Eloquence – A Sonic Opera by director Manuela Infante

Ovid’s account of Philomela’s rape and her severed tongue is the starting point for the exploration. How can she speak of the experience of being silenced, when her language is severed from her body? The field of public address is an important symbolic arena where social norms are contested, reshaped and upheld, but mostly where we harbour gendered norms about speech. What we call “eloquence” in public speech is, essentially, a code for values associated with masculinity. The women on stage in this performance will function as a multilingual choir that deconstructs the sounds and stories of their voices, weaving their personal experiences of silencing and transformation with that of Philomela and her sister Procne. Working half way between concert and play, music and theatre, sound and meaning, the piece will continue Manuela Infante’s collaboration with musician Diego Noguera and actress Marcela Salinas, who were last seen in Singapore with Vegetative State at the Singapore International Festival of Arts 2017. Together with artists from Singapore, they will explore electronic live processing and layering of voices to produce theatrical soundscapes and dispersed narratives about voices.

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Manuela Infante (Director)

Manuela Infante is a Chilean playwright, director, writer and musician. She is one of the most prolific and interesting voices in contemporary theatre in Chile and Latin America.  Having earned a BA in Theatre Studies and an MA in Cultural Analysis, Manuela is well known for offering scenic articulations of complex theoretical issues. She understands theatre not (only) as a place for telling stories, but as a laboratory for a sort of embodied philosophy making.

Diego Noguera (Composer)

Diego Noguera is a Berlin based composer, music producer, actor and theatre director, born in Santiago, Chile (1982). He studied musical composition and esthetics at Universidad Católica de Chile and theatre at the Fernando González theatre club. He has composed for over 40 pieces in theatre, film and dance, becoming one of the most important names in the local experimental scene. In August 2015 he premieres his first piece for electronic and orchestra in the Teatro Municipal de Santiago. This work was written for a José Vidal choreography. In 2018 he premieres “Idomenéo”, a theatre/dance play, directed by Manuela Infante. In 2019 he signs with Pirotecnia records for his first solo EP “Soñe que iba a dormer bien” (“I dreamt I was going to sleep well”).. He recently premiered “Emergnece” with José Vidal in Kampnagel, Hamburg.

Rebekah Sangeetha Dorai

Rebekah Sangeetha Dorai is an actor, singer and voiceover artist. Recent selected theatre credits include her solo show Building A Character at the 2018 W!ld Rice Singapore Theatre Festival, Discord of Discourse at The Faversham Fringe (UK), Modest Travels by Tan Kheng Hua, the Esplanade Studio’s Miss British,  Theatreworks’ Three Fat Virgins, and W!ld Rice’s MERDEKA. Sangeetha also debuted her solo jazz concert Sangeetha Sings Sinatra – live at the Esplanade in early 2019. She is elated to be a part of Eloquence and is grateful to work with Theatreworks and such a talented team.

Marcela Salinas Tapia

Marcela Salinas Tapia, was born in the city of Santiago de Chile in March 1979. In 2003 she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Theatre Performance) at the University of Chile. As an actress she has participated in more than 55 theatre productions in Chile and abroad. Her professional work has provided her with teaching opportunities with professionals in theatre and communication in courses such as vocal techniques and the studying of word on stage. She also participated as a vocalists for the band Los Fetuchinni (2010 – 2013) and the group Learimas, Celos y Dudas (2007-2017) which developed creative materials on a variety platforms and mediums.

Pat Toh (Actor)

Pat Toh is performance maker whose work centers working on, with and about the body. She has presented at Substation, M1 Fringe Festival and Indonesia Dance Festival. A Shell-NAC Arts scholar, she graduated with a BA (Acting) from National Institute of Dramatic Arts (Australia) and attained an MA in Drama Education from National Institute of Education (Singapore). Pat is an associate member at Dance Nucleus, where she is developing a practice in breath and corporeality.

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Details of the evening are as follows:
Choose either 7 or 8 November 2019, Thursday or Friday
7.30pm: Registration
8pm: Performance
9pm: Post-Performance Discussion
Venue: 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road, Singapore 239007

Register with ticket requests by 4 November.

For details, please email Shue-er Peralta at shueer.theatreworks@gmail.com or call 67377213.

Writing In The Thick Of Now: A Devising Performance Workshop by Manuela Infante

TheatreWorks Writers’ Lab invites lauded Chilean playwright and director, Manuela Infante, to Singapore to conduct a devising performance workshop.

Whether you have an idea brewing, or a work-in-progress, this interdisciplinary workshop will take you to the next step! This workshop is open to writers, directors, performers, and designers interested in developing their work collaboratively.

