Take 5 issue 27

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Anything but VOID We blurred the boundaries of fantasy and reality in Clip (2008), surmounted the struggle for true love in Staged (2009), elucidated the significance of family in Ang (2010) and scaled the tests of friendship and trust in Heist (2011).

We went back to the 1970s in Laksa and Youtiao (2012) and on the 9th and 10th of March 2013, Quintsical Productions 20 took you into the future in VOID! The musical “VOID” is about the introduction of a miracle drug, E-20. With this drug, human beings no longer greed for power, lust for war, or delight in another’s suffering as true peace reigns.

The story revolves around how a war was incited with the use of E-20 as well as a bittersweet romance between two unsuspecting siblings.

As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, the pressure of having to uphold two decades’ worth of reputation was overwhelming. All eyes were upon us to deliver an unforgettable experience to our audience. Late nights were spent writ-

Issue No. 27 August 2013 25th JCRC Edition

Of dystopic worlds and complicated love

ing musical scores, building backdrops and conducting vocal trainings. Every cast, main committee member and subcommitee member of Quintsical Productions went through numerous technical runs and practices before putting their final product on stage.

Nevertheless, all the efforts of cast and crew alike came to fruition on the evenings of 9th and 10th of March. Six months long worth of dedication and hard work were compressed into no more than two hours of terrific performance. The cast of VOID wowed the audiences with their beautiful singing and stunning acts.

As "Void" ended with a bang, Quintsical Productions steps into our symbolic 21st year in 2014. The rest, as they say, is history.

Liew Xu Tat Follow Quintsical Productions on

It has been a journey which began with expectations and ended with fulfillment, albeit with lots of sweat and tears in between. Although we sometimes questioned our dedication throughout the months, it was the resounding round of applause by the audience that was the most gratifying gift to us.

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Editor’s Note Firstly, a warm welcome to all our new Fivers! This issue will give you a peek at the hall events organised by several special committees in the last semester and during the holidays. To all our returning senior Fivers, welcome back! Here’s a glimpse of how your hard work and dedication has borne fruit; becoming wonderful memories and treasured moments. Enjoy!

Lu Yawen

People Publisher Hall of Residence 5 25th JCRC Guest Writer Sarah Chia

To Dream The (Not So Impossible) Dream To stand on stage, singing in front of a crowd of madly screaming fans - let’s all face it, have we not, at one particular point in our lives, dreamed about such a scene?

This year, Stella Eccellente runs into its fifth year, and has grown from strength to strength over the past five years. It is an interhall cluster singing competition among Halls 4, 5, 6 and 7 - for their residents to showcase their singing abilities and bring glory to their halls. The opportunity to stand on stage and perform is merely icing on the cake.

The single most apparent fact throughout the night was that hidden talent is indeed abundant among NTU’s hall residents, although this was merely 4 halls.

Competition was stiff, and tensions were high as each competitor belted their hearts out.

Editor Lu Yawen Assistant Editor Lee Rou Urn Design Lu Yawen Photography Jayme Chong Nicholas Yeo Wan Zhi Yong

The second contestant from Hall 5, Jerald Lam, instead delivered a lighthearted rendition of Maroon 5’s Sunday Morning, even changing the lyrics to suit the life of a typical Singaporean university student. It was a fresh deviation from the norm, and highly entertaining for the audience. All these, complemented with his pleasant vocals and the relaxed strumming of his guitar, caused many audience members to be bowled over. Eventually, Jerald secured the third place.

Contributor Lim Yin Ru Liew Xu Tat

Feedback Please email to: lu0003en@e.ntu.edu.sg

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For Hall 5, we indeed pulled out all the stops given the quality of the two representatives we fielded for the night.

Trang, who wowed all Fivers present at Cultural Night with her earthshattering rendition of Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On, caused many jaws to drop when she sang the famous heartwrenching piece from Les Miserables, On My Own. Not only was her vocal quality topnotch, but her stage presence definitely scored her a few extra brownie points.

Not surprisingly, she emerged first for this year’s Stella Eccellente.

He who sings frightens away his ills - Miguel de Cervantes

Looks like we never have to look far for superstar material here in Hall 5!

Lee Rou Urn

Reaching out across borders!

This year, Twenty One Young Hearts undertook the task of developing a water system in Na Phong Village, Laos.

The lack of available infrastructure results in the villagers needing to walk to other villages to draw water during the dry season each year. While what we accompolished may not seem as noble or dignifying a social cause as ending hunger, it will make a significant change to their lives, providing them with clean and easily accessible running water.

