Model Citizens: Pursuit of happiness, prosperity and progress
By Naive Gascon (1,215 words, 4-minute read) Note: This review contains some spoilers. Why do we do the things we do? In the beginning, we are dreamers. We remain true to ourselves and our purpose, until some forces along the…
The Sound Inside: Duet of life and loss
By Leia Devadason (772 words, 3-minute read) Filled to the brim at 25% capacity, Singapore Repertory Theatre’s Robertson Quay theatre was cold. The starched whiteness of Petrina Dawn Tan’s set — comprising piles of books that would function effectively as…
ArtsEquator’s Hot List: April 2021
Every first Wednesday of the month, ArtsEquator releases our editor’s picks of shows/events/programmes that our readers can look out for in that month. This list in published in no particular order. 1. VECTOR#1: An Economy Of Means Physical show:…
Keturunan Ruminah: WhatsApp play on family inheritance
By Azura Farid and Nabilah Said The pandemic led theatre collective HATCH to dream up Keturunan Ruminah (Ruminah’s Family), a play that takes place entirely on WhatsApp. Rightly, HATCH identified the potential of the WhatsApp group chat to be a…
Podcast 86: M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2021
After a short hiatus, the ArtsEquator theatre podcast is back. In the latest episode, Kathy Rowland, Matthew Lyon and Naeem Kapadia discuss three productions at the 2021 M1 Singapore Fringe Festival – a line could be crossed and you would…
SEE WHAT SEE (Mar 2021): GENRE FICTION
By Joel Tan Welcome back to See What See! It’s our monthly round-up of interesting stuff by Singapore and regional makers that you can stream right here on the Internet. In this edition, I thought I’d pay a little attention…
So Lit: The Bottled City of mini objects travelling through Singapore
From now till 25 April, a truck carrying precious cargo will travel around Singapore, hoping to enchant you with its treasures and stories. Titled The Bottled City, this orange-hued truck contains art and design works curated and created in response…
Cakap-Cakap: Interview with Serene Chen and Krish Natarajan
In the latest of our Cakap-Cakap series, ArtsEquator chats with Serene Chen and Krish Natarajan who star in Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT)’s new play, The Sound Inside, written by by award-winning playwright Adam Rapp. The Sound Inside turns the spotlight…
The Substation’s SeptFest 2021: The last chapter
By Nabilah Said Against the backdrop of a battle of words, an impossibility is happening. SeptFest, one of The Substation’s most enduring annual programmes, is taking place this month, in March, six months too late. This, of course, is because…
A few walks-with: Vel Vel: A Sonic Walk and more
By Vithya Subramaniam (1,961 words, 8-minute read) We’ve taken more walks these days, haven’t we? Walking isn’t new to us. There hasn’t been a time when we were not walking. But this simple universal act has found new meanings over…
Hitting up the Producers SG Directory: Taufik Darwis, Racy Lim and Khor Seng Chew
What is producing within the context of the arts? It is a question whose answer might vary depending on who you ask. Producers SG is a community of independent producers, arts managers and self-producing artists interested in nurturing support systems…
Open Calls and Opportunities: Mar 2021 (Singapore/SEA)
ArtsEquator Lobang is a list of available open calls, job postings and other opportunities open to people from Singapore and Southeast Asia. “Lobang”, a Malay word for “hole”, is used in Singlish as a shorthand for an opportunity, valuable contact…
Alternative Lessons for Women: Sonia Kwek and Tan Weiying on sex, desire and the erotic
By Aditi Shivaramakrishnan Adapting its title from Lessons for Women <<女诫>>, a text by the first known female Chinese historian, Ban Zhao, Alternative Lessons for Women is a double-bill of two solo works: Hymen Instinct created and performed by Sonia…
Mixtape: The Millennial, The Zoomer and The Spray Can
“People always see us artists as cool. They think we paint on the streets, make big money, no need to study one. Ask them to try lah! We work for hours in the hot sun. And you need strong fingers…
Brown Is Haram: Kristian-Marc James Paul and Mysara Aljaru reclaim their space
Brown Is Haram: Reconstructing The Brown Narrative is a performance-lecture exploring different aspects of the experience of being brown in Singapore, exploring issues such as social mobility and masculinity. This show is based on the work and ongoing collaborative project…
Open Call for AE x Goethe-Institut Critical Writing Micro-Residency 2021/2022
