By TIFFANY MAREE LIM HUEY MIN
For a SPARTan, humility is the quality of being humble.
I had the privilege of sitting down with one of SPARTs’ presidents, Surrayn Selvan, 21, to discuss about the true meaning of performing arts and how SPART has helped with the growing process of each member.
Now, they are passing on the knowledge to new members of SPART casted from the Sparties Shorties 15’ audition.
SPART, better known as Taylor’s Society of Performing Arts, has been hosting Sparties Shorties for every consecutive year.
Previously, SPART would only accept members through closed auditions. Thus, it would seem to outsiders that SPARTans (the SPART members) are a close tight knitted group. This year, however, SPART has decided to take on a different mission through the castings of Sparties Shorties 15’.
Not only has SPART accepted students casted for Sparties Shorties 15’ as members, but also generously welcomed students who were chosen for callbacks but not casted for the show, as members too.
“We want to bring in more people to SPART and spread the love,” gushed Surrayn.
The honesty of passion entwined between Surrayn’s words was enough to make anyone fall in love with SPART in a heartbeat. Being a non-active SPARTan myself, it reminded me of all the reasons I decided to join and stay in SPART in the first place.
“Honestly, it was not easy. To come up with a solution that will keep SPART from falling off the brims was a challenge,” Surrayn admitted.
“But I believe that if you learn to let go, things slowly will fall into place and eventually, everything will come together.”
When asked about the true meaning of performing arts to SPART, everything falls back to one word, ‘humility’.
Humility allows you to be selfless, to think about others instead of just yourself.
Humility brings a sense of togetherness, motivating the students to work hard in achieving one goal as a whole.
And with humility, comes vulnerability.
As I have said, small words, huge impact.
These two small words have the ability to dig into the deepest darkest part of an actor’s soul in more ways than one. For a theatre actor to achieve that level of professionalism, one must be ready to embrace the darkness as long as it does not consume one.
“It takes a lot out of a person to dedicate themselves to a character,” said Surrayn. “Allowing yourself to feel vulnerable is okay because in that moment, the person feeling things is not you, but your character.”
Surrayn generously invited me to a session of their rehearsals for one of the plays of Sparties Shorties 15’. Through there, I had the opportunity to conduct an open session interview with the casts of the play.
Oh wow was I impressed.
Rhyz Ruslan, a long term SPARTan brought up that being in SPART actually helped him to feel more at ease during presentations.
“There are times during presentations where I would just choke for a moment,” laughed Rhyz. “But then just as quickly, I would improvise and think of something on the spot. Improv Night taught me that.”
“We are just into 2 weeks of rehearsals, and I can already feel us becoming a family,” chimed in Aqilah Deenah, 18, a newcomer to SPART.
The new casts members all agreed upon one fact: that somehow or rather, being in SPART makes them feel welcomed and accepted for whom they are.
“I love the diversity. There are so many different kinds of people in SPART where we all just blend well together,” said Tasha, also a long term SPARTan.
“It is a beautiful thing to watch.”
Sparties Shorties 2015 will enlighten the stage of Taylor’s University from 7 until 10 October at LT20. For further enquiries, feel free to email them at [email protected].
I had the privilege of sitting down with one of SPARTs’ presidents, Surrayn Selvan, 21, to discuss about the true meaning of performing arts and how SPART has helped with the growing process of each member.
Now, they are passing on the knowledge to new members of SPART casted from the Sparties Shorties 15’ audition.
SPART, better known as Taylor’s Society of Performing Arts, has been hosting Sparties Shorties for every consecutive year.
Previously, SPART would only accept members through closed auditions. Thus, it would seem to outsiders that SPARTans (the SPART members) are a close tight knitted group. This year, however, SPART has decided to take on a different mission through the castings of Sparties Shorties 15’.
Not only has SPART accepted students casted for Sparties Shorties 15’ as members, but also generously welcomed students who were chosen for callbacks but not casted for the show, as members too.
“We want to bring in more people to SPART and spread the love,” gushed Surrayn.
The honesty of passion entwined between Surrayn’s words was enough to make anyone fall in love with SPART in a heartbeat. Being a non-active SPARTan myself, it reminded me of all the reasons I decided to join and stay in SPART in the first place.
“Honestly, it was not easy. To come up with a solution that will keep SPART from falling off the brims was a challenge,” Surrayn admitted.
“But I believe that if you learn to let go, things slowly will fall into place and eventually, everything will come together.”
When asked about the true meaning of performing arts to SPART, everything falls back to one word, ‘humility’.
Humility allows you to be selfless, to think about others instead of just yourself.
Humility brings a sense of togetherness, motivating the students to work hard in achieving one goal as a whole.
And with humility, comes vulnerability.
As I have said, small words, huge impact.
These two small words have the ability to dig into the deepest darkest part of an actor’s soul in more ways than one. For a theatre actor to achieve that level of professionalism, one must be ready to embrace the darkness as long as it does not consume one.
“It takes a lot out of a person to dedicate themselves to a character,” said Surrayn. “Allowing yourself to feel vulnerable is okay because in that moment, the person feeling things is not you, but your character.”
Surrayn generously invited me to a session of their rehearsals for one of the plays of Sparties Shorties 15’. Through there, I had the opportunity to conduct an open session interview with the casts of the play.
Oh wow was I impressed.
Rhyz Ruslan, a long term SPARTan brought up that being in SPART actually helped him to feel more at ease during presentations.
“There are times during presentations where I would just choke for a moment,” laughed Rhyz. “But then just as quickly, I would improvise and think of something on the spot. Improv Night taught me that.”
“We are just into 2 weeks of rehearsals, and I can already feel us becoming a family,” chimed in Aqilah Deenah, 18, a newcomer to SPART.
The new casts members all agreed upon one fact: that somehow or rather, being in SPART makes them feel welcomed and accepted for whom they are.
“I love the diversity. There are so many different kinds of people in SPART where we all just blend well together,” said Tasha, also a long term SPARTan.
“It is a beautiful thing to watch.”
Sparties Shorties 2015 will enlighten the stage of Taylor’s University from 7 until 10 October at LT20. For further enquiries, feel free to email them at [email protected].