“STUDY ART FOR WHAT”

Host: 

Ke Weiliang (he/they) is a Singaporean arts practitioner-critic whose creative practice is centered around conversation building and fostering physically distanced intimacy over scattered, asynchronous interactions. He is the founding administrator cum radio chat host of the Telegram community Channel NewsTheatre, founding editor of the arts criticism blog Gee Dock Convos and a regular guest contributor with arts media platform ArtsEquator. They graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Arts Management in 2019. Follow him/them on Instagram: @monsieurkewl.

 

Guests:

Kaykay Nizam is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Singapore graduating from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts with a B.A. (1st Hons) in Theatre Arts. Since then, his career has spanned over 40 productions, having performed internationally in Beijing, Mongolia, Indonesia, London and New York.

 

 

Michele Lim is an arts management consultant, arts educator and producer. She currently teaches part time at LASALLE College of the Arts in the Career Management module for the level 3 students pursuing their Diploma in Dance, Performance and Technical Production Management. She has also conducted career guidance workshops for dance students at SOTA since 2016.

 

 

Selma Alkaff is a freelance actor and alumni of SOTA and The RCSSD. In 2020 she (accidentally) founded TheVirtualBabysitter; an online platform that provides interactive programs for children. Combining her experience with children and professional acting training, she strives to provide a unique service that is tailored to every child.

 

 

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“FLIRTING WITH THE FRENEMY: ART & TECH”

Host: 

Vithya Subramaniam is an Anthropology DPhil candidate at the University of Oxford, tracing the materiality of being ‘Singaporean Indian’. This year, Vithya created Thamizhachi: a digital museum of Tamil women under construction; wrote the zoom-play Rasanai; produced Tekka Food Steps; and co-facilitated the Migrant Workers Community Museum. She is also a founding member of Brown Voices.

 

 

Guests:

Adeeb Fazah is a theatre director and educator. He is the founding Artistic Director of The Second Breakfast Company, one half of Adeeb & Shai, co-founder of Impromptu Meetings and a committee member of STRIKE! Digital Festival. He also recently founded In the Round, a network of early career theatre directors.

 

 

Cherilyn Woo is a Freelance Theatre Director and Writer in Singapore with a keen interest in multi-disciplinary collaboration. From 2014 – 2016, she was in the Directing Residency at Singapore Repertory Theatre. Currently, she is one half of Issy x Cher and Associate at Nine Years Theatre.

 

 

Han Xuemei is a theatre practitioner based in Singapore. Her artistic practice involves designing experiences and spaces for people to be creative, disrupt routines and deconstruct paradigms. She has been a resident artist with theatre company Drama Box since 2012, and has conceptualised, directed, designed and facilitated numerous projects.

 

 

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“WAYS OF CARING”

Host:

Corrie Tan is a researcher and practitioner who works at the intersection of care ethics, collaborative performance practices, and new articulations of performance criticism and arts writing in Southeast Asia. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies on the joint degree programme between King’s College London and the National University of Singapore. She is also contributing editor and resident critic with ArtsEquator.

Photo credit: Elizabeth Chan

 

Guests:

Ahmad Musta’ain is an educator and playwright. He has had experience in leading, devising and participating in applied theatre projects with young people and sensitive communities. He’s also served on the Arts Consultative Panel (ACP) of IMDA and on executive committee of the Singapore Drama Educators Association.

 

 

Shaza Ishak is the managing director of Teater Ekamatra, an ethnic minority theatre company in Singapore established in 1988. She believes in effecting social change through the art of storytelling on stage and is committed to forging progress for the ethnic minority arts scene in Singapore and beyond.

 

 

Xiao Ting Teo (they/she) plays with ‘words’ and its related resonances, ‘art’ and its transubstantiation. Their current practice focuses on tending to the arts through writing alongside, sharing attention, and being with. They are currently a counsellor-in-training, and are in the midst of being trained in trauma-informed relational somatics.

 

 

Year In Review 2021 is presented by Centre 42, ArtsEquator and Channel NewsTheatre, in collaboration with Artwave Studio.

