from left: cindy, terrence, dominic, sheena, victor, yours truly

every gay guy needs a posse of dramatic friends. a group of people who can't just do everyday things the way everyday people do. if opening a satchet of ketchup could be done with pirouettes, some props, plenty of fanfare and brilliant lighting, these people would be the first to jump to it. even the act of jumping to it needs to be accompanied with dramatic breakbeats in the background.

well i'm thankful that i have literally, a group of dramatic friends who used to be actively involved with drama and dance. all this leads back to the polytechnic days when i took the first ever courageous step in my entire gay life. i decided to join the local drama club simply because i've always wanted to be involved with theater. plus back then, i felt that i could shamelessly tell jokes (albeit lame ones) on stage without faltering between my lines (i would be reading from a script). the drama club was actively involved in stage productions of big and small scales. they did dance. they did props. stage management. anything that involved a stage, they would prolly be doing it.

thus was it aptly named StageARTs. just as the way that the hospital that has all the general medical disciplines in Singapore has to be named the Singapore General Hospital. the party which takes action for the people titled as the People's Action Party. and the resort which integrates all facilities and luxuries in one called (no prizes for guessing this one) The Integrated Resort. Goddamit!! we are such a f-ing boring country.

the entire bunch of us in the picture are born between the years of 1982-1984. All of us are studying part-time degrees (i'm intending to take one soon). 1 of them has purple hair. 2 of them are straight girls. 3 of us have homosexual tendencies. 4 of them can dance on a competitive-level (though they got booed out of The Dance Floor during the preliminaries). 5 of us are attached. and everybody (except me) always arrives a full 30 minutes past the designated time to meet. so you see, we have actually quite a lot in common. plus the fact that everytime we meet, there's sure to be plenty of laughter, lame jokes (on my part) and catching up with the latest of gay gossip in the cheena-piang world.

i guess i'm at the crossroads of life now, trying to look at the bigger picture. and these people who are fast becoming yuppies like me, are really people who have problems that i can relate to. cheating boyfriends (i used to be one of them), study loans, unsure futures. i just realized that being a young adult sucks so much. the increase in responsibilities and having to be a man when you're still a boy trying his best to transition into a working adult. love, life, money, sex, work and plenty of cigarettes and clubbing. what's it all about, alfie?

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