'In Singapore, we just go home after work': Denise Camillia Tan on 'treasured experiences' with local actors during Taipei acting course

The lessons during the day were tough, but thankfully, they were in a city famous for its vibrant night markets where they could unwind. 

AsiaOne spoke to Malaysia-born actress Denise Camillia Tan recently about her eight-day acting course in Taipei, which she attended together with other Mediacorp actors Sheryl Ang, Zhang Zetong, Nick Teo, Ayden Sng, Chantalle Ng, Gini Chang and He Yingying.

 

 

 

 

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In the course, they learnt about voice acting, body movements and also heard from experienced actors and directors.

Special memories were forged not just during the lessons, as the 30-year-old Miss Astro Chinese 2012 said she spent a lot of time hanging out with her coworkers after class.

She elaborated to AsiaOne: "Usually, Sheryl, Zetong, Nick, a scriptwriter, a director and I would hang out together during lunch break, and after class, we explored night markets and restaurants.

"In the day, we bought coffee for each other, and we bonded over many common topics. In Singapore, we would just go home after work, but in Taipei, we hung out together so much.

"I treasure this experience, it's a good way to get to know each other better."

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Of course, they tried almost all the foods that Taiwan night markets are famous for, and went to various ones including at Shilin and Raohe.

The first night, they went to Ximending and had braised pork rice, mee sua, fried potato balls, bubble tea and oyster omelette.

At night markets, they played games like shooting balloons and tossing rings, and Denise even convinced her group to take pictures with her at the photo-booth.

Among all the delicacies they tried, Denise's favourite item sounds humble in comparison.

"My favourite food was cha ye dan (tea egg). The egg hit differently over there, I ate it every night without fail," she shared.

In fact, Denise's companions were so amused that they would ask her after class: "Are you going to buy your tea egg again?"

That is not to say that her trip was all rainbows and unicorns, though.

During lessons, the attendees were asked to choose a character from a given story, and create a five- to eight-minute monologue and present it in 30 mins. Having to create her own monologue brought Denise much stress at one point.

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She said: "I panicked a little, as it was fairly new to me and I felt that it was outside of my comfort zone. I was used to receiving a script, and now I have to create a script from scratch. It was quite challenging.

"We were not allowed to use our phones during lesson time, so we could not google for ideas and had to depend solely on our imagination and instincts." 

All's well that ends well — even though Denise admitted she felt nervous during her presentation, she was still glad she completed her assignment eventually.

Her favourite lesson was on how to use her voice in different ways. 

"In voice acting, I discovered that our voice can sound different depending on which part of our body it's projected from, and also whether we are energetic, in old age, or in a period drama, for example," she explained.

She concluded that she was grateful she "could freely explore (these techniques) with no judgement".

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jolynn.chia@asiaone.com

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