We had 5 main activities during our 10 days there: 1) Farming: A farmer dropped this on us on our first day – “In Singapore, you don’t have a lot of land to farm on, but a lot of rice to eat. In Laos, we have plenty of land to farm on, but barely any rice to eat”. This got us thinking and motivated us to give it our all.

2) Construction was a lot like digging long trenches and shell scrapes. Here, we dug them knee-deep and roughly 20cm wide, through tall grass and mud, to lay the large water pipes for the foun-

Sa-Five-Dee, Na Phong Village! dation of the water system to ensure availability of water during dry seasons.

3) Teaching was a joy because we’d never seen children so eager to learn. Almost every afternoon, Meji, Grace and Mind would conduct additional English classes for a group of them who were so interested in learning they asked to be taught more.

4) Eating: Our kind hosts always cooked more than enough to make sure we were stuffed by the end of our carbohydrate-filled breakfasts, vegetarian lunches and yummy dinners.

5) Nap time: A lot of it, too.

After the first day in the sweltering heat and sharing a shower with Shirlyn where our source of water was a cement tub, I was sure I wouldn’t make it through the 10 days. Being in Laos, we were without

air conditioning, running water, often had no toilet paper and Internet was as scarce as dirt roads were common. However, as time passed, we came to realize what the real basic necessities were – food, water, sleep and very good company. We learnt to have fun the Laotian way, not partying, playing online games, shopping, feasts and the like, but to take our slippers off and run freely through the grass, catch chickens with our bare hands, wade through ponds to fish up tadpoles, take strolls on the dirt roads and even just huddle together outside after a long day with LaoBeer.

It was bewildering at times though.

How can they have so little yet still give us strangers so much? How can they have so much lesser yet be even happier? The answer became pretty simple by the end of the trip – it was mere contentment. The art of accepting what they had, who they were and making the most out of it, living life to its fullest.

Guest Writer: Sarah Chia Photographer: Jayme Chong

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Wrecking HAVOC! Meeting our new family!

As all great novels come to an end, there must be a beginning. The prologue comes with a big bang as with the universe and its wonders and so heralds the beginning of Hall life. Set to engage and bond Freshies, HAVOC ’13 prepared our best show for the past one year. Lasting 6D5N, freshies and seniors alike indulged in a Tribal themed camp forging friendships that would last a life time.

to fumble around trying to figure out where (and which) were their partners.

After a few hours of teasing by the seniors, the freshies were finally paired up and ready to go on their date. Young as the night was, so were their thumping hearts. On that night, they took a shuttle bus to town for their first Hall V date, with breathless giggles and a mini token exchange, the freshies celebrated that night with heart-to-heart talks.

On Sunday night, we gathered together for a pre-camp dinner with our respective Orientation Groups (OGs). It was a dinner held to break the ice between seniors and freshies as well as to prepare the OGs with their cheers.

By the fourth day, the OGs were already fully accustomed as they ventured out for their Amazing Race. Starting from the chalet in Pasir Ris, the OGs went around Singapore and eventually returned to Hall V. Each station within the race required freshies to complete certain tasks, such as taking photos with landmarks.

The first day saw the initiation of the first years as they got wet and dirty in various games around the school. Between games, the OGs built rapport over mini games such as “Cat catches mouse” and other familiarization games. After welcoming them into the hall through Hall V’s traditional initiation, the freshies were given ample amount of rest for the following day.

This year’s Freshmen Orientation Camp (FOC) introduced a few new ideas.

For cooking night, OGs were made to bid against each other with the points earned in previous games. The auction for their ingredients included steamboat essentials like cheese tofu, mushrooms and eggs. Further changes were made to the Special Partner (SP) night interaction. A new speed dating system was introduced and each partner had to make a decision within 3 minutes whether they wanted to stay with the current partner.

Clad in sporty attire, everyone rushed headlong into the soft sandy beach and splashed in the waves at Sentosa on the third day. Apart from the slight drizzle, the games went smoothly with zealous cheers erupting occasionally from each OGs. Past noon, the OGs saw themselves gathered under the swaying trees replenishing themselves.

They were soon charted off to Pasir Ris chalet and were told to freshen up for the anticipated social night. Each OG had their girls seated in a row in their respective rooms while the males had

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As all great stories have a start, we wrapped up ours in a heartwarming epilogue. The camp concluded with a candle lighting ceremony where seniors stood in two long lines and lit up candles for every freshmen. This tradition signifies the passing on of passion from seniors to freshies, marking them as official Fivers.

The novel may have ended, but the spirit of Hall Five has just been ignited in all of us. Hall V’s strong identity will continue to burn in us till the next chapter, a new prologue and a new beginning.

Lim Yin Ru Follow HAVOC on