I attended the Two In Galilee production preview by The Canticle Singers last night. It was a 2nd production effort from the original effort last made 7 years ago in 2002. This time, the venue was at Panggung Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur which I thought was a pretty good and cosy theatre site as compared with First Baptist Church.

Of course, Two In Galilee brings back fond memories as I played the part as one of the Wise Men, Balthazar, in the original production. We had to work very hard for 2 performances, and this time The Canticle Singers have a total of 9 shows, which is something I would not have been able to pull off. Just too tiring and my voice might never have held up.

In terms of the singers, only Khu Gek Sim and Ivy Lim were from the original production, while the technical crew remained largely unchanged with Wong Wing Thim and Kenneth Ooi leading the sound & lights team. Hello to Noel Jayaratnam and Harris Cazaly, too, with the extremely talented Ms. Pearlly Chua as the Front-Of-House Manager being of help as usual.

Two From Galilee 2009 is in aid of The St. Barnabas Home (Malaysia) and Tondo Foundation (Philippines). The singers, who are amateurs (as in not full time professionals!) are volunteers and have had to rehearse regularly twice a week in preparation for this production.

I enjoyed the choral singing but must admit that the principal roles were tough to carry in terms of vocal ability. Being the first presentation, the preview had some technical hiccups that I'm sure they'll rectify soon enough.

The hard work put in by the singers, led by Chong Hoong Kit & Chin San Sooi, shows. Congratulations and all the best for the rest of the shows! I was inspired!

You can really see progress when you observe good and dedicated construction workers putting in 8 hours of hard, concentrated work in building a house or performing some renovated work. Walls go up, roofs are put in place, windows are installed, paint is fully applied and debris is cleared.

Oftentimes I feel office workers probably don't get that much done because of Facebook, MSN and Texas Hold-Em Poker.

Back to work for me!