LASALLE Actors of 2020
11 October 2019 | 8:00pm
The LASALLE College of the Arts BA Acting Class of 2020 (Actors of 2020) will be in residence at Centre 42 for an 8-week guest residency, starting October 2020. This pilot residency is part of LASALLE's Industry & Community Engagement module where BA(Hons) Acting students take in the third and last year of their degree, and aims to aid students in starting their professional practice. During the 8 weeks in residence, the student residents will interact with key figures in the local industry and be provided a safe space where they can conduct professional practices in a setting that is as close as the one they will find in the industry once they graduate.
To that end, the student residents were tasked to curate, produce, manage, and perform or participate in a series of performances and workshops lead by a select list of renowned theatre practitioners, comprising Grace Lee-Khoo (Access Path Productions), Kaite O’Reilly, Melissa Quek, Haresh Sharma, Chong Tze Chien. C42 facilitated and interfaced where was necessary to network the students to suitable industry professionals, site/facilities orientation, and supported with production/documentation workshops and access to technical equipment.
Over the course of the residency term, the student residents organised and conducted four industry showcases that invited professionals (directors, performers, writers, producers) to witness their explorations and learnings from the workshops. These include:
- 3 & 4 Oct: Staged readings of 11 short plays from the LASALLE MA Creative Writing Program.
- 11 Oct: Presentation of radio dramas
- 6 Nov: Industry showcase 1 - Staged reading with Haresh Sharma
- 21 Nov: Industry showcase 2 - Work-in-Progress reading with Chong Tze Chien
I was proud to see the aplomb with which they (the students) rose up to the challenge, as well as to witness their agility in inserting themselves into the theatre community here. They doubtless faced situations that they would not have expected in an Acting degree but am sure that the network they triggered, as well as the intense learning experience they had, will be of great value in their future. In this sense, having the residency at Centre 42 was, in my opinion, crucial given the Centre’s role as one of the industry’s main melting pots – a place where theatre is made, and therefore where the theatre community is nurtured and maintained. ~ Felipe Cervera, Module Facilitator and Lecturer
