Centre 42 » Thong Pei Qin https://centre42.sg Thu, 16 Dec 2021 10:08:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.30 BITTEN: RETURN TO OUR ROOTS | by Thong Pei Qin & Nidya Shanthini Manokara https://centre42.sg/bitten-return-to-our-roots-by-thong-pei-qin-nidya-shanthini-manokara/ https://centre42.sg/bitten-return-to-our-roots-by-thong-pei-qin-nidya-shanthini-manokara/#comments Thu, 14 Jun 2018 10:49:30 +0000 http://centre42.sg/?p=12150

SynopsisCreation ProcessCreative Team
BITTEN: Return to Our Roots is a closer look at what fundamentally roots all of us, in our generation’s attempt to reconnect with out cultures and lineage, yet giving a fresh spin on how we interpret our traditions. How are elements of family history passed down from one generation to the next? Are bloodlines the only way to understand heritage, family and human ties? How do our different traditions and cultures coalesce to create the unique Singapore identity and kampong spirit?

Creators Nidya Shanthini Manokara and Thong Pei Qin embark on a journey to weave together the collective stories, oral histories and shared heritage of Kampong Bugis. Inspired by their own grandparents’ stories and homes that were situated within the vicinity in the 1930s to 1960s, the two friends wish to invite audience members to remember this site with historical significance, and to find out what binds people of diverse origins and cultures. This endeavour is urgent as new developments have been announced to give the Kallang Riverside a new look, with works beginning end of 2018.

The process of developing Bitten started in 2016:

Bitten was first read to a small private audience of theatre practitioner friends to garner feedback for the script in July 2016. This phase was supported by Centre 42’s Guest Room platform. You can find out more about the reading here.

In January 2017, a more developed script was presented as a work-in-progress to a small audience as part of the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2017’s Fresh Fringe.

In 2018, the work was developed and presented as a site-specific work with the title Bitten: Return to Our Roots. The performance comprised an element of a walking tour, in and around Kampong Bugis including the 130-year-old Sri Manmatha Karuneshvarar temple,  the former Sam Tat building and the former Kallang Gasworks Holder No. 3.

Director – Thong Pei Qin

Pei Qin likes connecting with people and creating conversations. She also has a penchant for bringing experimental works out of the conventional theatre space.

BITTEN: Return to Our Roots is a constant discovery of the ties that bind her and her trusted life-long friend & collaborator Shanthini. The idea sparked off when they both realised their grandparents had lived around the vicinity of Kampong Bugis and had strong connections with the space.

Choreographer & Lead Dancer – Dr. Nidya Shanthini Manokara

In her avatar as a performance-maker, Shanthini enjoys exploring the resonances her bharata natyam practice has with contemporary issues in Singapore.

The physical structures that are still present today in Kampong Bugis, the sights and sounds from the formative years of the place that had been shared by the past residents including their own families, and the constant reflection on what it means to forge relationships (with spaces and people) have all deeply influenced both Shanthini and her dear friend Pei Qin.

Actor – Masturah Oli

Masturah Oli is an actor, host and theatre-maker. She graduated with a BA(Hons) in Theatre Arts from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts validated by the University of Essex (East 15 Acting School) in May 2018.

Her roles in theatre include: Teen Chorus in Pursuant: The Musical (Singapore Lyric Opera), Am I Singaporean (1N THE ACT PRODUCTIONS), Hecuba in Trojan Women (NAFA), Breathless: The Mixtape (Buds Theatre Company), and Harper in Far Away (NAFA).

Masturah performed in Step Outta Line as part of M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2018. Later this year, she will be a part of Singapore Asian Youth Theatre Festival, a festival that celebrates the importance of youth in theatre. As a Youth Ambassador, Masturah will host the main stage events, alongside youths from all over Asia.

She feels extremely privileged to be sharing her love and knowledge of theatre to the coming generations. She hopes to one day inspire youths the way she was inspired by her teachers. Having just graduated, Masturah hopes to do all kinds of theatre, work
with all kinds of people and travel to all kinds of places.

