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ARTivate presents

30 & 31 JULY 2021

ONLINE SCREENING

Message from the ARTivators

Dear You,

Thank you for supporting ARTivate in our graduation production on loss, grief and healing. This process has been a really challenging one for us, filled with lots of self-doubt, uncertainties, endless tears and frustrations. Some of you here may be a friend or family to us; Some of you here may be someone who has mentored us in the past 3.5 years or is a part of this production; Some of you here may be the first time crossing paths with us, but decided to watch this production, because it means something to you. No matter who you are, thank you for being here today. Having you here really means a lot to each and everyone of us.

Today, we present to you a piece that is written and performed with a sincere heart, hoping our message of hope will reach you. We invite you to join this conversation about grief and healing with us. It may not be anywhere close to perfect, but it is a story we really want to share with you. Of course, this would not have happened without the support and guidance from our director, designers, production team, and Drama Box.

While we have to keep a distance in this pandemic, we would like to give you a warm, socially-distanced hug after this performance. Once again, thank you very much, and let’s dance together with the fish.

With love,

3rd Batch of ARTivate

ARTivators' Message

Foreword

By Kok Heng Leun & Chng Yi Kai (Mentors of ARTivate Batch 3)

Welcome to the graduation performance of the ARTivators.

They are the third batch of young people that have undergone Drama Box’s youth training programme, ARTivate. These 8 individuals have gone through three and a half years of intensive training since 2018: 8-hour sessions on Saturdays, at least 40 weeks in a year.

Started by co-Artistic Director, Koh Hui Ling, ARTivate is an immersive programme that involves participants in all aspects of theatre-making, from administration and management, publicity, fund-raising, to production, research, acting, writing and directing. Our aim is less cultivating theatre professionals, but to bring together a group of youths (with or without prior theatre experience) who believe that theatre can be an agent of change, to understand and experience the practice of socially engaged theatre. The graduates may or may not become theatre practitioners, but it is our hope that the training helps them become critical and imaginative individuals, and that the experience serves them well in their future endeavours.

As a graduation project, the ARTivators decided on exploring the issue of mental health. As they were researching on the topic, Covid-19 hit. Plans were disrupted, but they soldiered on. What you see tonight is a cumulation of interviews and extensive research on trauma and loss. The play looks at how trauma results in isolation and grief, while chronicling the complex process of healing.

The ARTivators also decided not to just focus on the youths, but to explore how an adult would respond to such trauma. This piece imagines a genuine conversation between the adult and the youth, in hopes of helping the audience find common vocabulary to begin conversations on loss and grief.

We wish to thank Wan Ching, Jean Tay, Hui Ling, Xuemei, Josephine, Ailing, Amanda, Jiaying, Siaw Hui and all creatives onboard for supporting the ARTivators on this production. Drama Box would also like to thank all the practitioners who had come on board as instructors for the ARTivate programme. Finally, we wish to thank the ARTivators for committing three and a half precious years of their lives to this programme. You have gone through many challenges and have always come out on top, constantly learning and reflecting on how to be better. We look forward to seeing how these experiences will seed and grow with you in the future.

Drama Box is proud to co-present Dancing with Fish in the Midnight Zone with ARTivate.

Sit back and enjoy this heartfelt production.

Foreword

About ARTivate

ARTivate is the youth wing of Drama Box. It was established May 2007, with the aim of providing a platform for youths looking to explore and gain all-rounded insight into theatre. Many of the ARTivate graduates have continued on and worked in the Theatre industries, such as Myra Loke (Co-AD The Finger Players), Lam Dan Fong (Production Manager), Neo Hai Bin (Playwright, Actor), Liew Jia Yi (Actor), Chng Yi Kai & Han Xuemei (Resident Artists, Drama Box) and Theatre Collective “Stranger” etc.

Through the three-years programme, ARTivate aims to nurture a new group of theatre practitioners into socially aware, sensitive and responsible youths of Singapore.

