Christina Sergeant – Life Events

Christina Sergeant (1955-2013) was an actress, director and educator who was both a pioneer and builder of Singapore English-language theatre. The timeline below presents selected events from Sergeant’s life. Click on each tab to find out what happened during the year.

This timeline is not meant to be a complete record of Sergeant’s life — for more information, please consult the additional sources listed below.

Before 1983

In 1955, Christina Sergeant was born in Massachusetts, US, the youngest child in a family of five. Her family moved to Minnesota shortly after she was born, a move Sergeant described as “important”^* because her suburban childhood was always full of creativity and play.

Sergeant was heavily involved in drama throughout her schooling years. In the 1970s, she graduated with a degree in drama from the University of Houston specialising in movement and mime. Sergeant subsequently spent two years training at Marcel Marceau’s Ecole Internationale de Mimodrame, Paris.

1983

• Married her Singaporean partner, Tan Ban Kwee, and moved to Singapore.
• Was introduced to the Stage Club but it “didn’t feel like what [she] wanted to do”^*.
• Earned a living as a dance and fitness instructor at Dance Arts.
• Met Roger Jenkins and formed Phizzog Mask Theatre.

1984

• Performed in Fiddler on the Roof, the first musical staged by Singapore Theatre’s American Repertory Showcase (ST*ARS), the precursor of the Singapore Repertory Theatre.
• Wrote and performed in Mime over Matters together with John Hawksworth.
  

  Going beyond the illusions and the technique, that’s where mime becomes interesting. That’s using actions in place of words as a form of expression. Mime’s a stylized form of theatre, not just getting up and making funny faces or clowning around.Sergeant on mime. Source: More than funny faces by Pat D'Rose. In Singapore Monitor (12 Mar 1984).

1985

• Directed The Best Little *****house in Texas by ST*ARS.
  

  Even though the company had sanitised the title to The Best Little *****house In Texas, the censors still turned up to check it out on opening night. Sergeant, 49, an American who has made Singapore her base since 1983, recalls: ‘They watched the first act, nodded and then walked out. We were all anxiously going, ‘What?’
  The next day, she was told that a media blackout had been ordered on the production: Deemed too raunchy, it was to get no advance publicity, only a review.Source: Yes, Sergeant by Clara Chow. In ST (8 Mar 2005)

1986

• Became artistic director of ST*ARS. Roger Jenkins joined her as excecutive director.
• Under ST*ARS, developed Youth Theatre Singapore programme to bring drama education to local schools.

1988

• Performed in The Snow Queen by ST*ARS.
  

  Christina Sergeant is regal as the queen with her stately gestures and commanding presence.Wintry tale of Snow Queen by Adeline Woon. In The New Paper (7 Dec 1988)

• Stepped down as artistic director of ST*ARS.

1989

• Became Festival Director of the Singapore International Film Festival for two consecutive years.
• Performed in Metamorphosis by The Necessary Stage at the Singapore Drama Festival. Also trained the cast in movement and mime.
  

  There is very little naturalism in the play. Actors move like puppets to a ticking metronome, the mimed movements deliberately distancing the watcher from the action. Yet the total theatre effects draw one inexorably into [the protagonist]Gregor’s nightmare.Source: Angst and cockroaches by Mary Rose Gasmier. In ST (21 Aug 1989).

• Co-founded the Actors Theatre Circle (ATC) with Shirley Smith, because there was a small pool of professionally-trained theatre practitioners and they “wanted to create a professional standard”^* as well as explore theatre for women.
• Performed alongside Smith as sisters in Catherine Hayes’ black comedy Skirmishes by ATC. Skirmishes was staged for the Singapore Drama Festival fringe and was cited as the best fringe play.
  

  The two played off one another, bringing out their very different ways of dealing with [their mother’s impending death]. The contrast was even physical – Jean slumped in denims, while Rita wore matching earrings and hairclip with her skirt.
  Their skirmishes were as painful as any boxing match, and far more subtle. But what impressed most was the way they conveyed the attachment beneath. Source: The long, painful scene of death by Mary Rajkumar. In ST (28 Aug 1989).

1990

• Performed in In Confidence by ATC, a dramatised reading of poetry and prose written for and about women, as part of Shell’s lunchtime programme.
• Directed Ovidia Yu’s Totally Fictitious Island in the Sun, a topical comedy revue which had to re-written multiple times due to cast changes and objections from the Board of Censors.
  

  This island is so fictitious that it is illegal to look for any resemblance to real islands.
  Some of the people in the play are too illegal to act in it, even: “We have some illegal workers and we’re having a lot of problems. Every time we find them, they memorise their lines – and they get sent home! ” said director Christina Sergeant, weeping into her laksa. Playwright Ovidia Yu nodded: “Seventeen re-writes!”Source: Island in the mind by Mary Rose Gasmier. In ST (3 Mar 1990).

• Founded improv comedy group The Mad Hatters Theatre Company with Roger Jenkins.

1991

• Performed in Romeo and Juliet by ATC.
• Coordinated and performed in Theatre Games by TheatreWorks, in which three teams of actors are entirely directed by the audience.
  

