Centre 42 » Online Event

Year in Review 2020

C42 Admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 16:20:26 +0000

Synopsis

How do we make sense of 2020? “Year in Review 2020″ is an invitation to the Singapore theatre community to gather and unpack this year, to try and make meaning, or to just find a space to decompress.

For some, this year has been a journey of opportunity and learning; for others, a year of unwanted change and a yearning for the way it was before. It’s been described as a pause, a loss, an unlearning and more. How have we been impacted, as art makers and workers, to audiences and supporters? How have you been coping? What will 2021 bring?

In this fourth edition of the annual Year in Review gathering, we’ll tackle the mess that is 2020 and our community’s resilience to adapting to uncertainty. For the first time, Year in Review goes online and adopts the Open Space (or Unconference) format, where anyone is free to propose topics for discussion, and multiple sessions will be held concurrently in breakout rooms.

Join us online to ponder, discuss, or simply unwind together. To help jog your memory of the past 12 months, we will be releasing a timeline of Singapore Theatre in 2020, a podcast and infographics on key trends and highlights in local theatre in 2020.

EVENT DETAILS

Saturday, 19 December 2020
3.00pm on Zoom

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

WE ARE SIX!

C42 Admin — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 09:57:08 +0000

The WE ARE SIX! Party took place on 21 April 2020 on Zoom.

SynopsisAbout WRITESReadersAcknowledgementsPlays mentionedPhotos

Our sixth birthday was supposed to have panned out differently.

Since we were returning 42 Waterloo Street to the National Arts Council on 1 May, 21 Apr was supposed to be a last hurrah in the blue house before we moved out. Planned with over 20 artists and friends, our sixth birthday would’ve been an evening of performances and celebration at our See You Later Party. We made the sad decision to cancel the event on 3 Apr after the national Circuit Breaker measures were announced. (Here’s what the See You Later Party programme would’ve been like.) The Circuit Breaker also meant that our last day at the blue house had come much earlier than expected.

Now, celebrating our sixth birthday is more important than ever in these difficult times. It’s an opportunity to connect, uplift, and remember. Because the story of the last six years at Centre 42 is really about you – you who have come into the blue house at 42 Waterloo Street looking for a safe space to develop, experiment and create, an open space to discuss, debate and discourse, and a quiet space to pause, document and reflect. The Centre 42 community turns six, so join us, will you?

Register at http://weare6.eventbrite.sg (make a donation if you’re able to!) and we’ll send you an invitation to a Zoom room. On 21 Apr at 8pm, we’ll have a reading of “WRITES”, a play about the history of Singapore theatre and how Centre 42 got its name. (“WRITES” was researched and written by Robin Loon for Centre 42’s launch event in 2014, and originally performed by Nora Samosir, Robin Goh, and Serene Chen.) Have a drink on hand as after the reading, we’ll toast to our six years, and many more to come!

REGISTRATION

Tuesday, 21 April 2020, 8.00PM
on Zoom

Donations Encouraged

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

WRITES, written by Robin Loon, is a play that moves through the history of Singapore English-language theatre. Besides bringing audiences through theatre history and excerpts from classic Singapore plays, the work also tells the story of why Centre 42 came to be and how it got its name.

WRITES was first performed on 21 April 2014 at the opening of Centre 42. The play was directed by Casey Lim, and performed by Serene Chen, Nora Samosir and Robin Goh. The performance led invited guests through the Inner Courtyard, Rehearsal Studio, and Black Box of the newly-restored blue house on 42 Waterloo Street.

A Yagnya
Ahmad Musta’ain
Aswani Aswath
Cheryl Tan
Ellison Tan
Ethel Yap
Grace Kalaiselvi
Mabel Yeo
Mumtaz Maricar
Rajkumar Thiagaras
Rebekah Sangeetha Dorai
Rei Poh
Serene Chen
Shaifulbahri Mohamad
Tan Shou Chen
Vithya Subramaniam
Zee Wong

Centre 42 would like to specially thank the following people:

Robin Loon
Casey Lim
Chong Gua Khee
Mok Cui Yin
Karen Tan
Thong Pei Qin
Zelda Tatiana Ng
All participating artists from the See You Later Party

(In order of appearance in script)

GALILEO — I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE (1997)
By Kok Heng Leun, Haresh Sharma, Alvin Tan & Cast
[NB: Centre 42 held a Living Room discussion in 2017 on another Haresh Sharma work, Fundamentally Happy.]