ArtsEquator and Goethe-Institut Singapore are pleased to announce the launch of the inaugural AE x Goethe-Institut Critical Writing Micro-Residency 2021/2022. This is a digital micro-residency focusing on the development and promotion of critical writing about arts and culture in Southeast…
The future of The Substation: A timeline of events (Updated)
By Ke Weiliang, with assistance from Nabilah Said Last updated: 24 March 2021 ArtsEquator has compiled a timeline of events that details recent developments surrounding the future of The Substation. The timeline – displayed in chronological order – begins from…
The Substation: An unstoppable force and an immovable object
By Nabilah Said, with additional reporting by Ke Weiliang On Saturday, 6 March 2021, almost 300 members of the arts community came together in a Zoom Townhall to discuss the fate of independent arts centre The Substation. The Townhall had…
Mapping Asian Arts Media: Key Findings (Singapore, Malaysia and Cambodia)
By Kathy Rowland What is the state of the arts media landscape in Southeast Asia? Based on global trends, the answer seemed evident: the landscape has shrunk, and its impact on the arts ecosystem is a growing concern amongst arts…
Citizen X marks the spot for a family treasure none of us can find
By Corrie Tan (2,050 words, 10-minute read) Over the course of Citizen X, my father nudges me in the arm several times, whispering loudly and theatrically: “It’s so similar leh!” All throughout the 75 minutes, he wiggles around in his…
ArtsEquator’s Hot List: March 2021
Every first Wednesday of the month, ArtsEquator releases our editor’s picks of shows/events/programmes that our readers can look out for in that month. This list in published in no particular order. 1. Little Mournings Physical show: 4-7 March, various…
How they got their stART: ArtsWok, Paper Monkey Theatre and Bhumi Collective
In unprecedented times like a pandemic, artists, like everyone else, are focused on survival. Horizons for planning are more short-term. Even as we enter 2021 with cautious optimism, it is hard to think about longer term goals and aspirations. Yet,…
Open Call for W.O.W. (Women on Women) Classics: A Pilot Literary Project
Open Call for W.O.W. (Women on Women) Classics, a pilot literary project to increase awareness of forgotten or neglected classics by women. Do you want to know more literary classics written by Singaporean women? Are you keen to develop further…
Pelesits And Where To Find Them: A conversation with NADA and Teater Ekamatra
By ila Many of us grew up with ghost stories. For some of us, it’s very much part of our belief system that we share the world with other presences. (If you’re interested, I wrote a speculative text about the…
Open Calls and Opportunities: Feb 2021 (Singapore/SEA)
ArtsEquator Lobang is a list of available open calls, job postings and other opportunities open to people from Singapore and Southeast Asia. “Lobang”, a Malay word for “hole”, is used in Singlish as a shorthand for an opportunity, valuable contact…
The Substation: How many more canaries in the coal mine?
By Hoe Su Fern Since 1990, The Substation has been the sole occupant of the conserved building at 45 Armenian Street. Over the years, it has transformed the once-abandoned power station into Singapore’s first artist-led multi-disciplinary arts centre. However, in…
SEE WHAT SEE (Feb 2021): DESIRE
By Joel Tan Welcome to my new column for ArtsEquator, where every month I’ll be giving you a little line-up of Singaporean and other Southeast Asian streaming content that I think is interesting and worth talking about in my typically…
A predestined fate: Nine Years Theatre’s Oedipus
By Patricia Tobin (665 words, 4-minute read) The story of Oedipus is undoubtedly known to all. From the classic Sophocles’ play to Freudian theory, this Ancient Greek myth has bled into our cultural consensus over a few millennia. Yet, Nine…
Cakap-Cakap: Interview with Charlinda Pereira and Rebekah Sangeetha Dorai for subTITLED 1.0
ArtsEquator chats with producer and production stage manager, Charlinda Pereira and actress, Rebekah Sangeetha Dorai about their upcoming work subTITLED 1.0 by Bridging The Gap (BTG). The play tells the intertwining stories of three women, an activist, an arts intern…
The future of the arts in Singapore and Australia: Highlights from the Statistically Speaking webinar
ArtsEquator organised a webinar titled “Statistically Speaking: Analysing arts audience engagement in Singapore and Australia” on Thursday, 28 January. This panel brought together representatives from the National Arts Council (NAC) and the Australia Council of the Arts to elucidate on…