Themes

What are some of the conceptual questions at stake in Imagined Boundaries–Encounters with New Model Communities?

Lucy Davis: Imagingings of the "authentic local community", the "particular culture", or indeed the "specific artistic discipline" do not exist in a vacuum. They are contextually constructed and come about, for example, in antagonism with what are perceived to be greater entities. Or they develop in contrast to a homogenising discipline. Or, in equivalence with other particular localities, cultures, or identities that are imagined to experience a similar situation to "our own".

The Making of Sing Song

In June we had two very special sessions with a total of about 30 guests from the neighbourhood who came into our rehearsal room and shared their musical memories in person, and we go the actors to spontaneously capture these memories in song and drama. Several of these stories have fed directly into the show you are watching today.

The Necessary Community Festival

Do you feel it's incongruent for a foreigner such as yourself to be heading a festival that has a strong local flavour?

Sean Tobin: As a foreigner who is very much part of every day Singapore, I spend most of my time with Singaporeans, soak myself in many Singaporean concerns. it's a culture which I now call my own ever since I lived her for the past 7 years. But I shall not pretend to be a true blue Singaporean. My perspective will always be that of an alien who has settled here. But I can learn more about the culture by asking, by listening, by watching, by trying not to judge too fast. I'm just as 'uprooted and searching' as many Singaporeans. I come from Australia, another 'British colony' which has struggled for a long time for independence and identity. I'm Irish in descent but am quite orphaned from it. In that sense, I just uprooted myself again and came searching in Singapore.

Second-Generation Artists 4: Sean Tobin

Alvin: Let’s talk about censorship where youth and community work are concerned.

Sean: Everywhere we go in educational circles, the government and sponsors, especially those who are opening up to the arts, I hear them say things like “I realise that arts is a very powerful too.” You hear it said again and again. You realise people see the power first. The Instrument. So although they get ex tied about the power, as it can give people a voice, they also hold a very deep fear, that in the wrong hands it can be very dangerous.

[…] Sometimes we consciously try to keep on mind the audience and the general public opinion in the same way the government does about not condoning and not celebrating ays but still employing them. Reason being: people are not ready. We also do the same thing in a way, but I think Lanterns was a big risk because it was a huge jump and we didn’t warn anyone. So for me, part of the question still in my mind is: if we know early enough, do we have the responsibility to warn people?

Project Director of Tampines Cultural Day
Kok Heng Leun

Tampines Cultural Day is a major cultural event, with 245 residents actively participating as performers and/or backstage, and 16 grassroots organisations lending invaluable support to the organisers. It is indeed a landmark event for Tampines AND the Singapore Arts scene. The Necessary Stage is proud to be part of this significant chapter in the cultural life of Singapore.

Art & the People

Today, in our socially mediated world, art can be a call to arms, where crowd-sourced contributions by the general public becomes the final product, where the processes of collaborating, editing, curating, mediating and critiquing are themselves the artwork. By re-examining the relationship between Art and the People, we open ourselves to new possibilities of the definition of art and creative processes. We embrace the unique voices expressing diversity, that—in coming together—form a new aggregate, a perspective that does not propel any single dominant ideology, but rather, accepts differences and sees them as integral components of an all-encompassing, fluid, and truly democratic whole. Through Art and the People, we seek to celebrate one another, to appreciate irregularity and asymmetry amongst our communities, and to mediate on how our individualities are but extraordinary expressions of ordinary beauty through multiplicity.

There Is A Tree

It's about you
It's about me
It's about all of us in Tampines

Company's Message

Begun in December 1994, with the company's appointment as the Resident Theatre Company of Tampines Regional Library, this branch aims to bring theatre to a wider audience by presenting theatre at community venues.

Artistic Director's Message
Alvin Tan

What has been refreshing in this project is encountering people's energies and concerns which come to us from outside of our immediate reality. As we develop as a theatre company, it has become increasingly important for us to interact with such people, who in this instance, are a group older by a generation or two. As we hear their stories, we begin to see the texts of our present lives in the light of their texts, and vice versa. This has enabled us to enlarge our perceptions, challenging the stability of our own worldviews.

Festival Director's Message
Yap Ching Wi

FamFest 2001 is about individuals and community groups initiating a future. It is a collaboration of the arts and community social work. FamFest asks the questions: how do we build and sustain forms of ground-up interdisciplinary work? How can individuals empower ourselves... and our communities?

Don't Say I Say: A Message from Central Singapore Community Development Council

Many residents of areas such as Kreta Ayer, Little India, Kampong Glam and Toa Payoh would have interesting stories to relate about their families and the neighbourhoods that they stay in. All these can help us trace untold aspects of our rich history.

The Making Of...

Along with the South East CDC we had agreed that we wanted as much community involvement as possible, and that in a new season of considering our racial-cultural ties and conflicts to question what kind of relations we have with each other, and what prejudices and tensions still lie between us.

Respecting Diversity in Singapore
Tan Chong Kee

As long as we choose to live in fear we will be too afraid to make things better for ourselves. Have we become a people that dares to dream of possessing ever greater wealth, but dare not dream of living with dignity? Are we a people who long for creativity, as long as it is within safe OB markers? Are we a people who are so proud of calling Singapore home that we have forgotten what home can really mean?

And Theatre For All

As part of The Necessary Stage's aim of involving different communities in theatre, it recently invited about 300 people from various underprivileged homes and centres to Still Building which was staged at The Substation from 22 May - 6 June this year. Here's some feedback.

Boxing Day: The Tsunami Project

Rather than impart a single narrative, this production will comprise voices of people affected by the Tsunami. [...] The Verbatim Theatre method—using voices of people involved in the tragedy—will bring, word for word, thoughts and experiences direct from them onto stage. Interviews conducted in Aceh, Phuket, Phang Nga and Penang will be used in the script.