Themes

Artistic Director
Alvin Tan

It's a humble beginning, but we have great hopes that readers will soon write in to contribute articles or views on theatre in Singapore. Theatre in Singapore requires constructive and sensitive feedback to help it along. Different audience responses—ranging from gut-level reactions to critical literary analysis—can be invaluable to the development of Singapore theatre.

Arts Education in Civic Society: A Forum on Arts Education in Singapore

Alvin Tan: Last, I want to turn to the question of building audiences and the development of TNS's collaborative techniques in the production of plays. Building audiences is now becoming a concern, but I want to ask if there can be an intimate relation between building audiences and concentrating on the professional development (of practitioners). Can there be a relation between doing research for artistic projects in communities and being accountable as practitioners to audiences? Can the 2 be brought together in a responsible and committed way of building audiences? Actually this is what our Community Service Theatre branch (CST) is about. Once a practitioner doing community theatre exclaimed to me: "What does it mean to say we bring theatre to the people? Theatre came from the people." This left an impression in my mind, it made me realise how much we, as artists or practitioners, need the community as much as it needs us.

Discussion

This is a part of the play where we discuss issues brought up in the play, and it's not scripted—everyday we find something new to discuss.

Newsletter

We have a lot to thank for! And well, we also have a lot of work ahead of us. The Necessary Stage (TNS) is undergoing yet another phase—consolidation.

Needless to say we need your help. This is your group. Make your membership meaningful—Get Involved!

Scene 1

Cheng: You see, Singaporeans are too tight. We need to loosen up. When we go and watch a play, we always want to distance ourselves ..... from each other, from the play. But not today. Today we are going to unite, in body and in soul... even if we have to beat you up.

The Failure of Forum Theatre and Audience as Empowered Co-creator
Kok Heng Leun

An intervention empowers the audience to claim the play, take it over, make changes and affect the course of the action. Each intervention by a member of the audience represents a view, and a performance with many interventions can form a collective

Epilogue

Here's to a celebration, of unity, of pride—a celebration of our strength. Our strength.

Talkshow Host's Message
Haresh Sharma

It is you, the audience, therefore, who determine the success of this talk show. Your involvement is crucial. Without your feedback, questions and views, without true dialogue and discussion, the talk show will be incomplete and ineffective.

Facilitating Spect-actors

Josephine Peter: Does anyone have an alternative strategy? Okay, who do you want to replace?

Scene 9: Any Questions?

Paddy Chew: Now, please—don’t be so Singaporean, don't be so polite. If you have something to say to me, say it. If you think I deserve this disease and you want me to know it, I want you to say it. Let if off your chest. Alright?

Movement 4, Scene 3: Roslan And Lu Yan Debate (2024, Video, Forum Theatre)

Lu Yan: Coming from a theatre background, you cannot get things done if you force your authority. Everyone in a theatre production is important, including the audience. Just like in a country, where every voice needs to be heard.

In Retrospect: Break The Wind
Andrew Koh

Vicky in the anti-model was given the power of voice by several spectators each night MCP ran.

Notes on Social Media Interaction in Poor Thing
Jason Ng

Eventually, we settled on only asking the audience to befriend one of the characters, Jerome Koshy, before the show, to use Jerome's Facebook account as a real-time narrative device to propel the conflicts of the play.

Nonetheless, the Facebook accounts of the other three characters are still out there for the audience to discover by finding out more about them, with or without befriending them, or interacting with them on their Facebook walls.

Artistic Director's Message: Get Involved For Real—Act With Us!

FORUM THEATRE? YES! Where you, the audience, can get involved in the play!

_____ Can Change (Q&A Segment)

Haresh: I can't answer what you are going to do with what you see. What you do is, again, from yourself. I re-shared "Marxists Can Change" beacuse after two ficitonal stories, we wanted to share something that was more from us, just to show that we are not just asking others to change—that we too can change, in our own way.

Forum Theatre Warm Up Exercises

And Alvin is going to have some exciting warm ups to put you in the right mood to come in here to play spec-actors!

The Story of Josephine Peter and Her Struggles Told in Five Parts....

Josephine Peter: There're some nights when I'm being the joker and things go really well and I feel that all the emotional energy invested is worth it. Because I see people engaging at a very high level where they actually do want to change difficult situations. And for me that's what life is all about. These are struggles we go through in daily lives. And of course there are nights when people want to be cynical. And those nights you take in your stride that there will always be a group of people like that. But there are groups who actually do want some kind of impetus to motivate themselves. And I think that's what we've been able to do with Forum Theatre, and I'm very happy that I've been part of it.

Space Invaders (IMPINGE: Concerning Difference)
Sean Tobin

When it comes to the performance itself, Alvin is also weary of impinging on his audience and hopes instead to incorporate them as collaborators. Alvin and The Necessary Stage have moved away from "propagandistically" trying to empower minority groups, instead empowering the imaginations of the audience at large, allowing them to draw their own conclusions. He adds that "...all works invade the space of the audience but this is debatable because we do not force people at gun-point to buy a ticket. As the work goes on, they can still resist what they encounter on stage."

"There is a small space opening up," says Alvin. "Dance like Mad!"
"Dance like mad cows!" adds Haresh.