We would like to thank the following people for their contributions:

Sound Collaborators: 

Ng Sze Min is an audio storyteller and the Co-Founder of Artwave. She produces novel audio-first experiences at the intersection of sustainability, wellness and the arts. Listen to the latest immersive audio adventure, Blind Diving, to popular diving sites in Southeast Asia; a 30-min creative guide to soulful reset or watch her feature on Channel News Asia’s Into the Vault, where she speaks to various experts and recreates the soundscape of 1950s Singapore.

 

 

Pan Zai’En is a music producer and the Co-Founder of Artwave. His guitar work and arrangements have made its way into Asia’s Mando-pop scene, notably on tracks from artists like 动力火车(Power Station), Jerry Yan, and many more. He has mixed and mastered music for many upcoming artists under OL Creative, a label based in London. In Singapore, he has worked with The Freshman, Cues, and mixed for acts like Astronauts, Wokfunk, and SMSBand. He currently lectures at the School of Media and Design at Singapore Polytechnic.

 

 

Space Facilitator:

Lee Shu Yu is a freelance theatre practitioner from Singapore. Her professional and personal interests lie in critical and creative ideation and the development of communities. In her theatrical pursuits, she has been a conceptualist, stage manager, documenter and critic and co-founded Spacebar Theatre. Shu Yu enjoys crafting at ig:@washutape and making funny shushapes as an amateur dancer.

RUTH WILLIAMS (Australia)
Research Associate, Australia Council for the Arts

YVONNE THAM (Singapore)
CEO, The Esplanade Co, Ltd

HASYIMAH HARITH (Singapore)
Company Manager, P7:1SMA

 

Workshop Facilitator:

BEC BARNETT (Australia)
Co-director, Relative Creative

 

Moderator:

FATIMA AVILA
Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)

Click here to view album

TAY TONG (Singapore)
Enabler & Cultural Worker

FERDINAND RICHARD (France)
International Expert on Artists’ Mobility

MELLISA LOW (Singapore)
Research Fellow, Energy Studies Institute, National University of Singapore

 

Moderator:

FATIMA AVILA
Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)

Click here to view album

JUDITH KNIGHT (United Kingdom)
Director, Arts Admin UK

JISUN PARK (Republic of Korea)
Executive Producer, Producer Group DOT

CUI YIN MOK (Singapore)
Organising Member, Producers SG

Moderator:

FATIMA AVILA
Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)

Click here to view album

 

Sau(dara)
Director: Soultari Amin Farid
Dramaturg: Grace Lee-Khoo
Performers: Lyn Hanis Rezuan, Suryana Norddin, Nurul Farahani, Syafiqah ‘Adha Sallehin
Producer: Iffah Idi
Executive Producer: Mohamad Shaifulbahri

Are You Game?
Director: Fasyali Fadzly
Performers: Ali Alasri, Darynn Wee, Hannan Barakbah
Visual Designer: Brian Cheng
Lighting Designer: Syamsul Azhar
Stage Manager: Karyn Tan
Producers: Hoe Hui Ting, June Tan

 

 

Programme Booklet (SG Staging)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Programme Booklet (KL Staging)

Reading Materials

ABOUT THREE CHILDREN

CROSS-CAUSEWAY THEATRICAL COLLABORATIONS 

INTERVIEW WITH ARTISTS OF SAU(DARA)(2018)

 

 

 

Previews

BFM89.9 “Malaysia meets Singapore via 1988″ [PODCAST] 

 SG MAGAZINE “A cross-Causeway double bill on growing up in the Straits is coming in March”

 STRAITS TIMES “Impactful women’s tales”

 BAKCHORMEEBOY “Are You Game, Sau(dara)?: An Interview with Creators Fasyali Fadzly and Soultari Amin Farid, and Dramaturg Grace Lee-Khoo”

 BAKCHORMEEBOY “Preview: Are You Game, Sau(dara)? by Centre 42 and Five Arts Centre”

 

Reviews

 STRAITS TIMES “Theatre review: A cross-border collaboration on growing up”

BAKCHORMEEBOY “Review: Are You Game, Sau(dara)? by Five Arts Centre (KL) and Bhumi Collective (SG)”

 

 

FROM CITIZENS’ REVIEWS:

Christian W. Huber
Christian is a C42 Boiler Room 2016 playwright, and enjoys being an audience member to different mediums of the arts. He finds arts invigorating to the soul, and truly believes that the vibrant arts scene has come a long way from its humble beginnings.