Based on Drama Box's philosophy and using an O–A–O–R (Orientation–Artistic–Organisation–Regeneration) approach, these youths are trained not only artistically but also in organisational skills and production management. They are also exposed to other forms of theatre, including forum theatre and community engaged theatre, as well as actor training systems like Biomechanics and Viewpoints.

Besides bringing about awareness, ARTivate hopes to question, probe or even challenge mindsets. Through their projects, ARTivate aims to engage the community in discussion and thereby transform monologues into dialogues.

In 2012, the pioneer cohort of ARTivate consolidated the training they had and presented Bus Stop as their graduation work. In 2016, the second batch of ARTivate had put up performance, Kopitiam, inspired by Cultural Medallion recipient Kuo Pao Kun’s script of the same title.

About Drama Box

Founded in 1990, Drama Box is a socially-engaged theatre company known for creating works that inspire dialogue, reflection and change. By shining a spotlight on marginalised narratives and making space for the communal contemplation of complex issues, it seeks to tell stories that provoke a deeper understanding of Singapore's culture, history and identity.

Drama Box is a charity and Institution of Public Character (IPC) registered in Singapore, supported by the National Arts Council under the Major Company Scheme for the period of April 2020 to March 2023.

For more information, visit http://dramabox.org/eng/about_db.html.

About ARTivate

Our Journey

ARTivate's Story

The 3rd batch of ARTivate consist of 3.5 years of training, from 2018 - 2021, with young women of various backgrounds - from engineering, science, social sciences, arts and communication.

To understand a forest, you have to start with trees.

ARTivate began with understanding movement through our own bodies. "Embodied knowledge" is a concept deeply seated in our training: as we re-learn how to listen, empathise and communicate through our bodies, while we unlearn prejudices that have conditioned our body. As we understand our physical weaknesses and strengths, we try to grasp the inherency of the human body and embrace differences shaped by experiences of the past. We had workshops in bio-mechanics, viewpoints and laban led by theatre practitioners such as Kok Heng Leun, Oliver Chong, Koh Wan Ching and Edith Podesta.

What comprises a forest?

Making socially engaged theatre is a key feature of Drama Box. During the course of our training, the ARTivators have constantly had discussions about different social issues through our exposure to forum theatre (Heng Leun), playback theatre (Michael Cheng) and reminiscence theatre (Mei Yee). These have opened up our capacity to unpack the complexities of social and human conditions through theatre, so that we may create art that is at its core socially conscious, to reach out to the other trees in the forest. In 2019, we wrote and directed original forum theatre works, and now, we have come all the way to produce, write and act in an original play that we hope challenges the learned habits of other trees in the forest.

Our Training

About the Show

About

Synopsis

Trigger Warning: Mentions of Depression and Suicide.

A mother, a sister, and a friend go about their everyday living, but something feels off. Be it an extra ritual before a meal, or making sense of life in a virtual world, they each are trying to heal after the death of someone dear by suicide.

An unexpected relationship forms between an outsider and the mother-daughter dyad, setting them forth on a journey to confront what’s long been suppressed, learning what it means to grieve, and to face the baggage. They each have different struggles in coping with their loss, but they have to deal with the common narrative that society has prescribed them, with regards to how they should move on.

While they find solace in each other’s company, some truths are bound to hurt, threatening their own beliefs about what they know about each other.

Is there really a space for them to grieve? What form does healing take? What does it ultimately take to heal?

Conceptualisation

Reflecting on the rising number of suicide cases amongst Singaporean youths throughout the years, and also how there are a number of people in our social circles who are struggling with their mental health, the third batch of ARTivators decided to work on a piece about loss, grieving and healing.

About PleaseStay. Movement

During the conceptualisation process, with countless discussions and personal sharing, the team were interested in the narratives about the people surrounding an individual struggling with their mental wellness. The team wanted to explore the ways society can support and hold spaces for them. In particular, they wanted to find out how an individual deal with losses of their loved ones due to suicide. They had the opportunity to talk to a group of bereaved mothers from the PleaseStay. Movement, who have lost their child to suicide. The experience made the youths realise how complex the grieving experience is and how their loved ones often struggle in silence for long periods of time.

