Drama Box 2012 Happenings

While everyone is taking stock of the year, counting blessings or settling debts, depending on how the year went for you, we at Drama Box have also come up with a list of the 5 major happenings at our little box. Here it is, in no particular order.

1. The dissolving of NeNeMas, our education arm

For those who are more familiar with our works, you may recall that we had an education arm that put up our youth performances and conducted workshops for teachers and students. This year, NeNeMas has been subsumed into Drama Box. We still work with schools and have wonderful programmes for students, but they will all come under the name of Drama Box.

2. The graduation of ARTivate, our youth wing

After 3 years of training in the different fields of theatre, ARTivate – the youth wing of Drama Box put up their graduation piece Bus Stop. From clueless teenagers to sensible young adults (hahaha), every member of ARTivate became an important part of the Drama Box family. Most of them are working with us in some way or another. For example, Yinghao and Kate are co-editors of this newsletter. We couldn't sever our ties with ARTivate, even if we tried.

3. The addition of a Resident Artist to our staff ensemble

Besides our Artistic Director, Kok Heng Leun and our Associate Artistic Director, Koh Hui Ling, we have a new full-time member on the artistic team. Han Xuemei, our Resident Artist, also a former member of ARTivate, joined us in September this year. Xuemei is best known in the office for her incessant need to snack.

4. Staging a performance in at the Esplanade Theatre

Finally, we got out of the box – black box, that is. As part of Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts 2012, we performed 100 Years of Solitude 10.0 Cultural Revolution (in collaboration with Zuni Icosahedron) at the Esplanade Theatre, a venue with a seating capacity of almost 2000. That's a first for Drama Box; our usual indoor performing venues can only accommodate around 200 people.

5. Launch of the Quarterly Newsletter

Although this electronic publication was began with a pilot issue in December 2011, it was this year that the newsletter kicked off properly, and became a major part of our work. With 4 issues to date (excluding the pilot issue), the newsletter has seen some development in terms of the content and scope. With that being said, we are still experimenting and trying to find our place with this publication. Do us a favour, and give us some insight, will ya?

Two copies of the book Drama Box and the Social Theatre of Singapore: Artistic Autonomy and Cultural Intervention (worth $24 each) to be given away! Share with us your feedback on our e-Newsletter either on our facebook, or email our editors, Kate & Eng Hao, at newsletter@dramabox.org. We will randomly pick two lucky readers and give them a copy of the book!