Centre 42 » Nabilah Said

GHOST CALL by Nabilah Said

Intern C42 — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 10:18:42 +0000

“No phones, just ghosts living in the moment”

Reviewer: Lee Shu Yu
Performance: 18 May 2019

I love scrolling down the social media feeds I have carefully curated to my interests. I love recognising my online friends by their handles. My fingers probably scroll and tap in my sleep.

Depending on one’s outlook, I am what people call a digital native, or a smartphone zombie. And I have to admit, I love it.

Yet, there is nothing more satisfying than surrendering my connectivity for an hour or two at the theatre. I find myself grinning at Ghost Call’s pre-show expectation to turn our phones off. What if somebody tries contacting me? Do I turn into that blue-ticking ghoul instead?

I leave the irony at the door of Room 1 and am greeted by the sterile white room ahead. A bright-eyed Adeline (Stephanie Rae Yoong) sticks pink and blue post-its on the wall. There are greetings and questions, hopes and fears, and even a game of tic-tac-toe.

Right next door in Room 2, a furtive Evan (Matthew Goh) scribbles shyly. He keeps the notes to himself.

In and out I go between rooms at Ghost Call, written by Nabilah Said in collaboration with RAW Moves. It is a self-directed experience: audience members move about and interact with each other and the dancers. Soon, we learn from a cordial voiceover that Evan and Adeline live in Clicktopia, where the sun never sets and people are always moving. It is a cheeky jab at the internet and smartphone culture that never sleeps, and it gradually tumbles toward chaos.

At one point, Adeline dances beneath a blanket in the dark. Although I am curious about the heavy breathing coming from Evan next door, the strained beauty of her understated movement keeps me watching. A voice recording detailing modern life on social media plays softly, just barely audible.

When I return to Evan, his movement has taken a drastic turn. Possessed by a sudden desperation, he careens between audience bodies and across the space. He moves with such a powerful mix of violence, grace and discipline that I am immediately pained by the sight. The same voiceover from before has become sickening in its relentless drone.

It is then I get hit by a wave of inexplicable loneliness that I may never get to know either Evan or Adeline in full.

Ghost Call is an experience designed to elicit “FOMO” – a fear of missing out – and does so to great success. The strangeness of watching only one half of a performance amplifies the disconnection of the social media age that permeates our lives.

Between guessing the happenings in the next room, watching the dancers and other participants and feeling self-conscious in return, the sensory overload overwhelms me. Word becomes noise and bodies become spectres. I find myself floating in the limbo of fiction and reality, presence and algorithms.

It is a conceptually strong piece of work that captures the bittersweet sensations of modern communication that brings us closer in a myriad of ways, but perhaps ultimately distances us from each other.

Yet, I cannot help but feel like beyond lambasting the smartphone age, Ghost Call also laments our inherent need for validation and connection. It seems like technology did not just make ghosts of us, it simply opened the doors for our own ghosts to show themselves.

Do you have an opinion or comment about this post? Email us at info@centre42.sg.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

GHOST CALL by Nabilah Said
16 – 18 May 2019
Goodman Arts Centre

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

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.

ANGKAT: A DEFINITIVE, ALTERNATIVE, RECLAIMED NARRATIVE OF A NATIVE | by Nabilah Said and Noor Effendy Ibrahim

Intern C42 — Sat, 02 Mar 2019 04:55:22 +0000

SynopsisCreation ProcessCreative Team

ANGKAT: A Definitive, Alternative, Reclaimed Narrative of a Native subverts norms of genre and dramatic form to tell the intertwining histories of a mother and daughter, and a re-imagining of a young Singapura trying to find her footing amidst the rough seas.

Salma, an aspiring singer, is an adopted child whose struggle with identity is played out on a national stage.

Mak, a former islander, tries to process the loss of her home from the mainland, with a little help from some friends.

The play blends fantasy and fact, history and the imagined future, and the national, personal and magical to explore and empower hidden narratives of the Singapore story.