To convey the intricacies of themes, the play uses a mix of realistic and fantastical elements. While exploring how people heal, they got intrigued about how animals healed, particularly sea creatures. We felt that tapping on how sea creatures heal and using aquatic elements was an appropriate portrayal of the grieving process, which is often akin to waves in the ocean.

The PleaseStay Movement (PSM) is a ground-up volunteer group advocating youth suicide prevention in Singapore. Comprising bereaved mothers, PSM envisions a Singapore where no youth is lost to suicide. As a collective voice, it has independently engaged the government, agencies, healthcare professionals, schools, and the public in calling for better strategy in preventing suicides among young people, specifically those below 29 years and under. It calls for better coordination among all sectors of society to work towards a national strategy for suicide prevention. We all have a part to play in supporting our young people and we encourage youths in distress to reach out for help and hold on to hope.

(*Our piece is not an adaptation of the stories that were shared by the mothers.)

If you are feeling distressed during/and or after the play, or would like to find our more about this subject matter:

Mental Health Resources

Programme Schedule

Harini

Assistant Director/

Assistant Stage Manager

Biographies

Harini

Assistant Director/

Assistant Stage Manager

Harini is an actor and playwright, having acted in productions such as Knots (STRANGER) and The Golden Record 2.0 (NUS Stage). Harini has also written the Forum Theatre piece Miss(ed), which was then produced as part of ARTivate 3.0’s Forum Theatre double bill #FFFFFFF. Their practice is based on a deep interest in the art of movement in healing the human body and the person inhabiting it, and its societal and communal influences and implications. They are also a community organiser, having been involved in working with the queer student community in NUS as part of Gender Collective and QueerNUS. Harini is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work at the National University of Singapore.

Lee Pei Qin

Playwright/

Marketing Team/Cast

Pei Qin's interest in the theatre industry developed during her time studying at Republic Polytechnic's Arts and Theatre Management Programme. After graduating, she went on to pursue a business degree, hoping to marry her interests of arts and business together. Since entering the industry, she has had the opportunity to participate in several productions, including her role as the stage manager for 'The Rubbish Prince' (2019). During her process of discovery in theatre, her love for writing also blossomed, and with her prior opportunities to co-write for two plays, she has since begun exploring writing for different genres of plays - a comedy, in particular. Outside of writing for the theatre, Pei Qin also enjoys entertaining her Facebook friends with her funny quirks in life - Here's a sneak peek: "Most of my injuries are usually caused because I like to eat: I once cut all ten of my fingers while trying to cut a pear."

Ci Xuan is a theatre cat who has a different Circadian rhythm from most people. If you need her, you can probably find her in a Starbucks in the middle of the night, indulging in some literature and theatre work from school. In her not-very-free time, she works with theatre companies, having acted in shows with TOY factory, SPLIT Theatre Productions and Paper Monkey Theatre.

Wanqi is a lost knight who is trying to defend herself from the new evil in her life - adulthood. Having a fond love of animals, she often finds herself playing with (or maybe disturbing) the stray cats near her house. She was able to take some Theatre Studies modules, including one where she travelled to Taiwan to work with the Shigang Mamas, and she hopes to be able to continue dabbling in works relating to social issues in the future too.

Lim Ci Xuan

Playwright/

Marketing Team/Cast

Loh Wan Qi

Assistant Producer/Cast

Jie Yu is a psychology graduate who spent half her life doing theatre, though is still pretty much an amateur one. Her interest lies in creating work that revolves around social issues, understanding the human psyche, and the idea of telling alternate stories. She doesn’t exactly like to speak, but really loves doing movement work, or just simply wriggling her body. Her dream is to use the arts as a way to nudge the mental wellbeing status of the community someday. Outside of theatre, she loves to look at leaves, make friends with cats and fantasise rolling around big grass patches.