Infante will focus on devising and writing by drawing materials from what is created in the rehearsal room with performers. By applying her methodology towards your creative process, you will explore theories of non-anthropocentric theatre, in which other forces such as light, sound, words, and other non-human entities find time and space to participate in the forging of the work.

Participants will write on the spot, in the rehearsal space, and after the rehearsal, breaking the conventional approach of writing where “the words come first”.

In this workshop, the body, the space, and improvisation stand at the forefront, thus removing the human author from the centre of creation.

Infante was last seen in Singapore presenting, Vegetative State as part of the Singapore International Festival of Arts in 2017. She regards her plays as essays in a corpus of broader currents of thoughts that stems from theoretical writings, science, and cultural studies, characterising her work as a kind of ‘irresponsible philosophy’.

“Irresponsible in the sense that we strive from stealing from theory to make work, and not having to inscribe myself responsibly/responsively back into the academic corpus. My work is about letting ideas acquire a material life of their own, watching them find their way into the material world, into our bodies and our relations, and thus into time.” – Manuela Infante

Infante is widely celebrated for feminist re-envisioning of famous historical figures, combining slapstick humour and prose.

Her works have toured around the world and have been widely applauded by critics and audiences. From 2001 to 2016, she was part of Teatro de Chile, one of the most highly regarded young theatre groups in Chile. Infante’s repertoire of works includes Fin (2008), co-produced and premiered at the festival of Modena, Italy, and What’s He Building in There? (2011), created in residency at The Watermill Center, and premiering and shown in several spaces in New York. In 2012, she directed On the Beach,curated by Robert Wilson and premiered at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York; as well as Don’t Feed the Humans, premiered in Hebbel am Uffer in Berlin, Germany. Infante was also selected as Artistic Director of the XVI Playwright Selection 2014, organized by the Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes.

This is your chance to develop your own work with guidance by Manuela Infante; one of the most prolific and interesting voices in contemporary theatre in Chile and Latin America.

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Structure of the Workshop:

Session 1
• Introduction to non-humanist approach and devising methodology
• Discussion of reading materials

Session 2
• Project presentation and discussion
• Designing a methodology for your project

Session 3 – 6
• Working on a methodology for your project

Dates:  26 Nov, 28 Nov, 30 Nov, 1 Dec, 3 Dec, & 5 Dec 2018

Times:
Mon – Fri: 7.30pm – 10.30pm
Sat: 2.30pm – 6.30pm

Venue: 72-13, Home of TheatreWorks

Registration Fees

Registration Fee: $800 (for a group of up to 5 participants. Each group can comprise of writers, performers, directors and designers)

Observership is available at $20 per session.

 

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About Manuela Infante

Born in 1980 Manuela Infante is a Chilean theatre playwright, director, script writer and musician. Infante holds a BA in Arts from the University of Chile and a MA in Cultural Analysis from the University of Amsterdam. With her group Teatro de Chile (2002-2016) she wrote and directed numerous works with the support of the Chilean Funds for the Arts. Four of her plays have been published and translated into English and Italian. Her work has toured internationally to the U.S., Argentina, Brazil, Perú, Mexico, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Switzerland, Singapore and Korea. She has produced work with Hebbel am Uffer, Festival de Modena, The Watermill Center, FIBA and FITAM. In 2015 she was the first woman to be appointed director of The National Festival for Dramaturgy (Muestra Nacional) in Chile.

http://www.teatrodechile.cl

Script Analysis Workshop: The Reunification Of The Two Koreas

This month, TheatreWorks Writers’ Lab focuses on the playwright of our upcoming production Joël Pommerat, one of the most exciting voices in French Theatre today and a ‘superb artisan’ as described by the legendary Peter Brooke.

The Reunification Of The Two Koreas was originally written in French by Pommerat in 2013. Translated into English by playwright and dramaturg Marc Goldberg, TheatreWorks will present its English premiere in Singapore this November.

Pommerat takes a distinctive approach to playwriting. As an author-director, Pommerat believes there is no hierarchy: the staging and the script are elaborated at the same time during rehearsals. He refers to himself as a “show writer”, and continues writing through working with actors, as much as when working on the scenography, lighting and sound.

Using The Reunification Of The Two Koreas script as the focus, Goldberg, who has over 20 years of experience in writing and directing for the theatre, will guide participants in deciphering Pommerat’s apporach of being a ‘story writer’.