Credit source: M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2019

In 2015, Nabilah Said join Centre 42’s Boiler Room through an open call. She was working on a play titled State Land, which was about people who used to live on Singapore’s offshore islands before being forced to move to the mainland. At the same time, as an associate artist in residence at Teater Ekamatra, she was also working on another piece called Angkat, about the common and informal practice of adoption in Malay families.

Nabilah went on a hiatus in July 2016 for six months when she had difficulty developing both works further. When she came back on January 2017, she decided to incorporate her ideas for State Land into Angkat. Subsequently, a test read of of Angkat was done in September 2017 at Centre 42 to conclude her Boiler Room Journey. Read more about Nabilah’s Boiler Room journey here.

At the end of 2017, Teater Ekamatra staged the piece, which was directed by Irfan Kasban. There were new scenes devised which took the production to a different direction.

Nabilah still wanted to develop her original idea for Angkat, and hence reached out to director Noor Effendy Ibrahim. Together they submitted the piece to the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival open call which was then accepted for 2019 Festival. Her play was renamed ANGKAT: A Definitive, Alternative, Reclaimed Narrative of a Native.

Interview

Reviews

Others

Playwright & Producer – Nabilah Said
Nabilah Said is a playwright and poet whose work has been presented in Singapore and London by theatre companies Teater Ekamatra, The Necessary Stage and Bhumi Collective. She is the founder of Main Tulis Group, a collective of playwrights writing in Malay and English. Nabilah is a former arts journalist at The Straits Times and currently writes reviews and articles for publications such as ArtsEquator and Exeunt Magazine.

Director – Noor Effendy Ibrahim
Noor Effendy Ibrahim is an interdisciplinary arts practitioner based in Singapore. Effendy was the Artistic Director of The Substation (2010-2015), and of Teater Ekamatra (2001-2006). He formed the interdisciplinary performance collective akulah BIMBO SAKTI in 2016. Effendy served on the National Arts Council’s Board from 2004 to 2006 and was selected for the National Arts Council’s Cultural Fellowship programme in 2014.

Production Stage Manager – Vivi Agustina
Vivi Agustina is an independent trilingual stage manager based in Singapore. She enrolled in the Stage Management Training Programme at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, training under the guidance of Jessie Ksanznak, a US-based stage manager. Since then, she has stage managed various theatre productions, dance recitals and music concerts. She is also currently the company stage manager at Ding Yi Music Company and venue stage manager at the Esplanade. She strives to keep on improving her stage management skills through her work.

Lighting Designer – Emanorwatty Saleh
Emanorwatty Saleh has worked extensively in production and stage management, lighting and sound design, acting and performance. Some of her technical credits include Reading Centhini (2014) by Agnes Christina at The Substation Directors’ Lab, Lockdown (2014) by Hatch Theatrics and as a lighting designer for Untitled (2013) by The Kaizen M.D. She graduated with a BA (Hons) in Technical Theatre Arts from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2008.

Sound Designer – Bani Haykal
bani haykal experiments with text + music. As an artist, composer and musician, bani considers music as a metaphor for cybernetics and his projects revolve around modes of interfacing and interaction in feedback/feedforward mechanisms. He is a member of b-quartet and Soundpainting ensemble Erik Satay & The Kampong Arkestra. In his capacity as a collaborator and soloist, bani has participated in festivals including Media/Art Kitchen (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Japan), Liquid Architecture (Singapore) and Singapore International Festival of Arts.

Production Designer – Akbar Syadiq
Akbar Syadiq is a designer who crosses mediums, materials, space, and disciplines. He collaborates to realise process and ideas, focusing on stage design, props making, print and digital design. As an individual and formerly part of the design collective, neontights, he has worked with companies such as Esplanade – Theatres By The Bay, Cake Theatrical Productions and Teater Ekamatra.

Dramaturg – Zulfadli Rashid
An educator, writer and a multi-disciplinary arts practitioner, Zulfadli Rashid has explored diverse issues pertaining to the Singaporean person in his works. Recent works include the Malay musical Alkesah (2018) for Esplanade’s Pesta Raya festival; Harap (2017), an adaptation of Haresh Sharma’s Hope, for Teater Ekamatra; and The Chronicles of One and Zero: Kancil (2016), written under the collective, Zeugma, for the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. Besides playwriting, he also dabbles in poetry recitals and performance art.

