What was your motivation to become the playhouse rep? 
Playhouse is something outside of med school. Sometimes being too focused on medicine alone, you fail to develop other parts of your life. The arts is a good outlet for you to express yourself, how you feel and what you aim to create. Playhouse displays your creativity and imagination, and the skills required to translate imagination to creativity. Theatre is a very complex and expressive form of art. It is very fleeting, you showcase it only once, and that’s it. This very transient nature of theatre, combined with the amount of hours and effort put into it, is really an experience that bonds people who have been part of it. This is something that bonds everyone in NUS medicine, even our alumni and current consultants. And this is something that is very different from the other schools. 

What can you tell us about the act that you are going to put on this year: 
Our plays tend to focus on exploring the nature of relationships between people. This year, we will be showcasing how memory affects our interpersonal relationships. In the futuristic world where we can selectively choose to delete our memories, we explore how this impacts our relationships with family, and the consequences of such an ability. 

How do you balance your studies and playhouse?
We need to take a step back and realise what is important to us. I’m not saying that knowledge is not important, it is important! It is important to ensure that your knowledge is up to par, and it is important to be a safe doctor, but the gap between being a safe doctor and being on the dean’s list is a dark and murky road. In that gap, you need to decide what is truly important to you. 

Advice: 
1. Collect lots of money from the start. Voluntary process where people can give how much they want. Easiest way would be to collect all the money for all 5 years right from the start, rather than collect every year. 

2. Story line is the most important, as it weaves everything together. It is the great limiting step, you can’t act, dance, sing without a story line. Think broadly, and negotiate among your team. 

3. Aim to put up a show that you can be proud of. Don’t aim to win, don’t pander to the criteria/marking scheme. Just do what you want. Do something that you can be proud of. Don’t care about winning or losing. As someone who loves art, you don’t want to let yourself down if you don’t put up a good show / something you love.

Watch an exclusive video interview with Qistina Aliffi, Jonathan Leong, Trinia Chia and Gaurav Deep Singh (taken from NUS Medical Society YouTube Channel)!

Video Credits: Benz Koh (Class of 2021)