Vanessa has a background in engineering but that does not stop her from loving the Arts! She graduated from SUTD back in 2019, and is currently working at Changi Airport Group, on a very exciting project. She has participated in several theatre projects since secondary school in different capacities, exploring the different roles from backstage to cast. In her free time, she likes to sleep, eat cakes at cafes, hang out with her friends and spend time with her cat-obsessed partner. She would like to thank her family and friends for supporting her ARTivate adventures over the past 3.5 years. Her Saturdays are finally free!!!!!

Teoh Jie Yu

Playwright/

Marketing Team/Cast

Vanessa

Assistant Producer/Cast

Theatre has always been Yingbei’s hobby. She started her theatre journey when she was 13, and has been dabbling in it for the past 9 years with much interest and curiosity. She has participated in many theatre performances in school and also outside of school. To further pursue her passion further, she is currently taking Theatre Studies as her major.

Yun Fang is a communication studies major who recently completed her bachelor’s degree as she completes her journey in ARTivate. In the three years here, she has taken the roles of a producer, director, joker, production assistant, cast, and marketing representative. However, her dream is to be a cat that sunbathes on the balcony in peace.

Wang Yingbei

Assistant Stage Manager/Wardrobe Coordinator/Cast

Wun Yun Fang

Producer/Cast

Wan Ching is a performer, theatre maker and acting teacher. She trained with SITI Company and is a graduate of the inaugural SITI Conservatory Program for international theatre artists.

Koh Wan Ching

Director

Vivian Wang

Original Music & Sound Designer

Composer, sound artist and musician Vivian Wang explores intermediate spaces, and works across a range of sonic intersections in art, culture and space. Her main instruments are synth, voice, electronics, field recording and prepared objects. She is a founding member of experimental rock group The Observatory. Wang’s progression into immersive sound involving sonic research and design can be seen in Priests & Programmers, a 16 channel sound installation commissioned for the inaugural Sharjah Architecture Triennial 2019, and with U5 art collective, a multichannel durational piece House of Sentiments at the Bern Kunstmuseum. Wang is active in performance, sound-related research and continues to compose for film, theatre and new media.

Huang Xiangbin

Lighting Designer

Xiangbin holds a degree in Engineering, but decided that engineer life is not for him, since he first stepped foot into theatre, 15 years ago. Over the years, he has taken on multiple roles from management to being an operator.

Recently, Xiangbin works more as a technical manager and a lighting designer/coordinator with different companies, like Pangdemonium Theatre Co. Ltd, TheatreWorks, The Finger Players. Lighting credits include Child's Play (3Pumpkins and Danny Yeo), ChinaTown Crossing (Drama Box), 九歌 (Siong Leng Music Association, co-design with Gabriel Chan), For Lack of a Better Word (installation, SIFA open 2017).

Han Xuemei

Set Maker

Han Xuemei (韩雪梅) is a theatre practitioner based in Singapore. She believes in socially engaged practice, and imagines the arts as an integral ingredient for beauty and hope in society. Her artistic practice involves designing experiences, spaces and conditions for people to exercise their right to be creative, disrupt routines and deconstruct paradigms.

Her recent explorations FLOWERS (2019), The Gift (2018) and MISSING: The City of Lost Things (2018) are multi-disciplinary experiences that engage the audience in deeply visceral and personal ways.

She has been a resident artist with theatre company Drama Box since the end of 2012, and most recently co-curated TBC: Workshopping the Future, part of the Asia Discovers Asia Meeting for Contemporary Performance (ADAM) presented by Taipei Performing Arts Center.

Ng Siaw Hui is our Production Manager who has been patiently swimming with us to keep this production running.

Natalie graduated with a BA (Hons) in Arts Management from LASALLE College of the Arts. While in school, she interned at The Substation and started working part-time for The Esplanade as an Artist Liaison Officer. After a couple of enriching years as an Admin Executive at the local Chinese theatre company Nine Years Theatre, she decided to take a shot at working freelance and has since worked on productions by Dream Academy, The Fingers Player, Wild Rice, Drama Box and more.