Actor – Adib Kosnan
Adib Kosnan is a theatre actor, director and playwright. As an actor, he has appeared in productions by TheatreWorks, The Necessary Stage, Drama Box, Teater Kami and was most recently seen in Teater Ekamatra’s Anak Bulan di Kampung Wak Hassan (Oct 2018). Adib enjoys the collaborative nature of theatre and is especially interested in improvisation and forum theatre. He is currently an Associate Artist at Checkpoint Theatre. He is also a founding member of Singaporean playwright collective Main Tulis Group.

Actor – Hafidz Abdul Rahman
Hafidz Abdul Rahman graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts (Theatre Arts). He is obsessed with Indian cinema. In his free time, he is an arts educator and performer.

Actor – Izzul Irfan
As a fresh face in the local theatre scene, Izzul Irfan has not stopped creating new and original works. From his first mono-drama Sampan (2016) to writing his first original musical Runaway (2018), he constantly pushes himself to make exciting productions that touch on issues facing his generation today. After acting in his first professional production Without Reason (M1 Peer Pleasure Theatre Festival, 2017), he hopes to inspire more youths to take up theatre as a space for change.

Actor – Moli Mohter
Moli Mohter has taken various positions in theatre since 1993, ranging from stage managing, production co-ordinating and acting, to costume, set, props making/building and make-up. In recent years, she has also been writing and directing theatre. As an actor, Moli has played various roles ranging from a schizophrenic to a blind old woman. She performed a monologue, La Libre Latifa (2002), produced by Teater Ekamatra and commissioned for Esplanade’s Pesta Raya festival. It was also performed in Kuala Lumpur’s Dewan Bahasa.

Actor – Shafiqhah Efandi
Shafiqhah Efandi graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts with a BA(Hons) in Acting. While at LASALLE, she worked with directors such as Noor Effendy Ibrahim, Natalie Hennedige, Edith Podesta and Stefanos Rassios. In 2018, she was in Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay’s Pesta Raya’s first ever Malay pantomime Alkesah written by Zulfadli Rashid and directed by Aidli ‘Alin’ Mosbit. She was recently seen in Cerita Cinta, written and directed by akulah BIMBO SAKTI, which was staged as part of Esplanade’s Pentas season.

Credit source: M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2019

Development Milestones

ANGKAT: A Definitive, Alternative, Reclaimed Narrative of a Native was developed in residence at Centre 42’s Basement Workshop from December 2018 to January 2019.

24 – 26 January 2019
World Premiere at NAFA Studio Theatre, as part of M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2019

ANGKAT: A DEFINITIVE, ALTERNATIVE, RECLAIMED NARRATIVE OF A NATIVE by Nabilah Said and Noor Effendy Ibrahim

Intern C42 — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 09:20:35 +0000

“Adrift at sea”

Reviewer: Myle Yan Tay
Performance: 24 January 2019

We walk into the performers living an idyllic island life, lounging in the sun beneath an umbrella, sailing in a makeshift boat across the stage, and fishing with plastic bait. Before the play’s first scene even begins, Angkat: A Definitive, Alternative, Reclaimed Narrative of a Native creates this sense of a dreamscape. And though this dreamscape leads to some striking and imaginative images, there is little firmness for the audience to latch onto.

Angkat: A Definitive, Alternative, Reclaimed Narrative of a Native, written by Nabilah Said and directed by Noor Effendy Ibrahim, revisits Nabilah’s earlier works, State Land, written as part of the Centre 42 Boiler Room programme, and Angkat, which was staged by Teater Ekamatra in December 2017. 2019’s Angkat hopes to put these two pieces in dialogue with one another, reflecting on their different themes.

It is very clear that this production is nothing like Ekamatra’s Angkat. While Ekamatra’s production was grounded in a focused, character-driven story, this version of Angkat floats around and in between narrative conventions, constantly resisting predictability or clarity. While this reviewer finds little value in comparing two separate productions with very different aims, it is worth saying that this version of Angkat felt frustrating in a way that 2017’s version never did.

