The Raffles Players

Scene from the Raffles Players Production A Winter's Tale 1968

The 1969 Raffles Players Committee
Standing: Edmund Wee, Yap Cheng Huat, Alec Lim, Rajan Krishnan, Chong Huai Seng, Soh Keng Joon, Lionel Lee Ho Boon Tiong
Seating: Florence Chan, Ms P Jothie, Ms Elizabeth Phillips, Mr John Tan Eng Siang, Ms Tan Suan Neo. Wong Wei Lin 

The Raffles Players, could be considered one of the most outstanding Extra-curricular societies in Raffles Institution. It was unique as it partnered with the Raffles Girls'  School (RGS). Together we had years full of activities of artistic and literary pursuits in the annual Raffles Players Shakespeare's Plays and the Drama Festival.

The Boys worked while the Girls danced

The 67/69 cohorts were heavily involved with the Raffles Players. There were Rajan Krishnan, Chong Huai Seng, Lionel Lee, Alec Lim and Soh Keng Joon forming the committee members of the society. Alec Lim was the Chairman of the committee.

The annual Drama Festivals saw different classes writing plays and dramatising them in an inter-class competition which involved partnering a reciprocal class from Raffles Girls School. In Sec 4B Sc, both Huai Seng and Lionel took part and our play was good enough to be presented at the Drama Centre in Fort Canning Road. The late Chen Yin Fei wrote the play.

Miss Kathleen Eadie being entertained by her boys.

The best part of the Drama Festival were the many rehearsals with our RGS friends and Lionel remembered that many of these rehearsals ended in dancing parties in the RGS classroom. Rajan opined that at the annual drama festival when classes in RI were paired with classes from RGS, the production of plays for the competition was more meaningful due to the several roles involved in each of the play.

The 1968 Raffles Players Committee
Standing. Lee Suan Hiang, Lionel Lee, Tan Eng Leong, Alec Lim, Rajan Krishnan, Chek Ai Ming, Chong Huai Seng, Lee Chiang Huat
Sitting. Mr Goh Soo Tian, Ms Kathleen Eadie, Miss Christine Laird, Mr Wee Ban Bee

One teacher that was an inspiration for her involvement in Raffles Players was Miss Kathleen Eadie, the teacher posted to the school from UK as part of the British VSO, Voluntary Service Organisation. Miss Eadie was truly enthusiastic about Raffles Players and Rajan remembered she spending lots of time and effort in getting our interest up. She was the form mistress of Sec 4B Science where Huai Seng, Lionel and Rajan were classmates. After the success of the Sec 4B Sc production the class together with its RGS counterpart had a barbeque party at Track 22 Ponggol.

The Annual Drama Festivals were huge successes. Our cohort won the Best Play Oscar' Prize' in 1968 with the play ' Who's Knocking On The Door? ' by Pre U 1 Arts A. It starred Lim Kou.

 

 Leong Chun Chong contributed his collection of the Programme of the Drama Festival 1969. His class, Pre U 2 Sc E from RI teamed up with the girls from RGSS Pre U 2 Arts to produce a play Whom Society Really Needs. Chun Chong played Mr Tycoon.

The cast members of Who Society Really Needs: Ho Phak Chuan, Lim Kim Seah, Leong Chun Chong, Larry Chua Kok Cheong, Wong Lee Lin, Khoo Swee Hong, Koh Ai Ling, Song Lay Peng  & Tan Kuai San   Teo Joo Huak & Lau Tong Weng (not in picture) were stage hands

Another play was Delieu and we helped the RGS girls produced their play as stagehands, the girls needing some muscle power. Alec, Keng Joon and Lionel helped our Pre-U 2 RGS counterparts. We had the whole stage filled with mist by putting dry ice in cans of boiling water. Many of us were involved with the props, backstage and logistics. 

At the Drama Festivals the stagecraft enthusiasts cut their teeth in theatre in acting, directing, make-up, lighting, sound and stage crew. It was older boys teaching younger boys usually by trial and error. Lionel was able to pick up lighting technician skills from Chek Ai Ming, one year our senior. He became the lighting technician the Drama Festival and the Shakespearean plays and continued doing lighting for plays at the King Edward VII Hall in medical school.

The Shakespearean plays the Raffles Players produced were 'The Winter's Tale' in 1968 and 'MacBeth' in 1969. Tan Boon Huat was the role of Polixenes in the Winter's Tale. Shelia Wee, from RGS acted as the Hermione, the beautiful Queen of Sicily. Zee Leong was Perdita, the princess who did not know that she was the daughter of Polixenes and Herminone. Other members of the cast who were from our cohort included Leong Chun Chong (his name was spelt wrongly in the programme) and Tan Yong Tong as Archidamas.   

Jaya Prakash's wife Judith De Cruz, now Justice Judith Prakash of the Supreme Court was very involved as Mopse in the Winter's Tale.

As usual after each successful play the Raffles Players would celebrate. We will go to the beach with the RGS girls and have a party. These were evenings of great fun, singing and laughter.

Many of the boys worked at the backstage building props, becoming stage managers and stage hands. There were many nights where we would spent building props at the RP Garage at the Annex E building, We transported them to the Victoria Theatre using Weaver Chong Chee Hoe's or Chow Hock Leong's pick up trucks. 

During those nights, Keng Joon would play on the guitar at the back of Weaver's pick up and we would be singing 'Today' and 'Angel in the Morning' among many songs.

Lionel remembered that when Mr John Tan had to clear his house in Tank Road in August 1969 when he went for the Fulbright scholarship; the Raffles Players backstage hands helped him in the moving. Rajan wrote, "I was usually in charge of stage/backstage management for the event itself. This meant working with the props, lighting and sound teams besides the movement of various actors. One get so involved in these technical aspects, that on the actual day of presentation, it is not easy to enjoy the plays for its artistic or acting values. The concentration was always on the various technical aspects; as to what can go wrong or did go wrong!!

There were also numerous trips to the Min of Education to get the necessary clearances. This included submission of all the scripts which qualified for the finals of the annual drama competition and even scripts of Shakespeare's plays for the Annual Play. Then there was the trip to the Police to get the necessary public performance licence and the tax exemption office. All these were truly exciting mini adventures by itself, especially it meant going together with the RGS committee members.

There were also many other events to look forward to; like the several meetings of the main committee and sub committees involved in the planning and organisation as well as the after meeting gatherings, that could last longer than the main meetings.

There was also the opportunity to go to the various classes in RGS to publicize the events and to try to sell the tickets to them . This was always looked forward with great relish. These events always took longer than necessary as it gave us  a longer time to linger on!

The whole involvement with Raffles Players cannot be separated with the involvement with RGS as several events were jointly held with them."

Then suddenly in 1969, the merger between our two Schools was broken and the RGS left RP. Rumour has it that the Philip Liau, the RI principal, quarreled with Ms Norris, the RGS principal over the distribution of proceeds from the annual takings of the performances. Fortunately that year, girls returned to RI in the Pre-U classes and we were able to continue having plays with girls in Raffles Players.

Getting involved in Raffles Players was a very interesting and exploratory experience. Having been in an all boys cohort since Sec 1 it was  interesting in many ways as it meant working with RGS in organizing events such as annual drama festival and the Annual play. The Raffles Players brought the performing arts and literary pursuits to the RI boys, helping to fuel their interests and creativity. It was great fun!


Contributed by Rajan, Lionel, Leong Chun Chong and Chen Wen