This is a conversation between Writer-in-Residence, Michelle Tan and dramaturg, Juliet Chia, in which they reflect on charting the journey of a play after the first draft. What might the shape and goals of the revision process look like? How does the writer navigate obstacles or detours? What resources does the writer need along the way? When does she know she has arrived at a "final" or "finished" version?
Centre 42 presents a collection of new performances devised by its resident artists and invited guests. Titled “there is no future in nostalgia,” after Arthur Yap's iconic poem about the fatigue of urban renewal, we invite artists to consider the tensions between new and old, the technocratic and the civic—and consider how they come to bear on the art of theatre-making.
SIFA-X: there is no future in nostalgia comprises: The Vault, with pieces drawn from practitioners' memories of theatre in&nb
Centre 42, Singapore International Festival of Arts
S.O.S. is a devised performance responding to The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate ‘S’ Machine.
First staged thirty years ago in 1993, Tan Tarn How’s The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate ‘S’ Machine is a political satire where Derek, the Chairman of ‘various committees and subcommittees’, is tasked with finding the soul of a nation. He finds himself debating if he should submit a recommendation that he feels is morally right and risk the consequences of going against the wishes of the government.
After its
Dive into the dramaturgy of choreography and text in contemporary performance with a panel comprising playwright-in-residence Jonathon Young and dancer Renée Sigouin from Kidd Pivot, as well as performing arts critic Pawit Mahasarinand and researcher and dramaturg Corrie Tan, moderated by theatre-maker Edith Podesta.
Start: 6 May 2023
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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.
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"This second compendium ofnew writing from the W1iters' Lab Year II is an affirmation of the progress that Singapore writing has made: one sees a maturing of writing from the various playwrights, and the issues/ themes explored are broader and removed from the self-consciousness of a search for identity. This year we have a crop of writing that is diverse in theme and style.
"Mergers and Accusations is a piece of writing that has heart and soul. Eleanor Wong with her charming wit and humour, delves
Theresa Tan, Eleanor Wong, Tan Tarn How, Robin Loon, Enrico Varella, Lee Chee Keng, Otto Fong
The maestro of political plays is back and his latest offering in a decade, Fear of Writing, is a groundbreaking commentary with its finger on the political pulse of Singapore today.
In Fear of Writing, a playwright struggles with writer’s block, a director and producer bemoan their failure to get a government license to stage their play, and a father writes to his daughter overseas. Seemingly disparate elements are woven together, while the line between art, performance and real
"Tan Tarn How can be succinctly described as a playwright of the public life and a raconteur of social history in the way he captures the zeitgeist with the exactitude and incisiveness of a political analyst. This can be attributed to a spillover from his full-time occupation, initially as a journalist with the political desk of The Straits Times and eventually as a senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies where the ambit of his duties encompasses studies of policy issues on the s
Tan Tarn How
Published: 2011
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