The Last Temptation of Stamford Raffles

by W!LD RICE, as part of the OCBC Singapore Theatre Festival

13 - 17 August 2008, Drama Centre Theatre @ National Library (Level 3)
(13 - 15 August, 8pm evening shows; 16 - 17 August, 3pm matinees and 8pm evening shows)

(Buy tickets from Sistic now. You know you want to.)

1826. Sir Stamford Raffles lies on his deathbed, delirious with dreams and hallucinations, whilst his wife Sophia frantically records his biography. A giant Rafflesia blossom invades his bedroom; he meets his deceased first wife Olivia, and encounters a talking statue who bears prophecies of greatness.

As his life flashes before him, we witness his birth at sea, his early voyages, his triumphant founding of Singapore, and his eventual tragic downfall—with his children dead of tropical diseases, his research destroyed in a burning ship, and himself bankrupted and diagnosed with syphilis.

The Last Temptation of Stamford Raffles is written by multi-talented playwright and poet Ng Yi-Sheng, whose last play, 251, based on the life of Annabel Chong, played to packed houses. Directed by Christina Sergeant (Furthest North, Deepest South, The Hypochondriac), this is an unforgettable journey into the mind of a legend. Was Raffles a wily schemer or an enlightened reformer? What kind of legacy did he leave behind on an island he called the ‘child of my own’?

“251 is worth seeing not only for its success at putting Chong's dubious "achievements" in perspective as performance art, but also for pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable subject matter for a Singapore stage production.” TODAY

The Last Temptation of Stamford Raffles was a finalist at ACTION Theatre’s ‘Theatre Idols’ festival in 2007.

Written by Ng Yi-Sheng
Directed by Christina Sergeant

Cast:
Candice De Rozario
Claire Devine
Tien Devine
Rehaan Engineer
Fazli Ahmad
Ian Tan
Jo Tan
Patricia Toh

And to continue my streak of overexposure to the media...

I'm gonna be on Razor TV tomorrow at 2pm, talking about Raffles and my play.

UPDATE: Here they are, God love 'em. I stammer way too much.

Second week of the festival!

Well, the shows aren't playing yet, but I'm pleased to report that "The Last Temptation of Stamford Raffles" is coming along splendidly.






Curious? Then buy a motherfuckin' ticket, motherfucker. :)

Mediawhore re-redux

Not only was I in the papers yesterday (to publicise the Last Temptation of Stamford Raffles), as well as in the papers today (as part of Life!'s 30 Under 30 series); I'll be in the papers tomorrow for with my National Day poem.

Chrise.

IndigNation 2008: ContraDiction IV


A literary reading organised by Ng Yi-Sheng and Jasmine Seah
MDA rating: M18

ContraDiction, the oral festival of queer Singapore writing, comes back for the 4th annual season. Featuring poets Teng Qian Xi and Koh Jee Leong, blogger Adrianna Tan, playwright Jacke Chye, singer Iris Judotter and many more.

Date: Thursday, 7 August 2008
Time: 7:30 pm
Venue: 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Rd (look it up on StreetMap@Singapore if you don't know where it is)

For more events, see the IndigNation 2008 calendar. Events are on from 1 to 19 August.

KENDURI!!!

W!ld Rice has a tradition, inspired by older Asian theatre practices. Before every production (even the gargantuan ones like STF), they gather everyone in a circle and have them introduce themselves to each other, make eye contact, and then pray to whatever gods we worship for everyone's safety and success.


The event started at 6pm today. Sort of. This is the scene at 6:15 in the Drama Centre.


That's me offering Christina Sergeant dried cranberries and green raisins. On the right is the back of Lim Yu-Beng's head.


Ivan addressed us in his artistic directorly way...


...and had us circle the stall seats.

Then he had us link hands and pray. I couldn't take photos while holding Rodney Oliveiro and Janice Koh's hands. It would've been rude.


Mutual support.


And now for the FOOD. Except for the Swordfish cast and crew, who were doing a tech run.


I stayed back a little while to chatter with the playwrights. That's Ken Kwek (Apocalypse Live) and Laremy Lee (Own Time, Own Target).


Mangiare! (Kenduri, in case ya didn't know, is Malay for "feast".)


That's the tempeh+tofu dish, right next to the boiled vegetables. Further on was spicy chicken and sausage with meatballs and fried rice and and curry.

And no! Your eyes do not deceive you!


That is a chocolate fondue pot! (It went very well with the wasabi prawns.)


And that's Christina, gathering the Raffles cast up for rehearsals.

The festival opens in two days!!!! YAAAARRRGH!!!

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.

I'll be in NYC from 23 June to 5 July.

In fact, I'm in Changi Airport Terminal 3 right now.



So don't call me, can? Waste phone money. :)

Book launch for my first novel, Eating Air

How could I forget? By the way, if anyone official asks, this is a film novelisation, so I'm still eligible for all those other first-novel grants and prizes when I finally compose an independent opus.

Anyway, details:

Friday 20 June
3-5pm
THE POD, Level 16
National Library, 100 Victoria Street

Dress code: business attire. (Yeah, right.)

The books being launched are 12 Storeys by Dr Yeo Wei Wei, 4:30 by James Toh, Eating Air by myself. Hope to seeya there!

UPDATE: Here's a shot of the book itself:



And the wunnerful people behind it. From left to right, publisher Enoch Ng, writer Dr Yeo Wei Wei, and directors Kelvin Tong and Jasmine Ng (who really is much prettier when she's not being derisive). Almost in the picture is Kat, Kelvin's assistant director at Boku films.



