Pink Gajah’s Magic Labs platforms new original works paired with various artists from different backgrounds; to create space and workshops for the possibility of new approaches to art making and taking risks with new original ideas from a spectrum of artists.

Centre 42 first supported the pilot edition of the Pink Gajah Magic Lab in 2016.  In the second installment in 2017, the Magic Lab 2 invited two young artists John Chow and Claire Teo as laboratory participants to work together to explore the physicality of text, image, poetry and shapes through movement. The lab work started in May 2017 with Pink Gajah’s artistic director as Lab mentor and Catherine HO as director mentor. In December 2017, an open sharing and workshop session will introduce the public to the work processes and project of John and Claire, as well as share Sharda’s blend of methodologies on devising text and movement for the stage in a participative workshop.

Magic Lab 2 will culminate in a work-in-progress showcase held at Pink Gajah’s new home studio Rumah Gajah. Titled Alter Egos, the play explores physical imagery and text set in a house. Text written by Eugenia Tan, directed by Catherine Ho, and performed by Lab 2 participants John Chow and Claire Teo.

Playwright – Euginia Tan
Performers – Claire Teo, John Chow
Directors – Catherine Ho, Sharda Harrison
Writers and performers – Sophia Tan, Ruzaini Mazani
Facilitator – Sharda Harrison
Media – Sean Harrison
Sound – Mei Yin

A woman is dying.  Her mind shifts in and out of memories and spaces. The world becomes more tactile, a place of passing.

In the interwoven state of memories and time, she recollects a time spent with a monkey.

Playing with ideas of life and death rituals from both the animal kingdom and the human animal of mankind, Thinking About Death is a laboratory that explores a woman who is contemplating death and revisits the memories of a monkey who, for a small part of her life, kept her the most alive.

For this project, Pink Gajah Theatre aims to experiment with text, imagery and sound in a blend of constructed and decontructed rituals from animal and human animal. They hope to achieve a laboratory that is open and daring in entering a world that is primal , practical and mystical. The objective of having a works in progress is part of Pink Gajah Theatre’s new concept named, ‘Pink Gajah Magic Lab’ which platforms new original works paired with various artists from different backgrounds; to create space and workshops for the possibility of new approaches to art making and taking risks with new original ideas from a spectrum of artists.

The first work-in-progress showing of Thinking About Death will be held at GNOSSEM in December 2016 followed by a post show dialogue after each performance.

Pink Gajah Theatre 
Pink Gajah Theatre is a company formed in 2013 and founded by local arts educator and theatre practitioner, Sharda Harrison. Our focus is in two aspects of theatre. We are a drama in education company and work with students and participants of all ages from the community. Our second focus is to provide a platform to devise and create new works.

Man Made God, Pink Gajah’s debut performance, was launched at the 2013 Lit Up indie arts festival by Word Forward. Why Do We Do What We Do? was performed as a solo piece by Sharda Harrison in 2014 in collaboration with Word Forward.

Performer – Sharda Harrison
Sharda Harrison is an award winning local theatre performer and arts educator. She graduated with a B.A (hons) in Acting from Lasalle College of the Arts in 2009. Since then she has performed in a spectrum of theatre shows in Singapore as well as internationally. Her most recent works are, ‘Manifesto’ and ‘Untiled Women’ by The Necessary Stage, ‘Hotel’ and ‘Another Country’by Wild Rice, and Pink Gajah’s  M1 fringe festival comisioned work‘Bi(cara)’. Sharda founded Pink Gajah Theatre in 2013. Since then, she has been actively using  Pink Gajah as a platform to showcase arts focussed on social and environmenal activism. Her education wing focuses on bringing movement, drama and balance to children, teenagers and adults. Sharda was part of the winning ‘Best Ensemble’ for ‘Hotel’ at the recent  M1 Life! Theatre Awards.

Visual Design – Sean Harrison
Sean Harrison is an up and coming film-maker and media designer. He has a diploma in film from Singapore Audio and Sound Engineering (SAE) institute and is currently pursuing his degree in film at  SAE. His recent works include Pink Gajah Theatre’s ‘In Sya Allah’ a short 10 minute documentary on a Eurasian woman’s conversion into Islam. He has been mentored by Singapore’s reknowned artist, Brian Gothong Tan in media art for theatre. Sean is Pink Gajah’s resident media design artist, however he also writes and directs for our theatre wing.  He was most recently the main mentor and film director for Project UNSEEN CONSTELLATIONS.

