Teaching social and emotional competencies: Influences from Kuo Pao Kun
This report delves into the key plays The Coffin is Too Big for the Hole (hereafter, The Coffin, 1984), Mama Looking for Her Cat (hereafter, Mama, 1988) and Lao Jiu (1990) written by local playwright Kuo Pao Kun (1939-2002) to point out the key themes that students of the 21st century will be able to learn from. Kuo addressed social issues within the Singaporean society in these plays that will be able to resonate with youths as they face similar issues such as the dilemma between meeting society’s standards and creating one’s individuality, the marginalisation of the elderly in a digital era, and the paradox of society’s rules. What students cannot achieve through classroom textbooks and pen-and-paper tests are the social and emotional competencies that they are capable of learning through drama: relationship management, responsible decision making and social awareness and embedded within core values: responsibility, care, harmony and resilience. As Singapore’s education system primarily focuses on facts and fixed knowledge and leave little room for students to learn values and key competencies, it leaves gaps in pupils’ learning (Tan, 2006). These skills and knowledge that are the gaps in learning are most often learned in informal learning, which are difficult to plan, hence teachers often deem them as unproductive. However, it is through explorations of social contexts that content is learnt with experience in a dialectic manner (Lee & Hung, 2012). These gaps occur because students are not critically engaged with their learning material, and the activities they are exposed to provide little ‘hands-on’ in spontaneous decision-making, expression of perspectives and understanding and appreciating from different angles of an issue. Drama, however, enables students to express their perspectives in physical, symbolic ways that creates depth in learning where “experiences and ideas are exchanged and subjected to to criticism, where misconceptions are corrected, and new lines of thought and inquiry are set up” (Dewey, as cited in Chan, 2009). Introducing Kuo Pao Kun to a classroom of young learners will see to a resolution of his themes and ideas fitting perfectly with the gaps in the education system. Kuo’s theme of multiculturalism in Mama Looking for Her Cat (1988) is a relevant one that proposes the social awareness competency, as students in Singapore encounter diversity daily. In addition, in The Coffin is Too Big for the Hole (1984) and Lao Jiu (1993), the ever apparent issue of conflict with one’s principles and belief systems is an applicable issue to introduce responsible decision-making to students. These competencies mentioned are the tools pertinent to the creation of students’ own identity and individuality as they embark on other challenges in life. In this paper, the lesson plans will demonstrate how Kuo Pao Kun’s themes within his plays can be infused in lessons to develop well-rounded individuals capable of managing relevant social issues that Kuo had pointed out in his work. Drama and theatre activities such as tableaux, hot-seating and role-playing can involve students in deep reflection and creative, critical thinking. Incorporating drama in lessons makes learning interestingly unconventional and ignites passion and interest in pupils, which is exactly what pupils need in order to close the gaps in the education system (Tan, 2006).
Theatre ethnography and a prism of difference: A dialogical approach to practitioner-oriented research
Performing Southeast Asia: Performance, politics and the contemporary
Examines new and recent Southeast Asian performances and artists Engages specifically with political theatres Expands the discussion around censorship and gender with new and 'inside' perspectives
The Routledge companion to theatre and young people
This companion interrogates the relationship between theatre and youth from a global perspective, taking in performances and theatre made by, for, and about young people. These different but interrelated forms of theatre are addressed through four critical themes that underpin the ways in which analysis of contemporary theatre in relation to young people can be framed: political utterances – exploring the varied ways theatre becomes a platform for political utterance as a process of dialogic thinking and critical imagining; critical positioning – examining youth theatre work that navigates the sensitive, dynamic, and complex terrains in which young people live and perform; pedagogic frames – outlining a range of contexts and programmes in which young people learn to make and understand theatre that reflects their artistic capacities and aesthetic strategies; applying performance – discussing a range of projects and companies whose work has been influential in the development of youth theatre within specific contexts. Providing critical, research-informed, and research-based discussions on the intersection between young people, their representation, and their participation in theatre, this is a landmark text for students, scholars, and practitioners whose work and thinking involves theatre and young people.
