10 July 2009

Miss Saigon: The Heat is on in Palmerston North

IPC Students and Alumni in the Cast of Miss Saigon

By Shirley Ghozalli. Edited by Moira Blake.

IPC students and alumni with Director Stephen Robertson and Musical Director Barry Jones (From left to right - back row: Barry Jones, Stephen Robertson, Reo Takaoka; middle row: Masayuki Kato, Ryotaro Natsume, Indah Mayasari, Amanda Celia Choduri, Satoshi Yao; front Chikako Natsume, Shirley Ghozalli).

Everybody can enjoy singing as a hobby, whether in the shower or with a singing group. However, to be able to make your debut in a musical because of that hobby is an opportunity few people expect.

In February, a call from Abbey Theatre brought such an opportunity to IPC students and staff members. The call was for anyone who was interested to take part in the audition for the cast of the upcoming musical "Miss Saigon", to be performed in the Regent on Broadway, Palmerston North, from 14th until 29th August 2009. The musical stars a Broadway actress, Melinda Chua, who has played Kim many times in theatres in New York and in other cities around the world. Click here for more information.

The musical is set in 1975-1978, with the opening scene taking place in Saigon, days before the North Vietnam Army entered that city, forcing the Americans to flee. It is an epic love story between an American GI and a young Vietnamese woman and has been played in 25 countries worldwide.

A number of participants from IPC were successful in the audition. Since then, rehearsals have been held 3 days a week, 2-3 hours each time, since the beginning of April. The tightness of the schedule, added to the demands of their other tasks, has meant than not everybody could keep up, but six IPC students and two former students are still rehearsing. They are Amanda Celia Chudori (2006 student) and Indah Mayasari (2007 student), both from Indonesia, Chikako Natsume (former student), Ryotaro Natsume (2007 student), Masayuki Kato (2008 student), Reo Takaoka (2008 student), and Satoshi Yao (2008 student), all from Japan, and the writer herself (former student, from Indonesia).

For all the participants from IPC, this musical will be their debut. "As this is my first theatrical experience, I found it very hard to sing and act at the same time," Indah said She explained that the directors always encourage us and have always been able to see what we are capable of and get us to perform to that level, even though some of us are beginners. "I'm so glad to be part of Miss Saigon and consider myself fortunate to be able to work with everyone involved in this musical," she added.

Musical Director Barry Jones taught us how to read the musical scores, how to identify the parts in each song and how to sing them correctly. At the beginning it was hard to keep to the correct melody, but from listening to the recordings and frequent rehearsals, the tunes became familiar and easily memorized.

The stage rehearsals started at the beginning of June with Director Stephen Robertson. Each time before we started practising for a new scene, Stephen would explain what stage props would be used in that particular scene, what part each of us would perform and how.

Chikako commented, "Stephen is a really efficient, constructive director and I really enjoy working with him. He always makes points really clearly, so that I can understand his vision easily even though I am not experienced in acting and singing."

She said that all the work for this show made her think about how she could extend herself, how the audience see what she is doing on the stage and whether they get the proper message. "I am taking my role really seriously although it is as one of the ensemble," she explained.

As part of the rehearsals, the cast also had the chance to see the "Miss Saigon" performed in the Napier Municipal Theatre. It was a good experience to see how the play unfolds and how the directors have such a big influence on how the scenes are performed.

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