Pommerat’s plays are deeply anchored in modern life and he regards the theatre as “a place in which to interrogate and experience humanity. Goldberg is joined by award-winning actress and arts educator Noorlinah Mohamed, who will share an actor’s perspective in interpreting Pommerat’s scripts that revolve around the complexities of the human experience.

Goldberg and Noorlinah will lead participants in examining Pommerat’s script and its relationship with the audience, the characteristics and role of the story, how characters are built, the use of language in the play, and what you can learn from Pommerat’s scripts.

Participants will look at Pommerat’s creative process, get key insights on how it can be utilised in their own creative work and its suitability in a Singapore context.

This workshop is recommended for playwrights, directors and actors to gain a deeper understanding of character, intentions, calls to action, and the construction of an outstanding play.

Outline of the workshop:
• Discover Joël Pommerat, a “show writer”
• Examining the relationship between script and audience: Ambiguity, meaning and purpose.
• Character building: What should playwrights have in mind when creating characters?
• The type of language Pommerat uses
• An actor’s approach towards the script

Participants will be required to read the script of The Reunification Of The Two Koreas beforehand.

Script Analysis Workshop: The Reunification of the Two Koreas
Date: 27 October 2018
Time: 2.30pm – 10.30pm
Venue: 72-13, Home of TheatreWorks, Mohamed Sultan Road Singapore 239007

Registration Fees (Workshop Only):
$100 (Standard)
$60 (Student)

Bundle Performance + Workshop:
$140 (Standard)
$80 (Student)

Please send an email to writerslab@theatreworks.org.sg to register. If you have already purchased your ticket, please include a copy of your ticket for verification when emailing us.

Synopsis: The Reunification Of The Two Koreas
The Reunification Of The Two Koreas by Joël Pommerat is a patchwork of multiple short scenes revolving around an unuttered question: what are human relationships made of?

A woman wants a divorce because there was never any love between her and her husband. On her wedding day a bride discovers her fiancé had an affair with each of her four sisters. Two best friends get into a savage fight because one of them recalls their first encounter. A prostitute bargains down her services to hook a client.

What are those bonds that lead us to love, hate, help, betray, care, flee, fight, abuse or lie? Each scene explores situations where a relationship is challenged, drawing us into a maze where appeased relations between humans seem as primal, desirable and quixotic as the reunification of the two Koreas.

Facilitators:

Marc Goldberg
Marc Goldberg has been involved in French theatre for over twenty years before moving to Singapore in 2013.

He has staged about 30 shows with a penchant for medieval and contemporary drama, including A Woman of Mystery by John Cassavetes with Molières award wining actress Myriam Boyer, The Baby by Marie Darrieussecq with pop singer Lio, and Two Singapore Monodramas performed in France and Singapore during the Singapore Festival in France.

He is also a produced and published playwright (for instance La Colonne de Frickstein was published by Editions Les Cynges, Les Rendez-Vous was performed over 100 times, Scents of Josephine was staged in Singapore at the Drama Centre by Samzy Jo); and translator (his translation of Women of Troy by Ravenhill was published by Les Solitaires Intempestifs and staged by Jean-Pierre Vincent, his translation of Le Clown du Rocher by Catherine Lefeuvre was performed at Gardens by the Bay).

Noorlinah Mohamed
Noorlinah is an award-winning actress, a teaching artist and creator of public engagement projects in Singapore. Since 1988, she has performed and taught in Singapore, Asia, Europe and the U.S. Noorlinah is a recipient of the JCCI Cultural Award (2008) and the Women’s Weekly Women of our Time Award (2005) for her contributions to the arts. She obtained her PhD in Arts Education from the University of Warwick in 2013 and was Director of The O.P.E.N., a pre-festival of ideas and public engagement initiative of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (2014-2017).

 

TheatreWorks presents: ‘The Reunification of the Two Koreas’

In one month’s time, TheatreWorks proudly presents The Reunification Of The Two Koreas! The second play of our BECAUSE I LOVE YOU Season.

The Reunification Of The Two Koreas by Joël Pommerat is a patchwork of twenty short scenes revolving around an unuttered question: what are human relationships made of?

A woman wants a divorce because there was never any love between her and her husband, on her wedding day a bride discovers her fiancé had an affair with each of her four sisters, a mother is stunned when she learns her husband is happy with their son joining the army and risking his life at war, two best friends get into a savage fight because one of them recalls their first encounter, a prostitute bargains down her services to hook a client-

What are those bonds that lead us to love, hate, help, betray, care, flee, fight, abuse or lie? Each scene explores situations where a relationship is challenged, drawing us into a maze where appeased relations between humans seem as primal, desirable and quixotic as the reunification of the two Koreas.

