Image Caption: Offstage 3.0 questions the market-oriented manner in which theatre is valued in Singapore. Photo Credit: GuoLens.

By Choy Myn

Since 2018, Emergency Stairs, a Singaporean theatre group, has staged Offstage, a theatre production which has doubled as the group’s training platform and experimental project. In this year’s iteration, Offstage 3.0, Emergency Stairs continues to question the quantitative, product-centric, short-term and market-oriented manner in which value of theatre has been measured locally. Emergency Stairs and NUS FASS alumni, Grace Lee-Khoo and Chong Woon Yong, share about their entry into the Singapore theatre scene and their experiences working on Offstage 3.0.

How did you guys get started on your artistic journey?

Grace (G): I was performing and directing hall productions  as a resident in Raffles Hall but I would say the journey really started when I made the decision to switch from majoring in political science to theatre studies at the end of my second semester in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. It was a major decision encouraged by my father who could see that there was a future in the arts scene for me when I myself didn’t see it.

Till this a day when I share this story, people react with disbelief and would comment on what a radical parent I have. He did advise that if I made the decision to change course, I would need the grit and perseverance to really go all the way. I would have to hone my craft, constantly expand my mind, grow a thick skin and constantly evaluate my humanity and values as an artist. That’s why they call it theatre practice. The learning is lifelong.

Woon Yong (WY): I was always a misfit. Never really into football and sports despite coming from an all-boys school. I won a singing competition in kindergarten, and a storytelling competition in primary school. I was in the choir for a short time. I once played a tree in my drama club in JC. I enjoyed literature the most and took it through A levels. I kept a written diary for most of my formative years.

I guess subconsciously or consciously I already knew my journey growing up. It seemed too natural for me to major in Theatre studies by the time I got accepted into NUS, in a time when my peers was still struggling to decide what to major in.

What role did your years at NUS play in your exploration?

G: I always knew that the kind of work I would be interested in asked questions about social issues, systemic injustice and marginalization. It was at NUS where I discovered that the medium for me to do so effectively was through the arts. A background in theatre studies meant critical engagement with not just theatre as an art form but its ability and efficacy in connecting with a live audience – in a multitude of ways.

It’s about creating a space of reflection where there are no easy answers, no wrong or right most of the time. I was exposed to the work of great masters and had the luxury to dissect, discuss and critique theories, histories and of course, theatre-making processes and productions. This allowed me to widen my field of practice by not just limiting myself to being a performer or a director. I could delve into pedagogical exploration and research focused on cultural ecosystems locally and overseas, as well as issues of sustainability in the arts.

WY: NUS Theatre studies gave the space to explore theatre from a much broader point of view. You were forced to see things from a critical point of view across different genres, rather than the view of a performer. You saw things as a playwright, a historian, an academic, and sometimes a marketeer. Looking back it gave a good starting point for my subsequent practice. I minored in Chinese Studies. I rehearsed and performed in the drama clubs after lessons.

How have you evolved since you left NUS in your artform?

G: I spent 4 years in MOE right after graduation and that built a foundation in arts education and consistently challenging top-down approaches of learning. Currently I am looking at ways to integrate performance-making into standard curriculums – advocating for a blended mode of learning for students of different ages because I think on top of absorbing knowledge, application is key.

I went on to attend drama school in London and I obtained my Masters in Applied Theatre from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.  This was after I left the teaching service to properly freelance in the theatre industry. After some practical industrial experience, I felt that it was the right time to train some more.

My time studying and working in the UK created precious professional networks, international collaborations and most importantly it led to the founding of Access Path Productions, a disability-led creative social enterprise that I currently lead. Now my work is really about discovering, training and platforming Deaf, disabled and socially marginalized artists at a professional level.

WY: I wasn’t certain what I wanted to do as a arts practitioner. Upon graduating I taught drama for a time, joined the Arts Council as a bureaucrat, joined a theatre company as a producer, and founded another. I worked in a vet clinic. All the while I continued to write and perform. I am still not certain.

What inspired your show?

G: Because I see the theatre as a free, ephemeral space of reflexivity and dialogue, like all of my work Offstage 3.0 is a project driven by curiosity and care for what we do as artists and beyond. I personally don’t subscribe to the notion of arts for arts’ sake but I know others who do and that’s interesting. My Emergency Stairs collaborators and I want to use the stage to question the value of what we do and how that value differs with various stakeholders. From funders to audience, arts programmers and cultural administrators. In a functioning ecosystem, everyone plays a different part and is driven by different agendas but for the industry to go on, there is a lot of  intersectionality.

WY: I guess it’s the notion of wanting to do something different, to challenge and provoke the norm. We talk about a process driven work, but what does it really mean? What if we took that idea and pushed it to the extreme? Something with no product but a completely open process – that was Offstage 2.0, whose bones Offstage 3.0 will be built upon.

What is your most significant memory in preparing for the show?

G: This time round, I am preparing for the show while a child grows in my belly. I will be nearly 8 months pregnant when I go on stage in January and I am really excited about it. As a performer, my body is my instrument and it has since evolved rapidly. A Singaporean theatre-maker having a child is also an ecological issue as we are mainly freelancers. Often we see how artists or cultural workers have to exit the scene due to the demands of parenthood, for financial or professional reasons (oh work-life balance? What is that even?). When it comes to supporting artists who are parents, it’s a industry-wide conversation that needs to go deeper. As a theatre maker I am also very interested in the aesthetics of care and ethical processes so I’m excited to explore this area with a fantastic team of co-creators.

WY: I remember in Offstage 2.0 when the ensemble performed to no one in our show (the final performance was not sold nor publicised, hence there was no audience). It was the best run we had in the whole process. There were tears in our eyes by the time we went out for curtain call. For whom were we performing to?

It is often said that theatre doesn’t exist without its audience, so what was that?

Offstage 3.0 by Emergency Stairs will be playing live at the NAFA Studio Theatre from 29 – 30 January 2021 and will be available in on-demand video format from 1 – 7 February 2021. Further details and bookings are available at the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival website. Join the Friends of CFA programme to stay updated about shows and performances by NUS Artists!