The International Science Drama Competition 2023 was held at Bangkok, Thailand on 10th September 2023. The theme for this year’s competition was “Producing Green, Consuming Green”.
The highly anticipated competition involved international teams from Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and Brunei. The Bruneian Contingent called the “Brunei Eco Ensemble” represented Seria Energy Lab for the International Drama Competition 2023, comprised of 5 members that performed for the Open category. The team received a merit award for their performance titled “Alistair In Wonderville’.
The story revolves around the increasing rate of electronic waste, microplastics and chicken plumping, as well as the unethical experimentation on animals in the beauty and health industries. As part of the preparation, the cast attended numerous rehearsals and were exposed to a variety of skills such as science communication, research and development, collaboration and showmanship.
Ardan Lee Hao, a Year 10Sc1 student from Chung Hwa Middle School, BSB, won the Outstanding Male Performer Award in the Open Category.
For Ardan Lee, this was his first time participating in such a prestigious competition. Through a tough selection of over 100 students, he was selected to be part of the 5-member crew that represented Brunei for the ISDC 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand. What came after that was months of practice and hard work; four and a half months to be exact.
For him, there were certainly challenges to overcome in the process, for example getting out of comfort zones and trying out different approaches towards a certain character or being able to adapt and memorize all the scripts changes . But one of the biggest challenge for him was transportation to the training location. Every week it was a 1h 30min drive to Seria back and forth. Fortunately, he was backed by a whole team of supportive parents and teachers. He said, “it was like a tag-team, alternating between each other on who would bring me there. Without them, he wouldn’t have made it this far. So, I’m deeply thankful for all their help.”
When asked about his experience at that competition at Bangkok, he reminisces that his whole team was delighted to perform alongside with all the other countries and gladly, their performance went smoothly.
He said, “One of the highlights was when they announced that there will be two best performers from each category, and I was incredibly blessed to be one of them. I was in a state of shock, joy and disbelief at that time, to the point that I had to reconfirm with the coach whether it was really me who received this prestigious award. I am proud to be a part of the Brunei team and I would say the most valuable thing that I have gained from this competition is the friendships and memories made along the way – it is priceless, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.”
The School Principal, Madam Kho Guik Lan congratulated Ardan Lee Hao for winning the outstanding award and to Brunei Team for the efforts and hard work done to put up a grand show at the International Science Drama 2023.
This year was Seria Energy lab’s fourth time participating in the competition together with student representatives from various schools across the Sultanate. The ISDC 2023 is one of the many competitions created to spark the youth’s interest in STEM education and bring forth performing arts as a new vessel of learning.
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