  …the audience chose sadistic plots and situations for the gung-ho, unsuspecting actors. Three teams of actors, veterans as well as new faces, competed against one another. If the audience liked what they saw, they squashed rubber ducks in violent applause, an applause-o-meter measuring the enthusiasm. If the action was dragging, or they just felt cruel, they pelted the valiant blighters onstage with sponge “Boo Bricks”.Source: Fun and forte by Hannah Pandian. In ST (31 May 1991).

1992

• Performed in Journey to the East by ATC for the Young People’s Theatre Festival.
  

  Christina Sergeant shone as Harlequin, the bumbling servant. Her powerful stage presence and her antics made her the obvious favourite with the audience. Source: Trip of love and mirth by Adrienne Ho. In ST (17 Mar 1992).

• Performed in Counterparts by ATC, a dramatisation of various excerpt from various writers about women and their relationships with men and society.
• Founded Mime Unlimited (also previously known as The Society of Mime Unlimited and MIME unLTD) and assumed the role of artistic director of the group.

1994

• Performed in Agnes of God by ATC, starring then-undergraduate Pamela Oei in her debut role as Agnes.

1997

• Mime Unlimited entered the National Arts Council’s Arts Education Programme (AEP), offering mime programmes and workshops for students.

1998

• Directed Was It Something I Said? by Mime Unlimited.
  

  “We’re trying to push the perimeters of mime, and show that it’s not just some guy with a white face doing his antics on the street. There are some funny, some serious issues dealt with in this piece, and mime is one way of expressing what cannot be said with words.”[said Sergeant]Source: Sorry, what was it you didn't say? by Soh Wen Lin. In ST (7 Aug 1998).

• Performed in Seven Days and the Giving Tree by Mime Unlimited, a touring community theatre programme.

1999

• Performed in To See by Asia-in-Theatre Research Centre (ATRC), directed by William Teo.

2000

• Mime Unlimited became a fully-fledged limited-by-guarantee company.
• Directed Pontianak by Mime Unlimited.
  

  “The challenge for theatre is to create another world, not to re-create reality. Only by this will it be able to trigger off the audience’s imagination.”
  And mime is well-suited to bringing this tale of the supernatural to life because of the different levels of style and precision of movement that mime artistes can employ, says Sergeant, who is choreographing all the mime sequences…
  It is time to look at mime in a new way, is what Mime Unlimited seems to be saying.
  “Mime can be very realistic, abstract or anecdotal. But mime artistes are still actors, and what we do is still theatre but more so because mime is an artform.”Source: You can learn from this Pontianak by Lynn Lee. In ST (11 Jan 2000).

• Performed as Dora’s mother in Peter Shaffer’s Equus by ATRC.

2001

• Directed A Perfect Love Affair by Mime Unlimited.
  

  Director Sergeant said that when A PERFECT LOVE AFFAIR was first conceived, it was not an easy task selecting, editing and structuring the poems together with Corbidge. Trying to achieve a balance between the diverse elements was difficult.Source: Love speaks by Kenneth Kwok. In The Flying Inkpot (14 Feb 2001), http://www.inkpot.com/theatre/01reviews/01revperfloveaffa.html

• Performed in Freak Sons and Daughters by The Necessary Stage for the M1 Youth Connection Festival. Freak Sons and Daughters was written and directed by Natalie Hennedige.
  

  The cosmetically enhanced Sergeant stood out in more ways than two, portraying an appearance-obsessed mother with all the poise and mother-hen-fussiness that such a role implies.Source: Getting freaky with it by Matthew Lyonn. In The Flying Inkpot (20 Mar 2001), http://www.inkpot.com/theatre/01reviews/01revfreasonsdaug.html

2002

• Co-founded the Singapore Drama Educators Association (SDEA).
• Directed Cinderella Dreams by Mime Unlimited.
  

  Cinderella Dreams was a commendable effort from Mime Unlimited; it took a well-known childhood story and crafted it in such a way that was generally entertaining and which allowed us to relate it to our contemporary lives without the story losing its original flavour. You can never make everyone happy, but they tried their best, and it showed. Source: Bedtime story, anyone? by Fong Li Ling. In The Flying Inkpot (6 Sep 2002), http://www.inkpot.com/theatre/02reviews/02revcinddrea.html

2003

• Joined NAC’s artist-in-schools scheme with Changkat Changi Secondary School, developing programmes and curricula for the students.
• Performed in Agnes of God by luna-id, directed by Samantha Scott-Blackhall. Received a Best Actress nomination at the 2004 Life! Theatre Awards.
  

  Sergeant acted the same role [as psychiatrist Dr. Martha Livingstone] in a 1994 production of the same play here. Here, she reprises with distinction a character that requires her to be hard-nosed, motherly and emotionally broken at the end. Source: An intense play on faith and rationality by Ho Ai Li. In ST (25 Aug 2003).

2004

• Became Vice-President of SDEA.
• Directed Furthest North, Deepest South by Mime Unlimited and The Finger Players (TFP), written by company director Chong Tze Chien. Furthest North, Deepest South won Best Production and Best Ensemble at the 2005 Life! Theatre Awards.
  