THREE CHILDREN (1988)
By Leow Puay Tin
[NB: Centre 42 presented a contemporary response to Three Children in The Vault: Sau(dara) (2018).]

FEAR OF WRITING (2011)
By Tan Tarn How
[NB: Centre 42 held a Living Room dialogue with Tan Tarn How in 2016 to discuss his life and plays.]

PRIVATE PARTS (1992)
By Michael Chiang
[NB: Centre 42’s first Living Room session in 2014 was with Michael Chiang, which explored the playwright’s life and plays.
The launch of Michael’s play anthology Play Things also took place in Centre 42 in 2014.]

MIMI FAN (1962)
By Lim Chor Pee
[NB: Centre 42’s first Vault presentation in 2014, titled NINETEEN SIXTY-FOUR, was a lecture-performance on plays by Lim Chor Pee and Goh Poh Seng.]

MERGERS & ACCUSATIONS (1993)
By Eleanor Wong
[NB: In 2020, a group of NUS Theatre Studies students created short performances in response to Wills & Secession, the sequel to Mergers & Accusations. Centre 42 and NUS Theatre Studies were to co-present this double bill as The Vault: Ties That Bind, but the public presentation was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.]

AUTUMN TOMYAM (2001)
By Desmond Sim
[NB: Centre 42 presented a Living Room session in 2015 where journalist and theatre practitioner Koh Boon Pin interviewed Desmond Sim on his life and work.]

DESCENDANTS OF THE EUNUCH ADMIRAL (1995)
By Kuo Pao Kun
[NB: Centre 42 has presented three Vaults which were feature the works of Kuo Pao Kun: Big Bird and the Cat (2015), Absence Makes the Heart… (2017), and Dialects and Dialectics (2017).]

Click here to view the event photo album

In the Living Room: Year in Review 2019

Lee Shu Yu — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 06:01:52 +0000

SynopsisThe PanelTheatre and Depictions of Sexual Violence (1pm - 3pm)Theatre and Decolonisation (5pm - 7pm)

As 2019 draws to a close, we’re inviting the Singapore theatre community to come together to review our year in theatre. In this special edition of the Living Room, we will explore two topics which trended in this year’s slate of productions: sexual violence and decolonisation. A panel will kick off each session, followed by break-out groups so everyone can participate in the discussion.

Theatre and depictions of sexual violence, 8 Dec, 1pm – 3pm

Nabilah Said, editor of arts website ArtsEquator.com, convenes the first panel on depictions of sexual violence in 2019’s theatrical works. What are the responsibilities of theatre-makers in staging sexual violence, and how do these square with their artistic impulses? Is theatre still a safe space? The panelists are Rosemary McGowan, Grace Kalaiselvi, and Rei Poh.

Theatre and decolonisation, 8 Dec, 5pm – 7pm

Theatre-maker and educator Felipe Cervera assembles a second panel which will explore the theme of decolonisation across productions which have directly or indirectly responded to Singapore’s Bicentennial celebrations this year. What are the aesthetic similarities and differences between all these productions? How has the aesthetics of decolonialising performance been explored this year? Did we push the envelope enough? This panel comprises Chong Gua Khee, Charlene Rajendran, and Noorlinah Mohamed.

An exhibition of the timeline Singapore Theatre in 2019, which documents the theatre productions in the calendar year, will be displayed in the Front Courtyard from 8 Dec.

EVENT DETAILS

Sunday, 8 December 2019
From 1pm @ Centre 42 Black Box

Admission price: Give-What-You-Can
(Cash only, at the door)

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

From the “Theatre and Depictions of Sexual Assault” Panel:

Nabilah Said
Nabilah Said is a playwright, arts writer and theatre critic. Formerly an arts correspondent with The Straits Times, Nabilah is currently the editor of ArtsEquator. Nabilah’s plays include Tart (Teater Ekamatra), yesterday it rained salt (Bhumi Collective), ANGKAT (M1 Singapore Fringe Festival; Noor Effendy Ibrahim), Drip (The Necessary Stage) and Inside Voices (VAULT Festival; Lazy Native). She is the founder of Malay playwright collective Main Tulis Group, and co-founder of theatre collectives Rupa co.lab and Lazy Native.

Rosemary McGowan
Rosie comes from an extensive history of working with young people using drama and theatre to explore potentially difficult and sensitive youth-related themes and issues. She has a masters in applied theatre and a masters in counselling and often combines her knowledge of these two fields throughout her practice.