UPDATED UPDATE: Ooh ooh ooh! Channel News Asia has an article about it!

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/355416/1/.html

small metal objects

For some reason, the copy editors at ST felt it wasn't worth mentioning that Kinda Hot was banned when it was first performed. Well, let's remind people.

(Not sure if this is my best review, though.)

>theatre
Back to Back Theatre
VivoCity Sentosa Concourse Level 3
Sunday
Ng Yi-Sheng

In the middle of VivoCity, four actors are staging a strange, compelling drama. Two men, Gary and Steve, have been contacted by a high-profile executive named Allan. They’ve agreed to sell him drugs for a big business party tonight, but Steve has experienced a breakdown and won’t move from the spot.

The plot of “small metal objects” is as simple as that, but the way Back to Back Theatre tells the story brings it to a whole new level. Hidden in the crowds, the actors are barely visible to the audience, who’re seated at a distance. They’re only audible to us because their voices are transmitted electronically to our headphones.

While stage characters usually appear larger than life, Gary, Steve and Allan look tiny to us, an oddly believable part of the human landscape that surrounds them. They’re visually obstructed by lines of tourists exiting the Sentosa train station, upstaged by mischievous children playing in the foreground. We almost believe we’re eavesdropping on a real transaction, one of the numerous everyday dramas that occur in our midst.

Productions comparable to this have been staged in the past. Spell #7, for example, created a performance tour of Little India in 2002 entitled “Kinda Hot”, though this was banned by the police due to concerns about “mingling”.

However, Back to Back Theatre has added a deeper layer to this show by recruiting intellectually disabled actors to devise and perform the two main characters. It’s never explicitly stated whether Gary and Steve have disabilities, but their hesitant, muted style of acting is disconcertingly different from what we’re used to.

Simon Laherty’s performance as Steve is particularly unsettling. Slack-jawed and wide-eyed, he stares blankly at the audience through most of the play as if idiotically terrified. But when Allan – and later, his psychologist colleague Carolyn – attempt to bribe him, first with money, then with offers of emotional and sexual favours, he resists with such insistence that he becomes our hero.

For all their money, power and intelligence, Allan and Carolyn are helpless when this man says no. Gary sticks by him, despite the knowledge that he’ll lose money for his devotion. It’s a slap in the face of the capitalist world of the mall, a reminder that some people can’t be bought.

The universe of “small metal objects” is so intimate, so embedded in the private interior worlds of other people that it makes us uncomfortable. Good theatre ought to achieve that.

I'm also a Trevvy columnist now.

Just did an article for Father's Day.

Incidentally, I'm also an outdoor improv participant.







Get in on the action at Mission: Singapore. (No, they're not a Christian recruiting centre. The leader is an 18 year-old kid in the NJC Malay Dance Troupe.)

Heard It On the Wireless

The following review was printed in today's Straits Times Life! - or at least, a version of it was.  Since I disagree with the way the editor treated it, I'm just gonna reproduce the original review here so it can be googlable.

>theatre
Heard it on the Wireless
The Kransky Sisters
Esplanade Recital Studio
Sunday
Ng Yi-Sheng

Even before the Kransky Sisters step on stage, you know they're going to be fun. A projector flashes photographs of their tours across Australia: a provincial world of dodgy rest-stops, community centre recitals and kangaroo road-kill.

Then the three sisters enter, dressed identically in black wigs, long-sleeved polka dotted blouses and low heeled shoes, each one dolled up as the very image of a stereotypical, straight-laced old maid. They bumble into position, introducing themselves with their eccentric brand of deadpan humour.

The real surprise for the audience is their music – oddly beautiful, yet completely off-kilter renditions of pop songs, played on a bizarre ensemble of electone, tuba, tambourine and carpenter's saw. (The last of these produces an eerily lovely twang when stroked with a violin bow).

You have to love the incongruity of the act: three middle-aged women performing tunefully harmonious covers of “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This”, “The Age of Aquarius” and “Highway to Hell”, all in the clipped, precise English of antique schoolteachers.

Songs are accompanied by rib-tickling banter: Mourne, the lead singer, describes their rural Queensland life with appalling anecdotes - memories of drunken fathers, hallucinogenic trips after mushroom soup, accidental burials of pet rabbits in wet concrete.

Mourne is echoed by her sister Eve, the percussionist, who barely dares to speak for herself, while Dawn – the woodwind player, born from their mother's scandalous second marriage – stays rigidly wordless throughout.

It's all terribly funny till halfway through, when the freshness of the concept starts to sag. Mind you, the Sisters never stop being amusing, and some great gags emerge involving audience participation. Still, they can't quite sustain the original energy of their comedy.

And it's at this point that the darkness of the show sinks in. These characters have led horribly oppressive lives, from the abuse suffered under their mother (who went after their ankles with a cheese-grater) to the way Mourne restrains Eve from pursuing romance. At one point, silent Dawn interrupts a song with an unending scream - plus, she's revealed to have tried to murder her sisters by marooning them in the desert.

I have to ask: is it tasteless of this show to mock spinsters, lampooning them as frigid and repressed? Or is it empowering – does it celebrate the figure of the independent, nonconformist older woman, one who can subvert pop culture as casually as she buries a dead emu?

I'm going to WordStorm!

FRIDAY 16 MAY

POETRY SLAM @ Vodka Bar
Hear featured artists Munkimuk, Ng Yi-Sheng, Cristavão Pereira, Scribe Sisters Speaking & Kelly-Lee Hickey before getting up to slam!
8:30-11pm $10/$5
Duck’s Nuts, 76 Mitchell St, Darwin


SATURDAY 17 MAY

LUNCHTIME READINGS:
OVER THERE – A TIGER CONNECTION Dorothy Porter, Yong Shu Hoong, Ng Yi-Sheng and Peter Minter all contributed to the first anthology of Singaporean and Australian poetry – Over There.
1:15-2:15pm Speaking Tree FREE

ADUH! A PEOPLE’S THEATRE
Theatre practitioners John Waromi, Mary Anne Butler, Tom E Lewis and Ng Yi-Sheng challenge ‘the fourth wall’ in community-driven performance projects that matter. Facilitator: Sandra Thibodeaux
2:30-4pm MAGNT Theatrette


SUNDAY 18 MAY

THE PRACTICE OF SUBVERSION
Subversives Charles Firth, Jennifer Mills, Gayle Kennedy and Ng Yi-Sheng recount their challenges to the status quo, the nation state and the States.
Facilitator: Mark Bowling
2:30-4pm Arafura Tent

PASSION @ ABSOLUTELY
Rendezvous with Ng Yi-Sheng, Dorothy Porter & Shellie Morris in a toast to passion and the muse. Drinks & finger food
4:30-6:30pm $10
Absolutely Books, Cullen Bay

Launch of Over There @ South Perth Poetry Park!

Basically, if you wanna come, it's on:

Thursday, 15 May

5:30pm

Neil McDougall Park, Como

Perth, WA

Australia

Oceania

The World

RSPV [sic] essential. Invitation & map attached.

Please email library@southperth.wa.gov.au or call 9474 0800.

From NAC:

A Poetry Park will be launched at the Neil McDougall Park in South Perth, Australia to celebrate the outstanding work and achievements of Western Australia’s poets. The opening also marks the launch of Over There: Poems from Singapore & Australia, an anthology of Singaporean and Australian poets, edited by Alvin Pang and John Kinsella.

The event to be held on Thursday, 15 May 2008 will be officiated by the Honourable Sheila McHale MLA, Australian Minister for Disability Services, Tourism, Culture & the Arts.

The Singapore contingent for the launch led by Lee Suan Hiang, Chief Executive Officer, National Arts Council, will comprise Meritorious Service Medal recipient, Professor Edwin Thumboo, distinguished poet and literary scholar, Professor Kirpal Singh, as well as acclaimed Singapore poets, Alvin Pang and Ng Yi-Sheng, and publisher Ethos Books for Over There, Fong Hoe Fang.

Whee! I've got recognition from NAC! (Now if they'd only start including me in their brochures of notable Singapore writers...)

And then after that, WordStorm in Darwin! Seeya there!)

My first articles on The Online Citizen!

Homophobia Part 1: the MDA Censors the Family

Homophobia Part 2: Under Attack from the Police

Although one commenter's called me a faggot (well, duh), another commenter (who didn't seem completely pro-gay rights) put up a link to a pretty interesting essay of his in which he compares gay male sex to smoking.  His conclusion is that it's harmful to health, but it should be legal, and better education should be available.  (He seems to be very distrustful of the effectiveness of condoms, though.)

What's Coming Up?

A bunch of things!

First off, I'll be doing a reading together with a bunch of Singapore and Australian poets in Perth, to launch "Over There: Poems from Singapore and Australia". I'll be going with Ethos publishers.

15 May: Launch at Poetry Park, Perth at 5pm

Then I'll be attending WordStorm, a writers' festival in Darwin.

16 May: Poetry Slam at Vodka Bar, Darwin, 8:30pm
17 May: Out There - A Tiger Connection at 1:15pm
Pride Event at Books Absolutely at 2:30pm

Then in August, I'll be organising a queer poetry reading in Singapore:

5 August: ContraDiction IV at 72-13, (part of the IndigNation Festival)

And having two plays go up:

13-17 August: The Final Temptation of Stamford Raffles by W!ld Rice, directed by Christina Sergeant, at the Drama Centre Theatre (part of the Singapore Theatre Festival)
28-30 August: Reservoir by Theatreworks, directed by Choy Ka Fai, at 72-13.

Just fyi!

The Soldier and His Virtuous Wife
The Theatre Practice
Reviewer: Kenneth Kwok
09/04/2008

The laughs are often cheap and obvious but that shamelessness is the essence of the play: Soldier is here to entertain entertain entertain and this it does with much colour and charm. The funniest moments are when this ridiculously over-the-top musical-comedy take on Chinese opera segues into Western pop cultural references and sensibilities (Bananarama, hip hop, vogueing) but really, the whole play is gag after gag. Kudos to director May Lan for her vibrant vision (and attention to detail - look out for the sight gags in the background) and the strong ensemble cast especially Darius Tan as the billionaire trying to lure the Virtuous Wife from her Soldier husband and Liu Hong and Katherine Tang as his sycophantic sidekicks. Utterly hilarious!

****

Reviewer: Ng Yi-Sheng
04/04/2008

A rollicking good show! Though derived from the tropes and traditions of Chinese opera, The Soldier and His Virtuous Wife overflows with zany contemporary physical humour and wit, stimulating viewers with a non-stop array of song, dance and acrobatics. Director May Lan, who originally staged this Taiwanese musical here in 1996 and 1998, succeeds brilliantly with a new cast of gifted singers and actors. Joanna Dong is especially charming as Meiying, the virtuous wife herself, defending the honour of her husband who's gone off to war with equal parts innocent charm and ballbreakin' girl power, though, in fact, the whole ensemble packs a punch: the goofy husband Qiuhu (Ric Liu), the charismatic villain Master Lee (Darius Tan) and the kungfu-kicking Officer (Gordon Choy), to name a few. And the polymorphic anarchy of the show is unbelievable: arias break into pop songs, tea ceremonies dissolve into the macarena, servants hurl chocolate ingots into the audience and old mother-in-laws or lechers burst out with tunes from The Phantom of the Opera or The Magic Flute or Teresa Teng's Greatest Hits. It is mad, and in the best way possible: I barely stopped laughing throughout the 105-minute performance.

****1/2

This first impressions review first appeared on The Flying Inkpot and has been archived here for posterity.

Clark in Sarajevo
LASALLE BA (Hons) Acting Programme
Reviewer: Kenneth Kwok
28/03/2008

Clark started off strongly with both the playwright Catherine Zimdahl and the director Steven Rassios showing much creativity in the way the situation in war-torn Sarajevo was being presented on a bare stage: besides the use of poetry and physical theatre, for example, most interesting was the risky choice of using humour as the play’s foundation. The second half, however, lacked the coherence of the first and disintegrated into a shaky series of vignettes that did not really build towards the impactful final scene (which saw the actors lighting a rectangle of fire around themselves along the borders of the stage). Even the surreal sight of Jesus as Wonder Woman singing 80s ballad Eternal Flame with a bevy of backing singers and dancers at one point which should have made you sit up and take notice felt a little contrived and not really well thought through. The production was meant as a showcase for LASALLE’s first cohort of BA (Hons) Acting graduates and, in that regard, however, Clark was a resounding success. Led by a charming performance by Crispian Chan as the bumbling reporter Clark Cant investigating the troubles in Sarajevo, the ensemble cast of actors impressed with their confidence, clarity and commitment to their various roles with Rayann Condy as a prostitute with a heart of gold the obvious standout (special mention also goes to the precision of Emanorwatty Saleh’s dramatic soundscape). It is a pity that only one of the cast was Singaporean as, judging by the quality of tonight’s performances, our local students are missing out on a real opportunity for quality training through LASALLE’s BA (Hons) Acting programme under Edith Podesta.

***1/2

This first impressions review first appeared on The Flying Inkpot and has been archived here for posterity.

Death and Rebirth - NUS Lit Nite

Life, love and drama serials. This reading explores how temporal most things are in our lives – and how new beginnings are just around the corner, just when we think things - as we know it – have ended.

I didn't write that blurb, so I can't apologise for it. Anyhoo, that's the theme for the next reading I'm part of: part of the NUS Arts Festival, to be held this Sunday evening.

Details are as follows:

· Date of event: Sunday, 23 March 2008
· Time of event: 6pm – 6.45pm
· Duration of event: 45 min (10 min reading)
· Venue: Theatre Foyer, University Cultural Centre, NUS

Also reading with me are David Leo and Shi Min.

QLRS reviews last boy

Finally. Thanks, Aaron Lee.

Read Heartland of Myths and Alter Egos here.

Theatre Idols – Finals
Action Theatre
Reviewer: Ng Yi-Sheng
17/3/08
Esplanade Concert Hall

What a surprise – out of nowhere, young playwrights Jacke Chye and Christine Sim have appeared wielding remarkably solid scripts at this competition for new Singapore plays. Better still, their plays are completely different creatures, and both rather good: Chye's Catching Adam Cheng is a cute, feel-good comedy about four women escaping from their old folks' home to catch an Adam Cheng concert, with well-drawn characters, strong motivations and good pacing, while Sim's Numb is a mad Sarah Kane-esque psychodrama of sex, sadism and alienation, centred around the character of a surgeon who finds she is slowly losing her sense of touch. Both writers fall into the trap of spouting platitudes, and a whole lot of deadweight's had to be shed between the first reading and this presentation. But it's clear that the theatre writing scene has two new faces to contend with. Let's hope they stick it out. (Since you're curious: Catching Adam Cheng won the audience's vote, but if you ask me, it's the more dangerous Numb that brings something fresh to the table. And it bleeds.) (Oh yes, and acting-wise Jeremy Lee got the audience award, but if you ask me it was Esther Yap whose comic and psychotic roles really carried the day. I just gotta be contrary.)


***1/2

This first impressions review first appeared on The Flying Inkpot and has been archived here for posterity.

I Has A New Book!

And it lookz lyk dis:


Itz mai commisshunned book 4 ACS (Indiependunt)! Da tytle iz "On His Wings: ...soaring twenty years on", it costs $25ive dollarz, and dere is evun a foto of me insidez! L00k!!!1!!


Plz commisshun me 4 more stuf kthxbye.

And for all you ACS boys out there, Happy Founders' Day. Oldham Dauntless Hero didn't come for nuthin', yknow.

I'm going to the Man Hong Kong Literary Festival!

My first ever writers' festival! (I was never properly invited to the Singapore one, doncha know.) Here's the events I'll be doing:

Thursday, 6 March

8:00pm | Joyce is Not Here, 38-44 Peel Street, Central | free

event code: 806H

Poetry Roundtable -- Reconnect with poetry as local and international poets read and discuss their work. Featuring Andrew Barker, Sally Dellow, Sayed Gouda, Viki Holmes, Isa Kamari, David McKirdy, Ng Yi-Sheng and Cai Tianxin. Moderated by local poet Martin Alexander.

Friday, 7 March

7:00pm | The Fringe Theatre | HK$90

event code: 807G

Rhyme Across Time -- "To have great poets there must be great audiences too." ~ Walt Whitman. Experience the poetry of Sylvia Plath, Kit Wright, Caroline Kiser, William Blake and Ted Hughes on: beginnings, home, love, spirit, and endings as read by local poets Martin Alexander, Andrew Barker, Sally Dellow, Jason Lee and Madeleine Marie Slavick. Featured poets Viki Holmes, Isa Kamari, Ng Yi-Sheng and Cai Tianxin interpret these topics in their own distinctive voices. Moderated by local poet David McKirdy.

Saturday,8 March

2:00pm | The Fringe Studio | HK$90

event code: 808H

Labels: Gay Literature -- Is there such a thing as gay literature? Can writing be a tool to come out? Does one have to be gay to write a gay novel? This session discusses gay culture and what the label implies. Nigel Collett leads a discussion with Peter Moss, Ng Yi-Sheng and Alon Hilu.

Can you believe it? People will actually pay money to see me! (Um, me and Isa Kamari/Alon Hilu, that is.)

Nanyang Literary Festival 2008 - Pandora’s Box

I'm reading at NTU's Lit Festival tomorrow!

20th February 2008, Wednesday
OFFICIAL OPENING CEREMONY
Venue: Canopy J, Canteen A
Duration: 11.30am – 4.00pm

(I've got the 11:45ish to 12:30 slot).

Front

I was on Front, our weekly embarrassingly-contrived-wannabe-hip arts TV show last night - 9:30pm, Tuesday, Arts Central. Missed it 'cos I was at a poetry slam at Velvet Underground.

The topic of the story was "Is rap the new poetry?" I'm not sure if they recorded the bit where I say what a retarded question that is.

Anyhow, it oughta be rerunning on TVMobile all of this week. Stay tuned.

BWISITOR Series 4

I'm visiting the Philippines from 24 to 30 Jan. And through some absurd turn of events, I've been invited as a speaker at the University of Manila.

A PERFORMANCE BY RUNAR MAGNUSSON – Icelandic sound artist

January 23, Wednesday

1-2.30 pm, Production Design Class

College of Mass Communications Auditorium

U.P. Diliman

+

A CONVERSATION WITH NG YI-SHENG – Singaporean writer & queer activist

January 25, Friday

1-2.30 pm, Youth Culture and Cinema Class

A-107-B, Film Institute

U.P. Diliman

THE BWISITOR SERIES FEATURES INVITED GUESTS FROM VARIOUS DISCIPLINES - ARTISTS, FILMMAKERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, DESIGNERS, CURATORS, WRITERS - WHO WILL BE SHARING THEIR IDEAS, WORKS AND EXPERIENCES WITHIN AN INTIMATE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT. THE SERIES IS FACILITATED BY YASON BANAL.

PAST BWISITORS INCLUDE MANUEL OCAMPO, RAYMOND LEE, RINGO BUNOAN, MAY DATUIN, NICCOLO COSME, MERVIN ESPINA, KHAVN DELACRUZ, LAV DIAZ, TEDDY CO, TAD ERMITANO, JOHNNY ALCAZAREN, STEVE TIRONA, KIKO ESCORA, EILEEN LEGASPI-RAMIREZ, ALEXIS TIOSECO, EDWARD BASSE, RAYA MARTIN, MADS ADRIAS, QUARK HENARES, RICO ILARDE , POKLONG ANADING, CONRADO VELASCO, SANDRA PALOMAR, MARIA TANIGUCHI, NONA GARCIA, MARTIN MASADAO, MARTA LOVINA, KIKO SOEDER, GEOLETTE ESGUERRA, TRINKA LAT AND CHRISTINA DY.

ADMISSION IS FREE.

The reason behind all of this oddness is that I once met Filipino artist Yason Banal at the Singapore Biennale, almost participated into a performance art event by him, and ultimately ended up interviewing him for Fridae.com.

Actually, my life is just odd. Very odd.

"Frostbite" at Short and Sweet Sydney 2008

My highly depressive 10-minute play "Frostbite" is going up at the Short and Sweet festival in Sydney. It's going on during Week 3 at the Seymour Centre. If you h-a-p-p-e-n to be in the city at that time, go see it. :)

Haven't had even a phone conversation with my director Frieda Lee (she called, but I was back late, and it's been expensive for her), but hey, it's in another country, I'm not gonna see it. Tell me how she does, won't you?

Short and Sweet Week 3
29 Jan to 2 February
Seymour Centre
Cnr City Rd & Cleveland St.

Bookings:
SEYMOUR 9351 7940
MCA TIX 1300 306 776
www.mca-tix.com

Update: Huh. Seems like I'm the only Singaporean writer on the schedule of 130 plays (although not the only Singapore-based writer, since Nick Perry has "An Illustrated Talk" at Newtown during Week 4). Considering how Frostbite is written for an American campus setting, this kinda suggests that the content of the festival's gonna be a trifle... how can I be tactful?... white.

Other Singaporeans made the shortlist of 317, but just weren't chosen by directors. Sure, it's a little dangerous for someone to stage a piece that's written for a different culture from what s/he's familiar with. But still.

Anyhow, at least two of my Interplay friends are being performed - Sime Knezevic from Brisbane and Ivor Martinic from Croatia. Prost.

Three Poets: Amirthanayagam, Nansi and Ng

I've been featured on the blog of the very cool performance poet Sharanya Manivannan. Check it out.

Run for Cover

Enoch wants to reprint my poetry collection, last boy. Enoch wants a new image for the cover.

Preferably I'd like to use an image by a Singapore artist - the last image was by Brian Gothong Tan, a reworking of this graphic:


I could use one of his works again, but it'd be cooler to find a new image... the themes of the book are youth and a multicultural/homosexual coming of age...

Any suggestions?

A Queer Singapore Literature Talk with Writers Johann S. Lee + Me

PELANGI PRIDE CENTRE PRESENTS

An Afternoon with Johann S Lee
(Author of 'Peculiar Chris' and 'To Know Where I'm Coming From')
& Ng Yi-Sheng
(Poet and playwright, also known for his documentary book, 'SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21st Century')

Saturday, 29 December 2007
Pelangi Pride Centre @ Bianco (21 Tanjong Pagar Rd, Level 4)
4-6pm
RSVP to pelangipridecentre@yahoo.com

Pelangi Pride Centre is proud to present a special event on the last
Saturday of 2007 - an afternoon with author, Johann S Lee, and
Ng Yi-Sheng, poet and playwright.

Many of us will remember with great nostalgia, the feeling of reading
Singapore's first gay novel, 'Peculiar Chris' when it was released in 1992.
Relive your first furtive glances at Singaporean gay literature in this
afternoon with the author.

Also get a chance to quiz Johann about the motivations in writing his second
novel 'To Know Where I'm Coming From'. Why did he take so long before
penning this second book?

Yi-Sheng (who majored in Comparative Literature & Writing at Columbia
University USA and curated IndigNation), together with Johann, will
facilitate a discussion around the relevance of Singapore gay fiction.

Join us on Saturday, 29 December at Pelangi Pride Centre,
for an informal and interactive afternoon.

About Johann's Latest Book: 'To Know Where I'm Coming From'

"A gripping story of love, caught between the gay worlds of London and
Singapore, unashamedly describing queer life as it is today: sexy and
sordid, romantic and political, frustrated and ecstatic."
- Ng Yi-Sheng, poet and playwright

"Hauntedly captivating and quietly powerful. Set against a diorama of
nostalgia and irresistible change, Lee observantly explores the ache of
falling in love and falling apart. For a Singapore which has evolved since
Peculiar Chris, Lee's assured second novel revisits the notions of choice
and choosing in a manner which, to his readers, has become not just
necessary, but imperative."
- Daren Shiau, author

"Read his novel... for its sheer honesty and at times heart wrenching
moments... Its importance in staking a claim in the territory of the
narrative of the overseas gay Singaporean male as well as the matured
Singaporean gay male experience, is not to be underestimated."
- Trevvy.com

"To read this book is not just to know where the author is coming from, but
to recognise, as gay people in a postmodern Asia, ourselves. How we love,
where we hope to go. Who we are."
- Fridae.com

I Am a Face to Watch

We've all had a good laugh about this article - it describes me as "a writer with a finger in every pie", and god knows that's the truth - and they haven't even documented my theatre review work, my performance poetry, my experimental poetry and my multimedia collaborations with VISTA Lab. (Coincidentally, Torrance Goh, our VISTA set designer, got named as a face to watch in this week's design and fashion segment. Woot, but by the time the papers recognise it, it's already old news.)


It's very good company to be in - choreographer/dancer/artist/interdisciplinarian/JC teacher Daniel K, curators Low Sze Wee, Matthew Ngui and Joselina Cruz, and actress Mindee Ong of 881 - who, incidentally, is described at being best at playing "women who are down but not out". Giggle giggle.

Reading in Kuala Lumpur

I'll be having a reading tomorrow (Sunday 9 December) in KL:

“Wayang Kata V”

Poetry performance at night with Charlie Dark (UK), Chris Mooney-Singh, Pooja Nansi, Ng Yi-Sheng and Bani Haykal (Singapore) and Priya Kulasagaran, Liyana Yusof, Divya Jiwa and Jerome Kugan (Malaysia). Presented by British Council and the Troubagangers.

8:30-11pm,
Sunday 9 December

No Black Tie
17 Jalan Mesui
Off Jalan Nagasari, Tel: 2142 3737).

VISTA LAB 2.0: INTERFERENCE

Presented by TheatreWorks

A Process-Presentation by

Choy Ka Fai

In collaboration with

_Joavien Ng _ Mohd Fared Jainal,

_Patricia Toh _Ling Hock Siang

_Ng Yi-Sheng _Zulkifle Mahmod,

_Khoo Eng Tat _GraceTan/kwodrent,

_Lim Woan Wen _Torrance Goh/FARMWORK.

Date : 14-15 Dec 2007

Time : 8pm

Venue: 72-13

Admission: $5

For Reservations ring 6737 7213 or email : tworks@singnet.com.sg

**There will be a Q & A session after the presentations.

INTERFERENCE is about unwanted signals that disrupt or construct movements of nature. It is about the interventions of patterns in history, time, signal and noise.

INTERFERENCE explores the concept of listening to the noise of history: moments which are insignificant in our collective memory. This presentation researches our techniques of remembering and the recollections of irrelevant episodes of unrecorded history.

INTERFERENCE is a space as well as an organism. This mediated space functions as an interactive installation and a performance environment where moving bodies, electronic sounds, visual documents and light are interwoven into a constantly changing artefact of unhistorical events.

********

If history is signal, then time itself must be recognized as noise: an infinitely complex mess of data that resists interpretation.

Our project is therefore to listen to the noise of history, moments, which yield no discernible signal: the insignificant events.

Herein lies a paradox. As artists, as humans, we have a natural impulse to transmute chaos into art.

Is our goal then to reclaim the forgotten into the field of recorded time?

Or should we resist, in our representations of insignificant events, our instinct to render them significant?

********

Conceived and created by Choy Ka Fai, V.I.S.T.A Lab is a series of presentations

resulting from workshop and experiments with the 10 Singapore-based artist/designer across the wide spectrum of artistic discipline. This project is based on the central theme of re-looking at historical events that escapes our people’s memories, seemingly deemed insignificant in our invention of a vibrant, global city. We are interested in the lapses of our recent histories and the understanding of the past to imagine the future.

INTERFERENCE is the second of three presentations of V.I.S.T.A Lab Cycle 1; the third presentations will be held in February 2008.

**For more informations please visit

www.vistalabbers.blogspot.com

www.theatreworks.org.sg / www.72-13.com

Supported by

National Arts Council, Lee Foundation, Hong Leong Foundation,

72-13, Web-vision and Power98

With additional support by

Mixed Reality Lab, NUS

Launch of OVER THERE: Poems from Singapore and Australia

Yeah, I'm awful. Forgot to tell people about this. Well, might as well blog it so it looks like I'm professional enough to inform my adoring fans.

(Incidentally, why did they have to use they nekkid photo of me in the papers today? I mean, seriously?)

7pm
6 Dec 2007 (TODAY!!!)
The Arts House (Earshot).

Edited by John Kinsella and Alvin Pang, the volume features over 150 pages of poetry from each territory, including new and recent material from some of the most prominent living poets in Singapore and Australia. We are especially pleased to be able to include new work from Lee Tzu Pheng, Madeleine Lee, Ng Yi-Sheng, Enoch Ng Kwang Cheng, Teng QianXi, Kirpal Singh, Edwin Thumboo, Toh Hsien Min, Cyril Wong, Robert Yeo and a host of others.

Australian editor John Kinsella has flown in just for the launch -- and we hope to see all of you there in support of what we believe will be another groundbreaking anthology.

Singapore Writers Festival + A Curious Stranger

Next few days I'll be ankle-deep in the:

Not that I'm an invited writer, but Chris Mooney-Singh's roped me in to help out with the poetry slam activities. Will be slamming alongside him, Bani Haykal and Charlie Dark of the UK, plus hopefully Sharanya Maivannan of Malaysia and some Taipei poets. Now if only I really had a repertoire of slam, that'd be nice.

Oh, I'm a fraud of a poet, I am. But that doesn't mean that odd little incidences don't happen as a result.


Meet Jens Grunwald, f'rinstance. He e-mailed me a coupla days ago saying he was a fan of mine who'd tried to buy last boy in Singapore last time he'd come, but hadn't succeeded. I arranged to meet him in BooksActually on their 2nd birthday to push my favourite indie bookstore onto a 1st world economy bibliophile; we met up and he told me the whole story: he'd been fired from his old job, gone moping off to Singapore, wandered into Borders because he just luvs being surrounded by books, picked up last boy by chance, loved one particular Wilfred Owen line I used in my cento, then found out at the cash register that the sonofabitches at his company had cancelled his credit card, null and void; he had to bum a ride off a friend to get back to the airport, he was that cashless.

And thus he vowed that he would, some day, return to Singapore and contact the author of last boy and tell him of that black day when he was reduced to abject poverty in Orchard Road. Crikey.

Anyway, now he's salesman for some MNC that peddles paraphernalia to Central Asia and Europe and Chile and now wow Singapore, so he took a break from the Singapore Design Festival setup to eat muffins and tea with me at 125A Telok Ayer Street, where I was sure to push as many Cyril Wong books on him as poss (as well as peddling a copy of SQ21). Everyone was there, so it was pretty chummy:


From left to right: me, Jason Wee, Jens and Michelle Quah, who proudly told Jens that she was one of the named few I dedicated last boy to in the first place. I drew Jens a smiley-sun on the title page with a doggie and pussycat bearing flowers in their teeth. He'll be back again. Incidentally, he's the spitting image of a blond version of my friend Dylan Stillwood from New York.

Anyhoo, on Sat 1 December I'll be hosting a Poetry Slam at 1pm at the National Museum, then attending a poetry workshop from 4-5pm, after which I'll attend the Word Forward book launch and rush off for Eeshaun's wedding and hop over for Rojak 10. On Sun 2 December a 1-5pm workshop at the British Council; then on Monday night 7pm a slam at the Arts House, then on Sunday 9 Dec I'll be in KL doing an international slam, wah lau.

Plus I have the ACS commemorative book to brush up and a semi-pornographic AIDS awareness pamphlet to copywrite. In addition, I am growing a moustache. More on that later.

ROJAK 10: The Collaborative Edition

My art collective VISTA Lab is gonna be featured in the next edition of ROJAK this Saturday night:

Dear friends,

Welcome to ROJAK 10: The Collaborative Edition! (in conjunction with the Singapore Design Festival 2007 and the inaugural ArchiFest 2007)

Head down to the historic City Hall Building (Level 3: Chamber) this coming Saturday, 1 December at 8pm. The venue is kindly hosted by Singapore Institute of Architects.

This special edition of ROJAK will feature 5 works of a collaborative nature spanning the fields of architecture, product design, film, theatre, performance art and multimedia.

And they are Magical Spaces: Adib J, Yeo Jia-Jun, Rofan Teo, outofstock: Wendy Chua & Gabriel Tan, V.I.S.T.A. Lab: Ka Fai with various artists, Loo Zihan & Ruby Pan and syntfarm: Vladimir Todorovic & Andreas Schlegel.

The uber-cool invite artwork is by JUN from UFHO.

Like always, please bring drinks to share for the ROJAK dingy and spread the ROJAK sharing spirit :)

See you there! :)

Thanks for reading :)
FARM is a nonprofit Singapore society
that grows systems for the Singaporean creative community.
Visit FARM today!

Flying Circus Project 2007: TRAVELOGUE

I'm a professional blogger too, now! I'm the official textual documenter of this event for Theatreworks, and I'll be mingling and interviewing the artists throughout the festival in both Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City over the next week and a half. Keep updated about me at http://flyingcircusproject.blogspot.com.


The list of events is as follows. To attend, call +65-67377213 or tworks@singnet.com.sg to get your name on the guest list. Also buzz them if you want to do interviews with participants or for observership.

31 Oct, 8 pm
Opening Exhibition of two video installations,
Memorial Project Nha Trang, Vietnam: Towards the Complex - For the Courageous, the Curious, and the Cowards (2001) and Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas: Battle of Easel Point - Memorial Project Okinawa (2003) by Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba

Performance by Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky

At 72-13.

02 Nov, 7 pm
Artist Presentations under the moonlight on Pulau Ubin

** For events on Pulau Ubin, the public is advised to be at the Pulau Ubin Jetty 30 minutes before the start of the event. Audiences will be ferried to the respective venue on the island.

03 Nov, 11am - 04 Nov, 1am
“Superintense”

Superintense is a marathon of personal strategies of creativity in the urban context, in our worlds. From one morning to the next, all the FCP artists will have an hour each to present their work, their practice to themselves and a public audience. A table, a projector, a microphone, an audience; which can all be recontructed into an open space – the same conditions are given to each artist. They are invited to share their practice with the audience; past work, present work, future work. It can take the form of a talk, a lecture demonstration, a performance, slides, a video, a dj session, a workshop, a discussion. Without a break, all the artists relentlessly articulate their practice, communicating an insight to the myriad ways of inhabiting, dissolving, thinking, making, living, destroying, rejuvenating. An actor, an audience, a shared space. Take a cigarette pause on the run.

At 72-13.

¿Y sí olvidaras suicidarte a mitad de la historia?

¡Caramba! ¡I’ve been translated into Spanish!

My poem "Ne Zha", to be precise, by the blogger No Plaztik Mach!n, who seems to dig Asian culture in general - I don't think I know the guy, and I don't know where he got the poem from, but I'm immensely flattered.

(Incidentally, my publisher Enoch says he's translated me into Chinese too, but he never gets round to uploading those pieces. Puta de madre.

VISTA LAB 1.0: IMPETUS on Youtube!



Our first workshop presentation, caught in rapid-succession photo stills. That's me in the weird Chinese opera-cum-Rafflesian schoolboy outfit.

TheatreWorks presents:
V.I.S.T.A Lab 1.0: IMPETUS
Installation_performance
By Choy Ka Fai, Zulkifle Mahmod, Ng Yi-Sheng, Torrance Goh/FARMWORK, Patricia Toh and Joavien Ng (feat graphic design by Fared Jainal)

UPDATE: We has a BLOG!

Several historical events escaped people’s memories, seemingly deemed insignificant in our invention of a vibrant, global city. With the aid of self-made and customised audio-visual devices, this multi-disciplinary presentation explores how these occurrences could be recorded, forgotten and fabricated, focusing on the moments and impulses before they transpired.

The collaborating creatives are Zulkifie Mahmod (Sound Artist), Ng Yi-Sheng (Writer), Torrance Goh/FARMWORK (Space Maker), Patricia Toh (Actress/Performer), Joavien Ng (Choreographer/Performer), Mohd Fared Jainal (Graphic Designer/Performer), Khoo Eng Tat (Interaction Engineer/Designer), Lim Hock Siang (Musician), Grace Tan/Kwodrent (Clothing Designer) and Andy Lim (Lighting Designer).

Conceived and created by Ka Fai, V.I.S.T.A Lab is a series of workshops that encourage interaction among the collaborating artists, who each produces unconventional works in their respective fields. Besides IMPETUS, two other productions under V.I.S.T.A Lab will be staged in December 2007 and February 2008.

Date : 21, 22 September 2007
Time : 8pm
Venue : 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Rd (located next to The Pier) Singapore 239007
Admission: $5

To book seats, ring: 6737 7213 or email : tworks@singnet.com.sg

vistalabbers.blogspot.com
www.theatreworks.org.sg
www.72-13.com