By Akanksha Raja (870 words, 8-minute read) Every Brilliant Thing is a (primarily) one-person monologue of an unnamed narrator (Andrew Marko) coming to terms with his mother’s depression and suicidal tendencies. His effort to reconcile with his mother’s instability takes the form of a numbered list devised at the age of 6 – after her […]
Review of “Every Brilliant Thing” by Bhumi Collective Read More »
By Yue Jie (870 words, 7-minute read) Spoiler alert! If you’ve not watched the movie yet, go see it before reading on. Few films deal with animals as a central character, and even fewer have an elephant as its protagonist. In Pop Aye, the feature debut of Singaporean film director Kirsten Tan, an elephant called
Review of “POP AYE”: A Soul Journey Read More »
“At the Malasimbo music and arts festival, there are 5,000 people of about 30 different nationalities. There are Europeans, Americans, Canadians, Japanese, among many others, and like them, I am a foreigner here. I am Filipino yet I do not belong to the community of Puerto Galera nor have I been to the other municipalities
The music festival that wants you to care about cultural preservation [Philippines] Read More »
“When I heard Phnom Penh wasn’t a walking city, I bought a good pair of shoes. The evidence on my feet at the day’s end—after dodging motorbikes, piles of trash, street meat smoke, tuktuk offers—was par for the course. The joy of moving at my own pace offset the challenges, but could not have prepared
Phnom Penh’s White Building [Cambodia] Read More »
“From storytelling to stage plays, feature films to fusion music, the works of Singapore’s Indian artists are taking a multi-faceted diaspora story to global audiences. Sixty years after she left India, Mrs Santha Bhaskar travelled back to her Motherland in 2015 to choreograph a dance commissioned by the Singapore International Festival of Arts. As part
An Indian Renaissance [Singapore] Read More »
“Chiang Mai archivist and musician Victoria Vorreiter published a book on tribal music, Songs Of Memory: Traditional Music Of The Golden Triangle, in 2009. Since then she has been busy travelling, researching and recording music from the tribal peoples of the mountains, and for the past six years her focus has been on Hmong music,
Sounds of the Hmong [Thailand] Read More »
“If you’ve ever taken a class on Philippine history, you’d know about the Battle of Manila — but perhaps not well enough. While you might picture a day of fighting that led to the liberation of Manila in World War II, in truth, the battle lasted the duration of February 3, 1945 to March 3,
Remembering the brutal battle that changed Manila forever [Philippines] Read More »
“They could have been staging Shakespeare. Instead, this year’s batch of theater students from the Philippine High School for the Arts, aged 12 to 18, take on the difficult task of protest in a post-truth world. “A lot of our students [were] troubled and they don’t know what to believe in,” explained their directing and
A new generation finds its voice in protest theater [Philippines] Read More »
Of Fear & Faith: An Original Showcase of Short Plays, 29-30 Apr, Haque Centre of Acting and Creativity Haque Centre of Acting and Creativity introduces their very first Devised Theatre Collaborative Showcase: Of Fear & Faith. Multiple stories intertwine to become one story of people, living and dying, tested by the implacable nature of life. It’s a
24 – 30 April 2017: Singapore Read More »
“The Japan Foundation Asia Center presents “Mode Of Liaisons” exhibition featuring paintings, sculptures, films/videos, installations and performances by nearly 20 artists at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre until July 2. Curated by Pichaya Suphavanij, the exhibition is part of “Condition Report”, a collaborative art project with curators from Japan and Southeast Asian countries with the
Calling All Curators: “Mode of Liaison” at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre [Thailand] Read More »
So, if those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach, should those who shouldn’t, study? Theatre is not practical; Theatre Studies is less so(?) Everyone knows the “practical” reasons why one should not take a theatre degree. A Bachelor’s Degree in Theatre Studies is not the easiest degree to convince your parents that it
A Useless Degree: Theatre Studies in Perspective [Singapore] Read More »
“The Thai Ferrari, made from woven rattan by Chiang Rai locals, will park at the Venice Biennale this year. “It can’t run, obviously,” said Anon Pairot of his rattan sports car. “The curator once remarked that somehow it was like Thailand. We build things, but we don’t really go anywhere.” The 57th Venice Biennale begins
Baby you can’t drive my car [Thailand] Read More »
“Two Vietnamese directors — Pham Ngoc Lan with the film project “Culi Never Cries” and Le Bao with “Taste” — are amongst the 16 directors that have made their way to the L’Atelier supporting programme for young filmmakers, organised by the film foundation Cinéfondation of the Cannes Film Festival. The sixteen directors whose projects have
Two Vietnamese Film Projects Gain Support from Cannes Festival [Vietnam] Read More »
“Indonesia’s foremost theatre director, the internationally acclaimed Iswadi Pratama, staged an extraordinary eight productions in 2016 There is no simple way of describing Iswadi Pratama. He claims to be a self-taught artist, yet his exceptional talents seem to suggest otherwise. Having spent most of his life bringing realities to the stage he insists that he
Iswadi Pratama, an auteur of Indonesian theatre [Indonesia] Read More »
“What do four contemporary artists from three other Southeast Asian countries have that could resonate in a country like Thailand? Turns out, a whole lot. From aesthetics, to spiritual beliefs, to societal struggles, Jim Thompson Art Center’s latest group exhibition, “People, Money, Ghosts (Movement As Metaphor)”, depicts the continual change that the region is going through,
A region in flux: “People, Money, Ghosts (Movement As Metaphor)” [Thailand] Read More »
“Queer cinema in the Philippines is going through some kind of resurgence. Although LGBTQ stories have always had a constant presence in local film — a number of iconic LGBTQ classics enjoyed mainstream success from the late 70’s to the early 90’s — the number of local pink movies released per year had dwindled dramatically.
