Tay Tong (left) and Helmi Yusof (right) first crossed path in the early 1990s, although they didn’t become friends until much later.
As Tay Tong steps down from his role as the managing director of TheatreWorks – a post that he held for 30 years – Centre 42 has invited him to share his illustrious career in our next edition of the Living Room on 15 September 2018. He will be in conversation with Helmi Yusof, an established arts writer with The Business Times.
The pair are now fast friends, but even though both of them have been working in the Singapore arts scene in their different capacities for a number of years, it actually took a while for their paths to formally cross.
“I’ve known of TT for many years, though he didn’t know me [in the early days]. When I was a teenager, I helped out backstage at a few TheatreWorks productions [in the 1990s],” recalls Helmi. “As general manager [at the time], TT was too busy to notice me. But it’s hard for me not to notice him – he dresses impeccably and walks as if on a cloud.”
Helmi went on to become a film and theatre journalist for The Straits Times in 2000, but he still did not get to meet Tay Tong then, as established companies such as TheatreWorks were always covered by his more senior colleagues. It was only when he joined The Business Times as the paper’s main arts correspondent in 2012 that he finally had the chance to get to know Tay Tong properly.
“We hit it off, became good friends, and now he knows far too much about me,” says Helmi.
Tay Tong shares the same sentiments. “Helmi is one person who knows me well and who has seen my journey as a cultural worker. He has insights into the overall arts scene here and internationally,” Tay Tong says. “As an interviewer, he is often provocative, yet respectful and sensitive. I expect to be called out by him on 15 September, but I know it is meant to be professional.”
Tay Tong’s contributions to TheatreWorks are undeniable. There is no doubt that the famed local theatre company would not be where it is today without his hard work behind the scenes.
“TT has been on the forefront of TheatreWorks’ transformation for 30 year so it’s worth discussing his work as a producer and manager,” says Helmi. “All too often in theatre, it’s the directors, actors and playwrights – and to some extent, the designers too – who get the spotlight. But producers don’t get much attention at all because so much of what she or he does is invisible to the audience. I’d like to shine the spotlight on the work TT has done to help bring the company onto the international platform. I believe we could all learn so much from him.”
Tay Tong had been instrumental in driving many of TheatreWorks’ projects and initiatives, whether it’s producing some of its most iconic work – such as Fried Rice Paradise (1991) and Fear of Writing (2011) – or helming its international platforms, including the Flying Circus Project, a multidisciplinary developmental programme, and the Arts Network Asia, a grants-giving body that connects artists working in the region.
“Working in TheatreWorks and the scene [in the ’90s] was exciting, because you knew that with every effort you put into the work, you were breaking new grounds and pushing boundaries, production after production. I was always on an adrenaline high,” says Tay Tong. “And you know that you are not alone in doing this – everyone in the scene was working collectively towards a goal, to enlarge the role and space for the arts.”
Tay Tong was also inadvertently the catalyst for Helmi becoming a playwright. In 2014, he invited Helmi to report on TheatreWorks’ Writers Lab.
“I sat in for the first session and watched these writers open up and talk about their emotional hurt, nightmares and neuroses”, remembers Helmi. “I thought: this is fun! I have neuroses too.”
Helmi ended up writing his first full-length play titled My Mother Buys Condoms in Writers Lab. The romantic comedy was staged by Wild Rice two years later, as part of the Singapore Theatre Festival in 2016.
Given the pair’s history and respect they have for each other’s work, there will no doubt be much for them to discuss and reminisce about at the Living Room.
“I trust [Helmi],” Tay Tong says. “Helmi has promised to ask me for the ‘dirt’! But I have yet to decide if I will dish out any dirt…”
By Gwen Pew
Published on 6 July 2018
Come hear more from the dynamic duo at Helmi Yusof in the Living Room with Tay Tong at the Centre 42 Black Box on 15 September 2018. More info coming soon.
