Duration: 26 minutes
Matt Lyon speaks to Adeeb Fazah and Teresa Zhou, two members of Theatre Invasion Singapore, a passionate team of four final-year undergraduates from NTU’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information who’re on a crucial mission: to promote the magic of theatre among young adult audiences. They share their journey from unearthing the various factors that influence young people’s perception of theatre to the many “invasions” they’ve made to change attitudes and make theatre-going a bigger part of more people’s lives, and the encouraging response they’ve received.
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Theatre Invasion Singapore (as part of NTU WKWSCI’s Final Year Project) is a campaign borne out of four students’ (Adeeb, Lydia, Melody and Teresa) passion and desire to help Nanyang Technological University undergraduates gain a better understanding on Singapore’s theatre scene. Their campaign’s main focus was to change the negative perception of theatre being unaffordable, not relatable and exclusive (which was discovered from their pre-campaign survey), as well as to raise awareness on affordable forms of theatre and arts listing platforms. Some of their campaign tactics include: invading NTU lectures with 5-10 minutes performances, bringing a full show to campus free-of-charge, vibrant and useful social media content and videos relating to theatre. The campaign successfully concluded in March, where all objectives were met and they received positive feedback from the participants. The team will continue their efforts to promote theatre in Singapore through their Facebook and Instagram past their FYP, and are currently collaborating with theatre companies for more content.
Speakers’ bios
Adeeb Fazah
Adeeb just completed his final year at Nanyang Technological University, majoring in Public Relations and minoring in Drama. He has been in Drama Club since primary two, and pursued Theatre Studies at the A Levels. He became an associate artist with Yellow Chair Productions in 2014 and in 2015, he ventured out with four friends to start their own group, The Second Breakfast Company. Under Adeeb’s direction, the company staged Leow Puay Tin’s Family to a sold-out run at Centre 42 in October 2016. For his final year at university, Adeeb and his team initiated Theatre Invasion Singapore, a campaign that aimed to spread the magic of theatre to their peers.
Teresa Zhou
Teresa was only introduced to the magical world of theatre when she first entered university and has never looked back since. In Year 1, she managed the publicity and marketing for her faculty’s theatre production in the staging of The Beaux Stratagem by George Farquhar. She went on to become the Vice Chairperson of her hostel’s theatre production in her second year (Eighth Storey – self-written play by Adeeb Fazah and Mark Cheong), before becoming the Chairperson and Director in her final two years (High Class by Michael Chiang, and a double-bill of Survivor Singapore by Haresh Sharma and Mosaic by Joel Tan). She has also acted in two of the plays mentioned.
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