Singapore Archives

Completely With: Remembering Paddy Chew, Reflecting on Loo Zihan

Recently, I caught Loo Zihan’s second iteration of With/Out at Esplanade Studio Theatre. Zihan’s work is an artistic reconstruction and reimagining of The Necessary Stage’s 1999 play, Completely With/Out Character, based on the life of Paddy Chew, the first Singaporean to go public with his HIV status. Completely With/Out Character is a deeply significant work […]

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24 – 30 April 2017: Singapore

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

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A Useless Degree: Theatre Studies in Perspective [Singapore]

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

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Review of Tropicana, The Musical: Memory Malfunction

By Felipe Cervera (910 words, 9-minute read) Theatre is a memory machine. Its engines run with dialogues and recollections, fuelled by the invisible streams of thought and emotion that run in and out, through the minds and bodies of the people gathered. We enter the theatre hoping to forget, to remember, wanting it to remind

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Singapore International Festival of the Arts 2017: An Enchanted Swan Song from Festival Director Ong Keng Sen

By Akanksha Raja (770 words, 9-mintue read) The 2017 edition of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) returns with the theme “Enchantment”. It is the fourth and final edition helmed by Ong Keng Sen as Festival Director, and presents a range of artforms and interdisciplinary crossovers. It runs from June 28 to September 9,

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Review of ‘With/Out’: AIDS, Archives, Activism

The year was 1999, and I was an awkward little eighteen year-old virgin, still sweating my way through National Service. I’d only recently become involved in the Singapore theatre scene, and in a similar vein, I’d just begun embracing my identity as a gay man. Both decisions were fraught with danger: after all, Alvin Tan

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Dogged Delirium: “Petty People” by NUS Theatre Studies

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

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17 – 23 April 2017: Singapore

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 –

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Raka Maitra discusses Pallavi in Time – I never look back [Singapore]

“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

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An Artist’s Comprehensive History of Southeast Asian Photography [SEA, Singapore]

“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.

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New $30 million waterfront theatre for Esplanade [Singapore]

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

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Tuckys Photography

‘Hope (Harap)’: No Hope in Contemporary Hell

By Kathy Rowland (728 words, 8 minute read) Teater Ekamatra’s Harap opens with its five characters frozen in the shadows, standing on low plinths. Taking centre-stage is a series of monochromatic, indeterminate images, projected on the backdrop and over their bodies. When the characters break free, the stage crackles with the easy energy of Hadi

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10 – 16 April 2017: Singapore

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

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Art that Moves: Brendon Fernandez

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

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It Changed My Life: Film-maker Kirsten Tan’s journey from quirky distraction to movie magic [Singapore]

“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

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Who’s Normal Anyway?

By Akanksha Raja (920 words, 9-minute read) Normal opens with a dreary, dull morning assembly at Trinity Girls’ School, immersing the audience in a mise-en-scène that is all too familiar to anyone who has been through any part of public education in Singapore. This bleary-eyed 7AM routine, of forced uniformity and subservience, is broken by

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3 – 10 April: Singapore

28.8 by Teater Kami, 7-8 Apr, Aliwal Arts Centre Written and directed by Adib Kosnan, this play targets a specific audience of young men and women who can relate to the challenges that living in Singapore poses to them financially. The play sees the blossoming of a relationship moving into marriage, before hitting different obstacles that

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Zai Kuning on the Singapore Pavilion project at Venice Biennale 2017 (via Art Radar Journal)

“What I present is not about Singapore history, but rather it is the history and living cultures across Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand up to Vietnam. This is the Malay world that the world knows very little about. Even the Malays in Singapore do not know it well. Singapore is one part of the Malay

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Singapore International Festival of Arts’ new director: “I don’t think mainstream is a dirty word” (via Channel NewsAsia)

SINGAPORE: “I think it’s safe to say that I have a reputation of not doing weird s**t. I do love mainstream work. I don’t think it’s a dirty word. So I’m not shy, embarrassed or apologising for that at all,” said Gaurav Kripalani, with a laugh. The 45-year-old artistic director of Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT)