The Reunification Of The Two Koreas is a co-production between TheatreWorks and Centre Dramatique National de Tours (CDNT). It is directed by Jacques Vincey, Artistic Director of CDNT, translated into English by Marc Goldberg, and performed by Cynthia Lee Macquarrie, Ebi Shankara, Karen Tan, Janice Koh, Pavan J Singh, Tan Shou Chen, Timothy Nga, Umi Kalthum Ismail and Zelda Tatiana Ng.

Event Information:
Thu, 1 – Sun, 11 Nov 2018
Wed – Fri: 8pm
Sat: 3pm & 8pm
Sun: 3pm Venue: 72-13, Mohmamed Sultan Road, Singapore 239007

Duration:          2 hours 30 minutes (with intermission)
Rating : Advisory 16 (Some Mature Content and Coarse Language)

Purchase your tickets on SISTIC today!

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TheatreWorks presents its 2018 Season, BECAUSE I LOVE YOU, with two plays – 13.13.13 by Shen Tan and The Reunification Of The Two Koreas by Joël Pommerat.

More information available at www.becauseiloveyou.sg

Dramatised Reading 2018 by TheatreWorks Writers’ Lab

Fresh from ‘graduating’ from the Writing from the Heart Mentorship programme, a year-long mentorship with renowned playwright Tony Perez, emerging playwrights Clara Chow and Pamela Tham will have their original new works presented in a dramatised reading at 72-13.

Funny and vulnerable, these new works of heartfelt stories will stop you in your tracks, and have you reflect on the choices you’ve made in life. Words have power, and a voice can make a difference. These emerging playwrights will work with professional directors and actors who will help bring their words to life.

TheatreWorks is dedicated to nurturing and developing new writing for the theatre. Our script development process focuses on exploration and creative dialogue, away from the pressures of performance outcomes. It is not intended that writers will produce a performance-ready script by the end of a workshop. The primary motivations are to create a responsive community, to generate a feedback loop with our audiences who contribute to the growth of new scripts and to cultivate vital, confident playwrights.

We invite you to join us in listening and responding to these new works as Clara Chow and Pamela Tham take the next step in their playwriting journey

Details for the Dramatised Readings
Date & Time: 7 July 2018, 2pm to 10pm
Venue : 72-13, Mohd Sultan Road, Singapore 239007

Register here to receive an invitation

Find out more ‘Dapunta Hyang: Transmission of Knowledge’ with its range of Engagement Programmes!

Join us for an array of events of talks and performances that will take you on a journey through the geographical, historical, cultural and artistic symbols that exist in our current exhibition, Dapunta Hyang: Transmission of Knowledge by Zai Kuning.

Last week we had a talk by Professor John N. Miksic who gave an insightful talk that touched on Singapore’s pre-colonial history in the larger Asian context, focusing on three specific mountains in Palembang (Sumatra), Singapore, and Melaka, which were epicentres that unified the Malay maritime culture.

This week, join us for a talk by Professor T.K. Sabapathy as he shares the significances of a stone inscription found in the vicinity of Bukit Seguntung in Palembang, that names Dapunta Hyang as a ruler who embarked upon a voyage or pilgrimage to gain merit and spiritual power. The contents of this inscription, the figure of Dapunta Hyang and ships or vessels are vital and dynamic wellsprings for Zai Kuning’s current work. T.K. Sabapathy discusses this inscription and its impact in the making of Zai Kuning’s Dapunta Hyang: The Transmission of Knowledge.

Symbolic Content in Dapunta Hyang: Transmission of Knowledge
Public Lecture by Professor T.K. Sabapathy
26 April 2018, 7.30pm

Click here to register for this public lecture today!

T.K. Sabapathy has researched and published extensively on modern art and artists in Southeast Asia; his work inaugurates pathways for developing art histories of the modern in this region. He is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore where he teaches the history of art.

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Dapunta Hyang: Transmission of Knowledge
72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road
12 April – 13 May 2018
12pm to 7pm
Tuesdays to Sundays

Opening hours are extended to 10pm on 26 April, 4 & 5 May 2018.

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The presentation of Dapunta Hyang: Transmission of Knowledge is part of TheatreWorks’ aim to present innovative contemporary experiences and artistic expressions that offer Singapore audiences alternatives. Its home, 72-13 is an incubator for artistic experiments by both artists and creatives, while being a consistent conduit for dialogues between disciplines and cultures.

Dapunta Hyang: Transmission of Knowledge docking at 72-13 this April!

