The BJ Song
You can listen to my song "Touch the Sky", in support of the Singapore team to the Beijing Olympics, this Saturday at Ngee Ann City/Takashimaya. It's organised by Musical Theatre Limited.

Programme: August 2, SAT Ngee Ann City CivicPlaza

1. 230pm to 415pm - Official Programme in presence of Dr Vivian.
2. 4pm - MTL Singers perform Paralympics Theme Song "Best That We Can Be" with Choir from Grace Orchard School (www.go.edu.sg)
3. 430pm - MatthewQUEK MiniConcert, and DariusLIM SeraphimChoir MiniConcert
4. 7p to 9pm - MTL Songwriter Showcase.
5. 9pm - MTL Singers demo perform the song inspired by TEAM Singapore "Touch The Sky" {Lyrics NG-YiSheng, Music DesmondMOEY}

It should actually be performed several times over the evening.

Gah, I'm such a hypocrite.


I don't even have the guts to boycott profiteering off the Olympics.

RESERVOIR Blog!

...and I've also started a blog for RESERVOIR, my upcoming production with TheatreWorks.

http://reservoirproject.blogspot.com/

RESERVOIR
28-30 Aug 2008_72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road

Deep in the heart of MacRitchie Reservoir lie the ruins of the Syonan Jinja, a Shinto shrine built during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore. Envisioned first as a spiritual and recreational centre for the future empire, then built by Australian POWs and Japanese craftsmen, today it exists only as stone relics and fragments, swallowed up by the thick tropical rainforest.

As young artists, we have embarked on a journey of discovery to reclaim this forgotten monument. Its very existence is intriguing – a beautiful artefact of civilisation from an age of blood and destruction. Its architects made outlandish promises: that the site would be the greatest in the world after the Meiji Shrine, that the area might be a future host for the Olympic Games.

Perhaps most provoking is the love-hate relationship between Singapore and the shrine. Historians and tourism promoters want it preserved, even rebuilt to commemorate our national heritage. Ordinary citizens, however, have violently objected to any celebration of former Japanese rule – even as they happily consume Japanese commercial and cultural products.

Led by director Choy Ka Fai, we are an ensemble of creative people from Singapore and Japan with roots in poetry, dance, drama, architecture, sport and multimedia. We have made pilgrimages to the jungle, probed the site scientifically, studied archival documents, drawings and oral histories, and processed our own collective memories to recreate and re-imagine the shrine as a sacred site.

Our performance, a tapestry of image, sound and movement, will be a drama of recollection, an attempt to capture the Syonan Jinja's sleeping spirit.

Conceived + Directed + Multimedia by Choy Ka Fai
Written by Ng Yi Sheng
Performed by Norico Sunayama+ Rizman Putra+ Patricia Toh
Sonic Compositions by Chong Li Chuan
Set and lighting design by Jiro Endo

I'm going to be a guest blogger at the Singapore Biennale Blog soon.

And I definitely have to post this:

Bottom line: If people aren't protesting, becoming nauseated by, or threatening lawsuits against an artist's work, you can look around for me, but I'm not going to be there. Using light and shadow to mythologize the pastoral and create a setting where human beings and the natural world can coexist peacefully? Best of luck to you. If you need me, I'll be watching a heroin addict use his own HIV-positive blood to paint Hiroshima victims on the side of a school bus. You know, with all the other real art buffs.

I Don't Have Time for Noncontroversial Art Exhibits by Keith Dans, The Onion.

Spotted at GSSQ.

STFBLOG!!!

http://singaporetheatrefestival.blogspot.com/

Given that the Singapore Theatre Festival is paying its playwrights above standard industry rates (they're trying to set a trend, not make us so unaffordable that no-one else wants us), I've decided to start a special blog for 'em. And not just for my play (buy tickets!!!), either - fo' everyone's plays!

If you're involved in the Festival in any capacity and want to be a blogger, just tell me and I'll add you.