Sound Design – Mei Yin Lim
Mei Yin started her journey in music making with learning to play the piano at the age of nine. She moved on to percussion in her teenage years, and eventually her curiosity in sounds led her to explore the realms of sound design and music composition. Currently working as a videographer, her approach to creating soundscapes is often inspired by what she sees around her and how that translates to how she feels. As the resident sound artist for Pink Gajah Theatre, she hopes to continually explore and work towards making sounds that affect minds and stir hearts.

Performer – Deborah Carmen Coon
Deborah is a physical theatre performer and educator. Her most recent productions include Every Singaporean Daughter (July 2016) by Unsaid productions and The Good The Bad and The Sholay (November 2015) by Checkpoint Theatre. Deborah trained in East 15 Acting School in the UK, graduating with a 1st Class Honours in BA Physical Theatre. Before leaving for the UK, Deborah has also performed locally with ECNAD in Homage To The Phoenix in 2012 and Papermonkey Theatre in Goldfish Go Fish! in 2011.
She has also led several workshops in LaSalle, Buds Youth Theatre, and The Learning Connections.

BI(CARA) is a new work based on the talk Why Do We Do What We Do? by zoologist and ex-CEO of the Singapore Zoological Gardens Bernard Harrison. His controversial talk questioned the ethics of man in the ways we treat animals as meat for consumption, entertainment and commodity.

“Bicara” is the word for “talk/discuss” in Malay and Indonesian, while “cara” means “how”. BI(CARA) reflects Pink Gajah Theatre’s wish to have a conversation with you about the individual relationships we have with animals and how we are journeying alongside them in the 21^st century.

This visceral physical work by perfomer Sharda Harrison questions society as much as it reflects upon and unravels human behaviour and our relationships to animals through history, myths, and examining the rituals and culture of the Orang Asli (First People).

BI(CARA) is commissioned and presented by M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2016, under the Festival theme “Art and the Animal”. As a physical performer, most, if not all of Sharda’s vocabulary comes from the animal, so much so that she does not distinguish herself as separate from an animal. This work is her submergence into the physicality of a few animals (and humans) that have evolved through extensive research through articles, essays and interviews on wildlife and conservation with her research and playwriting team. As an animal, standing up for animals, Sharda felt that she needed to address this and to poke, provoke, excite, intrigue and draw audiences back into a visceral world of ritual, honor, connection and acknowledgement of who we are in relation to every other being living amongst us.

Credit source: M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2016

BI(CARA) began in September with Sharda’s solo sessions in the space, writing the texts, the ideas; then bouncing them off with co-writer Sabrina and experimenting movement ideas with physical director Alessandra. The greater team – with light, sound, multimedia designers – came into the space in December to experiment with the various set design ideas. A work-in-progress was presented to the Fringe festival team and invited guests on 7 January 2016 in the Rehearsal Studio, where discussion about the work – from performative details to set design to text and intentions – took place. Input gathered will go towards refining the play in the last few weeks leading up to the opening on 21 January 2016.

Apprentice Dramaturg Nidya Shanthini Manokara, who is in the Centre’s Dramaturgy Apprenticeship Programme (The Garage) is on a work-attachment with BI(CARA), offering dramaturgical support to Sharda throughout the developmental process.

Pink Gajah Theatre
Pink Gajah Theatre is a company formed in 2013 and founded by local arts educator and theatre practitioner, Sharda Harrison. Our focus is in two aspects of theatre. We are a drama in education company and work with students and participants of all ages from the community. Our second focus is to provide a platform to devise and create new works.

Man Made God, Pink Gajah’s debut performance, was launched at the 2013 Lit Up indie arts festival by Word Forward. Why Do We Do What We Do? was performed as a solo piece by Sharda Harrison in 2014 in collaboration with Word Forward.

Performer/ Director/ Co-writer – Sharda Harrison
Sharda Harrison is an actor currently residing in Singapore. She graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts with a BA (Hons) degree in Acting in 2009. In 2013, Sharda set up her own theatre and education company, Pink Gajah Theatre. Her most recent works include Hotel, Another Country and The House of Bernarda Alba by W!ld Rice, Gitanjali (I feel the Earth Move) and untitled cow number one by The Necessary Stage, Decimal Points 5.1 by Cake Theatre, The Crucible by Toy Factory, Naga Mandala by HuM Theatre and her own work, Why Do We Do What We Do? by Pink Gajah Theatre.

She has been nominated twice for Best Supporting Actress at the annual The Straits Times Life! Theatre awards for her roles in The Necessary Stage’s Crossings and Toy Factory’s The Crucible. Her most recent nomination at The Straits Times Life! Theatre awards was for Best Ensemble in The Necessary Stage’s Poor Thing.