Actor – Seong Hui Xuan

Hui Xuan is a professional actor, singer, dancer and choreographer. She holds a First-Class Honours in Musical Theatre from LASALLE College of the Arts (Singapore), where she now lectures and choreographs part-time. A multifaceted performer, she recently was invited to perform a physical theatre piece for young audiences with Australian company The Paperboats in the 2018 Commonwealth Games festival village on the Gold Coast.

You’ve seen her on stage in Coraline, Tropicana the Musical, Rent, The Last Bull: A Life In Flamenco and more, and you’ve seen her choreography on Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress (Associate), Forever Young, Chicken Little and Lao Jiu the Musical.

 Development Milestones 

BITTEN: Return to Our Roots was developed in residence at Centre 42’s Basement Workshop from July 2016 to November 2018.

 

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BITTEN | by Thong Pei Qin & Nidya Shanthini Manokara https://centre42.sg/bitten-by-thong-pei-qin-nidya-shanthini-manokara/ https://centre42.sg/bitten-by-thong-pei-qin-nidya-shanthini-manokara/#comments Thu, 12 Apr 2018 08:15:22 +0000 http://centre42.sg/?p=8967

Bitten Publicity Image (Read)

Reading-Presentation Details:

24 July 2016, Sunday
7.30pm
Rehearsal Studio @ Centre 42
(Closed-door, by invitation only)

  • Bitten is an intimate conversation on personal accounts and morbid Kafkaesque imaginings of fear and death, erupting into hilarious spewings of superstitious beliefs based on traditional remedies and cures, leading to an adapted strange folklore of a man reincarnated as a blood-sucking mosquito feverishly in search of his lover. Both poignant and itch-inducing, Bitten aims to bring the audience into a world abuzz with rich Singaporean cultures, the supernatural, and multiple truths.

    Inspired by the common experience of having fallen prey to the dreaded Aedes mosquito and dengue fever, Pei Qin and Shanthini share their vivid musings of the journey undertaken by the relentless virus inside their bodies, the heightened state of paranoia that came with the disease, and the love and care showered on them as the battle raged on beneath the skin, through devised text and physical movement with a spin on classical Bharata Natyam dance.

    This piece borrows from the external physical effects on the body, and delves deeper beneath the skin into the inner human psyche and root of the performers, as they uncover experiences of communicating across generations, different languages, and medical terms, as well as the rich cultures, traditions and beliefs their families have to offer.

  • Thong Pei Qin trained in theatre directing and physical theatre at GITIS Russian University of Theatre Arts (Moscow), and holds two theatre degrees from the University of Essex (M.A. Distinctions in Theatre Directing) and the National University of Singapore (B.A. Honours in Theatre Studies). Recently, she joined the newly formed Saga Seed Theatre as Associate Director, and is one of the directors on board The Finger Players’ “Watch This Space” programme (Directors’ Cycle, 2014-16). She most recently directed TheatreWorks’ Between Consciousness (Feb-Mar 2016). Some other directing credits include Natalie Hennedige’s Nothing, Esplanade The Studios: fifty’s Family Relations in Singapore Theatre, David Schneider’s London premiere of Making Stalin Laugh, and a fully devised site-specific work Re: Almost Left Behind on the Singapore Arts Festival 2011.

    Dr Nidya Shanthini Manokara obtained her PhD in 2014 from Theatre Studies Program on the NUS Research Scholarship. She is also a classically trained Bharata Natyam practitioner who has received a Diploma and “Natya Visharad” Award for excellence in the dance from Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society in 2003. She currently teaches with the Theatre Studies Programme at National University of Singapore and the Dance Department at Lasalle College of the Arts. Her primary research interests include evolving Asian performance practices and changing affective registers. Shanthini is currently an Apprentice Dramaturg with Centre 42 and has foresight in dance dramaturgy.

  • Bitten was presented at Esplanade Rehearsal Studio as part of the Fresh Fringe category under M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2017.

     

    Bitten: Return to Our Roots will be re-imagined as a site-specific performance and presented at Kampong Bugis Event Site under Our Singapore Fund in 2018.

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