Chinese Theatre Festival

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Practice's Chinese Theatre Festival is a sustained effort to create a space for Chinese-language performances in Singapore. It was started with the intent to address the lack of variety in Chinese theatre performances locally, as well as to make professional standard performances more accessible to both adults and children. As Kuo Jian Hong puts it: "For the Chinese theatre scene to thrive, it needs to be carefully tended. Only then can the saplings grow into trees, and trees into forest, endlessly, ceaselessly."

Chinese Theatre Festival offers a wide spectrum of possibilities of Little Theatre. It adopts the term "Little Theatre" to frame the types of works it stages and presents. Little Theatre may refer to the performance space, the performance itself, and/or the presenting company of said performance. The phrase also connotes works that may be more "experimental" in nature. Hence, this festival is also comprised of local and international artists and theatre practitioners across the Chinese diaspora, who situate their practice within Little Theatre.

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M1 Chinese Theatre Festival

2014
2014

"Black Box Theatre" is a space of…

SIMPLICITY: A simple stage, an unadorned performance space; it bridges the distance between the audience, the performers and the stories.

ACCEPTANCE: It welcomes different styles and forms; it refuses to conform but gives room for experimentation and exploration.

OPENNESS: Go back to the basics where "less is more"; let curiosity and imagination ignite limitless possibilities.

LIBERATION: It releases our boundless imagination, and attempts to broaden our minds to experience life from a vastly different perspective.

The Theatre Practice is proud to present the third instalment of the Chinese Theatre Festival. The festival will continue to be a platform for a multi-faceted theatre experience that transcends borders and cultures. Our audiences can look forward to enjoy acclaimed and original new works from Singapore and abroad catered for audiences of all ages. Join us and be enthralled by the magic of theatre!

This year, we welcome M1 as the title sponsor of the Chinese Theatre Festival.

Message from M1 Limited


M1 is delighted to present the M1 Chinese Theatre Festival 2014!

Marking its debut in 2011, the Chinese Theatre Festival was started by The Theatre Practice, with the noble intent to address the lack of variety in Chinese theatre performances locally, as well as to make professional standard performances more accessible to both adults and children.

We are inspired by The Theatre Practice team's vision and perseverance in launching and sustaining the Festival through its inaugural years, which are aptly reflected by this statement from their Artistic Director, Kuo Jian Hong: "For the Chinese theatre scene to thrive, it needs to be carefully tended. Only then can the saplings grow into trees, and trees into forest, endlessly, ceaselessly."

This year, M1 is pleased to collaborate with The Theatre Practice as title sponsor to bring you the third installment of the Chinese Theatre Festival. Featuring six acclaimed and original new productions from Singapore and abroad, be prepared to be enthralled by four weeks of exciting and heart-warming Chinese theatrical performances that will appeal to audiences of all ages and hopefully create bridges amongst friends and families in a way that is unique to Chinese theatre.

We wish you a wonderful and enriching experience at the Festival.

Ivan Lim
Director
Corporate Communications
M1 Limited

Artistic Director's Message


In life, in work, in theatre-making, making it "big" is often a common aspiration. To make it big, to do a big job and to stage a big show will naturally be regarded as achievements.

In recent years, The Theatre Practice has gradually grown into a "big" company with over 20 staff; every year, we would stage a "big" scale play or musical.

Some people say, the company should produce more and bigger shows. Some people say, the company should be more ambitious and aim for the world's stage. But, all big things must start small.

Can a big man retain the innocence of a child? Can a big job be managed with the same attention to details? Can a big show be performed with the same precision? When we go "big", can we retain the same fearless attitude?

Truth is, as the company grows, it becomes increasingly pertinent to explore the small, the minutiae, and the basic in order to excavate the original impulse of theatre-making, to savour the simplicity of creating, to contemplate the purpose of theatre, and to experience the power of the arts.

With two feet firmly on the ground, baggage-free, we always return to the simplicity of theatre-making; that small can be equally awe-inspiring.

This year, beyond watching performances, the Chinese Theatre Festival would like to invite you along as we talk shop in FOCUS and INTERACT - we would be inviting fellow theatre-makers from Taipei, Nanjing and Shenzhen to join us.

This year, we have a new partner - we are grateful that M1, a "small" company, has extended its support to the Chinese Theatre Festival.

Finally, we have you. In the small venues, as the distance falls away between us, to journey on….

Kuo Jian Hong
Artistic Director
The Theatre Practice

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Special Thanks

UFM 100.3
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Sam Nai
Paper Monkey Theatre
The Finger Players