Physical Dramaturg – Alessandra Fel
Alessandra Fel is an actress and physical theatre performer, director and teacher. After 12 years of professional experience in London, in 2012 she founded TheatreLab, an International Physical Theatre Centre (IPTC), in her hometown in Italy. She relocated to Singapore in 2013. Since then she has been teaching theatre and improvisation at LASALLE College of the Arts, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, School of the Arts Singapore, and acting in theatre productions and commercials.

After receiving her degree in philosophy, Alessandra completed her Master in Contemporary Theatre at the Brunel University, London and then continued with a two years full-time Lecoq training at the London International School of Performing Arts (LISPA). During this time, she also studied Butoh, acrobatics and clowning. In 2009, she received a diploma in teaching adults and children from City Lit London.

During her time in London, Alessandra gained significant experience as a director and performer in the following fields: physical theatre, dance theatre, tragic chorus, site-specific theatre, opera, short films, voiceovers and teaching.

Some of her most notable collaborations include Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers and Handel’s Radamisto at the English National Opera (ENO).

Alessandra is also a choreographer in residence at Maya Dance Theatre.

Resident Researcher/ Visual and Text Dramaturg – Charlene Shepherdson
Charlene Shepherdson is interested in the intersection where environment, heritage and technology meet. She forges new towers of meaning with stories to help people find their voices. Her words have been published in From Walden to Woodlands (Ethos Books), A Luxury We Cannot Afford and SingPoWriMo 2014: The Anthology (Math Paper Press) and The Straits Times. Her words have also travelled to poetry slams and open mics in Asia and made appearances as visual text at The Arts House, The Substation and Singapore libraries under the National Art Council’s Project LAVA.

Lighting Designer – Cheyenne Alexandria Phillips
Cheyenne Alexandria Phillips has been a theatre enthusiast for as long as she can remember. A graduate from Tampines Junior College’s (TPJC) Drama Elective Program, Cheyenne has directed, crewed and designed lights and sounds for numerous productions in TPJC and National University of Singapore. She debuted as a lighting designer and stage manager for Yellow Chair’s (Mono)play (2014) and pushed her design work in Word Forward’s and Pink Gajah Theatre’s Why We Do What We Do (2014). With each performance, she hopes to hone her skills further to give each and every audience member a truly memorable experience.

Co-writer – Sabrina Dzulkifli
Sabrina has spent nearly her whole life writing, and only recently transposed her interests to theatre. As an International Baccalaureate Career-related Certificate (IBCC) theatre student at School of the Arts, Singapore (SOTA), Sabrina has been immersed in both crafts and hopes to continue to be able to do so once she graduates (hopefully!) this year. Her other writing credits include a student production of Have a Ball on Me (2012), Of Babies (not really) and People (2013) which toured around the Southeast districts of Singapore as part of TheatreWorks Writers’ Laboratory. The latter was the winning play in the Youth Category of TheatreWork’s 24-hour Playwriting Competition. She has also written for her graduate student production Between the Red and White (2015) and will be showcasing another written piece Counting (2015) as part of her Playwright Residency at Woodlands Regional Library in early 2016. Besides writing, Sabrina also has interests in directing and collaborative devised work. Her recent directing credits include student productions of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (2013) and Majulah, Comrats! (2015)—which she also wrote for—where she explored elements such as mask work, physicality and multimedia. In her artistry, she hopes to explore other languages of storytelling, incorporating interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary work.

Visual Artist – Sean Harrison
Sean Harrison is an up-and-coming filmmaker and media designer who has worked on many film and commercial sets. He has a diploma in film and is currently pursuing his degree in film at SAE Institute. Sean is Pink Gajah’s Artistic Director and runs the company’s film direction. He has worked closely with Sharda Harrison to design media for theatre, which is fast becoming one of his passions and skills. He designed the film art for Pink Gajah Theatre’s debut performance Man Made God. His recent works include Pink Gajah Theatre’s In Sya Allah—a short documentary on a Eurasian woman’s conversion to Islam. He has recently been selected as one of the artists to be mentored under Brian Gothong Tan for The Necessary Stage’s The Orange Playground. Sean is also a musician and singer.

Sound Artist – Mei Yin
Lim Mei Yin started her journey in music making with learning to play the piano at the age of nine. She moved on to percussion in her teenage years, and eventually her curiosity in sounds led her to explore the realms of sound design and music composition. Currently working as a videographer, her approach to creating soundscapes is often inspired by what she sees around her and how that translates to how she feels. As the resident sound artist for Pink Gajah Theatre, she hopes to continually explore and work towards making sounds that affect minds and stir hearts.

Credit source: M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2016