This frustration comes from the oscillation between the two scripts. Though the concept of putting the two plays in dialogue raises poignant dramatic questions, it does not feel like the two plays are in conversation. The different styles of the two texts makes it hard for them to be in dialogue, as the islanders’ narrative in State Land is allegorical and conceptual, while the singing competition in Angkat is more grounded and realist. This is not to say the production ought to adhere to any dramatic conventions or dilute Nabilah’s distinct voice. But the two different textures of the narratives does compromise on the impact of both styles.

While this production does not fully deliver on a clear emotional trajectory, its comedy is fast, unique, and incredibly effective. There is a distinct sense of play exuding throughout the production that is infectious. The three men, Adib Kosnan, Hafidz Abdul Rahman, and Izzul Irfan, are consistently hilarious, whether they are playing three orphaned school boys, “judges” on the singing show, or a punk band resisting conformity. This sense of play bleeds into the staging and set design, which is filled with vibrant colours, unexpected sources of lighting, and inventive mise en scènes.

Though Angkat may be confusing and at times incoherent, it is a fun production that surprises its audience. This reviewer only hopes that further iterations of this piece can maintain this level of inventiveness, while managing to put its rich material into a more emotionally-anchored production.

Do you have an opinion or comment about this post? Email us at info@centre42.sg.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

ANGKAT: A DEFINITIVE, ALTERNATIVE, RECLAIMED NARRATIVE OF A NATIVE by Nabilah Said and Noor Effendy Ibrahim
24 – 26 January 2019
NAFA Studio Theatre

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

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.

Alfian Sa’at In The Living Room: New Directions in Malay Theatre

Intern C42 — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 08:38:15 +0000

Singaporean playwright Alfian Sa’at sits down with a panel of fellow Malay playwrights – Aidli ‘Alin’ Mosbit, Irfan Kasban, Nabilah Said, and Nessa Anwar – to discuss the state of Malay Theatre in Singapore, where it came from, how it is currently, and where it will head to in future. The 110-minute Living Room Chat has been repackaged into a 2-part video recording.

SynopsisThe ArtistsVideosPhotos

Over the past decade, a new crop of Malay playwrights has emerged, making their mark on Malay Theatre. Works from these theatremakers raise interesting questions about the state of Malay Theatre in Singapore.

Is Malay Theatre defined purely by language? What are the politics and aesthetics of Malay Theatre? Is it situated at a margin to mainstream English Theatre, and how does this marginality shape production? Given the widespread use of surtitling, are those works still primarily written to address a Malay audience? And are there certain taboos that exist because of religious sensitivities and ‘community standards’?

Join Alfian Sa’at and a panel of fellow Malay playwrights – Aidli ‘Alin’ Mosbit, Irfan Kasban, Nabilah Said, and Nessa Anwar – in our Living Room as they explore the issues they grapple with in their works.

EVENT DETAILS

Thursday, 24 November 2016
8pm @ Centre 42 Black Box

Admission is free by registration

The Living Room is conducted in Malay and English.

Alfian Sa’at is well-known for frank, insightful, and provocative literary and dramatic works, written in English and Malay. As the Resident Playwright of W!ld Rice, he has written acclaimed plays such as the Asian Boys trilogy (2000, 2004, 2007), Cooling-Off Day (2011), and the historical epic Hotel (2015, co-writer). Alfian is also an author with published collections of short stories and poems. He is a four-time winner of Best Original Script at the annual M1-The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards and a 2001 recipient of the National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award for Literature.

Aidli ‘Alin’ Mosbit graduated with a degree in Drama from Queensland University of Technology. Aidli writes, directs, acts, teaches, and designs lighting and costume. She has worked with local theatre companies like The Necessary Stage, W!ld Rice, Teater Ekamatra, and Drama Box. Together with Noor Effendy Ibrahim and Alfian Sa’at, Aidli published an anthology of Malay plays in BISIK. Aidli is the Founder and Director of Panggung ARTS and she is the recipient of the Young Artist Award for Theatre in 2008. Aidli is currently working in Temasek Polytechnic while pursuing her Master of Education.

