FEATURE: In-Between: Dialogue with Danny Yung

“This ‘no meaning just meant no meaning’
is not meaning no thing!”
(Bus Stop, Gao Xingjian)

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Drama Box's e-Newsletter! We would like to express our gratitude for all your precious feedback on the pilot issue, please keep them coming, so that we may improve on our future issues. For the ease of future references, this is Volume 1 Issue 1. We will start with a new volume every year, serving up 4 issues per year.

Do you believe in destiny?

Do our educational qualifications determine our careers? Do our careers determine our class? Do our class determine our values in life? Do our values in life determine our destiny, even the destiny of our next generation? So do the destiny of our previous generation determine the destiny of our generation, and in turn determine our educational qualifications?

Is such a destiny an affirmation or a negation to our lives?

We live in a globalised, post-industrial, consumer-based capitalist society, and the world is in metaphor a monstrous intricate machine beyond comprehension. We are all parts of the machine, fulfilling our individual roles. Even a loose screw may paralyse the machine – we are motivated to be contented with our roles, no matter how trivial it may seem, it keeps the machine to operate day by day.

However, can't we leave our "destined" roles? Can the world be not a machine, and we aren't some mechanical components? Not to say a mass-produced product from a same mould?

In contrast to a product-obsessed paradigm, we would like to introduce the theme "In-The-Making", which is process-oriented, to this issue. It is an "indeterminable" state in life, which is exposed to all kind of possibilities of the future. It can also be a self-determined attitude towards life, regardless of age, that questions social norms, pushes boundaries, explores possibilities, in a creative and critical manner.

But do we desire such an attitude towards life? Why so? Do we desire an unpredictable adventure, or an anticipated haven? Is a haven really safe, or is it only a self-deception? Is an adventure really dangerous, or is it only an alarmist's fear?

To kick-start the newsletter and 2012 with a big bang, we are honoured to have invited world-renowned theatre doyen –Danny Yung from Hong Kong to have a dialogue with 3 young local theatre practitioners. We have with us a promising young playwright Cheow Boon Seng as our guest columnist, probing on the boundaries of conflicts and consensus. While in other sections, we are trying out different forms of narrative, by way of comic strips in Theatre A-B-C and photography in Playback. Flip to, or rather, click to the pages for a visual treat.

Last but not least, I would like to introduce Kate, the latest addition to the editorial team, who will share the workload with me as co-editor. Kate is a member of ARTivate, and is currently a philosophy undergraduate at NUS. She is a deep-thinker, a responsible and talented young girl, and is always a pleasure to work with. She has participated in numerous research and publication projects for Drama Box, and is definitely a wonderful editor "in-the-making".

The Arab Spring in the Middle East, the "Occupy Wall Street" movement in United States, the general election and presidential election in Singapore – is the world gearing for a change? Is change inevitable? How thorough should we change? Can we make changes to our lives? Are we mass-produced products or limited edition handcrafted goods, always "In-The-Making"? Or is "In-The-Making" just another farcical marketing strategy?

Do you still believe in destiny?

Yours truly,

Co-Editor

Photography by: Pantheon

Bus Stop. Goodman Arts Centre Black Box, 15 - 17 Mar 2012, 8pm. Get your tickets at Gatecrash.

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