Showing 1 - 10 of 72
In the presence of others
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 14/07/2022
» My experience with Samara Hersch's online version of Body Of Knowledge (At Home), which was part of Germany's Impulse Theater Festival last year, has since got me interested in the question of what it is we do in theatre as audience. In Body Of Knowledge, the audience engaged in conversations with teenagers via WhatsApp, they in their own home, we in ours. The performance made me more attuned to the act of listening -- something we do in theatre without thinking or being asked to.
Strangers, neighbours, others
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 09/06/2022
» For me, the word "ritual" evokes tradition and cycle. And there's plenty that is traditional and cyclical at this year's Singapore International Festival of Arts (Sifa). But with a new festival director, Natalie Hennedige, the programme under the theme "Anatomy Of Performance: Ritual" also embraces questions of the future and the digital space.
Performance in the wild
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 26/05/2022
» For Kok Heng Leun, memories of Pulau Ubin, an island northeast of mainland Singapore, go as far back as when he was a teenager.
Bonds that can't be broken
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 29/07/2021
» Some digital theatre productions that I've seen since the pandemic began have tried to make up for the loss of intimacy and sensory experience that live audience participation allows and the sense of connection to the performance and each other. Sometimes our participation makes the show or is the focus of the show. We the audience help tell the story.
The evolution of khon
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 22/04/2021
» Choreographer Jitti Chompee's ongoing khon project, which includes Melancholy Of Demon, a dance performance that I reviewed earlier this month, is supported by the Ministry of Culture and departments and offices under its umbrella. This is a surprising level of governmental support granted to a contemporary dance artist who wants to do not-so-genteel things with khon and the character of Tossakan. I still remember how in 2006 the Ministry of Culture reportedly forced Somtow Sucharitkul to change the scene in his opera Ayodhya that depicted the death of Tossakan (Ravan in the opera version) onstage, a practice that is considered a bad omen in Thailand.
Welcome back to space
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 28/07/2020
» With a phone in hand and a pre-recorded voice in our ears, we step down a half-turn staircase at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) towards the basement.
Keeping theatre alive
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 27/05/2020
» How do you prove to the government you're a theatre artist? When large gatherings are banned and theatres are closed and your work deemed non-essential, how does that affect your income ? Or does it? Are you eligible for the government relief fund Rao Mai Ting Kan then? Is theatre-making a job in Thailand to begin with?
Where does a performance begin?
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 03/03/2020
» Where does a performance begin? This is the question I kept asking myself during TPAM Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama this year.
A decade in the limelight
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 30/12/2019
» In choosing the 10 best theatre productions of the decade, I started by listing some of my favourite productions, based almost purely on enjoyment. That would not do, of course. The more important questions are those of cultural and artistic impact. So of the shows that made it on this list, some are Thai-theatre-scene firsts, some are rarities, some are triumphs of age-old and underappreciated crafts. But all of them are ambitious, original and uncompromising. They have become indelible to me and, I hope, to many others. And they excited me then as much as they excite me now, looking back months and years later.
Of madness and joy
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 25/11/2019
» We review two original works -- a Thai-language political satire and an English-language musical -- with LGBTQ central characters.