Irfan Kasban is a freelance theatre maker who writes, directs, designs and, at times, performs. The former Associate Artistic Director of Teater Ekamatra attended the prestigious La MaMa Umbria International Symposium for Directors 2012, and have written and directed several works. These include Hantaran Buat Mangsa Lupa (M1 Fringe Festival 2012), 94:05 (Kakiseni Festival 2013), ANA (Projek Suitcase 2015), and Trees a Crowd (Twenty Something Festival 2016). Last year Irfan’s play TAHAN (2012), was selected for Esplanade’s Fifty – a celebration of Singapore’s seminal works.

Nabilah Said discovered the world of theatre in 2010. She is currently in Boiler Room, a programme for playwrights by Centre 42, and is this year’s resident artist for contemporary Malay theatre company Teater Ekamatra. She presented the short plays Tart (2015), Next Station (2014) and Lost (2012) as part of Teater Ekamatra’s playwright mentorship programme after undergoing a year’s training in its youth wing, Mereka. She is an arts and lifestyle journalist with The Straits Times, and also a freelance writer, editor and poet with works published in anthologies by Math Paper Press.

Nessa Anwar has written, acted, produced and directed for theatre, television, digital content and short films. Currently a multimedia journalist by day, she believes wholeheartedly in the content she creates. Nessa began acting first, under companies like Singapore Repertory Theatre’s Young Company and Teater Ekamatra. Nessa also wrote and acted in a play commissioned for a Singapore Writer’s Festival Checkpoint Theatre 2015 event entitled Riders Know When It’s Going to Rain, which was restaged for the 2016 Singapore Theatre Festival under W!ld Rice.

Part 1: Alfian Sa’at in the Living Room: New Directions in Malay Theatre

Aidli ‘Alin’ Mosbit, Irfan Kasban, Nabilah Said and Nessa Anwar each shares his or her personal history in Malay Theatre, collectively constructing a ground-up account of Malay Theatre history.

Part 2: Alfian Sa’at in the Living Room: New Directions in Malay Theatre

The playwrights discuss several important topics in Malay Theatre, as well as field questions from the audience.

In a Living Room session on 24 Nov 2016, Alfian Sa’at sat down with fellow playwrights Aidli ‘Alin’ Mosbit, Irfan Kasban, Nabilah Said and Nessa Anwar to discuss the state of Malay Theatre in Singapore and where it is heading to. The group tackled questions such as: What makes a play a “Malay” play? Are you more comfortable writing in Malay or English? Do you feel pressure to portray the Malay community in a certain way? Are you writing for a Malay audience? What is the future of Malay Theatre? etc. Photo Credit: Lu Yixin

Source: Centre 42 Facebook

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The Living Room is a programme by Centre 42 that welcomes chat and conversation. Through focused but casual dialogues and face-to-face exchanges, this programme encourages participants to re-examine trends, happenings, people (on & off-stage) and phenomena in Singapore theatre.

Boiler Room 2015 Playwright: Nabilah Said

Intern C42 — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 11:45:17 +0000

PlaywrightThe IdeaProcess

Nabilah Said

Nabilah Said was guided by pure instinct and methodical madness when she ventured into the world of theatre in 2010 as part of Teater Ekamatra’s youth wing, Mereka. She was part of Mentah, a platform to help nurture young playwrights, from 2012 to 2015. There, she was blessed with opportunities to show her work to unsuspecting audiences, such as Tart (2015), Next Station (2014) and Lost (2012). She is now foolishly addicted to the fear and thrill of writing for the stage, and is hungry for more. On occasion, she has acted in productions by Teater Ekamatra and TheatreWorks, such as the 2012 ensemble piece, This Placement, held at the former Geylang Fire Station. She is a full-time writer at The Straits Times Life!, and writes poetry and short stories on the sly.

State Land (working title)

We are all islanders. Water surrounds us, coconut trees our natural vegetation, tropical weather our constant bugbear. In the city-state of Singapore, land is limited and we create spaces to call our own. But what happens when our spaces are no longer ours and we are forced to recreate new homes on foreign soil? Stateland looks at Singapore as mainland amongst more than 60 other islands, a city-state and a homeland for its people.

