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

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.

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