Hi Loves!
I may be an effusive writer and blogger when it comes to topics, food, music and products that I really like. But I do know that the term “Prodigy” is only reserved for a select few that truly deserve it. Shayna Toh is the prodigy in mention here:
Shayna Toh, a seventeen-year old Junior College student, has been studying and composing music since she was six. With a love for theatre as well as pop music, she is also an avid writer, having had several stories published since 2008 and in 2013, a children’s book (on urban nature deficit) published. Shayna made her first foray into the theatre scene at eleven, in 2008, when her script “Where Your Dream Takes You” directed by Singapore Repertory Theatre’s (SRT) Director, Michael Corbidge, was performed by actors from SRT and MediaCorp at the DBS Arts Centre.
Seriously, what was I doing when I was 17? I was a SAJC student busy coping with school subjects, CCA & fund raising activities. This girl is busy preparing for her debut full length pop musical! This is the kind of stuff that a full grown adult and musical talent dreams and spends half their life trying to achieve but she’s already doing it. O.O And she was only 11 when her script, “Where Your Dream Takes You” was directed and performed! Kudos to the girl!
This time around, Shayna Toh has written the book/script, music and lyrics to her new musical “Firefly In The Light”.
Firefly In The Light, a new pop musical, tells the story of Wendy, a beautiful and talented teenage school- girl, who knows she is destined for great things. In her shadow, is her childhood “friend”, Jake, unassuming and insecure – who (finally) finds his strength in Wendy. Beckoned by the brightness of a future in a city thousands of miles away, Wendy leaves her small hometown to follow her dreams.
A protective mother, her elusive husband in the entertainment business, a shrewd artist manager, amidst adoring friends and fans alike- all wittingly or unwittingly direct the destinies of Wendy and Jake as they search for themselves, love and success, finding themselves treading on similar grounds but taking very different paths, not once but twice in their young lives.
With a collection of freshly minted songs ranging from rambunctious up-tempo pieces to soft ballads, this Musical, to be staged in the historic Chamber of The Arts House, promises the audience an intimate experience with the young, budding cast and musicians as they spin this tale of youthful hopes, discoveries and pain into an ending.
The director Tabitha Loh, is yet another young talent at the age of 22:
Tabitha Loh, twenty-two, was first trained at ten, under The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art Speech and Drama Program. Completing a year under LASALLE’s Performing Arts Foundation Course and a degree in Theatre and Performance, Tabitha has worked on assistant directorships including Peter Handke’s, Kaspar (2011) with director Natalie Hennedige, Fences (2012) an original opera by Dr John Sharpley and Robert Yeo, directed by Chandran K Lingam. She directed M. Lee’s Serangoon Sunset (2012) presented at the APB Drama Schools Festival, Taiwan.
Be sure to check out the work of young musical talents this weekend, 15 November 8pm @ The Arts House Chamber! Buy your tickets from Sistic here.
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