Graduation

Ah... my kids are leaving me. TT_TT I cried so hard.

Reo was crying every 5 minutes, poor bb~!

 

 

Last Musical of the Year [Tons of Video]

These are pictures and videos of my kids last musical. My Secret Garden class performed Beauty and the Beast and my Wizard of Oz class performed Snow White. They did so well~!

ME & MY SECRET GARDEN CLASS

WIZARD OF OZ CLASS : SNOW WHITE MUSICAL VIDEOS

SECRET GARDEN CLASS : BEAUTY & THE BEAST MUSICAL VIDEOS

Changmin Birthday Event

At 8:50 it began with 《How Can I》, then at 11 it ended with 《Keep Your Head Down》 



For Changmin’s birthday party, the MC was SHINee’s Minho and his first lines were nothing but praises for Changmin. He stated, “Changmin hyung is the best in the world. He’s so handsome, so strong. How come he’s so handsome?” Changmin responded jokingly by saying, “Don’t make me yell at you in front of my fans.”


As soon as Changmin walked on stage, fans started screaming. Changmin asked 'You scream over everything. What is there to scream about?' Minho started to praise Changmin along with the fans, dishing out random compliments, saying that the way Changmin was sitting looked really cool.

Then a chair was brought on stage and when Changmin sat on it, fans screamed. Minho joined in with the fans complimenting Changmin on everything he did. Changmin replied, “I am only copying Choi Siwon.” When Minho complimented him, Changmin smiled and frowned at the same time.


MAX GRAPH 

The next segment of the party was where Changmin had to draw his life story on a board. There were horizontal and vertical lines on the board. Anything that was positive would be drawn above the horizontal line while anything negative would be drawn below it. Changmin then exclaimed that he can’t believe he has to draw it manually because he thought it was automatic where images would appear once the pen touched the board. CM: Are you really asking me to hand draw this? I thought this thing was automatic! The type where you just prod it and it draws the thing itself. Minho then confirmed that indeed the board was not automatic.




Changmin was given a board and asked to illustrate the ups and downs of his life in the form of a line. There was x and y-axes on the board:
Above the x-axis - high points of his life       Below - low points

Changmin then began his artistic portrayal of his life story.  Whenever Changmin mentioned something depressing, the fans would sigh, and Changmin would say 'Stop being all sympathetic!' And they'd scream instead. Then Changmin would complain again, mumbling 'Well there's no need to be that excited either…'

He first talked about his birth. He said when he was born he felt especially handsome and that he had milky skin. Minho then asked the fans to scream, “Milky skin Changmin! We love you Changmin!” At five years old, Changmin said he still did not know anything. Minho asked, “Did you have a high voice like you do now?” Changmin replied, “Of course not! At that time, I didn’t know about celebrities or idols, I only I was my mother's child!” Changmin then explained that when he was five, he had two emotional incidents during preschool. The first time was when a teacher said to Changmin, “You look so pretty!” and then bit him. The second time when a girl falsely accused Changmin of hitting her.

When he was ten, Changmin went to a ski park with his father. Changmin insisted that he was only a beginner but his father said that he was of intermediate level. In the end, Changmin injured his leg. There was also a time he was naughty in school and his parents were asked to come. Changmin said, “I was only being a little naughty and they asked my mom to come to school!”
Changmin entered junior high at fifteen. At this stage, fans screamed, “2nd year in junior high!” Changmin replied jokingly, “I know! I’m not stupid. Everyone knows that at 13, you’re in 6th grade“. He then began once again saying he had entered his 2nd year of junior high and upon hearing this, fans started to scream the name of Changmin’s junior high to which Changmin confirmed their screams. He also added, “Although there isn’t any ulterior meanings to this. There were lots of motels next to the school.”