Reflections by Nabilah Said

20 March 2016: The Research and Construction Phase

The Boiler Room programme, for me, could not have come at a better time. I had come off from writing a number of scripts, mostly in Malay, but I have always felt that I had more to say. I just didn’t know where to start.

The initial months were about doing intensive research – reading as widely as possible, around my topic of land use and Singapore’s islands, and researching “on the side”, of topics which were not directly related but would inform my understanding of the issues I wanted to explore. I read books about the modernisation of Singapore, about the Bukit Ho Swee fire, stories about elderly residents made to move to HDBs. I read blogs about our former islands, saw how former islanders reunited in the comments section, looked at Facebook pages where former islanders shared old photographs and tried to identify one another.

This helped me amass a lot of information and ideas, which could later be drawn from when I started to write. During this time, documentation (mind maps, random notes) was very important.

I also started to speak to former islanders that I knew. This was fascinating, because they shared with me stories filled with rich detail and human emotions – which had been somewhat missing from my first round of research. I recorded these interviews, and later transcribed them. For most of these interviewees, I never knew that they had been islanders, and speaking to them revealed a whole other side of their experiences that I had never known about. This was endlessly fascinating to me.

I supplemented these with written and video interviews of former islanders, which can be found online. The information from all these sources was precious resource which I would later have to mine when I started writing.

About four months into the programme, I was finally told to write. Though writing a script still remains quite daunting to me, I found that the months of research really helped to prepare me for this stage in a way I had not realised until now. And even then, it was not a case of Dr Loon and Casey just sending me off on my way to go off and write, and come back with a script. Instead, they started me off by asking me to write three monologues from the perspectives of three different characters. After the months of preparation, the writing was like catharsis. I had been working up to this very moment.

And now, I must write the rest of it. This is the most difficult part, and where I feel there can be no more handholding. This is where the playwright must find her voice on her own. I guess they did not call it “Boiler Room” for nothing.

16 July 2016: Key Milestones

7 July 2015

Boiler Room officially begins. Liting and I meet Casey and Dr Loon for the first time. We set objectives and expectations for the programme – mainly that the process would be rather self-directed. Casey and Dr Loon would take on a more advisory role, helping to guide us to where we want to go, rather than dictating what and how we should write. I am reassured by this promise of flexibility, especially with a day job that has an unpredictable schedule. I know Liting, and am a bit sad to learn that our journeys after this meeting will be separate from each other. Dr Loon asks us to read Angels in America by Tony Kushner and Three Children by Leow Puay Tin by the next meeting.

13 August 2015

We discuss the two texts. I come away with two thoughts – your play need not be objective but it should have a strong point of view; and in doing our research, we should try to explore multiple angles and excavate as much material as we can. I guess that’s why the research phase for this programme lasts for 3 months.

As my proposal centres on the idea of land and former islands in Singapore, Casey and Dr Loon suggest a number of research threads I can explore including but not limited to:

Land Acquisition Act of 1966 and the disappearance of our kampongs
Old maps of Malaysia and Malaya

We also talked about researching “on the side”, of issues such as:

Dying trades in Singapore
Inuit children taken away from their homes in Greenland to be raised as Danish citizens in the 1950s

29 August 2015

I borrow some books from the library.

Some choice quotes and findings from my research:

“To residents, who would otherwise recall kampongs with nostalgia, HDB housing was not only a shelter but also an asset with a positive resale value. To the state, it was an instrument of nation building and development.”
“Housing crisis in Singapore was influenced by planning ideas post-war Britain.”
“With proper planning, man could unmake the slum.”
~ From ‘Squatters Into Citizens: The 1961 Bukit Ho Swee Fire and the Making of Modern Singapore’ by Loh Kah Seng

“Older PAP leaders now sought to enlist history – as memories start to fade and the wartime generation began to pass away – to show why only the PAP’s approach could have worked for post-war Singapore”
~ From Singapore from Temasek to the 21^st Century: Reinventing the Global City (edited by Karl Hack and Jean-Louis Margolin, with Karine Delaye)

