightning-fast quick changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But becoming The Boy Who\nWouldn\u2019t Grow Up in Peter Pan in\nSerangoon Gardens<\/em> has presented Pam with a whole host of challenges \u2013 not\nleast the amount of preparation she must undertake before<\/em> she even makes it to the stage every night!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We followed Pam on her backstage journey towards becoming Peter Pan<\/a> \u2013 and, along the way, she opened up about getting into character, how she takes care of herself during the run, and her absolute favourite thing about Peter Pan in Serangoon Gardens<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you get into character as Peter Pan?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter is a happy-go-lucky\nteenage boy who has also existed for a really long time. Playing him has been\nan interesting challenge as an actor because I have to get into the mindset of\nsomeone who experiences no consequences in anything he does. As an actor, it\u2019s\nalways about consequences. When you play a character, you\u2019re always reacting to\nother people, to what they say, to the situation. But Peter\u2019s reactions aren\u2019t<\/em>\nnormal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a scene in the show in which Wendy is unconscious, and Peter boasts about how he can do CPR. My own reaction would be, \u201cThere\u2019s a girl lying on the floor. Am I really going to boast about being able to do CPR right now?!?\u201d That\u2019s just not me. But I have to take myself out of it. Because that is<\/em> the way Peter would react. He\u2019s not unkind, but he\u2019s very boastful and proud and arrogant and cocky, even in a situation where a friend might be injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that\u2019s something I had to really learn \u2013 to abandon the way I feel a normal human would approach certain things. That took a bit of getting used to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pam stretches it out backstage before suiting up as Peter Pan!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s been the most\nchallenging thing about playing Peter Pan?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s quite a physically\ndemanding role. I\u2019m very, very conscious that I\u2019m 47, so I take great care to\nstretch before, during and after the show. I try to take care of my knees,\nespecially. I don\u2019t have a great right knee \u2013 that\u2019s from years and years of\ndancing on high heels. I\u2019m glad I don\u2019t have to wear heels in this show, but I\ndo a lot of jumping and leaping off things. With this being a six-week run, I\ncan\u2019t afford to have my knees give out on me. So I\u2019ve bought very good-quality\nknee guards. Also, I\u2019m very diligent with my vitamins and my glucosamine sulfate\nsupplements!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What else are you doing to\nprepare for the show that you don\u2019t normally do?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vocal rest! I have to make an\neffort to keep really quiet on my off-days, because playing Peter is very\ndemanding vocally too. Not in terms of the singing \u2013 Julian Wong, our composer\nand music director, has brilliantly written the music to suit my key, while\nkeeping me in a \u2018boy\u2019 register. I don\u2019t sing extremely high notes. But I do\ntalk a lot throughout the show, and there are moments that are very taxing on\nmy voice \u2013 like when I\u2019m shouting and begging the audience for help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\nhttps:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B5Adc9hn5W5\/\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Pam learns to fly – without fairy dust!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Peter Pan, you have to\nliterally fly in this show. What\u2019s that been like?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a lot<\/em> of\nflying and, with that, comes a lot of pain because the harness is not the most\ncomfortable thing in the world. It\u2019s a matter of: \u201cYou want tight and\nuncomfortable? Or would you like to die?\u201d So… tight and uncomfortable lor!\nBut the aerial rigging team we\u2019re working with is very good. They take great\ncare in harnessing me up, so I feel safe in their hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, painful and\nuncomfortable as it might be \u2013 when you do it right, when the music and the\nlights come together \u2013 that moment of flight is still magical. I mean, everyone\nin the audience can see all the cables attached to you and all the riggers are\nexposed. But, even so, when you lift off, there\u2019s a gasp. I think it\u2019s very\nnice for the audience to be wowed by the flying, but at the same time, also\nunderstand completely how it works, because you can see the riggers climbing up\nand down in the theatre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Singapore, most theatre\nproductions run for three weeks. What are you enjoying the most about Peter\nPan in Serangoon Gardens<\/em>\u2019 relatively longer run?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because it’s such a long run,\nI\u2019m able to develop a relationship on stage and <\/em>off stage with my fellow\nactors. The person I spend the most time on stage with is Mae Elliessa, who\nplays Wendy. I didn\u2019t know her before we met on this production, so it\u2019s been\nnice to develop that friendship off-stage. But also, we are now into our fifth\nweek and we are still discovering things that we can do with these roles and\nwith different moments in the show. That\u2019s a nice luxury we don\u2019t always get\nwith shorter runs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Music director Julian Wong watches Pam bring Peter Pan to life at our first table read!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you had to choose one\nfavourite thing about Peter Pan in Serangoon Gardens<\/em>, what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The music! I truly believe\nthat the core of this show is Julian\u2019s music. I loved it from the very first\nread \u2013 it\u2019s so lush and so romantic and so old-school, with such gorgeous\nharmonies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes it even better is\nthe way Julian uses his music to help tell the story. He has a real knack for\ntaking a tune and deconstructing it, so that it becomes another song. And you\nmay have no idea that it\u2019s the same melody, just in a different form, but the\nreason it hits you so hard is actually that you\u2019ve heard it before. [Ed: try\ncomparing Wonderful Things\/Flying<\/em> with Goodbye<\/em> on\nSpotify<\/a>!]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best testament to what\nJulian has achieved is the way the band members have responded to this score.\nThere are several veteran musicians in our band \u2013 like Daniel Chai, Rizal Sanip\nand Din Safari. They told me that, when they saw Julian\u2019s score and listened to\nhis teach tracks, they booked a room in LASALLE to practise so that they could\ncome prepared for rehearsals! To see musicians so much more senior give Julian\nso much respect is very inspiring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pam takes flight in her first show in WILD RICE @ Funan!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last but not least \u2013 what\u2019s it been like for you\nperforming in WILD RICE\u2019s new theatre in Funan for the first time?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our director, Ivan Heng, has\nperformed in the space before, so he’s quite familiar with the challenges and\nopportunities it presents. He prepared us for performing on a three-sided stage\n\u2013 which essentially means you have to keep moving, and the audience has its own\nwork to do to keep up with you. That\u2019s especially challenging in a show like Peter\nPan in Serangoon Gardens<\/em>, where you can have 20 people on stage at a time.\nIn effect, this is the biggest musical that WILD RICE has ever done in the\nsmallest space possible!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also been interesting\ngetting used to how intimate this space is. As an actor, you really, really\ncannot cheat in this theatre \u2013 if you are distracted, the audiences can tell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s so acoustically sensitive that we can hear everything<\/em> when we\u2019re on stage \u2013 like every tissue packet that comes out! That can be frustrating when you have an uncooperative crowd or a disruptive audience member who\u2019s talking on the phone. But, on the flip side, you could have an audience member with a good, infectious laugh… and that person will fill the space with laughter and give everyone else the license to laugh out loud too. When that happens, it\u2019s really quite magical!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Transforming into a teenage boy who flies is one of the most demanding things Pam Oei has done in the theatre. Read on to find out what it takes for Pam to become The Boy Who Wouldn\u2019t Grow Up!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Transforming into a teenage boy who flies is one of the most demanding things Pam Oei has done in the theatre. Read on to find out what it takes for Pam to become The Boy Who Wouldn\u2019t Grow Up!","_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":[9],"tags":[59,100,76],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5970"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}