Cordelia Lee
Cordelia is a final-year Theatre Studies major trapped in a full-time relationship with the National University of Singapore. Whenever the opportunity arises, she purchases discounted tickets, slips into the theatre and savours every moment of her temporarily bought freedom. She prefers performances that run no longer than two hours, and is always in the mood for innovative directorial choices – the less she sees them coming, the better. Outside of theatre, she routinely tortures her obliques in the gym and sings to ’90s hits in the shower.

Isaac Tan
Isaac graduated from the National University of Singapore with a BA (Hons) in Philosophy, and he took Theatre Studies as a second major. He started reviewing plays for the student publication, Kent Ridge Common, and later developed a serious interest in theatre criticism after taking a module at university. He is also an aspiring poet and his poems have appeared in Symbal, Eunoia Review, Eastlit, and Malaise Journal.

Jocelyn Chng
Jocelyn is a freelance educator, practitioner and writer in dance and theatre, and has written for various platforms since 2013, including The Flying Inkpot and Arts Equator. She holds a double Masters in Theatre Studies/Research, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (Dance Teaching). At the heart of her practice, both teaching and personal, lies a curiosity about personal and cultural histories; writing about performance allows her to engage with this curiosity. She sees performance criticism as crucial to the development of the performance landscape in Singapore, and a valuable opportunity to contribute to ongoing discussions about performance and society.

Lee Shu Yu
Shu Yu is a currently pursuing a degree in Theatre Studies at the National University of Singapore and loves exploring all that has to do with the arts. Her latest foray into reviewing stems from a desire to support the vibrant ecology of the arts in Singapore.

Liana Gurung
With a Literature major’s love and propensity for over-analysing, Liana is a mostly-reader, sometimes-writer who was raised on a diet of musicals (read: Julie Andrews). Her attention has since turned to the gritty, innovative and often subversive world of the Singaporean play: the leaner, the tauter, the more spare – the better.

FROM ARTSEQUATOR.COM:

Akanksha Raja
Akanksha is an arts writer from Singapore. She has been writing reviews on theatre (and occasionally visual art) as part of the editorial team at ArtsEquator.com since its launch in 2016, and is an alumnae of the Points of View Performance Writing workshop organised by the Asian Dramaturgs’ Network in 2018.

Naeem Kapadia
Naeem is a finance lawyer and passionate advocate of the arts. He has acted in and directed student drama productions in both London and Singapore. He has been writing about theatre for over a decade on his personal blog Crystalwords and has contributed reviews and podcasts to publications such as London student newspaper The Beaver, Singapore daily newspaper TODAY and arts journals The Flying Inkpot and ArtsEquator. Naeem enjoys cooking, running and travel.

Patricia Tobin
Patricia Tobin is Singaporean theatre critic. Her reviews can be found on ArtsEquator and on her blog, havesomepatty.com. She currently works in media.

FROM CITIZENS’ REVIEWS:

Casidhe Ng
Casidhe is currently serving his national service,  having just graduated from the School of the Arts, Singapore. He enjoys reading and writing, and believes that theatre reviewing is an excellent motivator for artistic improvement when done right. Aside from writing, his true passion is for the stage and enjoys acting, designing and occasional dramaturgy.

Christian W. Huber
Christian has been away from the theatre scene for over ten years as he focused his time in running and managing the family business of Boncafé International Pte Ltd – A Pioneering Gourmet Coffee Roasting and Manufacturing Company in Singapore. Christian stepped down from the company earlier this year to pursue his other interests and to spend time with his family of four. He continues to look after another family business, as well as to pursue his renewed interest in the arts.