Coming out and breaking through: The Philippine queer cinema roundtable [Philippines] Read More »
“Thailand and its neighbours join up for the 2017 edition of the Asean Puppet Festival The magic of marionettes will light up Bangkok later this week as more than 400 puppeteers from eight Asean countries put on shows guaranteed to keep spectators spellbound. Brought to Thailand at the initiative of the Culture Ministry, the Asean
Marionette marvels: ASEAN Puppet Festival 2017 [Thailand, SEA] Read More »
By Akanksha Raja (760 words, 7-minute read) Petty People marks the culmination of the undergraduate course for the graduating class of NUS Theatre Studies 2017. The play begins with a quadriptych of scenarios strung together by the enigma of a dog and its ambiguous mortality. The pooch is never seen. Its presence is indicated only
Dogged Delirium: “Petty People” by NUS Theatre Studies Read More »
Belgian-German contemporary dance choreographer Arco Renz — who recently staged Hanoi Stardust with Nguyen Duy Thành, Vũ Ngọc Khải and the Vietnam National Opera Ballet — shares his list of up and coming contemporary dancers in the region whose steps are worth following. “This mini directory of contemporary dancers from Southeast Asia is both very
Curated: Southeast Asia’s Contemporary Dancers [SEA] Read More »
School of Contemporary Music Festival 2017, 7 – 30 Apr, various timings and venues Held as part of The LASALLE Show 2017 at the end of the academic year, this graduation showcase presents the college’s music students performing at the culmination of their years of training. More information. Every Brilliant Thing by Bhumi Collective, 18 –
17 – 23 April 2017: Singapore Read More »
“Over the past year and a half, May Tran (writer, student and professional procrastinator of Vietnamese descent) has been inundated with PR for two professional and sixteen-hundred amateur productions of Miss Saigon. The following piece has been cobbled together from segments of the largely incomprehensible fury essays she wrote during her frequent and violent rage
#not pho your entertainment [Vietnam] Read More »
“Raka Maitra from CHOWK Productions (Singapore) presents a brand new piece of dance at Esplanade Theatre Studio under Esplanade’s Raga series of programmes showcasing Indian performing arts in dance, music and theatre throughout the year. After selling out performances of The Second Sunrise at Da:ns Festival in October, Raka offers Pallavi in Time. A follow-up
Raka Maitra discusses Pallavi in Time – I never look back [Singapore] Read More »
“Growing up, my dad always told me, “Every Vietnamese family has a remarkable story.” I was raised in Orange County, Calif., the home of Disneyland, the Angels baseball team, and Little Saigon—the largest population of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam. It means that we were surrounded by people who were refugees, veterans, war survivors—people who were forced
I Am Miss Saigon, and I Hate It [Vietnam] Read More »
“I was first introduced to writer and photographer Zhuang Wubin’s work when I moved to Cambodia. His writings on Cambodian photography are well-researched, accessible, and thoughtful — exactly what I was seeking as a newcomer to the area. Zhuang became an important node for me to learn from and think through photography in Cambodia, and later the region as a whole.
An Artist’s Comprehensive History of Southeast Asian Photography [SEA, Singapore] Read More »
SINGAPORE – A $30 million waterfront theatre will open at the Esplanade – Theatres On The Bay in 2021. The mid-size venue will seat around 550 people. It was announced on Monday (April 10) by Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu during the annual theatre awards organised by The Straits Times’ Life. At
New $30 million waterfront theatre for Esplanade [Singapore] Read More »
When Space Dissolves into Luminosity; Where Flowers Bloom Amidst Rocks, iPreciation Gallery, 15 April – 29 April 2017 iPreciation presents an exhibition comprising works by 10 Singaporean artists, which spans different mediums ranging from sculptures, paintings, prints and mixed media, and seeks to examine how artists approach questions of authenticity while navigating the ever complex world. Artists
10 – 16 April 2017: Singapore Read More »
A deeply personal tale of revenge and redemption is set to return this weekend as Sophiline Arts Ensemble brings the celebrated “A Bend in the River” to Phnom Penh’s Chaktomuk Theater. While director and choreographer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro will keep the story’s original roots, her focus will be to increase the production values of the
‘Bend in the River’ set to take a new twist: Khmer Times [Cambodia] Read More »
The music should be familiar to most in the audience—pop tunes known the world over—but not so for the dance, “Re/Play Dance Edit,” which was choreographed over the past week by Cambodian and Japanese dancers. As the artists perform in Phnom Penh on Friday and Saturday, they will gracefully move across the stage without interacting
Championing Diversity, Dancers Move to Their Own Stories [Cambodia] Read More »
Art that Moves is an occasional series where we ask artists and other creative workers to reflect on artworks, performances or events that were personally important to them. This week, actor Brendon Fernandez tells us about a production he saw as teenager that gave him the courage to become an actor. We caught up with Brendon
Art that Moves: Brendon Fernandez Read More »
“Today, the 35-year-old is one of Singapore’s most exciting film-makers with a robust slate of award-winning short films and documentaries under her belt. Her first feature, Pop Aye – an offbeat tale about a disenfranchised architect and the elephant he adopts – just nabbed prizes at two of the world’s most important film festivals: Sundance