Ng Siaw Hui

Production Manager

Natalie Wong

Stage Manager

Kok Heng Leun

ARTivate Batch 3 Mentor

Kok Heng Leun is a prominent figure in the Singapore arts scene, having built his artistic career as a theatre director, playwright, dramaturg and educator. He is known for engaging the community on various issues through the arts, championing civic discourse across different segments of society.

Having begun his work in the theatre almost 30 years ago, some notable directorial works include Drift , Trick or Threat, Manifesto and Underclass. His explorations with multi-disciplinary engaged arts has produced works like Project Mending Sky (2008, 2009 and 2012), a series on environmental issues, Both Sides, Now (2013, 2014 and 2017-2019), a project that seeks to normalise end-of-life conversations and It Won't Be Too Long, which touched on the dynamics of space in Singapore. His most recent work Tanah•Air 水•土：A Play In Two Parts was about the dispossession of the indigenous Malays and Orang Seletar of Singapore.

Heng Leun's contributions to the arts have landed him awards from the Singapore National Arts Council – the Young Artist Award in 2000 and Cultural Fellowship in 2014. He also served as a Nominated Member of Parliament from 2016 to 2018, representing the arts sector.

Chng Yi Kai

ARTivate Batch 3 Mentor

Chng Yi Kai is a budding artist who aspires to create effective means of engaging the community through art. A graduate from Yale-NUS College with a major in Anthropology, his foray into theatre began with joining the second cohort of Drama Box's youth wing ARTivate, after graduating from Singapore Polytechnic's Diploma in Applied Drama and Psychology.

He had participated as an actor in some of Drama Box's projects, including Bus Stop, Confessions and Exit, and as project manager on Kopitiam and installation and photography artist on IgnorLAND of its Loss. Yi Kai's acting credits also include Art Studio, the Singapore International Festival of the Arts 2017 festival opener by Nine Years Theatre, and KNOTS by STRANGER, at the New Works Festival 2019. He is one of the founding members of theatre collective STRANGER.

Jean Tay

Playwright Mentor

Jean Tay graduated in 1997 with a double-degree in creative writing and economics from Brown University, USA. Plays produced include “Chinatown Crossings”, "The Shape of a Bird", "It Won't Be Too Long: The Cemetery - Dusk", "Senang", "Sisters", “Boom”, “Everything but the Brain”, “Plunge”, “The Knot” and “Water from the Well”. Jean also wrote the books for the musicals "The Great Wall: One Woman's Journey", “The Admiral’s Odyssey”, “Man of Letters”, and a children's musical “Pinocchio”. She has written over 20 plays and musicals, which have been performed in Singapore, the US, the UK, Italy and Indonesia.

In 2000, her play “The Knot” was awarded 1st prize for Action Theatre's 10-minute Play Competition. She has been nominated four times for Best Original Script for the Life! Theatre Awards, and won for “Everything But the Brain” in 2006.

Jean was attached to Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT) as resident playwright from 2006-2009, and helmed SRT's Young Company Writing Programme from 2012-2016. Her plays “Everything but the Brain” and “Boom” have been published by Epigram Books, and used as 'O' and 'N' Level literature texts for secondary school students. Jean is the founding Artistic Director of Saga Seed Theatre, set up in 2015 to bring Singaporean stories to the stage, and provide a platform to nurture local talent.

Stephanie Lim

(Autumn Steps)

Counsellor providing consultation on mental health issues

Stephanie has her own private practice @autumnsteps as an online therapist and a big part of her work lies in helping people who are facing burnout, workplace stress issues and compassion fatigue. She also supports individuals struggling with mental health issues or feeling stuck in their lives and relationships. She is also an active volunteer with AWARE, dedicating time providing trauma-informed counselling support for survivors of sexual assault.

Thoughts on the show: There is a lot of stigma surrounding mental health issues in Singapore. This show reflects the bravery of our Artivators and their willingness to open up the conversation and humanise the struggles and grief that survivors of suicide and mental health challenges face. It's been a privilege to be part of the production.