Christian is a C42 Boiler Room 2016 playwright, and enjoys being an audience member to different mediums of the arts. He finds arts invigorating to the soul, and truly believes that the vibrant arts scene has come a long way from its humble beginnings. He looks forward to appreciating, experiencing, and exploring more of it as a Citizen Reviewer!

Cordelia Lee
Cordelia is a second-year Theatre Studies and English Linguistics double major, who is currently trapped in a full-time relationship with the National University of Singapore. When life with NUS gets too overwhelming, she purchases student-discounted tickets to local plays, slips into the theatre, and savours every moment of her temporarily bought freedom.

She views the theatre as a liminal space providing far more than simply entertainment. It is there where inspiration strikes, where beliefs are challenged and discussions are sparked. While she appreciates a wide range of theatrical styles, she admits to being especially intrigued by avant-garde performances. Often, the more perplexing and thought-provoking they are, the better.

Outside of university and the theatre, she finds herself spinning to Spanish music on the salsa dance floor, torturing her obliques in the gym, and routinely singing to ’90s hits in the shower.

Isaac Tan
Isaac graduated from the National University of Singapore with a BA (Hons) in Philosophy, and he took Theatre Studies as a second major. He started reviewing plays for the student publication, Kent Ridge Common, and later developed a serious interest in theatre criticism after taking a module at university. He is also an aspiring poet and his poems have appeared in Symbal, Eunoia Review, Eastlit, and Malaise Journal.

To top it off, he is equally passionate in acting and flamenco dancing, and hopes to pursue all his passions in equal measure. He blogs infrequently at pre-lude.blogspot.com, while his portfolio and other reviews can be found at www.isaactanbr.com.

Jocelyn Chng
Jocelyn holds a double Masters in Theatre Studies/Research. She is a founding member of the Song and Dance (SoDa) Players – a registered musical theatre society in Singapore. She is currently building her portfolio career as an educator and practitioner in dance and theatre, while pursuing an MA in Education (Dance Teaching).

Myle Yan Tay
Yan is currently studying in Yale-NUS College, where he enjoys spending his free time in far too many productions. Having tried acting, writing, and directing for the stage, Yan looks forward to reviewing. He believes that theatre should challenge both the audience and creators. Theatre, to him, is about constantly pushing the boundaries of what the medium can do while telling a compelling story.

FROM ARTS EQUATOR:
Kathy Rowland (Managing Editor)
Kathy Rowland, as is glaringly obvious from her name, is from Malaysia. A chance encounter with a commedia dell arte troupe in her teens led to a career in the arts (also, lifetime penury).  Since 2011, Kathy has lived in Singapore, where she teaches part-time at LASALLE College of the Arts. She is a writer, editor and producer. Her articles on the politics of culture have appeared in publications in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, the US and South Korea. Kathy edited and introduced  Staging History: Selected Plays from Five Arts Centre 1984 – 2014 (2015), Huzir Sulaiman: Collected Plays 1998 – 2012 (2013) and Krishen Jit: An Uncommon Position, Selected Writings (2003). Kathy has produced theatre and visual arts events in Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, New York, Australia and Thailand.  She is part of the Asia Europe Foundation’s ASEAN Researchers’ program, Regionally Speaking (2016-2017) led by Prof Dr Ruth Bereson of Griffith University and is the Lead Researcher in a theatre archive project run by Five Arts Centre Malaysia.

Biography taken from Arts Equator

The last Centre 42 event of 2017, “In the Living Room: Year in Reviews” was held on 14 December 2017. Six of the Centre’s Citizen Reviewers and Kathy Rowland from ArtsEquator were invited to look back and share their opinions on the local theatre productions they watched this year. The session, which was moderated by Citizens’ Reviews’ chief editor Robin Loon, was divided into six sections: 2017 as the year of the musical; The Necessary Stage’s 30th anniversary season; productions by smaller collectives; the most disappointing and exciting shows the panellists watched this year; and what they’re looking forward to most in 2018. Photos: Daniel Teo

Source: Centre 42 Facebook