As a freelance applied theatre practitioner, facilitator and educator, Rosie has taught drama in numerous schools in Singapore, both in-curriculum and CCA. She runs workshops and projects exploring themes of self-care, sexual assault trauma, self-harm, communication, leadership and understanding mental health. She has also designed and run projects in two Singapore halfway houses – the Community Rehabilitation Centre, and The Turning Point.

As a counsellor, Rosie specialises in addiction and trauma- working with various addictions, as well as family members of addicts and trauma survivors. She uses a mixture of cognitive and experiential methods throughout her practice.

As a theatre practitioner, Rosie has acted in The Crucible (Toy Factory Productions); Mind Map of Love, sold-out runs of The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband and Ragnarok (Skinned Knee Productions); and dramaturg on Edith Podesta’s commissioned production, Leda and The Rage (The Esplanade).

Rosie runs a performers emotional support group on Mondays, 12-130pm.

She is currently the President of the Singapore Drama Educators Association.

More information is available at www.rosiemcg.com

Rei Poh
Rei Poh is a committed participatory theatre practitioner, director and game designer, who believes in the power of theatre to transform. He is a proud graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts’ Master of Directing for Performance program. Rei has created thought-provoking participatory and forum theatre works like ATTEMPTS:SG, ATTEMTPS:MEL and《莎莎》Girl In the White Sand Box. Rei’s recent projects include the showcase of DATING SIM (beta) —a participatory piece that experiments with video game-style narrative in LATE NIGHT TEXTING 2019 by CENTRE 42.

Grace Kalaiselvi
Kalaiselvi Grace graduated from Intercultural Theatre Institute in 2014 and now works as a freelance actor, creator, director, educator, puppeteer and writer. Some of her own works include Crocodiles in Kurtas (Esplanade-OctoBurst’19), Touch Me Not (1^st part of Goddesses of Words – Sarojini Naidu), The Old Fogies (Esplanade-OctoBurst’18) and Mother I (1 & 2). Grace also acted in Ms British (Esplanade Studio Series’19) and directed 3FVU for TheatreWorks’ Now Festival’19. She started Brown Voices, a collective, to write professional scripts with Indian Narratives and they did their first showcase at C42’s Late Night Texting.

From the “Theatre and Decolonisation” Panel:

Felipe Cervera
Felipe Cervera is a writer, theatre-maker, and academic. He is a Lecturer of Theatre at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore and an Assistant Professor with the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. He has acted and directed internationally since 2008, and co-leads, with Fezhah Maznan, the theatre and performance collective The Art of Strangers. His research interests are collaborative theatre-making, teaching, and research, and the interplays between performance theory, science, and technology. He is an associate editor of the international peer-reviewed journals, Global Performance Studies and Performance Research.

Charlene Rajendran
Charlene Rajendran is a theatre educator, practitioner and researcher who is currently based at the National Institute of Education – Nanyang Technological University. She is also Co-Director of the Asian Dramaturgs’ Network.

Noorlinah Mohamed
Noorlinah is an award-winning theatre actress who is also a teaching artist and creator of public engagement arts projects in Singapore. Since 1988, she has performed with various Singapore theatre companies. Internationally, she has performed in Asia, Europe and the US. In arts education, she has undertaken artist residencies in schools, develops curriculum as well as professional development for teaching artists and teachers in arts pedagogy. As a producer, she has worked on both intimate and large-scale arts events, including the Singapore International Festival of Arts (2014-2017), co-creating platforms and works for and with Singapore as well as international artists. Noorlinah is a recipient of the JCCI Cultural Award (2008) and the Women’s Weekly Women of our Time Award (2005) for her work in the arts. She obtained her PhD in Arts Education from the University of Warwick in 2013. Presently, she is the Artistic Director of N.O.W., Not Ordinary Work. It is an interdisciplinary public project focusing on women creatives and change-makers.

Chong Gua Khee
Chong Gua Khee / 张月崎 works primarily as an independent theatre director and performance-maker in Singapore. She also takes on facilitation and dramaturgical work that spans disciplines such as dance and visual arts.

Gua Khee’s practice centres a collective (re)imagination of relationships and the current landscape of conversations. In her work, she often seeks to cultivate and nurture relationships and conversations by asking: What conditions of space and time are set up in a project or piece? How do these allow for the seeding of various conversations – both the spoken and textual, as well as the unspoken conversations between and amongst bodies and architecture – and how might these bloom and flourish over time?