A 17 metre-long ship traverses the hall, suspended. As if emerging from the sea floor, it unloads hundreds of books sealed in beeswax. This is the imagined vessel steered by the first Malay king, Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa of the 7th-century Srivijayan Empire.

Haunting, mysterious, full of magic and beauty is Zai Kuning’s vessel of the Srivijayan Empire, an artistic re-imagination of the voyage of Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa who is believed to be the first ruler of the Malay Kingdom in the 7th Century. A masterpiece that has journeyed through Hong Kong, Paris and most recently to the 57th Venice Biennale, DAPUNTA HYANG: TRANSMISSION OF KNOWLEDGE is a culmination of an ongoing body of work that investigates Malay history and culture through the lesser-known narratives of the orang laut (sea people). It has successfully brought Malay cultural history and Singapore’s relationship to the larger Riau Archipelago onto the international stage.

In the homecoming of this highly-acclaimed work to be presented at 72-13, Singapore audiences will experience a multi-disciplinary exhibition that traces a 19-year long journey that has taken Zai Kuning to encounter the orang laut (sea people), mak yong (ancient Malay opera), and the lost world of the Malay maritime kingdom. This journey started with a residency by TheatreWorks (Singapore) in 2001. Surrounding the exhibition in Singapore will be live performances by Zai Kuning and collaborating musicians, talks by experts, and the screening of a new film that captures Zai Kuning’s extraordinary sojourn in search of our regional history.

Through the synthesis of forgotten histories and a living tradition on the verge of disappearance, Zai Kuning communicates the urgent need to resurface questions on how knowledge has been transmitted, manipulated and directed across time and space to inform us of our present reality.

Presented by TheatreWorks (Singapore) and 72-13, with support from National Arts Council (of Singapore) and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth.

Dapunta Hyang: Transmission of Knowledge
72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road
12 April – 13 May 2018
12pm to 7pm
Tuesdays to Sundays

For more information about this exhibition and its programmes, please visit the website here!

Heman Chong on The Art in Writing by the Swiss Institute New York

For six nights in November 2017, artist Heman Chong’s new work for TheatreWorks – Because, the Night will inhabit 72-13.

A non-profit, second-hand bookshop with 50 books culled from a series of informal conversations with friends and strangers on Facebook. A space built for people who can’t sleep at night, a temporary home for insomniacs, the bookshop is open between 10pm to 4am.

Because, The Night extends and follows a thread in Chong’s work that he has woven since 1997. His concerns about the production and distribution of knowledge has brought him to produce exhibitions, conferences, books; playing roles outside of the artist— as curator, writer and of course, the bookseller. The bookshop is a confluence of many things. It is at once a depository of ideas, but at the same time, a social space in which individuals exchange ways of reading and seeing ideas.

Watch this Video by the Swiss Institute New York of artist, Heman Chong, on his ideas on The Art in Writing.

Bookshop for night owls – A feature by The Straits Times

Thank you to Olivia Ho and The Straits Times for featuring TheatreWorks upcoming programme, Because, The Night a second-hand bookshop for insomniacs curated by Heman Chong!

“We already have 24-hour gyms, so why not a bookshop that opens late at night so people who love to read can have access to books?” – Heman Chong

 

Click to enlarge

 

Link to The Straits Times Article: http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/bookshop-for-night-owls 

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Because, The Night
9 – 11 & 16 – 18 November 2017
72-13, Mohamed Sultan Road Singapore 239007

Opening hours: 10pm – 4am (Last Admission: 3.15am)
Free Admission

 

The Curators Academy 2018

The Curators Academy is concerned with the curation of performance but intends to move beyond the skills of curation, unlike conventional training programmes in European universities.

Its emphasis is on developing a context when there is little or none, for ‘growing’ performance which engages and interrogates the politics of the local, the site. The first recognition of the Academy is that very often, curators need to cultivate a scene of processes between their public intellectuals, artists, audiences and civil society, to construct a scene and its own specifics.

The Academy is concerned with bringing aspiring curators together in South East Asia. We will work regionally with Goethe Institute to locate these aspiring curators. These will primarily be independent artists and producers with strong networks but the Academy will strive to develop them into curators. The academy can also develop programmers of institutions but it is focused on independent curation. Institutional programmers will have to propose and develop a curatorial project outside of their institutions unless they can convince their institutions to be part of their enabling network.

It is the Academy’s belief that the programmers buy, artists make and curators nurture porous contexts, conversations, continuities through interrogating archives, legacies and bridging potentialities.

https://curatorsacademy2018.wordpress.com/