When we created the first timeline last year, it was in response to naysayers claiming nothing much happens in Singapore Theatre. This year’s timeline is likewise a visual up-yours to anyone who thinks our theatre landscape is barren. In 2018, we’ve documented 163 local productions*, from small shows by independent theatremakers all the way up to main season offerings from established companies.
We sourced this year’s shows from what we ourselves had seen and heard about this year, from the reviews our Citizen Reviewers had written about, and from arts websites like Arts Republic. Now and then, we’d come across a production that challenged our ideas of what is “Singapore” and/or “Theatre”. But more often than not, we erred on the side of ‘the-more-the-merrier’ as our definitions stretched.
But we wanted to do more with this year’s timeline. As avid theatre-goers, there were times in the year when we felt that it was a challenge to catch every theatre production that may have been happening over a particular weekend. The 2018 timeline shows concentrations of productions on each day of the year — each bar, representing a day, grows in length the more shows run on that day. With more going on on some days than others, this year’s timeline is a sine wave depicting the ebb and flow of activity in Singapore Theatre.
In addition, we noticed an abundance of festivals this year. In the timeline, a total of 19 festivals for or related to Singapore Theatre have been shaded across their respective periods and labelled.
We also tracked the shows that received some form of support from Centre 42, from productions which rehearsed and/or staged work in our spaces, to works incubated in our Basement Workshop residency programme.
Singapore Theatre in 2018 was exhibited in the Centre 42 Front Courtyard from 4 December 2018 to 31 January 2019.
The timeline is supplemented with information from the following Centre 42 initiatives:
- The Repository is a digital archive of Singapore theatre ephemera. Several productions in the timeline bear relationships with earlier works, such as restagings, adaptations and sequels, and these are accompanied by images of Repository artefacts from these prior stagings.
- Citizens’ Reviews is a critical writing programme. Productions in the timeline which have been reviewed by a Citizen Reviewer have been marked with “CR”.
- Living Room is a platform for conversations about Singapore Theatre. This exhibition is held in conjunction with In the Living Room: Year in Reviews 2018. Presented on 4 December 2018, Year in Reviews 2018 invited theatre critics from Citizens’ Reviews and online arts publication ArtsEquator.com, and the public, to chat about key trends in Singapore Theatre in 2018.
*As of 26 Feb 2019, eight more productions – suggested by the public – have been added to a timeline, taking it to a total of 171.
DESIGN & LAYOUT BY DANIEL TEO
FEATURED REPOSITORY ARTEFACTS CONTRIBUTED BY CAKE THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS, DRAMA BOX, SINGAPORE REPERTORY THEATRE, TEATER EKAMATRA, THE FINGER PLAYERS, THE NECESSARY STAGE & TOY FACTORY PRODUCTIONS
