As part of Centre 42’s Co-Lab Residency, Brown Voices’ Hemang Yadav is back with another playwriting mini-series, this time exploring mythology in plays! Hemang’s brand new work-in-progress, Purana Residences, will be presented alongside with a two-part workshop titled Makyng the Myth Myne: Using Mythology in Playwriting this October!

Purana Residences — A Work-in-Progress Reading

Purana Residences allegorizes Indian mythology as a residential apartment, inhabited by well-known legendary characters. The play scrutinizes a variety of situations faced by numerous married couples from Indian epics, legends and folktales, albeit with a modern-day lens. In doing so, the play explores the relevance of these stories to our contemporary world. Does modernity compel us to reread these stories in new ways, thus interrupting the grand narratives of tradition and culture? Or are we repeating these prototypes and their traumatic potentials over and over again? Is social change possible?

Purana Residences is written by Hemang Yadav and directed by Gavin Low.

• Purana Residences is a by-invitation only presentation, please fill in this form to register for an invitation if you would like to attend. You will receive an invitation email from Centre 42 confirming your seat thereafter
• All registrants of Purana Residences are invited to sign up for the Makyng the Myth Myne Workshop.

Makyng the Myth Myne: Using Mythology in Playwriting — A Workshop by Hemang Yadav

Myths are compelling and powerful, for they are not merely purveyors of familiarity and tradition but also eternally potent framing devices for issues of the present day. Unfortunately, their potency is rarely explored in playwriting, and they frequently end up being relegated to costume-dramas or treated as museum pieces, embalmed in their traditional contexts. This workshop explores how mythology can be usefully employed or subverted to create new play scripts. Hemang Yadav’s script Purana Residences, a work-in-progress, will be used as a case study of a play that consciously uses and perhaps deconstructs mythology to investigate tradition while exploring contemporary topics.

Through the workshop, participants should gain a greater consciousness of the ways in which mythology and its potency can be used to explore current issues and come up with a concept-paper for a play using mythology.

• Please note that this is not an introductory workshop for playwriting, however, so participants who are completely new to theatre or to writing may not fully benefit from this workshop. Some basic knowledge of staging and the form of a script would be necessary.
• All participants of Makyng the Myth Myne: Using Mythology in Playwriting are highly encouraged to attend the play-reading of Purana Residences.

Purana Residences Work-in-Progress Reading

• 8 October 2021 (Fri), 8pm
  @ 42 Waterloo Street, Black Box
  

Makyng the Myth Myne Workshop 

• 9 October 2021 (Sat), 3pm – 5pm
  Online via Zoom
  Part 1: Lecture on Mythology in Playwriting & Question and Answer

• 10 October 2021 (Sun), 3pm – 5pm
  Online via Zoom
  Part 2: Hands-on Activities, Writing and Discussion.
  There may be assignments to complete between Day 1 and Day 2 of the workshop. 

Register for Purana Residences and/or Makyng the Myth Myne now at https://forms.gle/j1wNykxxR6CG6DcQ9.

Please note the following for Purana Residences:

• Purana Residences is a by-invitation only presentation, please fill in the form above to register for an invitation if you would like to attend. You will receive an invitation email from Centre 42 confirming your seat.

Please note the following for Makyng the Myth Myne:

• Registration for the workshop ends on 7 October 2021 1200hrs.
• All participants will be contacted by 8 October 2021.
• All participants must attend both sessions on 9 & 10 October 2021.
• Please note that this workshop is recommended for writers and those who have basic knowledge of staging and the form of a script.
• Participants are capped at 15 pax for this workshop. We seek your understanding that allocation will be on a first-come-first-served basis.

HEMANG YADAV
Hemang has penned and directed a number of plays, including a modern Noh play All The Crazy People (Wisdom of Monkeys, 2010), Maya: Demon Architect (Esplanade Raga Series/RDG, 2014), the opera-based play Letter to Juliet (Bellapoque, 2014), site-specific plays for the annual Arts Walk Little India (RDG, 2017-2019) and Pongal (Late-Night Texting 2019, Dastak 2021). Dramatised reads of his plays Malavika and Shakuntala were presented by Theatreworks and Esplanade respectively. He is a member of the writers collective Brown Voices. Hemang played memorable roles like the Bhagavadha in Girish Karnad’s Hayavadhana (Experimental Theatre Company, 2006), Kent in Ho Tzu Nyen’s The Lear Universe (Singapore Arts Festival, 2008), Demetrius in Stageclub’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Godse in Elangovan’s Satyameva Jayate (Agni Koothu, 2009), Bhima in WeCanDoIt’s Trikon (performed in Bangalore, 2011), Patel in Mahesh Dattani’s Tara (RDG, 2015) and Pillay in the site-specific First Storeys (2019). He worked as a dramaturg for Saga Seed’s The Shape of a Bird, RDG’s Adukku Veettu Annasamy, Drama Box’s Chinatown Crossings and Bhaskar Arts’ Marabu 2. Hemang is the festival director of the annual Tamil ten-minute play festival Pathay Nimidam, which brings together Tamil and non-Tamil theatre practitioners.

As part of Centre 42’s Co-Lab Residency, Brown Voices’ Vithya Subramaniam presents “More Than A Red Dot: A Survey of SG Indian Things”, a two-part workshop for all those who self-identify as Singaporean Indian.

Synopsis

Our everyday is full of objects—things that enact our actions, give shape to our work, and stand for our presence. Participants in this workshop will survey the material experience and expressions of ‘Indian-ness’ in Singapore, through a series of guided activities. Together, we will identify salient objects and discuss the ways objects give form to the varied ways of being ‘Indian’ in this nation-state.

