Artistic Director’s Message
First conceived in 2018, M1 Patch! A Theatre Festival of Artful Play has become a symbol of The Theatre Practice (Practice)’s commitment to promoting growth that is even more diverse, inclusive and embracing.
Now entering its second year, eagle-eyed audiences might have noticed something a little different. This year, instead of traditional divisions of “main productions” and “fringe activities”, we’ve decided to put all our programmes under one big umbrella, the festival itself!
While this may seem like a small change, this shift undoubtedly marks a clearer reflection of our curiosity as artists and people.
At Practice, we believe in not limiting ourselves in our art-making and advocacy ventures. Rather than constrain ourselves to a particular form or language, we should instead be guided by the desire to tell stories, push boundaries and experiment. Therefore, it is only appropriate that M1 Patch! reflect this spirit – the spirit of play!
Thus, this change recognises that every element represents an equally important piece of the festival patchwork and should be respected as such, regardless of form, language, purpose or audience size.
At the same time, this change not only reflects our enlarged playing field, but also our aim for greater inclusivity. Indeed, the way we curate our festivals has always responded to the needs and desires of our artists and audiences. We not only ask ourselves HOW we want to play, but WHO we want to play with. Even as our diverse set of artists stretch, subvert and reinvent the very limits of play, the variety of our programmes allow us to continue serving different communities and being the voice of the underdog.
With these twin tenants of diversity and inclusivity of play firmly in place, we invite you to open your mind and reawaken your curiosity with the 2019 season of M1 Patch!!
Kuo Jian Hong
Artistic Director
The Theatre Practice