Biographies

Credits

Dancing with Fish in the Midnight Zone

Cast

Loh Wan Qi*

Vanessa Poh*

Teoh Jie Yu*

Wun Yun Fang*

Lim Ci Xuan*

Lee Pei Qin*

Wang Yingbei*

CREATIVE Team

Koh Wan Ching

Harini Damodaran*

Lee Pei Qin*

Lim Ci Xuan*

Teoh Jie Yu*

Jean Tay

Vivian Wang

Joel Manuel Fernandez

Huang Xiangbin

Tang Yeow Seng

Han Xuemei

Eric Lee

Grace Baey

PRODUCTION Team

Wun Yun Fang*

Loh Wan Qi*

Vanessa Poh*

Ng Siaw Hui

Natalie Wong

ARTivators*

Khaw Han Chung

Teoh Jie Yu*

Lim Ci Xuan*

Lee Pei Qin*

Kok Heng Leun

Chng Yi Kai

Lim Ailing

Amanda Leong

Tay Jia Ying

Josephine Lee

Koh Hui Ling

Ng Siaw Hui

*indicates members from the 3rd batch of ARTivate

Mum

Rene

Bernice

Director

Assistant Director

Playwright

Playwright-Mentor

Original Music & Sound

Designer

Sound Engineer & Operator

Lighting Designer

Lighting Operator

Set Maker

Video Recording Team

Producer

Assistant Producer

Production Manager

Stage Manager

Backstage Management

Front-of-House Manager

Publicity & Marketing

ARTivate Mentor

Publicity & Marketing Mentor

Producing Mentor

Captioning Operator

Acknowledgements

Front-of-House Team (Live Show)

Abel Tan

Cheng Xin Rui

Daryl Yap

Jett Yeo

Josephine Lee

Kevin Chew

Liu Yao

Ng Wei Qin

Soon Wei Xuan, Kenneth

Tay Zu Ning

Special Thanks

PleaseStay. Movement

Stephanie Lim (Autumn Steps)

Nine Years Theatre

The Theatre Practice

Wild Rice

The Substation

Teo Pei Si

Jasmine Low

Angie Chong

Alvin Ho (Photographer)

Ed Gullekson (Video-in-show Credits: “Sea Stars Under Siege - A 2018 Update to Sea Star Wasting Disease”)

Capital 958 FM

96.3 Hao FM

Arts Republic

City Nomads

Bakchormeeboy

The A List

Lianhe Zaobao

Supported By

Mind the gap 200: Mental Health

(Tote Board Arts Fund)

Our Partner

ARTivate Batch 3 Trainers

Amanda Leong

Chang Mei Yee

Edith Podesta

Haresh Sharma

Han Xuemei

Jean Tay

Koh Hui Ling

Koh Wan Ching

Lim Ailing

Michael Cheng

Ng Siaw Hui

Oliver Chong

Thank you to all our generous donors and volunteers.

Acknowledgements

PROGRAMME

8.00PM: SCREENING OF "DANCING WITH FISH IN THE MIDNIGHT ZONE"

You will be given a link & password to head on to Vimeo to watch the online screening of the show. Do note that the video will only be made available till 9.25pm.

9.15PM: POST-SHOW DIALOGUE (ZOOM)

Please proceed back to the zoom page if you wish to stay on for the post-show dialogue session.

30th July:

Moderator - Kok Heng Leun, Chng Yi Kai

Panelists - Koh Wan Ching, Harini Damodaran, Lim Ci Xuan, Loh Wan Qi, Lee Pei Qin, Stephanie (Counsellor)

31st July:

Moderator - Kok Heng Leun, Chng Yi Kai

Panelists - Koh Wan Ching, Harini Damodaran, Vanessa Poh, Teoh Jie Yu, Wang Yingbei, Stephanie (Counsellor)

If you experience high distress during the performance or faced with any technical difficulties during the online screening and post-show dialogue, please feel free to chat with our DB FOH / TECH Team on the Zoom chat, or contact us at 8860 3225.