Recent projects include music theatre piece Songs for Tomorrow (director), art experience PASSPORT: Anthony Chin x Christophe & Sharon with OH! Open House (dramaturg), the musical Island Song (director), participatory performance LAST DANCE by Drama Box and ArtsWok Collaborative (creative team), theatre piece Tortoise Tales under Silver Arts Festival 2018 (director and co-playwright), and performance HOT POT TALK: Theatre & the Arts (producer and director). She has been an Associate Member of Dance Nucleus since 2018, and was Artist-In-Residence under its ELEMENT #3 (Solo) Dramaturgies. More details available at: www.guakhee.com

Session Overview

For Theatre and Depictions of Sexual Violence, Nabilah convened a team consisting of applied theatre practitioner, counsellor, facilitator and educator Rosemary McGowan, theatre actress, director and educator Grace Kalaiselvi and participatory theatre creator Rei Poh. They were interested in the following questions:

What are the responsibilities of theatre-makers in staging sexual violence, and how do these responsibilities square with their artistic impulses?
Is theatre still a safe space?

Structure of Session

Reflections from Facilitators

Session Overview

For Theatre and Decolonisation, Felipe Cervera assembled a team comprising of Chong Gua Khee, Charlene Rajendran, and Noorlinah Mohamed to facilitate the session. The team was keen to interrogate decolonisation across productions which directly or indirectly responded to Singapore’s Bicentennial celebrations this year. They asked the following overarching questions:

What are the aesthetic similarities and differences between all these productions?
How have the aesthetics of decolonialising performance been explored this year? Did theatre-makers and audiences push the envelope enough?
How are we educating ourselves as theatre-makers and audiences and what is the role of theatre in education?

Structure of Session

Reflections from Facilitators

Migration and Labour
Facilitated and written by Felipe Cervera

The general framework of the session was to focus on the audience’s perspective. We felt that if we focused on the voices of the makers, we would be emphasizing things that were already on the table, as expressed in performance throughout the year. The question for us was more about the after performance — what next? Sure, we have this bunch of shows that dealt with postcolonial and decolonial topics and ideas, but beyond the context of the bicentennial, how can we think through these performances and reflect about theatre more directly? What can we learn about how theatre is made, and to what end, in Singapore?

The four break-out sessions were part of this audience-centered focus. We wanted to unpack the umbrella theme — theatre and decolonization — by addressing narrower foci of conversation.

In my case, the topic of migration and labour sprung from what I perceived to be a huge topic in my experience of doing Miss British, and by what I also think is an important issue in local theatre. That is, the ways in which certain kinds of migrants are represented in contrast to other kinds, and the ways in which the distribution of labour in local theatre is also implicated in the stratification of migration in and out of Singapore.

Titles and Lenses
Facilitated and written by Charlene Rajendran

The Titles and Lenses discussion considered how titles of productions can become a first point of contact with performance, and shape the way a performance is approached. But there is always the possibility of ‘mis-remembering’ the title and that creates another frame via which the work is apprehended. One example was someone who remembered Civilised by TNS as Un-Civilised because of a particular marketing approach. Group members talked about how a title might make sense much later in the process, in retrospect or after the fact, because the performance prods a reviewing of what it might mean.

The discussion also broached the question of the lenses we use to view productions and how these impact choices made about what to watch and expectations that ensue. An example of a Singaporean watching a performance in London called White Pearl, set in the Singapore context, in which Singlish was spoken with a British accent, suggested how it was disorienting and troubling to deal with a frame that felt ‘false’. Yet, within more familiar contexts, where the frames are less at odds with the performances, how do we ‘decolonise’ our habits and propensities to like or dislike, appreciate or denigrate?

Languages and Histories
Facilitated and written by Noorlinah Mohamed

The questions I proposed for my breakout group were: Is looking back at history a limitation in itself? Are we mythologising the colonial wound? What language(s) are we working with when unpacking colonialism and decolonialism and are they further cementing a colonial and/or imperial mindset and attitude?