  Director Christina Sergeant clearly enjoyed exploiting this potential, gleefully emptying her bag of directing tricks upon the stage. The acting ensemble became a furnace; a dancing concubine turned into a storm and wrecked Cheng Ho’s fleet; characters became mannequins and mannequins became characters, all of this seamlessly. It was all very accomplished, and it was pleasing to see Sergeant handle the play’s puppetry elements as confidently as she handled her speciality, physical storytelling.”Source: The world on a string by Matthew Lyon. In The Flying Inkpot (26 Nov 2004), http://www.inkpot.com/theatre/04reviews/04revfurtnortdeepsout.html

2005

• Performed as the Wicked Witch from the West in Oi! Sleeping Beauty by W!ld Rice.
  

  As the evil witch, actress Christina Sergeant commanded a magnificent stage presence…Source: Oi! Wake up to a good pantomime by Cheah Ui-hoon. In BT (9 Dec 2005)

2006

• Directed the encore staging of Furthest North, Deepest South.
• Performed in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie by I Theatre.
  

  Christina Sergeant was especially striking as the suffocating matriarch, Amanda Wingfield, issuing incessantly fussy directions to her children on how to eat their meals, wear their clothes and live their lives.Source: Menagerie doesn't quite shine by Hong Xinyi. In ST (23 May 2006).

2007

• Performed in Wong Kar Wai Dreams by The Finger Players, written Chong Tze Chien.
  

  In Wong Kar Wai Dreams by The Finger Players, the female lead, Ling, was played by a very Chinese Serene Chen. An older version of the character was played with much gravitas by Caucasian actress Christina Sergeant. Some people, apparently, turn ang moh when they age. Source: And the Fest Pest award for most arty wet T-shirt goes to… In ST (28 Jun 2007)

2008

• Directed The Hypochondriac by young & W!ld. Received Best Director nomination at the 2009 Life! Theatre Awards. The Hypochondriac won Best Ensemble as well.
  

  Sergeant and Judy Ngo’s impeccable vocal and dance choreography culminates in the play’s final rough-and-tumble number, in which its hypochondriac hero is farcically elevated to doctorhood, the better to medicate himself.Source: In sickness and in health by Amos Toh. In The Flying Inkpot (10 May 2008), http://www.inkpot.com/theatre/08reviews/0510,thehypo,at.html

• Intended to direct The Last Temptation of Sir Stamford Raffles, written by Ng Yi-Sheng, but had to fly home on short notice to be with her critically-ill mother.

2009

• Directed 4.48 Psychosis, performed solo by Kuo Jing Hong.

2010

• Directed Poetry in Action!, a dramatisation of food-themed poems, for Action Theatre’s Makan Drama Festival.
• Directed Someday, Samsara by Play Den Productions.
• Directed Metamorphoses by Collab Theatre, formed by the ensemble from The Hypochondriac. Received Best Director award at the 2011 Life! Theatre Awards.
  

  Director Christina Sergeant further manages to effectively bring out the portions in the script that has links to the varied significance of water such as its representation of desire, serenity, raging storms and how it, like human nature, is unpredictable.Source: Actors to the rescue of a risky theme by Natalie Koh. In ST (15 Oct 2010).

2011

• Directed The Gingerbread Man by I Theatre.
• Performed in The Conference of the Birds for the Singapore Arts Festival.
• Directed On This Emerald Hill by STAGES, a one-man comedy performed by Jonathan Lim as the main characters from Emily of Emerald Hill and The Coffin Is Too Big for the Hole.

2012

• Performed alongside Nora Samosir in Casting Back, a retrospective on Singapore theatre. Casting Back was written by Robin Loon and directed by Casey Lim for Esplanade’s 10^th
  

  Veteran actress Christina Sergeant welcomes the professionalism but misses the 1980s when theatre seemed full of innocence and possibilities. She and actress Nora Samosir will be looking back at their theatre careers of over 30 years in Casting Back.
  She says: “The 1980s was a different time because there were so few rules. We’d go to the old Singapore National Theatre on River Valley Road and just walk in without permission to rehearse. There was no one there except for an old guard.
  “We even rehearsed at the void deck of Rochor Centre, or top floor of Orchard Towers carpark. No one would stop us. There was an unmistakable spirit of gung ho-ness back then.
  “Of course now, you can’t just walk into any space and rehearse. Try doing that at the Esplanade! You need security cards and so on.”Singapore theatre's 1980s zeitgeist by Helmi Yusof. In BT (17 Aug 2012).

• Directed Ashputtel – The Story of Cinderella by I Theatre.

2013

• Performed in Murder by Chocolate in Abu Dhabi.
  

  [Jonathan] Lim, 38, says: “She performed excellently. She was tired after the performance, but she powered through. There were no alarm bells. She had the biggest and toughest role – she played four characters. She was such a hero.”Source: Theatre mentor Christina Sergeant dies by Corrie Tan. In ST (18 Feb 2013).

• Passed away unexpectedly at age 57.

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