Changmin then talked about being discovered by a talent scout. At the time, Changmin was behind the school playing badminton. He said that his charms must have impressed the scout so much that the scout decided to recommend him to SM. At the time, Yunho hurt him by saying “If you’re just here and not serious about it, then it’s better to leave early!” Changmin worked hard and eventually debuted as a member of TVXQ. Minho then chimed in, “At the time, you were thinking about becoming a small cat weren’t you?” Changmin replied, “Flaming charisma Minho!”
He then talked about his first girlfriend. However, Changmin was eventually dumped. Following his mention of a girlfriend but then being dumped, fans first screamed then sighed. Changmin then said, 'Just now when I said I got dumped, you guys screamed so loud and were so high about it! Aish!'
Then starting at age 20, Changmin began telling his life story year by year. Minho interrupted saying, “As MC, I was planning to request that you do so. I didn’t know you also felt the same way.” Changmin then boasted, “No matter what, I did debut prior to you for so many years!” When sad stories were shared, fans sighed. Changmin said, “Don’t show such sympathy”, but when fans immediately screamed happily, he said “What’s so happy about it?” Then, Changmin said that now, he is very happy. He said, "Now. Right now. Now" in English. SQUEE!

When Changmin started complimenting Minho, he replied with pride, “I won in this game against hyung 4 times in a row”, even adding within how many minutes. Changmin said, “At the time, I really wanted to hit this dongsaeng”. Minho then started to copy Changmin’s laughter. He first showed Changmin’s laughter when Yunho says something not funny but Changmin, being polite, laughs. He then showed how Changmin laughs when he truly hears something funny and laughs. Minho also mentioned that last time when Changmin was on Heechul’s show, he had heard it while he was in the car and thought Changmin had died laughing. Minho said that at the time, all he heard in the radio broadcast was “calm down, calm down” and in the end, it took five minutes before Changmin’s voice could be heard again. He said, “I really thought Changmin hyung had laughed to death.”
Then came time to watch a video made by fans. Minho told Changmin to look forward to it. To this, Changmin’s response was “I am already really looking forward to it. I am looking forward to it so much that I feel like crying.” When Changmin saw clips of himself crying, he stated, “I look good even when crying.” The ending was a picture and on it was written “To: Shim Changmin. From: Changmin’s fans”.

When a Valentine’s Day tune came on within the clips, Changmin used his finger to portray the part of the rabbit. Minho asked, “Why did you do that?” To which a fan screamed, “It’s my birthday!” Changmin replied, “It’s not just you. Millions of people are also celebrating their birthdays”. When brought up again, Changmin then said, “Such a big crowd, I can’t see you.” The lights came on and Changmin told the fan who had a birthday that day to raise their hand. Changmin continued to make the rabbit sign with his hand several more times.

When it came time to cut the cake, Yunho brought the cake on stage. Minho jokingly said, “This one looks familiar. How about a self introduction?” Yunho then introduced himself and said, “This cake looks a lot like mine. But I assure you it’s not the same one!” Minho then said, “You sure you didn’t just remove the top of the cake and replace it?” After saying this, Changmin attempted to remove the top of the cake and said that it was not removable. Minho allowed Yunho to say a few words to Changmin. Yunho held onto Changmin’s hand and started to say a huge speech. Changmin asked Yunho, “Must you keep holding onto my hand?” Yunho kept saying his speech and the two held hands till the end of Yunho’s speech. Fans then started to scream, “Bobo! Bobo! (kiss)” Changmin, somewhat embarrassed, replied, “I am a normal guy. Compared to guys, I like girls more. You have understand the feelings of the one kissing me, Yunho and the one being kissed, me!” In the end they two didn’t kiss, but they did hug.

Changmin then spoke a few words to the fans and although he told the fans not to laugh because it was a serious moment, fans could not hold back their laughter upon hearing his request. Then a fan screamed, “Please move closer!” to which Changmin, wide-eyed replied, “Come forward come forward, how dare you talk to me without using honorifics!” However, Changmin, along with Minho and Yunho all pulled their chairs closer to the front of the stage.

