Primer

How the arts help people stay healthy and resilient

This is the eighth of 12 primers on current affairs issues under the news outreach programme by The Straits Times and the Ministry of Education

Filming of The Curious Case Of The Missing Peranakan Treasure at Raffles Hotel. PHOTO: RAFFLES HOTEL

New York-based Singaporean Leigh Pascal turned to home-grown arts for comfort and distraction just as the American city was reaching a crisis point during the pandemic.

The 49-year-old writer with Unicef tuned in to her favourite play, Stella Kon's Emily Of Emerald Hill, staged by Wild Rice. She said: "I was overjoyed when they put it online. I watched it at the peak of the pandemic in May last year when the world was very bleak. I was missing home so much. I was worried about my parents and my friends. I was anxious about my husband who's a doctor. There was a lot of stress and anxiety.

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