“At its founding in 1819, Singapore had about 70 offshore islands. Today only about 50 are clearly mapped out.”
“Before reclamation, many of these islands had schools and community centers, and the people led communal kampung lifestyles.”
“The process of land reclamation… resulted in increased sedimentation that further affected surrounding coral reefs and the life they supported.”
“On nearly every weekend from 1993 to 1995, divers, snorkelers and other helpers went out on boats to collect and transfer the corals. A total of 450 volunteers spent around 10, 000 hours underwater shifting the corals.”
~ From The Lost Islands of Singapore (https://chuashuyi.wordpress.com/the-lost-islands-of-singapore-2/)

3 September 2015

We discuss things that I found interesting about my research.

I was given other suggestions to explore:

“old spaces” in Singapore such as Tuas, Marsiling, Choa Chu Kang, Lim Chu Kang
Traditional occupations linked to land and property, eg. jaga and rituals and superstitions related to land
The trauma of the separation between Singapore and Malaysia

I feel a tad overwhelmed. I suggest to them that I will start speaking to some former islanders. I think this appeals to me because it gives me a chance to hear more personal stories, rather than just read about things in books or online.

23 October 2015

I interview a small group of friends and parents of friends who have lived on Singapore’s offshore islands. I ask about what their homes looked like, what they did for fun on the islands, who they lived with, when they left. Not only do their accounts provide rich detail on life on the islands, I come away feeling like I opened a door in them that didn’t really close at the end of our sessions. It made me feel a little guilty.

Something interesting to note: I do a word association exercise at the end of the interviews, and they tend to pause for longer after I say words associated with “city”.

27 October 2015

I share about the interviews that I’ve conducted. Some interesting points:

when people talk about their past, they’re really talking about their present
when you are young and attend school in Singapore, you always recognise other islanders. There is always a saltiness in their skin
the only way to destroy a boat is to burn it.

I have to write three monologues by the next session, with different voices and different spaces for each.

Also, Casey and Dr Loon give me more than a month’s break so that I can get married and go for a short holiday.

8 January 2016

I took some leave from work to write my monologues at Changi Airport. It’s strange but the words actually come pretty easily, which I guess must be because of my research process. Without realising it, I had collected all this info and textures that I could use when I actually started to write.

11 January 2016

I get positive feedback for my monologues. One particular character stands out from the rest – Azman, a 20-something-year-old former resident of St. John’s Island who is battling the stereotype of the lazy, Malay island boy.

They advise me to keep on writing that story and to introduce new characters.

20 March 2016

I’ve been struggling with the Azman story. It just doesn’t want to come out. As a result, I think of a whole new story called Pulau Land, a satire on Singapore society and how we exoticise our former islands without really acknowledging their beauty and strengths.

I send the scene breakdown of my new play to Casey and Dr Loon. Azman is still in there, but so are a bevy of new characters including an eccentric called Samad L Jackson. It sounds absurd, and maybe it is.

21 March 2016

As expected, Casey and Dr Loon seem surprised by this new play Pulau Land. Still, they remain quite supportive of this new direction. They ask me to explore the idea of place-making in Singapore, and how absurd that sometimes can be.

We explore a number of new ideas, such as Sang Nila Utama being a place manager for an island.

Also they ask me to start thinking about how I might stage this new play. I honestly don’t have any idea, because I tend to think of words first and staging second.

13 June 2016

It is not surprising but I am embarrassed to admit that I just cannot seem to write Pulau Land. I think at the heart of it, it does not seem authentic to my voice and what I want to say about the topic of space and islands, especially going back to my original idea which I proposed when I applied for the programme.

I go back and revisit my proposal:

STATE LAND
The seed of the play is the idea of rootedness and displacement, or what is at stake when people are made to move, sometimes against their will.

Nope, it does not seem to be the same play at all.

At the same time, because I am also involved in other theatre projects, I find myself physically unable to write more than one play at one time. I write to Casey and Dr Loon and suggest to change my story idea once again, to accommodate my multiple projects. It seems like a cop-out, but at this point I am not too sure what I can do.

