Drama Box calls aspiring playwrights for Two-year Chinese Language Theatre Playwright Incubation Programme
Registration Deadline: 25 June 2010

The BLANC SPACE PLAYWRIGHT SERIES, which has successfully produced close to 15 original Chinese language plays since its inception in 2007, is back to recruit its third cohort of playwright-wannabes.

BLANC SPACE PLAYWRIGHT SERIES III

Presented by Drama Box, in partnership with National Arts Council, BLANC SPACE PLAYWRIGHT SERIES III is a two-year programme comprising of four major components: Mentorship; Residency; Playreading and Performance.

8 playwrights with the most promising entries will be selected for the programme. Each participant will be partnered with an established local playwright, who will assume the role of mentoring the aspiring playwrights throughout the two-year process. The playwright-mentors this time are QUAH SY REN, CHONG TZE CHIEN, NG HOW WEE and LEE SHYH JIH.

 PLAYWRIGHT RESIDENCY

Within the two-year process of coaching, one of the highlights of the Playwright Series III is the Playwright Residency Programme. Held over 6 days in October, the mentors and the playwrights-to-be will be housed together throughout. Joining the team of mentors is special guest – WEI-JAN CHI, acclaimed playwright from Taiwan. During the residency, the mentors will engage the participants in intensive writing exercises, with the aim of imparting tips on playwrighting.

 NEW PLAY SEASON 2011

The bi-annual “Blanc Space: New Play Season” will take place in 2011, staging the two of the best plays selected from the completed scripts of the 3^rd cohort.  The new playwrights will then work with directors in the process of realising their new, original Chinese language plays from page to stage. 

ELIGIBILITY & REGISTRATION

The mentorship is open to both new writers as well as those who have had some writing experience and are looking to continue developing their playwrighting skills. Interested parties are to submit a 500-word script excerpt, synopsis or summary of an original story and a 1 page write-up of themselves. There is no set theme and the applicants are free to write on any subject. Participants will be required to write in Chinese.

Entries are to be submitted together with personal particulars (including contact details) via email or snail mail to Drama Box:

Email: blancspace@dramabox.org

Address: 14A-14C Trengganu Street Singapore 058468

Tel: (65) 6324 5434

Registration deadline: 25 June 2010.

 ABOUT BLANC SPACE PLAYWRIGHT SERIES

The Blanc Space Playwright Series presented by Drama Box in partnership with National Arts Council (Singapore), is a 2-year programme where aspiring young writers are partnered with established local playwright-mentors, and through regular mentoring and interactions between the new and experienced playwrights, we hope to harvest a new wave of original Chinese theatre scripts. The 2010 to 2011 cohort is the third batch of playwright-wannabes recruited under the programme.

Launched in 2007 by Drama Box, The Playwright Series is a playwright incubation programme that is committed to producing new scripts and playwrights for the local Chinese language theatre. In light of the lack of new creative talents in the scene, the company hopes to do its part by providing such platforms to inject new blood into the industry.

Since 2007, the Blanc Space Playwright Series has successfully produced close to 15 original Chinese language plays, reiterating the programme’s commitment to producing new scripts and playwrights for the Singapore Chinese language theatre scene. In 2009, Drama Box put up the inaugural “Blanc Space New Play Season 2009” to critical acclaim, staging new plays such as “Bondage”, “Lot No. 8” and “Inter|v!ew”, creating a buzz amongst theatre-goers and the public alike.

ABOUT WEI-JAN CHI

An English Major at Fu Jen Catholic University, Wei-jan Chi obtained his masters degree in Theatre Studies at the University of Kansas, followed by his doctorate in English Literature from the University of Iowa. Currently Professor of Department of Drama and Theatre, National Taiwan University; he is the author of theatre plays such as “Once Upon a Rainy Night”, “The Mahjong Game”, “The Surprise Party”, “No Comment”, “Long Time No See”, “Reel Murders”, “Countdown”, and, most recently, “Mad in Taiwan”.

About Lee Shyh Jih

A multi-faceted artist, Shyh Jih has assumed the roles of various capacities as actor, director, playwright and sound designer in more than 15 productions since his involvement in theatre from 1991. Shyh Jih’s most recent directorial credit is Constant Constipation in March 2004. Other productions he co-directed include Fugitives (co-directed with Kok Heng Leun) Hazy Love 97 and Have You Eaten?, a piece of forum theatre which toured community venues. The Rape, a production that he co-directed in 2000 and which portrayed the lifestyle of youth and pub culture earned positive comments from the media. His capability as a playwright has received recognition and affirmation. Banana Blues, a play that was staged by Drama Box in 1999 at its studio theatre, was praised by The Flying Inkpot, a web-zine dedicated to the arts. Beautiful Day, another of his creations that was staged in 2002, was described by The Arts Magazine as "a good play dealing with the issues of friendship, second chances, personal history and memories". Shyh Jih is also one of the associate artists of Drama Box.

 

About Quah Sy Ren

Sy Ren is an academic and playwright. He is also Associate Professor at the Division of Chinese, Nanyang Technological University. Plays written by Sy Ren include Boner (2002), Invisibility (2000, 1997, 1996), The Assassin, the Medium and the Masseuse (1991, co-written with Tan Ing How) and Ample Blues (1989, co-written with Tan Ing How). As a published essayist, he has four collections of essays under his name, including If on an Island, a Wanderer, co-written with Ng How Wee. Sy Ren is also Editor-in-Chief of the Chinese edition of Images at the Margins: Plays by Kuo Pao Kun, General Editor of The Complete Works by Kuo Pao Kun (10 volumes), and Board Director of Practice Performing Arts Centre and The Finger Players. Educated in National Taiwan University and Cambridge University, Sy Ren is currently Associate Professor at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University. His teaching and research interests are in modern literature and culture, and theatre and performance. A specialist of the Nobel Laureate Gao Xingjian, Sy Ren has published a critically acclaimed monograph Gao Xingjian and Transcultural Chinese Theater.

 

About Chong Tze Chien

Chong Tze Chien is an award-winning and published playwright/director in Singapore. Some of the awards he has won include the Singapore Dramatist Award, The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards: Best Director and Production of the Year. He also writes frequently for local television channels, such as Channel 5, Arts Central and Vasantham Central. His works had been read and dramatised by Royal Court’s (UK) Exposure: Young Writers Dramatised Readings in 2000 and Singapore Playhouse London’s adaptation of PIE and SPOILT in 2005 respectively. In August 2006, his work Furthest North, Deepest South made its international premier in Budapest, Hungary.   Some of his notable works include, Pan Island Expressway (TheatreWorks), SPOILT (The Necessary Stage), Cravings (Action Theatre), Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Poop (The Finger Players). He is currently the Company Director of The Finger Players. He was awarded the Young Artist Award by the National Arts Council in 2006.

 

About Ng How Wee

A graduate from Peking University in Chinese Language and Literature, How Wee is a prolific writer who was nominated twice for the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards for Best Original Script, for Fugitives, a multilingual play on which he collaborated with Alfian Sa’at and Pulau – An Island Tale. If on an Island, a Wanderer, a book which he co-authored with Quah Sy Ren, was adapted for a play by Drama Box during the Singapore Arts Festival 2006. His second book, a collection of prose, No Such City was published in 2007 and he is currently conceiving his poetry collection, The Glacial Equator.