By Hannah Teoh
They trash any household item they can get their hands on, and it makes a noise that brings the house down.
Kitchen sinks, buckets, broomsticks, bottles and other ordinary household objects become instruments in the hands of the cast of STOMP, the percussion and dance theatre group.
The production continues to wow audiences around the world after 16 years on Broadway and will be showing at the Esplanade until Oct 11.
This is STOMP's third performance in Singapore since 1998.
AsiaOne chats with two of the performers about what goes on behind the scenes.
Leilani Dibble, 31, is a dancer who has been performing with STOMP for the past seven years.
Richard Giddens, 29, has been with STOMP for almost 11 years and is a jazz musician when he is not touring with STOMP.
What kind of background do you need to get into STOMP?
R (Richard Giddens): There's no required background. It's a personality and attitude thing.
L (Leilani Dibble): It helps if you have music experience or dance experience, or acting experience...
R: But they want to see who you are and what you can bring to the table.
What do you have to do during the audition?
R: They teach you parts of each routine and see what you can do with it. They set it up like a workshop. I didn't even know I was auditioning. I was just having a great time.
How do you come up with the routines during the show?
R: A lot of the show is improvised. How you start and how you end it is set, but how you get from the start to the end, you choose your own adventure.
L: The sky's the limit. They want you to explore. The people you see on stage? That's really them. They're just amplifying their personality.
What're some of the worst injuries you've gotten?
R: I've broken my hand and I've fractured two vertebrae.
L: I broke a fellow performer's finger. It was during my first show, with a pole.
What's the weirdest object you've gotten a sound out of?
L: A toilet plunger.
R: Matchboxes. I've never thought of a matchbox as a musical instrument.
What kind of preparations do you do before you go on tour?
R: Lots of beers, lots of laughs. A lot of us have been doing the show for a long time, so we just trust each other - that whatever we're going to bring to the table will be fun.
» See photos of the cast in action
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