Playwright's Professional Development Residency Pilot 2022 - 2023

Start date of Residency
1 September 2022
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Masthead Image
1 September 2022
Showcases

Residency Sharing: Playwrights and their F*ck You Plays
23 Feb 2023, 7.30pm - 9.30pm
Find out more and register here!

Studio | SIFA X: there is no future in nostalgia
20, 21, 27 & 28 May 2023
Find out more and buy tickets here!

No Spot of Ground - A Promenade Writing Workshop
27 Aug 2023, 2pm
Find out more and register here!

The pilot version of the Playwright’s Professional Development Residency will support four early-career playwrights who will undergo a one-year journey together as a cohort with Programme Leader Joel Tan.

We are thrilled to announce the four inaugural residents:

Ahmad Musta'ain
Resident 2022-2023

Artist Statement:

Having left full-time teaching to pursue a more creative life, this residency grants me the opportunity to deepen my craft with more regular writing, and plenty of guidance and feedback from playwrights of various levels of experience and expertise. I intend to seize this opportunity to be more collaborative and intentionally risky with my writing. I’m keen to know what other playwrights deem as contemporary issues, or even taboo.

I am also very keen to be reading the selection of plays that we can deconstruct, so that the learnings can better inform me on how I can play with shaping a play, and how to encourage messiness in my writing — After all, our lives are messy, and my plays should be able to reflect that truth and vulnerability.

A Yagyna
Resident 2022-2023

Artist Statement:

Playwriting has never been a lonely process, and I enjoy developing works alongside others, be it through devising or by getting critical feedback from peers and mentors. Some of my obsessions include socio-political themes, silences, “weird" aesthetics, comedy, intercultural works and Japanese theatre. I’ve now come to a stage in my theatre career, where I’m trying to solidify my style further as a playwright-director, so that all my interests can come together in creating works for a non-theatre going audience to encourage healthy debates. I’m hoping that the creative ping ponging between the residents will be the perfect kitchen to “find and ferment (a part of) our creative selves” that we’re all looking to nurture.

Danial Matin
Resident 2022-2023

Artist Statement:

I want to be more experimental and to incorporate different styles and structures within my writing. I also think artistic freedom is borne out of continual negotiations with creative differences. So I'm looking forward to being inspired and challenged by the distinctive peculiarities of my fellow playwrights and the other contemporaries we'll encounter together, and to weave them into my own practice.

I'm interested in unpacking competing notions of truth, their objectivities and subjectivities, and understanding why different groups of people draw the lines where they do. The world can see us in a way that's different from who we are. So in response to these misalignments, how do we adapt, negotiate, challenge, and/or reclaim? And who really gets left behind?

Rachel Chin
Resident 2022-2023

Artist Statement:

I am looking forward to the mentorship and to the deep collaboration, discipline, and professional rigor that this residency will bring. I am excited to have an avenue to "fail forward" with my fellow playwrights in the safe space that Centre42 has created. As a foreign-born theatre practitioner, I'm most fascinated by Singapore's unique socio-political landscape, i.e. Rental discrimination, BTO's, intangible and tangible cultural heritage.


About the Residency

This is a dedicated one-year residency with a structured studio programme designed and run by the residency leader, complemented by numerous public presentation opportunities in the form of reading events, and a small-scale production. 

The underlying philosophy of this residency is to develop the writer, not just the play. It is not focused on the writing of a single play, but several creative projects and activations, parceled out across duration of the residency. The aim of the residency is to keep these writers busy, visible, and presenting regularly.

Centre 42 will also seek ways to engage the four selected residents in workshop opportunities, and actively connect the residents with professional theatre-makers. This residency is an expression of interest and confidence in the work of these four playwrights. 

This residency aims to:

  • Provide rigorous professional training opportunities for the residents
  • Provide numerous opportunities to write and build up a small portfolio of residency-specific work
  • Provide multiple public presentation opportunities
  • Several small-scale production opportunities
  • Provide multiple writing/teaching engagement opportunities
  • Directly connect the residents with the industry by advocating for their work

 

On the guiding philosophy of the residency, creative associate and programme leader Joel Tan says:

This residency is the cornerstone of C42's recently launched suite of New Writing Development initiatives, which aims to put writers at the heart of the programmes. Throughout this process, we’ve asked ourselves: how do we meet writers and their plays at their point of need? How do we better advocate for writers to the people with producing power? How do we spotlight, support, and develop writers alongside their plays? As a result, all of these programmes are writer centric, but also make it a priority to hold writers within a network of other practitioners– directors, dramaturgs, actors, and producers.


Residency Schedule

The 2022-2023 pilot residency is a one-year studio programme comprising two phases:

 

Phase 1: Sep 2022 - Feb 2023

Residents, together with the residency leader, read, discuss, and write around the idea of the contemporary and global, focusing on how to respond to the present moment through playwriting.