While serving as a space for considered discussion, please note that the workshop will also inform

1. A staged lecture-performance, and
2. Vithya Subramaniam’s doctoral thesis.

All participants will have to sign a consent form stating their acknowledgement of and participation in point #2.

Register now at https://forms.gle/FWiYB2miPYVtjkYp6 by 19 August 2021, 2359h. Please allow us some time to confirm your participation after registration.

Terms and Conditions

• This workshop is open only to those who self-identify as ‘Singaporean Indian’. Participants need only identify as this for themselves. ‘Official status’ has no bearing.
• The workshop will be conducted over two weeks. Participants must attend the same session in both weeks.
• Participants must be 18 years old or older.
• Participants will be asked to consent to the use of their workshop contributions in
  1. a staged lecture-performance, and
  2. Vithya Subramaniam’s doctoral thesis.
• Participants will be asked to sign an additional consent form for the use of their workshop contributions in Vithya’s doctoral thesis. Unfortunately, participants who do not consent cannot continue with the workshops.
• Participants are capped at 15 pax per Workshop Session. We seek your understanding that allocation will be on a first come first served basis. All subsequent registrants will be placed on a waitlist.
• All participants will be contacted before 20 August 2021.

VITHYA SUBRAMANIAM
Vithya Subramaniam is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology and playwright interested in the more-than-human things in our lives. She has explored this in recent projects such as the Migrant Workers Community Museum (The Substation’s SeptFest 2021) and Thamizhachi: a digital museum of Tamil women under construction (N.O.W. Festival of Women 2021).

As part of Centre 42’s Co-Lab Residency, Brown Voices’ Hemang Yadav presents a two-part online workshop titled “Nation and Writing: Using the National Allegory in Playwriting”.

Synopsis

When Frederic Jameson came up with the notion that all third-world literature was a ‘national allegory’ he created a furore amongst third-world writers and critics. At the same time, many writers embraced this concept as a very useful reading strategy that allows for interrogating the effects of nation-building and overcoming the ‘crippling habits of colonialism’. This workshop explores how this concept can be usefully employed or subverted to create new play scripts. The workshop will use Haresh Sharma’s Model Citizens as an important case study of a play that (consciously) uses and perhaps deconstructs the national allegory.

Through the workshop, participants should gain a greater consciousness of the ubiquitous and insidious presence of the national allegory in numerous local plays. This consciousness should provide them with a tool for coming up with plots and characters who can both exemplify the effects of nation-building and maintenance of national identity as well as question, deconstruct and subvert them.

A Note to Participants

Participants can look forward to some hands-on writing activities and, by the end of the session, come up with a concept-paper for a play using national allegory.

However, this is not an introductory workshop for playwriting, so participants who are completely new to theatre or to writing may not fully benefit from this workshop. Some basic knowledge of staging and the form of a script would be necessary.

All participants will also be given access to the play-script and the 2010 staging of The Necessary Stage’s Model Citizens as required reading and viewing materials for the workshop. Do register early to gain access ahead of the session.

Created by Hemang Yadav

Produced by Centre 42 and Brown Voices, with the generous support of The Necessary Stage.

 

Workshop Dates: 13 & 14 August 2021, Online Via Zoom

• 13 August 2021 (Fri), 7pm – 9pm
  Part 1: Lecture on the National Allegory & Question and Answer

• 14 August 2021 (Sat), 3pm – 5pm
  Part 2: Hands-on Activities, Writing and Discussion

Register now at https://forms.gle/kEDJfakwcimsgBAw8 by 12 August 2021 1200hrs. 

Do register early to gain early access to the required viewing and reading materials ahead of the workshop.

Terms and Conditions

• All participants must attend both sessions on 13 & 14 August 2021.
• Please note that this workshop is recommended for writers and those who have basic knowledge of staging and the form of a script.
• Participants are capped at 10 pax for this workshop. We seek your understanding that allocation will be on a first-come-first-served basis.
• All participants will be contacted before 12 August 2021.

HEMANG YADAV
Hemang has penned and directed a number of plays, including a modern Noh play All The Crazy People (Wisdom of Monkeys, 2010), Maya: Demon Architect (Esplanade Raga Series/RDG, 2014), the opera-based play Letter to Juliet (Bellapoque, 2014), site-specific plays for the annual Arts Walk Little India (RDG, 2017-2019) and Pongal (Late-Night Texting 2019, Dastak 2021). Dramatised reads of his plays Malavika and Shakuntala were presented by Theatreworks and Esplanade respectively. He is a member of the writers collective Brown Voices. Hemang played memorable roles like the Bhagavadha in Girish Karnad’s Hayavadhana (Experimental Theatre Company, 2006), Kent in Ho Tzu Nyen’s The Lear Universe (Singapore Arts Festival, 2008), Demetrius in Stageclub’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Godse in Elangovan’s Satyameva Jayate (Agni Koothu, 2009), Bhima in WeCanDoIt’s Trikon (performed in Bangalore, 2011), Patel in Mahesh Dattani’s Tara (RDG, 2015) and Pillay in the site-specific First Storeys (2019). He worked as a dramaturg for Saga Seed’s The Shape of a Bird, RDG’s Adukku Veettu Annasamy, Drama Box’s Chinatown Crossings and Bhaskar Arts’ Marabu 2. Hemang is the festival director of the annual Tamil ten-minute play festival Pathay Nimidam, which brings together Tamil and non-Tamil theatre practitioners.