Centre 42: Creating new works for theatre, documenting the old

SINGAPORE - Centre 42 is run by a team of theatre practitioners and administrators - Mr Casey Lim, Mr Robin Loon, Mr Chiu Chien Seen and Ms Michele Lim - who won a three-year contract to run it following the National Arts Council's open call for partners in May last year. The centre's general manager is Ms Karen Loh.

It aims to document, create and promote writing for the theatre, and is funded by the council to the tune of $3.4 million over the next three years.

Part of the backbone of Centre 42 is the creation of new work, which includes The Boiler Room programme. Under this initiative, the centre is holding an open call (closes June 7) for unstaged scripts or ideas for plays.

Shortlisted writers will go through nine to 12 months of incubation, which focuses on a rigorous process of research, construction and writing. They will get to work with professional playwrights and dramaturgs to put up a trial presentation of the work. Interested members of the public as well as industry players will be invited to view the new work and possibly pick it up to be produced.

Apart from the creation of new work, the centre has several other initiatives related to the promotion and documentation of writing for the stage.

Later this year, it will kick off The Living Room: a series of lectures, talks and workshops related to writing, local theatre and art-making. There will also be a series of readings of classic Singaporean works as part of The Vault.

As part of its documentation function, Centre 42 will build The Repository, a Singapore theatre archive that will gather information, and visual and audio artefacts (such as programme booklets, ticket stubs or original manuscripts) dating back to the 1960s. The Repository will be ready for public use only next year.

And finally, the centre will invite members of the public interested in reviewing or writing about theatre to publish their opinions online. These Citizen's Reviews will get editorial support from the Centre 42 team to further develop their writing.

For more information, go to www. centre42.sg.

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