Uncover the sights and sounds of Practice through the years
28.11.2020, 1:30am - 6:00am
Video & Audio Recordings
Music & Photos from 1970s
Crosstalk: Complimentary Tickets (1973)
Written by Cultural Medallion winner and playwright Han Lao Da for a Southern Arts Society performance, Crosstalk: Complimentary Tickets was his first xiangshen piece and premiered at the Victoria Theatre in December 1973. Performed by Kuo Pao Kun and He Jingguang, Kuo also worked closely with Han to amend and refine the script. Since then, this work has been performed by many theatre groups and toured internationally.Excerpt from Flower & Atap （1982）
The Practice Theatre School presents an evening of dance and drama. Excepting a few who choose to pursue the performing arts as a profession, most of the students are amateur enthusiasts who could only manage one or two hours of training at the School each week. As such, we try to organise at least one public performance a year to get them on stage, because we belive that in studying the performing arts, the most important thing is to practice in the presence of an audience.Repertoire-wise, we choose outstanding foreign works as well as encourage local creations; to the best of our ability, we try to involve the students in the development of new works in the school.
The combination of these emphases always produced a mixed programme – advanced students and beginners, adult students and young children, foreign and local works take to the stage together. Whether they appear multifarious or jumbled depends on one’s taste.
The Coffin is Too Big For the Hole (1985)
At his grandfather’s funeral, the eldest grandson finds himself facing the awkward dilemma of not being able to fit his grandfather’s large and ornate coffin into the standard-sized hole allocated at the cemetery. Does he now have to choose between complying with government regulation and respecting his grandfather’s wishes? Or is he strong enough to find a way out of this quandary?The Coffin Is Too Big For The Hole is one of the most widely performed and critically acclaimed plays by Cultural Medallion winner, Kuo Pao Kun. The script has been performed in many countries around the world, and in several different languages. Watch the first English staging of the seminal work, performed by Lim Kay Tong.
Fire Raisers (1987)
A couple takes strict precautions in a town plagued with arson
Yet, why would they willingly invite a pair of arsonists,
To enter their home, and treat them as guests?
How clever, yet how silly!
How funny, yet how scary!
An ingenious combination of humour and wisdom!
28.11.2020, 7:30am - 9:30am
Nu Wa (1988)
From her first descent, to her creation of Man sculpted from clay, the courage and wisdom of the Chinese earth-mother Nu Wa has inspired legions of artists and creators.
A contemporary dance drama based on the ancient Chinese myth, Nu Wa is Singapore’s first full-length modern dance piece. Choreographed by dance doyenne Goh Lay Kuan and commissioned by the Singapore Festival of the Arts 1988, this epic work brought together top talents from music, dance and visual art for the very first time to engage in cross-disciplinary collaboration. The final work featured 54 dancers from 8 different groups, a choir of 50 singers and a full Chinese Orchestra.
28.11.2020, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Children's Dance Drama (Excerpts)
“The most important aspect of an arts education for a child is its integration within a culture itself. Culture sets forth the foundation on which a country is built upon: its direction, pathways and values. The education of arts and culture very much emphasises the development of character.”
– Goh Lay Kuan
Enjoy a series of exerpts from the annual Children’s Dance and Drama showcases:
- Whose Egg? (1986)
- The Little Match Girl (1989)
- The Monkey King (1990)
- Magic Uncle’s Doll (1991)
- The Ugly Duckling (1995)
29.11.2020, 1:30am - 8:00am
Video & Audio Recordings
- News Coverage and Interviews About Practice and its Founders (1981-2002)
OM (1990) – Excerpt
THE ULTIMATE MADNESS OF ARTISTS IS THIS:
THEY BELIEVE THE IMPOSSIBLES CAN HAPPEN
AND MIRACLES ONLY TAKE A LITTLE LONGERCelebrating Practice Performing Arts School’s 25th anniversary, OM features four works choreographed by Goh Lay Kuan and Lin Hsiu-wei (Cloudgate, Taiwan)
The Spirits Play (1998)
The Spirits Play draws inspiration from the Japanese Cemetery located in Yio Chu Kang, Singapore. Buried in a cemetery are a soldier, a general, a comfort woman, a poet and a peasant woman. Through the stories of these vastly different characters, the play explores themes of memory and war as told through fable and play. This work encapsulates Singapore’s theatre doyen Kuo Pao Kun’s past decade of exploration on theatrical form and style.Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral (1995)
A group of youngsters are preparing a show, possibly in celebration of their impending release from drug rehabilitation. They decide to use the story of Zheng He as material for their play-making.Zheng He is as much an historical figure as he is a legend and a myth. How do youngster of today look at this eunuch admiral of 600 years ago.
