Happiness abounds in the second of two perspectives on the AYA Awards 2009 ceremony from the eyes of Nalina Samynathan (Company/Stage Manager for T4YP 2009).

The AYA Awards 2009 Winners & Nominees

The AYA Awards was fun but quite surreal. It’s like being in a ‘happy’ twilight zone. First off, they had a couple of guys in suits right at the entrance to klpac (you know the corner before you turn into the road) waving those mock up of giant hands with all the AYA stuff on them. Then at the car park, another group of ‘men in suits’ just happily wait there for people. Once you get down from your car, a chorus of “Good evening, welcome to the AYA Awards” greet you.

And you think, “That’s nice”. Another couple of ‘suits’ wait at the drop off area and the moment they see you they go “Good evening, welcome to the AYA Awards” (Anyone notices a pattern here). Then reaching the foyer, someone opens the glass door and they go……do I even NEED to tell you what they say? And it’s EVERY ONE of them. No one misses a beat or line.

After recovering from the happy people mob daze I was looking for Chris. He was somewhere in the building with our passes. I was supposed to meet him at his desk to collect them. Can you believe that I was more or less ‘discouraged’ from going up to the office? Me! I practically camped in klpac for a year and I can’t go up to the office. Aha…a chink in the happy armor!

They were like “Mr Christopher Ling (yes, that’s Mr Christopher Ling to you) is not registered yet.” And I told them yes but he’s in the building having a rehearsal only to be told by the powers that be that there’s no rehearsal that day. Tsk tsk as if! Then they all kept looking at me. I kept thinking they’re going to kick me out for trespassing. I had to do something! So I told them I’d call Chris and find out. I tried…four times (what else was I to do, they just kept looking) while slowly walking out to the box office to escape the happy people. (They were looking even then.)

Within a few minutes a senior happy person came up to the box office and apologized saying the others weren’t aware of the details etc etc. Then I was introduced to our ‘personal attendant’. A very nice, smiling, pleasant girl called Tracey. But then again they were ALL nice, smiling, pleasant people. She was supposed to be with us from beginning to end. And she literally was. She kept referring to Chris as Mr Christopher, it was very strange hearing that. Mr Christopher this or Mr Christopher that. Weird.

Anyway, Chris being Chris came down to the foyer in shorts and t-shirts. *Sigh* He’d just finished the Mukabuku preview and was going to change into his ‘suit’ and join us. I must say, the man cleans up quite nicely. A jacket, PANTS AAAND tie. Hook on a pair of cuff-links and you have a passable (sorry Chris, the physique carries the most weightage) GQ cover guy…sort off.

Our personal attendant ( I sooo like the sound of that) guided us up the stairs to the area outside Pentas 1 for light refreshments, then guided us into Pentas 1 to our seats. We ACTUALLY had our names on the seats. Another surreal moment.

After the show, our personal attendant guided us to Indicine for the Press Conference. Oh and I forgot to mention, if you needed your glass held for a while or someone to hold your bag for a minute…our trusty personal attendant was there graciously, smilingly doing it for you. After the press conference she even walked us back to the office. (Yes, from the Indicine to the office). Can you feel the love people?

The whole experience was…..strange. First of all, the surplus of happy people was just mind boggling. I mean, really? ALL THE TIME? That was truly impressive. Then the whole we’re-not-leaving-your-side-until-you-leave-the-building thing was just as weird. It was like being in klpac but in a parallel universe. The thing is, they’re all nice. REALLY nice. But we’re like the behind the scenes people, we don’t do limelight as a general rule. So to have someone (and in this case a whole busload of people) pay THAT much attention to you was really weird. Oh well, it was certainly something different, for me at least.