MNight is coming to an end. I know it’s a bit weird to be saying this two days before the actual date of MNight but that’s the lens that I have on now, and have been wearing for the past few weeks. And honestly speaking, I can already feel the reluctance to part with it.
Tonight was our last practice session at Denmark Road, after weeks and months of daily 7-10PM practices. I didn’t even realise it until I saw Joey’s snapchat, and with that realisation came the even more encompassing awareness of affixing the phrase “The Last” to every single event leading up to MNight itself, mirroring all my past experiences of good things coming to an end and feeling the sour ten-tonne weight tied to it right in my gut. The Last Practice. The Last Rehearsal. The Last Scene.
Two days. That’s such a minuscule number compared to the number of days since way back in September last year when meetings first started, and probably even before that when I started working on the initial script. MNight has always been this Thing in the Future, not readily within sight but something to constantly strive for like an aspiration, so much so that even up to last week, I still couldn’t really believe everything we’ve worked so hard for, all the meetings and practices and basically my entire second year of university so far, was going to be exclusively for this one night on the 11th of March, a play to be put on in front of 400 pairs of eyes. Heck, I still can’t believe it even when writing this. I don’t think I’ve ever really been so significantly involved in an event of this large a scale before, thus rendering me without any concrete past experiences to compare the upcoming MNight with, so my emotions are just a huge ??? that I have no clue how to even logically rationalise. The ratio of days past:days leading to MNight have always been relatively balanced in my mind, but now it’s a scale heavily tipped and biased to one side, and so are my ??? emotions.
There’s so much more I want to write, but I want to save that for post-MNight introspections. And also because obviously if this Saturday turns out to be a flop then spilling all my feelings into this post would be kind of embarrassing (but knowing the sentimental sap I am, I would probably go ahead and write it anyway regardless).
As it is, where we are now, so so so very close to Manchester Malaysian Night 2017, I look forward to putting on an incredible show for everyone to see, together with everyone in the team whom I’ve worked with for the past six months. It’s been an incredibly long and arduous journey, but we’re finally at the penultimate stop before the pinnacle, and we can’t wait to show everyone the results of pouring our heart and soul into making MNight a success.
Here’s to a memorable and wonderful MNight, from all of us with the greatest of passions and sincerest of hearts. I’ll see you there.
michelle teoh 