We know Zheng He had set off from Liu Jia Gang in Suzhou on his first of seven expeditions to the Western Ocean. And we know when our businessmen now go north investing, their focus is the Industrial Park in Suzhou. What does the past mean to the present?
And how are the ancestral relationships conceived? How are normal people compared to eunuchs? Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral invites you to share this fascinating untangling.
Wu Jun Ru and You and Me and Him (2004)
Missing Person
Name: Wu Jun Ru
Age: Unknown
Height: Average
Special traits: Quiet, elusive, temperamental, unpredictableYou and me and him are waiting looking searching urgently for Wu Jun Ru. Your childhood pal, or my soul mate, or his buddy. Don’t know how to find, who can help? Can find without photo? Date of missing can’t remember, can still find? If you have information, please contact you, me or him. Thank you everyone!
Long-forgotten memories resurface when a delivery man delivers a letter to an amnesiac living in an old folks home, signed by the mysterious Wu Jun Ru. Yet no one seems to know who he is or what his relationship is to them. Director Kuo Jian Hong leads three actors to create this devised text-based work. Featuring a dynamic conceptual set design by Kuo Jian Hong, this surreal production explores the fleeting, seemingly insignificant moments in our memory and what happens when they finally resurface.
29.11.2020, 10:15am - 11:00am
The wee Question Mark and the Mountain Movers (2019)
Playfully tackle BIG issues in this quirky musical for inquisitive young minds.
A huge mountain lies between the village and the rest of the world. One day, Mr. Foolish decides to move that mountain and commits his entire family to the task. But generations later, the mountain is still here! As his descendants throw down their shovels, they ask themselves… Is there another way to overcome this challenge? Why did we need to move the mountain in the first place?
The Theatre Practice’s wee Question Mark series returns with its highly anticipated third instalment! Inspired by the well-known Chinese saying, “The Fool Moves the Mountain”, this family-friendly musical invites our young audiences to explore the importance of critical thought and the danger of blind acceptance.
Reuniting Huang Suhuai (Playwright), Kuo Jian Hong (Director), Xiaohan (Lyricist) and Julian Wong (Composer), this engaging musical adventure combines wacky storytelling, original music and engaging participatory theatre with the series’ signature light touch!
29.11.2020, 11:00am - 12:00pm
PLAY PLAY (2015)
Playing. Playfulness. Games.
These are almost lost to us in the frenetic automation of our daily lives.
Work has become such a representation of adulthood and responsibility, that the idea of playing has in turn become synonymous with childishness and a waste of time.
Play Play is about re-discovering the freedom within ourselves to play, and about finding how to see everything around us as a game: not to win, but to enjoy every moment of it, not to succeed, but to discover the infinite possibilities… laughing, shouting, running, playing, crying… … listening.
What is the voice that is speaking in the silences?
What is the music that’s playing between each breath?
Play with us and find the music between.
Play Play is a physical performance with 4 actors in a landscape of music and vocal sounds, with installation by graphic designer Ong Guat Teng and direction by Kuo Jing Hong.
29.11.2020, 12:15pm - 1:30pm
One Table Two Chairs
One table. Two Chairs. The rules have been set. The rest is free creation.
In traditional Beijing opera, any scene setting can be brought to life just using a single table and a pair of chairs. In Practice’s One Table Two Chairs Experimental Series, these three pieces of furniture provide just enough structure for fearless experimentation, collaborative art-making and intercultural exchange to take place.
Selected from six editions of the series, discover the endless possibilities within one table and two chairs.
29.11.2020, 5:00pm - 5:45pm
Video & Audio Recordings: Trailers
As media and mass communications continue to evolve, so have our methods to reach out to our audiences! Over the last two decades, Practice has grown our marketing capabilities by creating increasingly elaborate video content outside the theatre. From piquing curiosity with a much-anticipated first look at the production, to offering audiences a behind-the-scenes peek at the rehearsal process, these videos are a true testament to what you can do with a small budget and lots of ingenuity. See how our visuals have evolved over the years with our trailers retrospective!
