Lovers Text Lovers is an experimental play about the movement of love and desire within the entanglements of identity, pop culture and language. Taking the relationship of two lovers—a Singaporean Chinese postdoctoral researcher and a white British Tsinghua University professor of Comparative Literature—as a point of departure, Lovers Text Lovers asks: How much of our desires and relationships are predetermined? How can we transcend or re-interpret these narratives? Who else can we be(come) t

Start: September 2021

NEW SCRIPTS RESIDENCYThe National Curriculum by Ahmad Musta'ain

The play looks at the stressors and strains of the lives of teachers and students who find themselves marginalized by an education system that was supposed to support and develop them. For most LGBTQIA+ teachers whose entire careers are spent in school, having to mask their identities while having to teach their students to discover, accept and love their true selves is ironic and potentially counterproductive to their goals in education. What can they do, or what has to be done to ensure that they get the

Start: September 2021

NEW SCRIPTS RESIDENCYLatch by Samantha Chia

Young police investigator Kim has been assigned to her first station. She thought that criminals and suspects were her biggest concerns but soon realizes there are other things she has to protect herself against.

Start: September 2021

NEW SCRIPTS RESIDENCYcoming back by Chuah Weiqi

A young woman revisits her childhood home and realises she has lost all emotional connection with her hometown. As she struggles to rebuild connections with an old friend, a surreal encounter with a ghostly young girl takes her on a trip down memory lane, where she finds herself faced with confronting her past and redefining what “home” means to her.

Start: September 2021

NEW SCRIPTS RESIDENCYFrayed Ends by Michelle Tan

Frayed Ends charts how the lives of a close circle of friends carry on after one of them decides to end her own life. In the face of a loss that is both immeasurable and sudden, they struggle with the frustrating limits of being human, of trying (and failing) to be there for the ones they love, and with finding some kind of hope even in the inevitability of these failures. Frayed Ends was developed under Centre 42's Guest Room (now known as the New Scripts Residency). Read about Guest

Start: 20 January 2020

NEW SCRIPTS RESIDENCYThe Regiment by Isabella Chiam

“Ta’at Setia” – Loyal and True These were the words that the brave soldiers of the Malay Regiment lived and died by. Up until the end, they fought tooth and nail to keep Singapore from falling to the Japanese invaders. And they did, to their dying breath. How did they come to this? Did they ever think to run? What were they fighting for? In The Regiment, we try to piece together the story of a few recruits in the Malay Regiment, in the years leading up to the Fall of Singapore in 1942. We wi

Start: 17 November 2019

NEW SCRIPTS RESIDENCYThe Chronicles Of Xiao Ming by Miriam Cheong

It’s been day 4XX since graduating school and this girl still hasn’t used a chengyu in her life. Or much Chinese at all. However, years later, perhaps it’s finally time to try. The Chronicles of Xiao Ming is a recollection of one individual’s journey through Singapore’s Chinese Language syllabus, documenting the tribulations faced along the way. From a primary school child knowing barely five words in Chinese to an adult struggling to order food, The Chronicles of Xiao Ming is

Start: 7 August 2019

NEW SCRIPTS RESIDENCYFirst Act(s), Part 4

First Act(s) is a 4-part series featuring 8 plays-in-progress from a group of budding playwrights brought together by fate. These plays were born at the ‘Playwriting Workshop with Haresh Sharma’ (organised by the National Library Board, September – October 2018), and have now been taken to their next developmental step of rewrites and readings. The plays will be publicly read to an invited audience for the first time, over 4 separate Guest Room sessions from March to July 2019: Part 1, March 2019

Start: 20 July 2019

NEW SCRIPTS RESIDENCYRumah Dayak by Nessa Anwar

A night-hour safehouse for the troubled youths, dropouts, runaways and delinquents of the Malay community is run by a pair of ex-offenders. When external intervention looms, it will take all of their collective efforts to keep the walls of their home up, or risk tearing them all down. Rumah Dayak is a look into the struggle to guard a home, when the home is built out of circumstances borne from poverty, deprivation and abuse. Performed in Malay and English, with English surtitles. Rumah Daya

Start: 6 July 2019

FAQ

Who is this platform for?

This platform is for independent theatre-makers (playwrights, directors, producers, performers) who are looking to test and/or showcase drafts of new or reimagined works to specific group(s) of audience (producers, presenters, fellow artists, theatre enthusiasts, non-arts events goers of targeted profiles etc).

What kind of work are you looking for?

We are looking for original, script-based work. Adaptations for form and language are also welcome.

How do you decide the suitability of the application?

We primarily evaluate the application’s fulfilment of the aforementioned criteria. It should be original script-based work, and the artist must be invested in receiving critical feedback on their draft. Further evaluation will be conducted by the Centre 42 team, although we often invite relevant experts to contribute their input to aid evaluation for necessary cases.

How often does this residency accept artists-in-residence?

The New Scripts Residency currently calls for proposals on a half-yearly basis and accepts up to three applicants each time. However, in the event of an overwhelming number of promising proposals scripts may be accepted nonetheless or possibly programmed for future iterations of New Script Residencies.

What happens after my submission?

If the submission fits what we are looking for, the Centre 42 team will reach out to you to understand your needs, and make plans to kick start the process.

Will you be providing rehearsal space?

The Residency includes up to 8 hours of use of the Black Box for the critical reception, but any prior rehearsals should be planned by and with costs borne by the artist. However, Centre 42 will be able to assist with the advanced booking of rehearsal spaces at 42 Waterloo Street. Artists will also be able to enjoy the use of the rehearsal spaces at discounted rates.

New Scripts Residency

A space where artists can test drafts of new works and receive feedback from a critical reception.

Type of work supported

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