In order to calm everyone down and make them listen to Changmin, Yunho said 'Everyone clap your hands 3 times'. Changmin said 'This is like in university where the professor has an assistant sitting beside him. Yunho hyung is really good at this kind of thing.' 

When it came time to answer questions from fans, Changmin and Minho kept on talking and Yunho didn’t really have a chance to speak. Yunho finally couldn’t take it anymore and jokingly yelled at Changmin, “Hey! Look at me too!”. This caused an eruption of laughter from the fans. Then when it was time for Changmin to talk, Yunho was drinking water and even said to fans “You guys must focus!”. Changmin frustratedly said, “If you didn’t drink water they would focus their attention on me.”

One of the questions from fans was to act out parts from “Secret Garden”, in particular the part where there is receipt of the text message. However, the three expressed that they haven’t yet watched the drama. In the end, they instead acted out the lines of the host of Strong Heart saying “I’m busy! No! Go away!” Changmin then cutely said, “Didn’t get mad right?”
Speaking about acting cutely, Minho attested that he saw Changmin acting cutely when he was in the car. Whenever a car cuts him off or something similar, Changmin will get really angry. However he will calm himself down by talking to himself saying “Changmin-ah, You did very well. Don’t get mad hmm?”. Changmin did a live rendition of this and fans thought it was really cute.



Changmin: Thank you for attending my birthday party. Who am I to receive so much love from you all? Ha, thank you. I'll work hard in the future to repay you for your love.

The party then ended with a live performance of “Why (Keep Your Head Down)”. Right when it started, the dancers pushed Changmin out on the stage and also unbuttoned his shirt completely, exposing his chest and abs. Changmin was pushed to the front and half-heartedly danced Yunho's part and we all screamed out "Shim Changmin! Shim Changmin!"
 Then when it was time for Yunho’s part, Changmin went backstage to button up. While the KYHD performance for Yunho's birthday event was very serious and intense, they were more playful and did a fun performance for us this time.

Tears of Heaven Musical

  TEARS OF HEAVEN ADVERTISEMENT

On Wednesday, February 16th, I went to see Junsu's musical performance of "Tears of Heaven." It was absolutely amazing. I cried three times. It was soooooo good. Honestly, by the end of the performance, there was not a dry eye in the house. Guys were crying. It was really powerful and moving. Even thinking about this musical makes me tear up. 
Brad Little plays the American commander and whenever there is a scene with him in it, all the other characters speak in English. The mix of languages was really cool and gave the musical a sense of realism.

It's very similar to Miss Saigon in that its about American soldiers or pro-American characters ruining the lives and happiness of Asia(ns) during the Vietnamese War.

The play starts out with Tianna, a famous singer from America, who arrived in Korea to give a concert. Tianna is a Vietnamese war orphan and went to Vietnam to try to find information about her parents. Queyen is her manager and aunt. She is visited by a writer named Joon who tells her that he knew her mother and tells the story of how they met.

Linh, a Vietnamese singer, has been dating Colonel Grayson, an American commander of the ROK-US forces in Vietnam. He is called away on business and proposes to Linh before he heads out. She accepts. While he is gone, she meets Joon, a Korean soldier. She realizes that she really doesn't love Grayson and she just accepted his proposal because of pressure and everyone telling her how lucky she is to have caught the attention of an American commander. Linh and Joon fall in love and everything is grand and perfect. His tour of duty was coming to an end and Linh planned on going with him to Korea.
However, her "friend" Queyen, who desperately wants to go to America, tells the Colonel of her plan when he comes back. Queyen was counting on Linh's relationship with the Colonel to secure a visa for her. So, the Colonel retaliates by extending Joon's tour of duty and sending him to the front lines.
Later on, Linh is told that Joon is dead and Grayson pressures her into going to America. Linh finds out that she is pregnant with Joon's child, but Queyen persuades her to go to America anyway and not tell Grayson. Queyen is packing up the house when Joon arrives. Queyen lies and says that Linh already went to America with Grayson. So, Joon believes that Linh betrayed him.
Queyen and Linh  then fly to America. When Grayson arrives in America a month later, she is showing. Grayson wants her to put the baby up for adoption, which Linh won't agree to and she leaves him. Grayson then tells her of Queyen's betrayl. When Linh confronts Queyen, she miscarries. Linh dies in childbirth and leaves her daughter, named Tianna, in Queyen's care. Queyen raises Tianna as her own.

