SINGAPORE - Wondering what to do this weekend? Check out these arts events.
Global Migrant Festival
Experience poetry, music, film and more at this arts festival by the Migrant Worker Poetry Competition's organising committee.
The biennial festival, led by writer Shivaji Das, began last weekend (Nov 21) and features 30 online events - from the poetry and music of Syrian refugees in Malaysia; to a new play by The Birds Migrant Theatre, a group of migrant workers based in Singapore; and the finals of the Migrant Worker Poetry Competition, Singapore.
Where: Facebook
When: Till Sun (Nov 29)
Admission: Free
Info: Global Migrant Festival website
Fat Kids Are Harder To Kidnap On Zoom
How Drama's live comedy show makes its way to the Good The@tre Festival, an international showcase where proceeds (after festival expenses) will go towards the Stayin Alive Artist Emergency Fund, which helps artists affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Audience participation is a must for this show, in which the actors perform a series of comic sketches that riff off current affairs in the order chosen by viewers, from TikTok handwashing to the perils of unmuting during a Zoom meeting.
The show was recently nominated for Best In Theatre at the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
Where: Zoom
When: Sunday (Nov 29), 10.30am and 5.30pm
Admission: Free, but donations are encouraged
Info: The Red Curtain website
Through the streets and the darkroom: Photographic work by Hor Kwok Kin
Scenes of ordinary Singapore life captured and developed from the 1960s to 1980s feature in the first solo show by modernist photographer Hor Kwok Kin.
Among the more than black-and-white images are scenes from a marketplace, a hairdresser, and a man steaming hor fun.
Hor, 81, was a chef and would comb the streets with a camera whenever he had time to spare - developing his images in the restaurant's bathroom, which he had converted into a darkroom.
Where: Artcommune Gallery, 76 Bras Basah Road, #01-01 Carlton Hotel
When: Till Mon (Nov 30), noon to 7pm daily
Admission: Free
Info: Artcommune website
(Comedy) Night at the Library
Chase the blues away at the National Library Board's annual after-dark event which takes a comedic spin this year.
On Friday (Nov 27), tune in to a light-hearted chat between Imran Hashim - author of Annabelle Thong (2016), the story of a Catholic schoolteacher who runs off to Paris to find her Prince Charming - and The Straits Times' assistant Life editor Olivia Ho.
And on Saturday, (Nov 28), watch dancer-writer Mel Lee and poet-comedian Stephanie Dogfoot commiserate over their dating woes.
They will recommend each other books that could well change the course of their romantic lives.
Where: Facebook (Imran Hashim) or YouTube (Mel Lee and Stephanie Dogfoot)
When: Fri (Nov 27), 7pm (Imran Hashim); Sat (Nov 28), 7pm (Mel Lee and Stephanie Dogfoot)
Admission: Free
Info: Facebook
Singapore Symphony Orchestra on the silver screen at Shaw Theatres
The Singapore Symphony Orchestra is showing one of its concerts on the silver screen for the first time in its history.
The programme, a filmed recording of the Chorus of the Planets concerted performed at the Esplanade last year (2019), features Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, a precursor to the famous Ninth Symphony; and Gustav Holst's seven-movement orchestral suite The Planets.
Where: Shaw Theatres Lido, 350 Orchard Road, 5th/6th Floor Shaw House (Friday Nov 27); Shaw Theatres Jewel, 78 Airport Boulevard, Jewel Changi Airport, #B2-237 (Monday Nov 30)
When: Friday (Nov 27), 6.50pm; and Monday (Nov 30), 3.30pm
Admission: $18
Info: Shaw website
