Work In Process

The Weight of Silk on Skin is a one-man play, or what is also known as a ‘Long Form Monologue’. It is a unique and close collaboration between writer Huzir Sulaiman, actor Ivan Heng, and director Claire Wong. This new work was created especially for the Man Singapore Theatre Festival 2011, a festival committed to the development, production and promotion of contemporary Singapore Theatre.

Celebrating 23 years of Singapore Dance Theatre, this is a new production of the popular classic work premiered in St Petersberg in 1892, with choreography by Marius Pepita, music by Peter Tchaikowsky, based on Alexander Dumas’ adaptation of Ernst Hoffman’s story, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.

Singapore Dance Theatre marked its 23rd anniversary in 2011 and Masterpiece in Motion is an annual production showcasing the best of local and international contemporary choreography. Artistic Director, Janek Schergen, brought three works of equal length together in one evening, separating them with an interval. The centrepiece was a world premiere especially created for the company by Taiwan-born, California-raised, dancer-choreographer, Edwaard Liang. The evening began with a revival of a,”landmark work for the company”, first performed here in a collaboration between Australian Ballet and SDT, by dancer-choreographer Stanton Welch – son of Australian dance legends Marilyn Jones and Garth Welch. The third act was another premiere for Singapore, by Netherlands-born Nils Christie, reproduced by his wife, Annegien Sneep, completing a global embrace with this acclaimed collection performed by members of Singapore Dance Theatre.

As part of the Singapore Theatre Festival 2011, Cooling Off Day, written by Alfian Sa’at and directed by Ivan Heng and Jo Kukathas, was originally staged shortly after the General Election 2011. Rare in Singapore, Cooling Off Day is an excellent example of the relativity new form of theatre known as ‘Verbatim Theatre’, what the Americans call ‘Documentary Theatre’, where the text consists of real words spoken by real people, collected and edited by the writer and then performed by actors.
In the electrifying months leading up to the watershed 2011 General Elections, and in the tumultuous months after, playwright Alfian Sa’at interviewed Singaporeans to discover their responses to these searching questions. Boldly putting aside concerns about secrecy, the interviewees opened their hearts to share what they honestly felt and what they truly believe.

Tongues is a confessional and lyrical contemporary performance exploring the contrast, conflict and affinity between faith and sexuality.

Silences We Are Familiar With connects the physicality of dance with the intangible feelings of love. These connections, forged between individuals, bind us together in humanity. Expect an evening of eloquent choreography set to evocative melodies, articulated by some of Singapore’s most distinctive dancers. Silences We Are Familiar With will speak for the heart, and from the heart.

Project Mending Sky: US is Drama Box’s third and final production in their Community Art Project on Environment. Delivered in both English and Mandarin, involving 32 performers and 10 production staff, this was an innovative work, experiential and site-specific, leading the audience from sunset to nightfall, on a physical and imaginative journey through one-and-a-half kilometres of what remains of the historic Bukit Timah Forest.

Bukit Timah Forest was once an untouched forest where wildlife, including tigers, roamed free; the history of this environment is revealed through the various installations and performances as participants journey on the pretext of a search for the legendary “Bukit Timah Monkey Man”, recorded in 1805 and last spotted in 2007.

A play for one actor, written by award-winning playwright Huzir Sulaiman, Occupation weaves the true story of Huzir’s grandmother, Mrs. Mohamed Siraj, with the experiences of a fictional character Sarah. This production celebrates the 10th Anniversary of Checkpoint Theatre and forms part of activities at the National Museum of Singapore to mark the re-opening of the Singapore History Gallery and its focus on events in WWII under the Japanese occupation.

Lao Jiu (premiered in 1990) is one of Kuo Pao Kun’s most popular and accessible works. In 2005 Liu Xiaoyi adapted the play into a musical for the first time, with Eric Ng’s music and Xiaohan’s lyrics. In 2012, as part of the Kuo Pao Kun Festival, marking the tenth anniversary of his death, the musical version of Lao Jiu was restaged as an entirely new creative production under Kuo Jian Hong’s direction, featuring an exciting new lineup of performers and creative collaborators under the musical direction of Julian Wong.

Crossings is a multi-disciplinary collaboration between artists from Singapore and Croatia investigating the coexistence, understanding and mixing of different cultures.

Based on Asian myths, Crossings takes the audience on a journey of the transformation of the self – how one deals with the seduction of being imprisoned and how freedom opens us to meaningless pain.

City Night Songs tells the story of seven friends who begin their journey in Singapore’s shisha district of Haji Lane, and cross over into the difficult territories of joy, heartbreak, and acceptance. Old bonds are renewed and new ties are forged; some doors slam shut, while others may open. The story that emerged on the rehearsal floor was one that would find its place with anyone who has faced the night and all its promise, pleasure, and pain.

Twelve Angry Men

An intense midnight quarrel leads to the murder of a man. Witnesses take the stand as his 16-year-old son is tried for homicide. With all testimonies against the boy, his fate now hangs by a thread as twelve jurors find themselves thick in the throes of rendering the final verdict.