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Review of “Fundamentally Happy”: Shame and Scandal in the Family

By Kathy Rowland (920 words, 8 minute read) Eric, a social worker based in Australia, has returned to Singapore for his father’s funeral. He visits an old neighbour, Kak Biba/Habiba, whose home was a childhood refuge from his own impersonal family. The reunion seems like a genuinely happy occasion. There are hints however – a

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Lance Vun, Kuching’s Most Versatile Photographer

Why do you like street photography? See, for me, photos that really stand out are the one where a street moment is captured to show a unique story. With street photography, you get more freedom. You don’t have to give instructions to your subjects or annoy them. Anything from candid shots to perhaps portraits, none

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Podcast 12: Theatricality in Dance; “Coppélia” and “Indices of Vanishment”

Duration: 18 minutes Dancer Chan Sze-Wei joins Dr Stephanie Burridge in the studio to consider theatricality in dance, exploring manifestations of theatricality in the classical ballet of Singapore Dance Theatre’s Coppélia and the contemporary form of Raw Moves’ Indices of Vanishment, both of which were staged in the past month. As worlds apart as they are in

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27 Mar – 2 Apr 2017: Singapore

The Four Note Opera by L’arietta Singapore, 31 Mar – 2 Apr, Aliwal Arts Centre Having had its New York City premiere in 1972, this hilarious one act opera by American composer Tom Johnson – part absurdist, part minimalist, all comedy. L’arietta Productions is a music collective that aims to produce high quality chamber opera, and

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Singapore Poetry: Loo Zihan on Completely With/Out Character (2015)

“In a time of ignorance and fears about AIDS, Paddy Chew came out publicly as HIV-positive. He was the first person to do so in Singapore. Three months before he died, he worked with the local theater company The Necessary Stage to stage a monologue titled “Completely With/Out Character” about the coming-out experience. The docu-theater

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Singapore’s first portable, pop-up theatre goes overseas

SINGAPORE: This month, theatre group Drama Box will be presenting its brand of community theatre to Europe – and it’s bringing its very own pop-up tent, too. After travelling around various estates in Singapore, the company’s portable GoLi – The Moving Theatre is making its overseas debut at the International Community Arts Festival (ICAF) in

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MAD Museum of Art and Design shut after owing $1.7m in rent

“Once the home of works by local and international artists alike, the MAD Museum of Art and Design in Tanglin Road abruptly shut its doors earlier this month, The Straits Times has learnt. When ST visited the museum yesterday, a notice by the High Court was on display at the entrance, stating that nothing on

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Overstuffed: Martin McDonagh’s “The Pillowman” by Pangdemonium

By Matthew Lyon (513 words, 5-minute read) I first saw Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman – in which writer Katurian is questioned by police-state detectives about a series of child-killings that mimic the plots of his stories – in Singapore Repertory Theatre’s 2007 production. Back then, I found the play too full of ideas that didn’t

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20 – 26 March 2017: Singapore

Alena Murang: Talk and Performance, 22 and 23 Mar, LASALLE College of the Arts LASALLE College of the Arts hosts a performance and talk by Borneo visual artist and musician Alena Murang across two days (22 & 23 March 2017). On 22 March at 7:30pm, Alena shares stories, myths and analogies of fast-fading tribes – Kelabit,

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Class Conflict: “Those Who Can’t, Teach” by The Necessary Stage

By Marcus Yee (904 words, 9-minute read) The Necessary Stage’s most recent production, Those Who Can’t, Teach makes a strange journey to its eventual arrival as a “play that salutes teachers”. For one, Haresh Sharma’s script distances itself from the conventional narratives of a teacher’s struggle over a difficult student, with the student’s future success

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Understanding Haresh Sharma: 5 things to know about Singapore’s premier playwright

5. IF YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND SINGAPORE, JUST WATCH HIS PLAYS That statement may sound a bit presumptuous, but there’s a grain of truth to it. After all, Sharma has written more than a hundred plays since the late 1980s, many of which have become classics, published in books, taught in schools, and staged and

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