DAY 1

On 7 – 11 September 2016, Sekolah Main Wayang conducted its first workshop and public showcase in Singapore in collaboration with the 2016 Causeway Exchange Festival (CEX) [*tag page*]. Held annually since 2010, CEX is a joint arts and culture initiative that serves as a platform for exchange between the creative communities of Singapore and Malaysia. The workshops were held at The Little Arts Academy [*tag*] with participants from The Business Times Budding Artists Fund, with an age group ranging from 8 to 22 years old. The workshops were held from 10 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. for a duration of three days.

Day 1 of the workshop started with five participants – Qin Ling (8), Audrey (12), Bala (14), Darren (14), and Celeste (14) – and we were also joined by five assistants from Republic Polytechnic’s Arts and Theatre Management program. After a brief introductory session and playing some theatre warm-up games, the participants were broken down into their respective Skills Training classes: Multimedia & Wayang with facilitator Fairuz Sulaiman, Sound & Music with facilitator Sudarshan Chandra Kumar, or Performance & Theatre with facilitator Ayam Fared. The afternoon session was joined by seven more participants – Nureen (18), Insyirah (18), Syahirah (18), Fahmi (18), Hayati (19), Alif (19), and Haley (22) – who were also promptly separated into the three different classes.

Previously working with 18 fixed participants throughout the duration of our workshops, the inconsistent number of participants for Day 1 of the workshop and last-minute changes to the scheduling due to time and space constraints proved to be a challenge for the facilitators. To address this, some of the assistants from RP aided the facilitators by participating in the class themselves to make up the numbers; for instance during the circuit bending portion of the Sound & Music class, where the morning session started with only one participant. The assistants also helped the two participants in the Multimedia & Wayang class for the puppet-making and mask-making portion of the class. These assistants later helped train the newer participants who joined the classes for the afternoon sessions.

Group dynamics also proved to be a difficult area to navigate; due to last-minute changes to the participant sign-ups, the participants’ ages markedly varied, from the youngest being 8 years old, to the oldest at 22 years old – a visible jump from the age group the workshop modules are designed for, which is 14 to 17-years old. This unfortunate shift meant the younger participants found it difficult to stay engaged with the progressive training modules which required a certain degree of committed attention, while the older participants might have found some of the exercises too elementary for their level of maturity.

Ultimately, the lack of time also meant the facilitators had to scale down or even leave out altogether some components of their Skills Training class – resulting in incomplete training for the participants. For instance, in the Performance & Acting class, the script reading component had to be left out, while many theatre exercises had to be cut short.

DAY 2

On Day 2 of the workshop, the participants underwent the Devised Theatre component. Most of the participants from the first day had to leave the workshop, thus only five participants remained – Qin Ling and Celeste from the Multimedia & Wayang class, Hayati and Audrey from the Sound & Music class, and Bala as the sole member from the Performance & Acting class. Devised Theatre is the theatre methodology employed for the workshop – also called collaborative creation, it is a form of theatre where the script originates not from a writer or a team of writers, but from collaborative, usually improvisatory, work by a group of people – and the day began with a lecture on the subject by facilitator Ayam Fared.

Next, the facilitators introduced the participants to the thematic direction of the Singapore workshop, the folklore of Singapura Dilanggar Todak, or as more commonly known in Singapore, The Legend of Bukit Merah/Redhill. The participants in turn shared what they know about the story – different versions abound, some learnt in school syllabuses, while some learnt from conversations they heard growing up. This exercise forms one of the key components of the workshop: engaging youths in better understanding site-specific local culture, in reinterpreting and reimagining local stories and myths.

The facilitators then crowdsourced storytelling elements from the participants – characters, imagery/visuals, issues, locations, and mood – which are then assigned to the participants as they are tasked to create a story and conceptualize their first production as a theatre unit, combining all the skills they have learned on their first day of workshops. They were given one hour to work on their first work-in-progress (WIP #1), which is 5-minutes long. In keeping with the theme, the swordfish became a featured character in their story, alongside other suggested elements such as a character called Ali Baba Chicken Man, to visuals involving an impending chocolate tsunami and a melting ice-cream jelly bean building, to issues ranging from the Zika plague to bullying to the likes of Pokemon Go addiction. Collectively, their stories are given the working title of Tales of the Swordfish.

The participants performed their first try as a group, clocking in at just over 2 minutes. The facilitators gave their feedback and had a round of discussion with the participants, asking for their comments on the things that they themselves thought could be improved on.