In the stifling heat of the jury room, twelve personalities will clash in a bout of logic and intuition, reason and conscience. Caught between conflicting personal obsessions and prejudices, will the jurors emerge as defenders of justice, or were they destined to become hangmen?

Created and choreographed by Raka Maitra with 13 dancers, Khayyam’s Rubaiyat: Echoes in Dance draws from Edward Fitzgerald’s famous 19th Century translation of the Persian quatrains attributed to Omar Khayyam.* With three Indian musicians playing live, and specially designed costumes also coming from India. Drawing mainly on students from her own dance school Chowk: A Centre for Dance, Raka Maitra trained her performers for twelve months under a special NAC grant to produce this work.

Written by multi-award-winning writer, Alfian Sa’at, whose previous work with Ekamatra includes the large-scale Causeway 2 (2002) and more recently Nadirah (2009) and directed and designed by Associate Artistic Director, Mohd Fared Jainal, Kakak Kau Punya Laki, with lighting by Anuar Mohd and sound by Anaiz Abdul Majid. To dramatise what many still consider a controversial subject, the most famous fugitive detainee under the Internal Security Act, Mas Salamat Kastari, Alfian Sa’at chose to use comedy and farce to best serve what he saw as a combination of absurdity and hysteria.

Fourlies is an experimental and surrealistic theatre piece that focuses on many key issues like historical revisionism, creative freedom and character autonomy in a literary work.

Duets is a series of pseudo-autobiographical performances about a power of two in a world of many. They have been presented in Singapore and internationally, in theatres and on audio. Over the years, Paul and Kaylene have duetted together (Duets, 2004-2005), alone (Duets 2, 2006), with trees (Tree Duet, 2007-2010) and with the sky (Sky Duet, 2008). Family Duet is the latest addition.

Sebastian Tan will be sharing his heart with his fellow heartlanders. Talking about life with mother, his father and his aunties and uncles, about the price of pork and the rise of his … libido, “benging sexy back”.

In these tough times in Singapore, Broadway Beng is more Beng for your Buck!

Senang is an original and ambitious new work written by Jean Tay, commissioned by Drama Box under the Artistic Direction of Kok Heng Luen. The themes and plot are based on true events that occurred in the 1960s on the island of Pulau Senang that was established as a model penal settlement with the aim of reforming prisoners though humane rehabilitation processes.
Under Superintendent Daniel Stanley Dutton, 819 prisoners – detained without trial under the Criminal Law Act – were part of an experiment; partly pragmatic, to alleviate overcrowding in prisons and partly idealistic, in offering productive physical labour working the land, with a degree of trust.

Mandala is a physical theatre production originally created by Beverly Yuen in 2007. After tours in Korea and Europe and several workshops, it was reimagined in a new production by Jacklyn Kuah in her new capacity as Artistic Director of In Source Theatre. Subtitled “Journey through a voyage of reflection on urban life as the Mandala develops”.

Wild Rice’s has an honoured and successful tradition of producing international classics of relevance to Singapore, often resetting works to better reflect SE Asia – known as the Masterpiece Theatre Repertoire. The House of Bernarda Alba was a rare chance to see this last masterpiece from the Spanish playwright, Federico Garcia Lorca. Lorca, also a major poet and pioneer of magic realism, was tragically executed during the Spanish civil war – killed much as was Jose Rizal in the Philippines 40 years earlier: simply for writing words not appreciated by the authorities.

The relationships of mother and son, of teacher and protégé, collide in The Necessary Stage’s Gitanjali [l Feel The Earth Move], an interdisciplinary and intercultural production written by Haresh Sharma and inspired by the writings of Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore and his acclaimed poetic work of the same name.

FREE is a new dance work from RAW Moves, a company that promotes inter-disciplinary collaborations and dance in the Singapore community. Set up in 2011 and led by Artistic Director Ricky Sim, the company merges dance with different art forms, using artistic innovation and research.
Under this year’s Research & Development Platform, Sim focused on making a movement research work based on the one–word theme ‘free’. His explorations questioned the bridging of one’s own decisions with representations of free will, whilst also inquiring into the act of displaying and play. Sim explored these with his most personal language – through dance and with his company of dancers – intending to demonstrate the passion and energy involved in decision-making.

This is the third production of one of The Theatre Practice’s most acclaimed works. After two previous sell-out versions, this acclaimed third is mounted with increased production values and assured performances, mostly with the original cast. If There’re Seasons is an unique and original musical, entirely in Mandarin and follows the successes of Liao Zhai Rocks! and Lao Jiu, the Musical; building for The Theatre Practice a strong foundation in the production of local musicals.

‘KA to me means my spirit, the within, the people who feed my spirit and knowledge itself. KA also symbolises my guardian: ak(KA), my teacher: (KA)vitha’, who, for Shahrin is a catalyst.’ – Shahrin Johry