After Joon finishes this story, Tianna kicks Queyen out of her life and is reunited with her father.

It was truly awesome. Junsu gave an amazing performance. My one critique of him would be that he's not a musical actor, so he had to fight to be heard over the orchestra and other cast members. He didn't have the right breath support and he had to exert himself to get those notes out. That being said, he sang his songs beautifully and embodied the emotion of each song. Junsu was really kick ass. His acting as young Joon was really good. I was super impressed. He was really awkward as older Joon, but I guess that was part of his charm.
Incidences/Intense Scenes:

• During the bar scene when Queyen tells Grayson about Linh and Joon, there's a part in it when Grayson grabs Queyen's hair, pulls her head back, and then shoves her down. On my night, Brad Little must have been a little too "in-the-moment," because when he pushed her, he pushed her really hard which made her loose her balance off her chair and she ended up on her knees. I would have thought it was just part of the performance, but when the lights went off to change scenes, Brad Little put his arm around the actress and was frantically talking to her and it looked like he was apologizing and making sure she was okay. 

• During "Tiger and the Dove" scene, Junsu accidently broke the tail of the tiger shadow puppet when he was a little too enthusiastic with his arm movements. At the end when she says goodnight and closes the door, Junsu looked down at the puppet and said, "Ah. This tiger's tail is missing. Oh well" LOL

• There's a Korean actor who is playing an American soldier named Bill. His English was fantastic and when he spoke Korean, he broke it up and put weird inflections on it to make it sound like it wasn't his first language. But, in the first scene in Vietnam, Grayson asks Bill to escort Linh home. But, he already had plans with Queyen, he tried to break it off, so he could follow the Colonel's orders. Then, Queyen whispers in his ear what she'll do to him, and he says in English, "OH! Oh, that's hot." Then, he asks Joon in Konglish to take Linh home instead of him. Retelling it, it's not particularly funny, but in the musical, it's really funny.  

•  When Grayson comes to give Joon his orders (at Linh's house), he essentially tries to blackmail Linh into going to America in order to save Joon from going to the front lines. But, Joon resists and Linh gives Grayson back the ring he gave her. Joon said, "My orders, sir." Then Grayson said, "Here's your one-way ticket to Hell, son." Then, Grayson puts his back on, just so, and screams in Joon's face, "TEN-HUT!" There was so much fucking anger where they both were staring each other down. It was intense. I don't think I breathed during this scene and my entire row jumped when Grayson yelled, "TEN-HUT!" After this scene, I think I said, "Holy fuck" about three thousand times.

• Junsu's English was so cute! "I believe you have something for me, Colonel" and "My orders, sir" and one other line that I couldn't understand even when I saw it for the second time.

• The choreography for the fall of Saigon scene/song was fantastic. There are times when they all line up on one side of the stage, walk across it, and at certain marks some of the dancers fall out of the line like they'd been shot. 

• When Joon is captured and brought to an enemy camp, Sang (a VC soldier) grabbed Joon's hair and pulled his head back. His vocal chords were straining and it sounded like each line was dragged from his soul while he was trying not to cry. I was so shocked by the acting.  

Stephanie and I went to another performance last weekend and we both STILL cried. This is a great musical. The songs, the set designs, the choreography... all fantastic and breathtaking. Awesome.

