Spores and Theatrex Asia

s/pores Emblem Picture: First Generation by Chong Fah Cheong. Sculpture, Singapore River.

Theatrex Asia makes a link-up with S/pores, a Singapore online journal that aims to provide a much-needed multi-disciplinary platform for the dissemination of works investigating different aspects of historical and contemporary Singapore society. Moving beyond statist perspectives, the journal encourages research that opens up space for recalibrating the status quo in Singapore. It is significant in many respects. One, to reinforce the importance history and society have in theatre, and two, to use Singapore as the base, or the term the local state loves to use – hub, to further promote critical discourses in performing arts between Southeast Asia and the Chinese-speaking regions in Asia. But before we could do the latter, the former needs to be solidified. By using Singapore history and society as the starting point in promoting critical discourse in the small island state, we hope similar projects/initiatives could spring into being in the nature future.

自从我们改了版面，挪用“穿针引线”的概念，立志要联系东南亚以及两岸表演艺术，Theatrex Asia 的思维也跟着扩大。扩大视野并不是要招更多稿件，读更多稿件，而是要扩大我们的内心视野，不要只专研剧场艺术的形式、概念，而是要将剧场融入生活，从生活摄取滋养，并加强剧场的张力。生活，在时间线上，包含过去和未来，历史保留我们的过去，而社会的演变造就我们的未来。所以，剧场、生活、历史和社会，是息息相关的。我们下个阶段的工作，就是先将剧场与历史和社会连结，过后推广新加坡历史和社会与本地剧场之论坛。