Since July, Symphony Theatre has consecutively launched three different stage plays during the epidemic period including “Meant to Be”, “Dream of the Red Mansions”, “Tearless Sky”. After having performed for 29 show sessions we are delighted to announce the launching of our very latest masterpiece, “Afterglow” (which will be our 4th stage play) is scheduled to stage in Symphony Theatre during the weekends.
Amongst the reporters present were Aifm General Manager, Ng Leng Leng, PMP Entertainment Manager Lim Wei Kang, Malaysia’s well known senior music producer, Ong Peng Chu, Symphony Theatre Group crew members, as well as major newspapers, online media and our fellow sponsors.
Director Jeffrey Beh explained that “Afterglow” in the Japanese language carries the meaning of “A ray of hope in our weakness” , which also implies that every person has a conscience that resides in their hearts. Through this, we hope that “Afterglow” can awaken the ray of hope in every audience’s heart.
“We will be incorporating 3D technology together with LED background, and will do our best to make the stage play as ‘real’ as possible, because the more “realistic” the show is, the more the audience would feel like they are being transported into the virtual world of the show” co-Director Terry Lim added.
Symphony Theatre Group’s plays are mainly based on Stanislavsky's faculty. Thus, crew members are expected to virtually express the true emotions of the character itself as they try ‘feel’ the emotions of the characters as if the emotions involved are of their own.
“Afterglow” covers 4 different elements of the romance story. As the background of the story and the art gallery are related, thus the crew members will be displaying various “famous paintings” on that day of the performance which are specially meant for those who have a generous big heart to buy them.
The “Afterglow” stage play theme songs, including【Don’t be Afraid】、【It’s Complicated】as well【I love you】was created by producers John Lee, as well as Paul Lee where both are from America. They share their experience in lyric writing as well as singing as well. As a musician who has won awards in North Carolina, USA, as well as from Taipei, Taiwan, John Lee shared that performing for stage plays is way more hectic than being a pianist who performs in music concerts, as we need to devote our entire body and soul into every plot of the play.
Paul Lee, who had experience in being a film/television director also mentioned that, there is a big difference between directing a play versus directing a film/tv show, because in films and tv series, production can be NG, various there is no opportunity to have “NG” when it comes to directing a play. Ever since I have gotten exposure to direct plays, I began to develop a strong passion for directing stage plays, and thus decided to develop in this area instead.
As for the transition from "Music Box" to "Afterglow", Jessie Chung, who will be once again collaborating with Marcus Choot after a three-year period of absence, and this time in “Afterglow” there will have many different kinds of collaboration altogether amongst crew members involved, while Marcus will just be depicted as being in a “Delicate relationship” which serve as a hint to everyone, and real answer will be something that will be left for us to decide.
Jessie enthusiastically mentioned that she voluntarily allowed Marcus to hit her during some scenes in “Afterglow”, in fact she felt it was rather quite fun. “Can you guess who I will choose to marry in the play? The answers given by the fans is something that Jessie herself didn’t expect - they actually screamt out loudly and say “YOU WILL MARRY ME!”
Dr Jessie started participating in stage plays when she was 13. She started performing Chinese stage plays, and immediately developed a strong passion for stage play. Apart from being able to raise funds for cancer patients, it also serves as an outlet for the audience to express their emotions along with the plays. After the play ended, there were many audience members who shared their feedback during the testimony session and said “after having watched the stage play, our relationship as husband and wife has tremendously improved, and she changed from being weak to becoming strong. This is one of the greatest words of encouragement for her.
In regards to the screening of the script, Jessie said that she had rejected other plays because she only chose to perform plays that bring true strength and positivity to the audience. As long as the content can touch people's hearts and is able to make the audience totally inspired by the script, she will accept.
In the play, Marcus acted as a German gallery owner. Since the stage play “Afterglow” is related to painting, though the time for rehearsal was tight, the director insisted that each and every actor/ actress involved should draw a picture.
Marcus shared: “ All these drawings are specially drawn by the fellow crew members to help raise funds for cancer patients. Appreciate everyone’s generosity and kind understanding as no one here is a professional painter,.”All funds received from the selling of our paintings will be directly channelled to the Cancer Fund.
On the same day, Tiew Dental Group, who is our sponsor, took the lead in buying Dr. Jessie work "Homecoming" and donated 10,000 ringgit to cancer patients. Another sponsor, from Constant Pharmacy, also bought over director Jeffrey Beh’s "Dreamland", with a donation amounting to 2,000 ringgit.
The stage play “Afterglow” is adapted based on a classic romance novel, starred by well-known artist Jessie Chung, Paul Lee, an actor who is of American nationale, American actor John Lee, as well as a couple of other senior actors include Marcus Choot, Lily Lim, and Jessica Chung
The Managing
Director of Symphony Theatre Group, Brian Choot mentioned that wanting to make our stage play more established is really not an easy journey for us. It is even more so during this epidemic period, where many cinemas and theatres have already been closed down. However to ensure that our arts and culture live on, Symphony theatre group continues working relentlessly, continues to present its audience with the latest stage plays, with the hope to recruit a new generation of artistic talents.
"Afterglow" stage play will be staged in 6 show sessions. The performance date availability are
as per listed below:
26/9/2020 (Saturday) FULL
27/9/2020 (Sunday) FULL
3/10/2020 (Saturday) FULL
4/10/2020 (Sunday)
10/10/2020 (Saturday)
11/10/2020 (Sunday)
For more detailed info, kindly send your queries to our email address admin@symphonytheatre.com, or you may contact us via handphone to 016-336 6701
