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

 

Neo Kim Seng revisits his 2015 text My Grandfather’s Road, based on his childhood memories, refreshing it in the spoken language of his childhood – Cantonese. Working with two actors, he also explores the Cantonese spoken in Singapore and Malaysia.

Two versions of The Vault: My Grandfather’s Road were presented – one written and performed in Singaporean Cantonese by Gary Tang, and one written and performed in Malaysian Cantonese by Tan Cher Kian.

You can view recordings of both performances (recorded on 25 November 2017) below. English subtitles are provided.

The Vault: My Grandfather’s Road in Singaporean Cantonese, written and performed by Gary Tang. (40 minutes)

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The Vault: My Grandfather’s Road in Malaysian Cantonese, written and performed by Tan Cher Kian. (36 minutes)

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The Vault: My Grandfathers Road 我阿公的路 revisits My Grandfather’s Road (2015), refreshing it through an exploration of how Cantonese is spoken in Singapore and Malaysia. Conceived and written by Neo Kim Seng, and performed by Gary Tang and Tan Cher Kian. Find out more here.

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. Below were the topics discussed:

00:04:57 The Year of the Musical
00:19:16 The Necessary Stage’s 30th Anniversary Season
00:30:53 Productions by Independent Collectives and Emerging Groups
00:36:43 Most Disappointing Production of 2017
00:51:27 Most Exciting Production of 2017
01:08:46 2018: Looking Ahead

You can watch the 80-minute Living Room session below:

Written by Aswani Aswath and dramaturged by Alfian Sa’at, Absence Makes the Heart… is an attempt to trace the presence and absence of Indian roles in Singapore English-language theatre, from the early days of its birth to the present moment. Featuring the actors Rebekah Sangeetha Dorai, Sivakumar Palakrishnan and Grace Kalaiselvi, the work will ask: How much do we miss those who have gone missing?

You can view the 60-minute recording of the 29-October performance below:

The Vault: Absence Makes the Heart… traces the presence and absence of Indian roles in Singapore English-language theatre. Written by Aswani Aswath and dramaturged by Alfian Sa’at, and featuring the actors Rebekah Sangeetha Dorai, Sivakumar Palakrishnan and Grace Kalaiselvi. Find out more here.

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.

Since 1987, ATRC, 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. Clips of ATRC’s production footage have been used with the permission of the estate of William Teo.

You can watch the 86-minute Living Room session below:

Nelson Chia, the artistic director of Nine Years Theatre, directed “No Parking on Odd Days” and “The Coffin Is Too Big For The Hole”, monologues written by late theatre doyen Kuo Pao Kun. In an exploration of cultural sentiments and grassroots sensibilities, Nelson had actors Hang Qian Chou and Tay Kong Hui perform the monologues in Chinese dialects — “No Parking” in Cantonese and “Coffin” in Teochew.

A 72-minute recording of one of the showcases can be viewed below:

The Vault: Dialects and Dialectics revisits two monologues by the late local theatre doyen Kuo Pao Kun: No Parking On Odd Days and The Coffin Is Too Big For The Hole. Nine Years Theatre’s artistic director Nelson Chia explores the cultural sentiments and grassroots sensibilities of these plays by staging them in Cantonese and Teochew respectively. Find out more here.

The Necessary Stage’s researcher Shawn Chua is joined by Nelson Chia, the director and translator of the 2017 production, Aidli ‘Alin’ Mosbit, who played the character Habiba in the first staging, and theatre researcher Wong Chee Meng. The four discuss the creative processes behind the development of the original play and its Mandarin translation, as well as language and its culture and politics.

You can watch the 90-minute recording of the Living Room session below:

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.

Find out more about the Living Room programme here.

Dance practitioners and researchers Dr. Nidya Shanthini Manokara and Jocelyn Chng presented the findings of their research into motherhood, dance and text, in a devised performance, and an exhibition.

A 60-minute recording of the performance in the Black Box can be viewed below:

Here are images from the exhibition, held in the Rehearsal Studio:

Contemporary dance artist Lee Mun Wai presents his artistic response to the works of playwright Elangovan, specifically the three banned plays Talaq, Smegma, and Stoma, published in a collection titled The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

A 45-minute recording of a full-dress rehearsal on 24 February can be viewed below:

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.

You can watch the 110-minute Living Room session in 2 parts:

In Part 1 (50 min), each playwright shares his or her personal history in Malay Theatre, collectively constructing a ground-up account of Malay Theatre history.

07:12 – Aidli ‘Alin’ Mosbit
21:45 – Irfan Kasban
29:00 – Nabilah Said
39:42 – Nessa Anwar

In Part 2 (62 min), the playwrights discuss several important topics in Malay Theatre, as well as field questions from the audience.

00:20 Writing in Malay and/or English
10:59 What qualifies as ‘Malay Theatre’?
27:30 As part of a minority group, is there pressure (self-induced and/or external) to portray the community positively?
35:18 What issues/topics are Malay playwrights interested in writing about? Has that changed over the years?
42:15 What are the new directions in Malay Theatre?
49:30 Are language standards in Malay Theatre (and as a whole in Singapore) deteriorating or evolving?
54:30 As part of a minority group, is there pressure to write politically?

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.

Find out more about the Living Room programme here.