We Colour People - Archived by Euginia Tan

We Colour People (WCP for short) is a non-profit theatre society that was established in 2008. It was founded by a group of artists who had graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts and understood the difficulty of breaking into the theatre scene at that time - with many companies working mostly with selected practitioners, they chose to come together and begin their collective together. Led by founding member Joanne Ng, who felt that theatre was a powerful tool to approach difficult topics in society, they focused on creating works that would appeal to the masses and introduce theatre to non-theatregoers. Their name was derived from the notion of conveying the power of imagination - 'to colour people's imagination'. 

WCP's first show debuted in the Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre (TAPAC), a beloved space within the business district. The following years were spent establishing performing arts workshops, conducting research to create an education division, and fostering fresh practitioners in the theatre industry. The collective sought to cultivate values of communal sharing, providing a safe space for imagination and developing deep bonds of friendship.

Resident Artist Euginia Tan is interested in discourses of gender and race for artists has led her to have many intimate discussions with various practitioners, including WCP's founding members. Euginia resonates with WCP's creation ethos - its openness, its concern with cultural discussions, and its resistance to the need to be continuously socially present or typically 'seen' in industry terms. This Archival Residency provides a way for Euginia to better understand the collective, its history, and its modes of research and practice, and spotlight a theatre group that has not been as widely circulated in the industry. 

The Residency will conclude with an e-Publication chronicling WCP's journey, featuring written interviews with WCP members, script analysis of WCP's works and more; a podcast episode sharing more about the collective; and a public presentation where Euginia and several WCP members discuss the Residency process and the impact the collective has made in present day.