 I'VE NEVER LOVED LIKE THIS: LINH & JOON
THIS IS WHEN LINH DECIDES TO ACCEPT JOON'S LOVE, LEAVE THE COLONEL, AND GO TO KOREA.
 When I saw this musical for the second time, I sobbed during this song because I knew what horrors lay ahead of them and this song was so happy and so fucking optimistic. ;~;
"No need to tell me how the story ends...I've never loved like this. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it destiny?"

 CAN YOU HEAR ME? : LINH & JOON
LAST SONG OF THE FIRST HALF. AFTER JOON RECEIVES HIS ORDERS, HE'S ON HIS WAY TO THE FRONT LINES. SO, THIS SONG IS ABOUT THEM PLEDGING THEIR LOVE FOR EACH OTHER AND PROMISING THAT THEY'LL BE TOGETHER AGAIN ONE DAY.

Can you hear me? Can you hear me? / Cross the distance we’ll take flight / Carried on the wings of angels/ are the promises that we both made tonight / Can you hear me? Can you hear me?

 I'VE HAD TO LEARN : JOON
This is the first song after intermission. One of my favorite songs in  the musical. Junsu sings it so brilliantly... it's awesome. Basically this song is about him trying to rationalize killing people, knowing that he will have to live with the horrors that he is witnessing, and that the only thing that keeps him going is Linh.

EXCERPT OF LYRICS
How can I tell you/How it feels to see/A country torn in half/Ripped apart by war/How can I tell you/How it feels to know/The only difference between them and me / is who will stand and who will fall

I've had to learn/Learn how to kill/Learn how to hate against my will/Learn how to fight

No, I wasn't born/With a gun in my hand/But yet every soldier understands/When duty calls/It's somebody's freedom or your own

But what of these ghosts that I must carry to my grave/Did he have a wife/Did he have a dream/Someone who loved them like you loved me/Why do I have to take his last breath away


So you learn not to run/You learn not to cry/You learn how to aim your weapon high and with them all/Never regretting what you're fighting for
Cause what you're fighting for/Is the one thing/You have left

 TEARS OF HEAVEN
This is the song Linh sings after she is told that Joon is dead. The set designers really did a great job~ in general, but particularly with this scene. <3 It was beautifully sang and composed.  This song made me cry. 
EXCERPT OF LYRICSA dream has died/And now it's time for fate to decide/How I'll go on without you/How I'll let go of your hand
Love divine/for one shining moment was mine/that ended before it began/so I'll cry tears of heaven
Hope still lives/inside me that's where it is/I'll cling to every tear drop/I'll reach for you with every breath I take

JOON'S REPRISE:  "TEARS OF HEAVEN" AND "CAN YOU HEAR ME?" (AUDIO)

Last song of "soldier" Joon. After Queyen tells him that Linh went to America with Grayson, he does a reprise of "Tears of Heaven," then the scene switches to Grayson sending Linh and Queyen off on a plane to San Francisco. After the plane takes off and the airport/landing strip is destroyed by bombs, Joon arrives and sings a heartbreaking reprise of "Can You Hear Me?"

CAN YOU HEAR ME? REPRISE 

LIVE MUSICAL VERSION  

 

 SHADOW OF MY HEART
The second song of the musical: Tianna sings this song about how there's a void in her life because she doesn't know who her parents were or anything about their lives. 
This moment should be filled with meaning / This moment should be flushed with sun / Instead this sorrow is all I feeling / Sadness every dream undone
My life has known so many secrets / The past to all hidden from my sight / I should be happy / but I'm plagued by energies in black and white
Like shadows on my heart that bind / shadows on my heart that see / A heritage that lives somewhere / Yet still unknown to me
A history that doesn't hurt / eclipses on the rain / that separates the light from dark / erasing the shadows on my heart

JUNSU'S LAST CURTAIN CALL: 03.19.11 

Shuttle to the theatre from the subway station

Outside the National Theatre of Korea

Painting of Junsu as "Joon"

Today's Cast

TEARS OF HEAVEN POSTER

Cool tiled wall that takes up one side of the first floor