It became apparent that the incomplete training on the first workshop day affected their process in conceptualizing the production; for instance, since the script reading part had to be skipped in the Performance & Acting class, the participants from that stream overlooked writing in dialogue for the characters’ parts in their story. The other feedback from the facilitators include a visible lack of coordination between the performer, the visual team and the sound team due to an incomplete storyboard; the need to include more exposition and expanding the narrative content by playing around with the story, instead of merely mentioning all the storytelling elements without explanation; and the need to compose and feature short musical compositions for key scenes. Additionally, considering only one member of the theatre unit was from the acting class, this resulted in the group being shorthanded on actors to play the needed multitude of characters.

At this juncture, the facilitators introduced the concept of the storyboard to help flow of performance. During the afternoon session, the participants promptly started work on their WIP #2, targeted to be 10-minutes long. They were given one-and-a-half hours to expand their storyline and improve on their earlier performance. Their performance this time saw marked improvements, with better coordination and narration albeit still not reaching the 10-minute mark. There was still a long way to go before the production can be deemed ready for a public performance. After the facilitators gave some final notes, it was the end of Day 2.

DAY 3

On Day 3, the final day of workshops, another participant rejoined the mix – Nureen, from the Performance & Acting class – rounding up the theatre unit to 6 participants. Typically in previous workshops, Day 3 would be used to assign a 15-minute-long WIP #3 to the participants, where they are given creative liberties to expand the storyline on their own, with progressive feedback from the facilitators. This final product would then be performed in front of a live audience consisting of family, peers and community members in a public showcase.

However, taking into account several pressing issues of this particular workshop in terms of scheduling and participation setbacks, the facilitators themselves developed this WIP #3 with the participants; coming up with a comprehensive storyline, developing a script, and streamlining the production to refocus attention to the main story theme, in order to create a performance-ready production. This helped focus the attention to the overarching theme of the production, Tales of the Swordfish, which had mostly been overlooked on the previous day in the face of rectifying the various narrative and technical shortcomings. The workshop assistants from RP were roped in to help the participants construct their props – making masks and puppets, drawing and painting the background visuals, even taking active part in the production by doing voiceover for one of the characters.

Additions to the cast of characters include reinterpretations of two seminal characters from the Swordfish folklore; the King, as a vicious, arrogant, and ultimately repentant ruler of the fictitious kingdom of Pura-Pura Land; Nadim, as a Pokemon Go-playing adventurer who sought to bring peace to the kingdom; while side characters include a Royal Announcer who proclaimed the news of the Palace offering a reward to any citizen who successfully apprehends the leader of the swordfish army attacking the kingdom; a gigantic Pokemon named Snorlax who engages in battles at the King’s bidding; and a friendly pink Merlion, who provides advice and counsel to Nadim on his quest. The existing characters from the previous day were developed further to include a background story and defining characteristics; Ali Baba Chicken Man became a mysterious figure watching over the kingdom’s extensive surveillance system, while the Swordfish’s reason for attacking the kingdom was revealed.

Part 4: Showcase

The public showcase took place on the evening of 11 September 2016 at the Auditorium @ 10 Square [*tag*]. The participants were busy rehearsing since noon, where they managed to have two full run-throughs before having a full-dress rehearsal of their performance at the venue itself. This was the first time being an onstage live performer for most of the participants, most notably Bala, who is the principal actor, and Qin Ling as the visual artist, being the workshop’s youngest participant. The team also had a technical run-through, familiarizing themselves with the stage setup including the microphones and sound system, space usage for effective visual projections and shadow theatre, and finalizing all their cues. Adrenaline was high as the participants prepared to perform the production they have worked so hard to put together throughout the duration of the workshop.

The showcase kicked off at 7.30 p.m. with an introductory speech by CEX Festival Director, Shawn Lourdusamy, followed by an introduction by facilitator Fairuz Sulaiman, who walked the audience through the processes involved behind Sekolah Main Wayang via a slideshow presentation of photos from the workshop. The participants performed to a very attentive audience – made up of the participants’ family members, peers, CEX project partners and special invitees, most notably students from the Grace Orchard School – who filled the hall with incessant laughter and applause. The performers themselves, feeding off the energy of the audience, executed the production with confidence and pushed through all hiccups, even improvising several scenes with their own quips and jokes. Ultimately, they pulled through brilliantly. This was followed by a post-show Q&A, and the night ended with a show-and-tell; audience members were invited backstage to see the setup behind the projection screen, and to interact with the setup themselves. It was definitely a night to remember.

The Sekolah Main Wayang team would like to thank the participants (for being Awesome!), LAA (thank you especially to Khairani [*tag*]), and CEX Festival [*tag*] for inviting us across the causeway to make magic with these amazing kids.

Until next time!