Rethinking the research on both sides, now: An arts-based community engagement project on end-of-life in Singapore
Both Sides, Now (BSN), an interdisciplinary arts-based community engagement event produced by arts companies Drama Box and ArtsWok Collaborative, is a complex and dynamic project that engages with end-of-life issues in Singapore. BSN has developed over time to respond more acutely to the particularities of the Singapore context and specific locations. Researching BSN was a challenging yet highly rewarding process but were nonetheless enriched by the opportunity to navigate what this means in analysing the materials. BSN was not just effective in gaining audience interest but continues to gain support from artists, stakeholders and funders keen to sustain arts-based community engagement focusing on end-of-life issues. Most audience members interviewed felt that BSN was beneficial because it generated space for confronting an important issue that was thought-provoking yet playful, and thus non-threatening in its approach. This was seen as a way to improve community connectedness through the opportunity to listen, read and watch others share their perspectives and ideas.
Learning dramaturgy through dialogue and practice: Points of view and ADN Lab 2018
(Un)learning theatre through stories of growing up: Difference and multiplicity in Singapore
This article considers the value of growing up stories among theatre practitioners in Singapore as a resource for learning theatre in multicultural contexts. It engages with the lived experiences of five Singapore theatre practitioners, Alfian Sa’at, Alvin Tan, Haresh Sharma, Kok Heng Leun and Ong Keng Sen, whose contributions to discourses on multiplicity and performance are significant in the city–state and internationally. Concepts of ‘Open Culture’ (Kuo. 1998. “Contemplating an Open Culture: Transcending Multiracialism.” In Singapore: Re-Engineering Success, edited by Arun Mahiznan, and Lee Tsao Yuan, 55–60. Singapore: Oxford University Press), ‘postcolonial conviviality’ (Gilroy. 2005. Postcolonial Melancholia. New York: Columbia University Press) and ‘critical multiculturalism’ (Goh. 2009. “Conclusion: Toward a Critical Multiculturalism.” In Race and Multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore, edited by Daniel P.S. Goh, 213–218. London: Routledge) are proposed as useful frames for understanding theatre in multicultural contexts, and from which the idea of a ‘bricoleur imagination’ is derived.
Engaging difference through theatre: Border pedagogy in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia’s location as a crossroads between East Asia and South Asia, marks it as a region deeply entrenched in difference. Its history marks it as a region that is highly complex, where apart from indigenous cultures that have survived the tides of change, there are several deeply embedded influences from East Asia and South Asia, the West and elsewhere that have become integral aspects of what is local (Reid, 2015). Education that seeks to deepen an understanding of this history and recognize its value as a resource for regional coherence and cooperation must then negotiate the borderlines of culture that have contributed to how Southeast Asian nations apprehend themselves, and in relation to each other. In this article I propose a critical approach to ‘regionalist’ education in Southeast Asia by engaging with issues of culture in teaching and learning contemporary theatre. I deploy Henry Giroux’s border pedagogy as a working frame to grapple with difference in Southeast Asia, with particular reference to his view that borders are expressions of power that need to be interrogated through pedagogies of difference. I then describe and analyse how the learning process and assessment tasks created for an undergraduate module on Contemporary Theatre in Southeast Asia at a teacher-education institution in Singapore, offer students a space to work with pedagogies of ‘difference’ and ‘discomfort’ and thus reconfigure the boundaries of their identities and communities as potentially local, regional and global.
Staging stories that build empathy for mental illness in Singapore: Spaces of dialogue in Off Centre
This article examines how Off Centre, a play by Haresh Sharma about mental health in Singapore, first devised and produced by The Necessary Stage (TNS) in 1993, provides a valuable opportunity for audiences to encounter characters labeled “mad” or “off centre” (a colloquial term in Singapore for being mentally ill), who are often looked down upon and relegated to being “useless” in the highly efficient and success-driven urban context of Singapore. It considers how audiences are challenged to respond sensitively and dialogically through a questioning process that builds empathy for persons struggling with mental health. I argue that when Off Centre imbricates the audience in the inner worlds of the characters to dialogue with them, it generates a pedagogical process by creating a space where sensing, listening to and questioning what happens to these characters becomes a way of learning about their battles and beliefs.