Untold Untruths

SEA Forensics 2005 Results for CHS

Solo Acting:
2 Semifinalists
(Esther and me),
& Gold medalist (Esther!)

Duet Acting:
3 semifinalists
(Nicholas Ng with Ng Yen Tink,
Gwendolyn Liow with Cheng Shae Nee,
Caleen Chua with me!),
3 finalists
(Nicholas Ng with Ng Yen Tink,
Gwendolyn Liow with Cheng Shae Nee,
Caleen Chua with me!),
Bronze medalist
(Caleen Chua with me!),
& Silver medalist
(Gwendolyn Liow with Cheng Shae Nee!)

Original Oratory
Semifinalist
(Caleen Chua)

Oral Interpretation
Nada :(

Debate
Nada :(

Impromptu Speaking
Semifinalist
(Tze Xiang
& maybe somebody else)

Extemporaneous Speaking
Semifinalist
(Jun Horng)

Best Participating Schools
2nd place (CHS!)

Commemoration of Best Malaysian School
Catholic High School!


If I don't think about it, I would say that Forensics this year has been pretty amazing. Mr William barely helped at all this time because - I suppose - he didn't see much hope in our batch, but would you just look at the results :)

Four representatives per category and three of our duet acting teams got into the finals. Wow, wow, wow and wow. It really kind of blows you away thinking about it. And winning 2nd place for Best Participating School was really more than we could have asked for. Assunta and ISKL didn't even get mentioned this year for BPS. God's work was everywhere these three days. All in all, we had 7 finalists (the heavenly number!) and of those, 5 of us were believers.

You see what I'm getting at? :)

But if I look closely at everything, this ...rather overwhelming sensation of dissastisfaction and bittersweet regret escapes from the bottom of my stomach and spreads into my chest. I should have gotten into the semis for OI. I really should've. We hadn't a single semifinalist for OI and I could have changed that.

What happened was, Round 2 for OI started at 8am. But I only managed to reach ISKL at 8:15am. I ran to the notice board, found that I was supposed to be first in Room 102, then dashed up the stairs panting for dear life. Wei Ning was waiting for me and she said I looked very pale and my lips were colourless. When I got my results later, I had a 3 and a 4. The day before, I had a 1 and 2.

It was an awful disappointment; I was in a bad mood nearly throughout the entire day. Day 2 was really quite emotionally unstable for me. First it was OI, then my Round 2 Solo (I got 2 and 4) and then our Duet (1 and 2, with some disturbing comments about myself). Then it turned out that I'd got into the Semifinals for Solo and our Duet. So throughout the day, I had to change character 3 or 4 times. First Alice, Mad Hatter, March Hare and Dormouse; then the fat charismatic gentleman; then a stern, grumpy policewoman; then the gentlemen again; and ultimately the policewoman once more.

I really, really feel that I deserved better for OI and Solo. Or at least, I feel that I could have done much better, given more time, calm or practise. And getting bronze for Duet was kind of a disappointment too. If I were less lazy a person I might complain more about a certain Jasin Nazim and a certain Assuntarian teacher-judge, but sadly(?), I am not.

For the record, here are my Adjudication Sheet rankings:

Oral Interpretation
Round 1 : 1, 2
Round 2 : 3, 4

Solo Acting
Round 1 : 1, 3 (I went overtime. One judge remembered, the other didn't.)
Round 2 : 2, 4
Semifinals : 3, 4, 4 :'(

Duet Acting
Round 1 : 1, 1
Round 2 : 1, 2
Semifinals : 1, 1, 4
Finals : 2, 2, 2, 4, 4 (Bronze)

Most of my aspirations rested with Solo Acting. So it was kind of a blow to see Esther go so far. Don't get me wrong, she deserved the Gold Medal: her script(Haunted) was an exceptionally good one and she performed it very well. She made me feel a lot like crying. I just really wish I'd gone as far as she did - this was her first year at Forensics.

I think Mr William feels a bit taken aback and slightly ashamed for abandoning us like that this year. Yesteryear, he held practices in school, belanja-ed us all breakfast and even got us a bus; this year, we got an audition, one day of "practice" and very little else. Shows how much faith he had in us, huh.

I wonder if this year's Forensics' standards has dropped or something. Everything seemed too good, too easy to be true. I voiced out as much to Marvin, but he doesn't agree. He thinks the standards have been raised. "I have never seen such good Solos before; I have never seen such good OIs before. And you would be one of those who have raised the standards this year." He's been an incredible support. He boosted my confidence before Round 1 of Solo, he comforted me everytime I was upset, and he gave me assurance whenever I was unsure. God bless him :) He's a dear, albeit a rather funny/weird one.

OOs this year have been really good. First place was "Procrastination" - a smack in Jun Horng's face, I imagine; second place Jasin Nazim; the rest were "Duct Tape", "Gossip" and ...I can't remember now. The Gossip Guy was extremely good; Duct Tape Guy too, but not as much. And Procrastination was very, very, very well done :) He managed to make procrastination sound such a positively good thing. I wish I had a copy of his OO.

Forensics, forensics, forensics... I hope you haven't seen the last of me. I want to be back again. I haven't gotten the best out of you.