14 June 2016

Casey emails me and says that they cannot let me change the story because it deviates too much from the original proposal. Instead, they suggest that I take a 6-month break from the programme.

I am deeply saddened though touched by their magnanimous offer. I write a reply accepting the decision with a heavy heart, but because it is very tough decision to make, I actually falter and forget to send out my reply.

15 June 2016

I click “send” on my email.

Dr Loon writes back: “We believe in the piece you’ve been working with us and we are willing to let you take time off and come back to it with more focus and intent.”

My heart squeezes a little and I feel terrible.

1 July 2016

Officially on leave-of-absence from Boiler Room.

It is a strange sort of heartbreak.

Boiler Room Cycle 2015

Intern C42 — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 10:39:51 +0000

Following from the Open Call in April 2015, we are delighted to welcome on board Boiler Room Cycle 2015 Playwrights:

Tan Liting | “B*tch”

Nabilah Said | “State Land”

The playwrights will now embark on putting their new works through a phased incubation framework:

3 month Research Phase (7 July 2015 – 7 Oct 2015)
3 month Construction Phase (7 Oct 2015 – 7 Jan 2016)
4-week Writing Period ( 7 Jan 2016 – 7 Feb 2016)

The Resident Director and Dramaturg will be on hand to provide stewardship in terms of regular consultations, dialogues and recommendations.

Special thanks goes out to Tan Tarn How and Nelson Chia (Nine Years Theatre) for their valuable feedback and contributions as part of the selection panel alongside our resident director Casey Lim and resident dramaturg Dr Robin Loon.

Quick Facts!

37 applications were received during the 1-month Open Call period (7 April to 6 May 2015).
Youngest applicant: 18 years old; and oldest applicant: 51 years old.
More than half of these applicants have not had any previous works staged.
10 applicants were shortlisted by a panel comprising of the Centre’s resident director Casey Lim, resident dramaturg Dr Robin Loon, and established playwright Tan Tarn How.
The final 2 playwrights were selected after an interview on 6 June 2015 with the panel comprising of the Centre’s resident director Casey Lim, resident dramaturg Dr Robin Loon, and Nine Years Theatre’s Artistic Director, Nelson Chia.

Information updated as of 7 July 2015.

Boiler Room is Centre 42’s platform for new works and works-in-the-making. Texts and ideas selected through an annual open call will be put through a comprehensive process of refinement and hothousing. The Centre aims to customise a developmental process that is appropriate to both the work and its creator(s).

Centre 42 » Nabilah Said

GHOST CALL by Nabilah Said

“No phones, just ghosts living in the moment”

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

ANGKAT: A DEFINITIVE, ALTERNATIVE, RECLAIMED NARRATIVE OF A NATIVE | by Nabilah Said and Noor Effendy Ibrahim

Credit source: M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2019

Credit source: M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2019

ANGKAT: A DEFINITIVE, ALTERNATIVE, RECLAIMED NARRATIVE OF A NATIVE by Nabilah Said and Noor Effendy Ibrahim

“Adrift at sea”

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Alfian Sa’at In The Living Room: New Directions in Malay Theatre

Thursday, 24 November 2016 8pm @ Centre 42 Black Box

The Living Room is conducted in Malay and English.

Part 1: Alfian Sa’at in the Living Room: New Directions in Malay Theatre

Part 2: Alfian Sa’at in the Living Room: New Directions in Malay Theatre

. The Living Room is a programme by Centre 42 that welcomes chat and conversation. Through focused but casual dialogues and face-to-face exchanges, this programme encourages participants to re-examine trends, happenings, people (on & off-stage) and phenomena in Singapore theatre.

Boiler Room 2015 Playwright: Nabilah Said

Nabilah Said

State Land (working title)

Reflections by Nabilah Said

Boiler Room Cycle 2015

Thursday, 24 November 2016
8pm @ Centre 42 Black Box

.
The Living Room is a programme by Centre 42 that welcomes chat and conversation. Through focused but casual dialogues and face-to-face exchanges, this programme encourages participants to re-examine trends, happenings, people (on & off-stage) and phenomena in Singapore theatre.