Tools is a workshop series by our visiting resident playwright Sean Dunnington for playwrights curious about theatricality - the unique magic of theatre that invites audiences to “believe” what they see on stage is true-to-life, even while knowing it's not real (to an extent). Each session dives into a specific element of this conceptual spell, blending discussion, hands-on activities, performance, and experimentation.These workshops are suitable for playwrights/writers who are engaged with/thinking about c
Our project, Grand Theft Theatre, is a devised theatrical performance based on interviews collected from theatre folk, other arts industry workers, art-interested audiences, and general members of the public, to recreate and depict pivotal moments in Singapore theatre. The concept is borrowed from the show of the same name by award-winning Australian experimental theatre collective Pony Cam.We envision Grand Theft Theatre to be a tongue-in-cheek, trans-genre work that employs devices ranging from lo-fi rete
Pen Pals International is a new initiative in a partnership between Box of Tricks in the UK and Centre 42 in Singapore.We will be matching 6 UK playwrights with 6 Singaporean playwrights to for an international playwriting exchange. Writers will work together over a 6-month period from January until June 2025. Each pair will send each other work-in-progress and maintain regular contact through online meetings. Box of Tricks and Centre 42 will introduce Pen Pals online, discussing their ideas at t
Playwright Sean Dunnington joins us as our inaugural Visiting Resident Playwright from September 2024 to July 2025. This 10-month residency is sponsored by the Henry Luce Foundation as part of Sean's 2024 - 2025 Henry Luce Scholarship. Sean is a queer/Jewish playwright from Hawai'i Island. His work has been presented Off-Broadway, in regional theatres across the country, local libraries and galleries, state museums, old attics, public radio stations, film festivals, and LGBTQIA+ centres. He's been in a
Start: 1 June 2024
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About Us
Centre 42 incubates original writing for production development, provides space and resources for artists and new work creation, and runs a functional archive documenting the histories and processes of Singapore theatre.
We are a registered charity with Institution of Public Character status, and depend on public donations to continue our work. Help us support the development and documentation of Singapore theatre by making a contribution.
In this interpretation of the text, the figure of Admiral Zheng He, both icon and iconoclast, undergoes further interrogation. Importing their own cultural background as Singaporean Malays into the work, the artists involved will seek the spaces in the text which will allow them to question their own hybrid and syncretic identities. Various composite layers will be added to Kuo's already rich and multifarious text, which will include parallel texts from Malay historical documents, as well as extensions of v
Tough to Swallow
It is often difficult to approach a play with established history, especially one that holds as much significance as Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral. Written by Kuo Pao Kun and first staged in 1995, Descendants has since become a Singapore classic – a powerful tale of identity and modernity, ideas that have been and still are prevalent in our society.
Jeff Chen’s no-holds-barred adaptation of the play is one that plunges the traditional script into a variety of abstra