The discussion was open-ended. It was not intended to resolve or offer definitive answers to the questions. Instead, the intention was to generate a conversation on the process of art-making, viewing and responding. Decolonial work in theatre has been going on for a while (Third Stage, ITI, staging of Singapore narratives). But what is significant in 2019 is the inclusion of less privileged tropes and narratives (for example Ayer Hitam; Tanah Ayer; Merdeka). The notion of ‘wound’ led to some useful discussion on ‘womb’ (how turning to history is less of an account of it rather an interrogative and generative source for other imaginings) as well as an invitation to move away from the metaphor of colonial history as a wound that require healing to seeing symptoms that require therapy. How do we erase colonial history when the very structure of modernity & knowledge is a product of Eurocentric colonisation? Personally, that Sunday was fruitful because the conversations gave us an opportunity to unpack our own way of thinking as artists, critics and audiences.

Audience Responsibility and Engagement
Facilitated and written by Chong Gua Khee

In thinking about colonial narratives, information is very often framed as ‘neutral knowledge’, with its origins and lenses obscured from public interrogation. Hence, for this session on theatre and decolonisation, I was interested in starting from subjectivities and feelings, and then unpacking the complexities within, rather than attempting a pretense of ‘objectivity’.

As a provocation to discuss audience engagement and responsibility in the decolonisation of theatre, I highlighted how I had heard many comments from audiences that they had to ‘work very hard’ in various productions this year. From this entry point, the breakout group shared about their own experiences as audiences this year, which led them to collectively agree that a lot of research had gone into the various productions this year, which was very much appreciated.

Nevertheless, many felt the way in which the extensive research was woven into the productions came across as very intellectual and academic, not unlike ‘history lessons’. This perceived positioning of theatre as expert in relation to the audience also caused them to feel distanced and powerless, overwhelmed with information rather than evoking any desire to make their own meanings from their experience or to engage further with the issues raised. A key question that subsequently emerged was whether productions and theatre-makers were/are inadvertently replicating colonial power relations between them and audiences. In thinking about decolonising efforts in theatre, perhaps a helpful question to continually reflect on is, “what power relationship is being set up between and amongst audiences and theatre-makers/theatre in this production?”

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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.

In the Living Room: Year in Reviews 2018

Lee Shu Yu — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 09:08:12 +0000

SynopsisThe Reviewers

Has the term “site-specific” been misused by too many productions this year? Are emerging theatre groups currently creating more exciting works than established companies?

All this, and more, will be up for discussion at our final Living Room of 2018. Over 150 local theatre productions lit up our stages this year, and we would like to invite you to join us for a casual evening of conversations to look back at some of this year’s most noteworthy trends in Singapore theatre.

Reviewers from Centre 42’s Citizens’ Reviews programme and arts website ArtsEquator will begin the evening by sharing some of their observations, based on the shows that they watched and wrote about this year. You can then pick a topic and engage the reviewers in small-group discussions. Year in Reviews is an opportunity to reflect on the performances you watched, as well as the wider local theatre landscape.

The event will be accompanied by the exhibition “Singapore Theatre in 2018″, a timeline of all local theatre productions that were staged in Singapore in 2018. The timeline, spanning over five metres long, also features artefacts from Centre 42’s digital archive, The Repository, drawing a link between present day and Singapore theatre history. The exhibition is on display in the Centre 42 Front Courtyard from 4 December 2018 to 31 January 2019.

EVENT DETAILS

Tuesday, 4 December 2018
7.30pm @ Centre 42 Black Box

Admission price: Give-What-You-Can
(Cash only, at the door)

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

FROM CITIZENS’ REVIEWS:

Christian W. Huber
Christian is a C42 Boiler Room 2016 playwright, and enjoys being an audience member to different mediums of the arts. He finds arts invigorating to the soul, and truly believes that the vibrant arts scene has come a long way from its humble beginnings.

Cordelia Lee
Cordelia is a final-year Theatre Studies major trapped in a full-time relationship with the National University of Singapore. Whenever the opportunity arises, she purchases discounted tickets, slips into the theatre and savours every moment of her temporarily bought freedom. She prefers performances that run no longer than two hours, and is always in the mood for innovative directorial choices – the less she sees them coming, the better. Outside of theatre, she routinely tortures her obliques in the gym and sings to ’90s hits in the shower.

Isaac Tan
Isaac graduated from the National University of Singapore with a BA (Hons) in Philosophy, and he took Theatre Studies as a second major. He started reviewing plays for the student publication, Kent Ridge Common, and later developed a serious interest in theatre criticism after taking a module at university. He is also an aspiring poet and his poems have appeared in Symbal, Eunoia Review, Eastlit, and Malaise Journal.

Jocelyn Chng
Jocelyn is a freelance educator, practitioner and writer in dance and theatre, and has written for various platforms since 2013, including The Flying Inkpot and Arts Equator. She holds a double Masters in Theatre Studies/Research, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (Dance Teaching). At the heart of her practice, both teaching and personal, lies a curiosity about personal and cultural histories; writing about performance allows her to engage with this curiosity. She sees performance criticism as crucial to the development of the performance landscape in Singapore, and a valuable opportunity to contribute to ongoing discussions about performance and society.

Lee Shu Yu
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.

Liana Gurung
With a Literature major’s love and propensity for over-analysing, Liana is a mostly-reader, sometimes-writer who was raised on a diet of musicals (read: Julie Andrews). Her attention has since turned to the gritty, innovative and often subversive world of the Singaporean play: the leaner, the tauter, the more spare – the better.

FROM ARTSEQUATOR.COM:

Akanksha Raja
Akanksha is an arts writer from Singapore. She has been writing reviews on theatre (and occasionally visual art) as part of the editorial team at ArtsEquator.com since its launch in 2016, and is an alumnae of the Points of View Performance Writing workshop organised by the Asian Dramaturgs’ Network in 2018.

Naeem Kapadia
Naeem is a finance lawyer and passionate advocate of the arts. He has acted in and directed student drama productions in both London and Singapore. He has been writing about theatre for over a decade on his personal blog Crystalwords and has contributed reviews and podcasts to publications such as London student newspaper The Beaver, Singapore daily newspaper TODAY and arts journals The Flying Inkpot and ArtsEquator. Naeem enjoys cooking, running and travel.

Patricia Tobin
Patricia Tobin is Singaporean theatre critic. Her reviews can be found on ArtsEquator and on her blog, havesomepatty.com. She currently works in media.

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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.

In the Living Room: Year in Reviews 2017

Intern C42 — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 12:45:05 +0000

A panel of seven reviewers from Centre 42’s critical writing platform Citizens’ Reviews and online arts publication ArtsEquator revisited the local productions staged in 2017. The session was moderated by Robin Loon, chief editor of Citizens’ Reviews.

SynopsisThe ArtistsPhotos

What were the performances that captivated you and what were the ones that left you cold in 2017?

As the year draws to a close, we invite you to revisit the local productions staged in 2017 with critics from Centre 42’s critical writing platform Citizens’ Reviews and online arts publication ArtsEquator.

Join us in the Living Room as the panel of seven reviewers discuss and debate the best and the most disappointing productions, performances, design, and other theatrical experiences they witnessed in the last 12 months. The session will be moderated by Robin Loon, chief editor of Citizens’ Reviews.

An accompanying exhibition featuring the 2017 productions and ephemera from our Repository archive will be held in the Front Courtyard.

EVENT DETAILS

Saturday, 14 December 2017
8pm @ Centre 42 Black Box

Admission price: Give-What-You-Can
(Cash only, at the door)

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

FROM CITIZENS’ REVIEWS:

Casidhe Ng
Casidhe is currently serving his national service, having just graduated from the School of the Arts, Singapore. He enjoys reading and writing, and believes that theatre reviewing is an excellent motivator for artistic improvement when done right. Aside from writing, his true passion is for the stage and enjoys acting, designing and occasional dramaturgy.

Christian W. Huber
Christian has been away from the theatre scene for over ten years as he focused his time in running and managing the family business of Boncafé International Pte Ltd – A Pioneering Gourmet Coffee Roasting and Manufacturing Company in Singapore. Christian stepped down from the company earlier this year to pursue his other interests and to spend time with his family of four. He continues to look after another family business, as well as to pursue his renewed interest in the arts.

Christian is a C42 Boiler Room 2016 playwright, and enjoys being an audience member to different mediums of the arts. He finds arts invigorating to the soul, and truly believes that the vibrant arts scene has come a long way from its humble beginnings. He looks forward to appreciating, experiencing, and exploring more of it as a Citizen Reviewer!

Cordelia Lee
Cordelia is a second-year Theatre Studies and English Linguistics double major, who is currently trapped in a full-time relationship with the National University of Singapore. When life with NUS gets too overwhelming, she purchases student-discounted tickets to local plays, slips into the theatre, and savours every moment of her temporarily bought freedom.

She views the theatre as a liminal space providing far more than simply entertainment. It is there where inspiration strikes, where beliefs are challenged and discussions are sparked. While she appreciates a wide range of theatrical styles, she admits to being especially intrigued by avant-garde performances. Often, the more perplexing and thought-provoking they are, the better.

Outside of university and the theatre, she finds herself spinning to Spanish music on the salsa dance floor, torturing her obliques in the gym, and routinely singing to ’90s hits in the shower.

To top it off, he is equally passionate in acting and flamenco dancing, and hopes to pursue all his passions in equal measure. He blogs infrequently at pre-lude.blogspot.com, while his portfolio and other reviews can be found at www.isaactanbr.com.

Jocelyn Chng
Jocelyn holds a double Masters in Theatre Studies/Research. She is a founding member of the Song and Dance (SoDa) Players – a registered musical theatre society in Singapore. She is currently building her portfolio career as an educator and practitioner in dance and theatre, while pursuing an MA in Education (Dance Teaching).

Myle Yan Tay
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. Theatre, to him, is about constantly pushing the boundaries of what the medium can do while telling a compelling story.

FROM ARTS EQUATOR:
Kathy Rowland (Managing Editor)
Kathy Rowland, as is glaringly obvious from her name, is from Malaysia. A chance encounter with a commedia dell arte troupe in her teens led to a career in the arts (also, lifetime penury). Since 2011, Kathy has lived in Singapore, where she teaches part-time at LASALLE College of the Arts. She is a writer, editor and producer. Her articles on the politics of culture have appeared in publications in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, the US and South Korea. Kathy edited and introduced Staging History: Selected Plays from Five Arts Centre 1984 – 2014 (2015), Huzir Sulaiman: Collected Plays 1998 – 2012 (2013) and Krishen Jit: An Uncommon Position, Selected Writings (2003). Kathy has produced theatre and visual arts events in Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, New York, Australia and Thailand. She is part of the Asia Europe Foundation’s ASEAN Researchers’ program, Regionally Speaking (2016-2017) led by Prof Dr Ruth Bereson of Griffith University and is the Lead Researcher in a theatre archive project run by Five Arts Centre Malaysia.

Biography taken from Arts Equator

The last Centre 42 event of 2017, “In the Living Room: Year in Reviews” was held on 14 December 2017. Six of the Centre’s Citizen Reviewers and Kathy Rowland from ArtsEquator were invited to look back and share their opinions on the local theatre productions they watched this year. The session, which was moderated by Citizens’ Reviews’ chief editor Robin Loon, was divided into six sections: 2017 as the year of the musical; The Necessary Stage’s 30th anniversary season; productions by smaller collectives; the most disappointing and exciting shows the panellists watched this year; and what they’re looking forward to most in 2018. Photos: Daniel Teo

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.

Centre 42 » Online Event

Year in Review 2020

Saturday, 19 December 2020 3.00pm on Zoom

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

WE ARE SIX!

The WE ARE SIX! Party took place on 21 April 2020 on Zoom.

REGISTRATION

Tuesday, 21 April 2020, 8.00PM on Zoom

Donations Encouraged

In the Living Room: Year in Review 2019

Sunday, 8 December 2019 From 1pm @ Centre 42 Black Box

Admission price: Give-What-You-Can (Cash only, at the door)

. 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.

In the Living Room: Year in Reviews 2018

Tuesday, 4 December 2018 7.30pm @ Centre 42 Black Box

Admission price: Give-What-You-Can (Cash only, at the door)

. 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.

In the Living Room: Year in Reviews 2017

A panel of seven reviewers from Centre 42’s critical writing platform Citizens’ Reviews and online arts publication ArtsEquator revisited the local productions staged in 2017. The session was moderated by Robin Loon, chief editor of Citizens’ Reviews.

Saturday, 14 December 2017 8pm @ Centre 42 Black Box

Admission price: Give-What-You-Can (Cash only, at the door)

Biography taken from Arts Equator

. 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.

Saturday, 19 December 2020
3.00pm on Zoom

Tuesday, 21 April 2020, 8.00PM
on Zoom

Sunday, 8 December 2019
From 1pm @ Centre 42 Black Box

Admission price: Give-What-You-Can
(Cash only, at the door)

.
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.

Tuesday, 4 December 2018
7.30pm @ Centre 42 Black Box

Admission price: Give-What-You-Can
(Cash only, at the door)

.
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.

Saturday, 14 December 2017
8pm @ Centre 42 Black Box

Admission price: Give-What-You-Can
(Cash only, at the door)

.
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.