In the Living Room: William Teo’s Asia-in-Theatre Research Circus

Robin Loon, Elizabeth de Roza, Jeremiah Choy, Lok Meng Chue, and Neo Kim Seng came together to discuss the extraordinary achievements of bygone theatre company Asia-in-Theatre Research Circus (ATRC) and its late founder William Teo. This Living Room commemorated the 30th anniversary of the founding of ATRC.
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Asia-in-Theatre Research Circus (ATRC) was founded in 1987 by the late William Teo. For 15 years, the theatre company, with Teo as its artistic director, created and produced some of Singapore’s most unique and visually-arresting English-language productions. ATRC was in search of a new theatrical expression, experimenting with merging various Asian performing arts traditions with English-language contemporary theatre. With Teo’s sudden passing in 2001, ATRC ceased operations soon after.

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of ATRC’s founding, Robin Loon assembles a panel of past ATRC collaborators in this Living Room. Join Elizabeth de Roza, Jeremiah Choy, Lok Meng Chue, and Neo Kim Seng as they discuss the extraordinary achievements of this bygone theatre company and its founder.

EVENT DETAILS

Saturday, 29 July 2017
8pm @ Centre 42 Black Box

Admission price: Give-What-You-Can
Please register here

elizabethderozaElizabeth de Roza is an artist-researcher/educatorperformance maker, theatre director, a multi-disciplinary performance artist, collaborator and theatre academic based in Singapore. She worked with ATRC from 1996 till the passing of William Teo’s and credits her first influence on intercultural theatre to William Teo. She is currently pursuing her PhD at Goldsmiths University on the embodied cultural memory and the contemporary body in cross-cultural performance practices. She is also a full-time lecturer at LASALLE College of the Arts, School of Dance and Theatre, and in and a co-convenor of the Embodied Research Working Group at IFTR

jeremiahchoyJeremiah Choy left the law for the arts in 1997. He founded Orangedot Productions which provides creative consultancy, curatorial and production services in the arts and entertainment industry. Since 1988, he has performed and toured extensively in many critically acclaimed productions with TheatreWorks. Jeremiah first worked with William Teo in the production of The Sword Has Two Edges (1990), and subsequently assisted directed Listen To The Dolor of Dolores (1991). He then performed The Conference of the Birds (1991) at the disused warehouse where SRT now stands, and the groundbreaking monologue Lest The Demons Get To Me (1992). He was a musician in The Tragedy of Macbeth (1993), and played the leads in The Dragon King (1994) and The Painted House (2000).

lokmengchueLok Meng Chue has been a stage actress for more than 30 years. She was most recently on stage as Habiba in Nine Years Theatre’s production of Fundamentally Happy for the 2017 season of Esplanade’s The Studios. Meng Chue also acted on television and in films. She first worked with ATRC on its very first production, The House of Bernarda Alba, in 1987as well as the groundbreaking productions Medea (1988) and Mother Courage and Her Children (1989) which were staged outdoors in Fort Canning Park.

neokimsengNeo Kim Seng is a cross-disciplinary practitioner and has been involved in independent and large-scale projects in Singapore and overseas in different capacities. He has programmed for Esplanade – Theatres On The Bay, Singapore International Film Festival, Singapore Arts Festival and managed productions for major theatre companies and independent artists. He has produced and toured independent dance works to Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Canada. Recently, he has begun creating his own work. Kim Seng used the work with ATRC in the capacity of a stage manager. He also designed some of the company’s programmes booklets.

Asia-in-Theatre Research Circus (ATRC) was founded by the late William Teo in 1987. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the theatre company’s establishment, we invited past ATRC collaborators Elizabeth De Roza, Jeremiah Choy, Lok Meng Chue, and Neo Kim Seng to share their experiences with Robin Loon in this edition of the Living Room. Held on 29th July 2017, the event was also attended by many theatre practitioners who knew and were inspired by William. Photo credit: Daniel Teo & Gwen Pew.

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.