  • Sep - Nov 2022
    Weekly meetings to read and discuss plays, issues, and topics in playwriting, focusing on how contemporary discourses shape plays on a formal and thematic level.
     
  • Dec 2022
    Break
     
  • Jan - Feb 2023
    Studio time where residents develop writing through weekly sharing and critique
     
  • 23 Feb 2023
    Residency Sharing: Playwrights and their F*ck You Plays

 

Phase 2: Apr 2023 - Oct 2023

Over the course of this phase, residents will develop a short play that will then go into a multiple bill production at the end. This play will be written to a specific brief, e.g. student actors, plays for specific communities.

  • Apr - Aug 2023
    5 Months of weekly studio time focused on developing a short play including dramaturgical workshops
     
  • Aug - Sep 2023
    Workshopping with actors and rehearsals
     
  • Oct 2023
    Production Showcase

An update to Phase 2:

  • The start of this Phase was dedicated to writing and developing a short play slated for presentation as part of Studio | SIFA X: there is no future in nostalgia , which took place on 20, 21, 27 & 28 May 2023.
     
  • Jul - Oct 2023
    The residents regrouped and continued weekly studio time to reflect on the Studio presentations, observed floor rehearsals at productions, and begun drafting their next play.
     
  • Oct 2023 - Mar 2024
    Workshopping and table reads of play-drafts
Asylum
by Danial Matin

About the Play

Year 2031. A right-wing political takeover almost everywhere in the world. 26-year-old Ocean has fled the sudden re-legislation of conservative laws by indefinitely prolonging their stay with a fellow illegal immigrant abroad. But when Mother unexpectedly shows up with a final plea for them to return home, the uneasy civility soon slides into accusations of cowardice, betrayal, and finally... farewell.

Five people seated around tables, smiling and reading from scripts.

The participants of the Asylum table read.

The table read for Asylum was conducted on 2 March 2024 in the Centre 42 Office. An in-progress draft of Asylum was read, with playwright Danial seeking feedback on the first impression the script made on listeners, and their thoughts on the characters, themes, and dramatic devices used. 

This table read was facilitated by Joel Tan, and the script was read by Azura Farid, Serene Chen, and Lune Loh. Also in attendance to offer feedback were practitioners Sean Tobin, Ahmad Musta'ain, Miriam Cheong, Juliet Chia, Jo Tan, and Jean Tay.

A group of people seated around tables, smiling into the camera.
Harapan
by Rachel Chin

About the Play

'Harapan' is a Malay word, meaning 'hope'. 

Harapan is inspired by events leading up to Malaysia's historic 2018 General Election (GE-14). It marked the first time in the nation's history that the ruling party, United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) was voted out of power. UMNO was succeeded by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition - the Alliance of Hope.

A group of people seated around tables set up in an O-shape, reading from scripts.

The table read for Harapan was conducted on 6 & 7 March 2024 in the Rehearsal Studio at 42 Waterloo Street. The full draft, consisting of several vignettes, was read from beginning to end on the first day, following which the director and performers provided initial feedback. The script received some basic dramatisation on the second day, and performers played different roles versus what they had been assigned on the first day. Each vignette was discussed in detail and further feedback provided to sharpen the script and improve its flow. 

This table read was facilitated by Joel Tan, directed by Jo Kukathas, and the script was performed by Shahid Nasheer, Tan Shou Chen, Jaclyn Magdalene, Isabella Chiam, and Nora Samosir. Also in attendance to offer feedback were practitioners Danial Matin and Shridar Mani.

Ten people posed as a group, smiling into the camera.
Not Empty
by Ahmad Musta'ain

About the Play

Not Empty is centred around a family, consisting of 18-year-old Najmi, his mother Ros, her older sister Ratna, their mother Opong Mak, and Najmi's boyfriend Julian. It weaves realism and complex familial dynamics with Javanese mythology. 

A large group of people seated around tables, reading from scripts.

The first table read for Not Empty was conducted on 31 March 2024 in the Centre 42 Office. The in-progress draft of Not Empty was read, with playwright Ahmad seeking feedback on his depiction of the characters and their familial relationships, as well as suggestions regarding the next steps of writing the script and where the story should go.

This table read was faciliated by Joel Tan, and the script was read by Shahid Nasheer, Umi Kalthum, Siti Zuraidah, Elnie Mashari, and Adelyn Tan. Also in attendance to offer feedback were practitioners Danial Matin, Juliet Chia, Rachel Chin, and Chong Gua Khee.

A large group of people seated around tables, smiling into the camera.
A group of 9 people posed in front of a shelf of books. On top of the shelf sits a black round signage with the text LIBRARY and C42.RY

Residents and C42 team at the final wrap up meeting of the residency!


Profiles

A Yagnya
Playwright
Danial Matin
Playwright
Rachel Chin
Playwright
Joel Tan
Residency Programme Leader