Centre 42, in collaboration with local collective The Art of Strangers and the Embassy of Mexico in Singapore, will present two playwriting workshops conducted by Mexican playwright Bárbara Colio:
- WORKSHOP DETAILS -
Participation in these workshops are FREE.
Pre-registration is required, please email info@centre42.sg to reserve a space in either or both workshops:
Playwriting 101: The passion to doubt
Date: 25 March 2016, Friday
Time: 11.00am – 1.00pm
Venue: Rehearsal Studio, Centre 42
Level: Introductory – Intermediate (little experience required)
Workshop size: 20-25 participants
In this workshop, Bárbara Colio will introduce some of the basic strategies for writing a play that she has implemented in the span of her career and offer some basic tips on dramatic techniques. The workshop will be led in a personal reflection about the reasons why we feel pulled to write a play and what makes a playwright’s vision of the world so special.
Meet Me Halfway (or Not): Writing clues for the director to follow
Date: 26 March 2016, Saturday
Time: 3.00pm – 5.00pm
Venue: Rehearsal Studio, Centre 42
Level: Intermediate – Advanced
Workshop size: 20-25 participants
In theory, the difference between a playwright and a director may seem obvious. However, is the distinction always so clear and precise? In this workshop Bárbara Colio will offer an account of her own experiences of working with several Mexican and international directors, paying particular attention to her own strategy of leaving ‘clues’ behind for the director to pick up and follow. The workshop will also include a dialogue with Singapore-based theater-maker/director Felipe Cervera (The Art of Strangers) in which both theatre-makers will discuss about the reasons why a director may or may not decide to follow those leads.
About the Playwright:
Bárbara Colio is one of the most prolific Mexican playwrights with over twenty published plays in Mexico and abroad. Her plays have been performed in Mexico, USA, Spain, UK, France, Argentina and Peru. She is the Mexican dramatic author with most awards, both nationally and internationally. In 2009 alone she was awarded The National Dramaturgy Award from the National Institute of Fine Arts for Ropes and the National Playwright Award Víctor Hugo Rascón Banda for You Are Here. In 2004 she was awarded with the Maria Teresa León International Award for Dramatic Authors. She has also been a resident playwright at The Royal Court Theatre in London, and at the Lark Play Development Center in New York (Visit: www.barbaracolio.com and www.facebook.com/barcodrama).
About the Director:
Felipe Cervera (The Art of Strangers) is a theatre-maker and a performance scholar. He graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) with a degree in Dramatic Literature and Theatre, from the University of Kent with an MA in Drama by Practice-as-Research, and currently a PhD candidate with the Theatre Studies programme at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He has been a full time lecturer at UNAM, guest lecturer at the Universities of Manchester (UK) and Antioquia (Colombia), speaker at the Summer School of the United National Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), and teaching assistant at the University of Kent and NUS. His theatre work has been showcased in Singapore, Egypt, US, UK, Argentina and Mexico. As a director, his first piece Imam Hussein was a commission for the V Mexico City International Stage Arts Festival in 2010 while his second piece The Mountain was a commission for the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2014.
About this Collaboration:
The three-way collaboration among The Art of Strangers, the Mexican Embassy in Singapore and Centre 42 is towards the development of a new work titled From the Pacific by Singapore-based theatre-maker Felipe Cervera and prolific Mexican playwright Bárbara Colio.
The play will be conceived by thinking about the Pacific Ocean as a border and about Mexico and Singapore as neighbours. The work will be directed at offering Singaporeans with a reflection of the city-state as seen from the perspectives of these two Mexican theatre-makers.
As part of the development process straddling Mexico and Singapore, Bárbara Colio will visit and create in Singapore in March and November 2016. During her time here, she will conduct playwriting workshops, masterclasses and clinics open to local theatre practitioners, writers and arts students. The engagement with the local theatre-making community aims to facilitate an exchange of knowledge, skills and ideas across borders.
In collaboration with:
