This week seems to be a week of leaving rehearsal rooms. The Glass Anatomy rehearsal period has ended and the crew have already begun bumping into the Esplanade Theatre. Today, I officially start on work on a mini showcase to practice directing, but we’re already out of the rehearsal room!
We’re not going to be in a rehearsal studio, we’re gonna be at the National Library at the Plaza. It is an experiment and I’m thankful that my actors are game enough for this…at least based on what they are saying to me. Haha.
Yes, it won’t be the usual cool, (mostly) comfortable rooms that we’re used to rehearsing in but where there are actors, a space can become theatrical. The passerby is implicated even if it’s a side glance. This isn’t new. William Teo rehearsal spaces are often publicly accessible, open, I experienced it through Jeremiah Choy’s Conference of the Birds. And the fact is that lots of art creation already happens in communal spaces primarily because it’s the most accessible and convenient. Take street dance for example.
Conference of the Birds was the only time I’ve created theatre so openly. I’d like to build on that experience, to explore what this open theatre means as a practice, how this affects the actors, the audience, and ultimately the work. It’s also a reaction to having to adhere to what are designated as safe performance spaces.
Today is the first session. We’ll be reading scripts to work on and feeling the space. It is ultimately an experiment. We’ll see how this works. Come by at 7pm if you would like 🙂
Tan Shou Chen 