Lessons From A Fairy Tale

Ah, it's good to be back and blogging! Yes, poor Stanley has had to shoulder the full (work)load of The Living Room while I was on MC, and that means not just preparing for interviews each day, but also updating the website, blogging, and scheduling for future interviews.

It's a tall order for one person. And so I salute my buddy for holding the fort while I was recovering from my Epi-LASIK operation. He's right, The Living Room is - and should always be - a partnership. And yes, we're back in full force! *grin*

Today I feel compelled to blog because we had actors Karen Tan, RJ Rosales (Chang in the hit musical Chang & Eng) and Hossan Leong (on the line from Lush 99.5FM studio) on our show, sharing us about W!ld Rice's new production, Beauty & the Beast.

RJ Rosales & Karen Tan share about W!ld Rice's Beauty & the Beast.

[Can you see me reading the news in the background? Hilarious]

Well, it's not the Disney version of the well-loved classic fairy tale for sure, with W!ld Rice's resident playwright Alfian Sa'at and director Hossan Leong helming this. But it is above all, about LOVE and about ACCEPTANCE of people different from ourselves.

Just listening to Karen share that made me feel that there's so much need for that in the world. How often do we judge people just because they are different from us? And who does not long to love and be loved? So I do believe there's going to be something in this pantomime for me, personally. I shall be open to the message it has for me.

Well, I watched Chang & Eng years ago, so it was wonderful to actually meet RJ "Chang" Rosales in the flesh. He plays the Beast in the play, and although he does admit it's the ugliest character he's had to play, he qualifies, "That depends on how you define Ugliness, isn't it? The Beast may be ugly physically, but he's got a good heart."

Then there's Karen Tan who plays Ah Ma Chow Chow - just the name cracks me up! Her character is a nanny, but she mentions something about being a bolster or comfort pillow (hence chow chow)? *raise eyebrow* I'm not sure but that's reason enough to catch her in action. For tickets, visit SISTIC.

We also had a couple of dynamic young ladies from the Singapore Management University (SMU) come in today to tell us about an upcoming exhibition called 1989: The Year They Kissed, which commemorates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

These final-year students from SMU's School of Social Sciences put up 1989: The Year They Kissed to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

These girl are so mature & eloquent they impressed me to bits! Well, the Berlin Wall exhibition will be held at the Li Ka Shing library at SMU, so head down there to catch it. It sounds impressive ~ with a self-constructed Berlin Wall erected out of 120 shoe boxes, so the girls tell us! *chuckle*

And oh! It was wonderful to meet Ca-Mie De Souza again. She was our colleague from Channel NewsAsia before, but now with SMU. Yes, Ca-Mie is now on "the other side", but it helps that she's a seasoned journalist and knows what we journos look for in terms of stories. It's great to be working with her again!