SDEA Chit Chat: Devising for the M1 Peer Pleasure Youth Theatre Festival

As drama educators, teaching artists, and practitioners, we have often engaged in the devising process to create new works. This collaborative process allows the freedom for those involved to make the work their own, to explore without restrictions and share their voices.  

This is the spirit behind the M1 Peer Pleasure Youth Theatre Festival, a youth-centred theatre festival with a social conscience, presented by ArtsWok Collaborative, in collaboration with Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay. 

Through a unique approach to the research and creation process spanning 18 months on issues such as poverty, and disability in Singapore, the festival has committed itself to developing original works by young people, contributing to the rich diversity of views among Singaporeans.  

Find out more about the process, their challenges and experiences in bringing youth voices to the forefront.   

Brew some tea, grab some cake and join us for a casual Zoom chit chat, hosted by Ezzat Alkaff with Jean Ng (Artistic Director), Ngiam Su-Lin (Producer), Iris Chia (Drama Practitioner & Arts Educator) and Sahirrah Safit (Teaching Artist) as they share their experience and process working together with the youth in creation of these socially driven works.   

*Video recordings of select performances of the M1 Peer Pleasure Youth Theatre Festival 2020 are available for viewing on https://peerpleasure.org/ until 30th Sept 2020. 

Date: Thursday 17th September 2020

Time: 8pm - 9.30pm

Venue: Zoom

Register

Panellists

Jean Ng
Artistic Director, M1 Peer Pleasure Youth Theatre Festival 

Jean Ng is a graduate of the Jacques Lecoq International School of Theatre (Paris, France). She works as a director, actor and drama educator. 

Nur Sahirrah Safit
Teaching Artist 

Nur Sahirrah Safit is a freelance theatre practitioner and a drama educator. A National Arts Council of Singapore Scholar, Sahirrah obtained a BA (hons) in Theatre Arts- Acting Major from the University of Essex, United Kingdom in 2012. Passionate about all things theatre, she has performed, directed, produced and stage managed numerous shows with various theatre companies and production houses both locally and internationally for over 8 years. She has also worked for buds theatre company as a Creative Director for 6 years. In 2014, she was sent to The United Kingdom by the National Arts Council of Singapore for the ‘Overseas Youth Arts Attachment’ Programme to work with All Change Arts, an established youth arts company in Islington, London. A strong believer in theatre arts education, she has taught over 30 schools in Singapore and has also served as an adjunct lecturer at the Singapore Polytechnic. 

Iris Chia 
SDEA Member, Drama Practitioner and Arts Educator 

Graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Education from NTU(NIE) with first class honours and awarded Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal Award, Iris Chia is a Visual Arts and Drama educator. She is currently undertaking a MOE Bond and practicing in Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road). Her passion includes reading and writing plays, the visual arts, watercolor illustrations, urban sketching and traveling. 

Trained in the visual arts and drama, she is interested in Augusto Boal’s theatre of the Oppressed. She believes that theatre can impact positive social change and Drama education can cultivate active citizenship. Her recent project was directing "The Ground", a play based on the theme "Poverty in Singapore" under the M1 Peer Pleasure Youth Theatre Festival 2019. 

Ngiam Su-Lin
Co-Founder & Executive Director, ArtsWok Collaborative  

Su-Lin has been active in the Singapore arts scene for close to two decades, specifically in the areas of education, community, creative producing and company management. She has produced community theatre and festivals in collaboration with the public and private sectors, and worked with numerous social service organisations to incorporate drama into their programmes. As Executive Director of ArtsWok which she co-founded in 2012, she has facilitated numerous collaborations across multiple sectors, resulting in projects and platforms such as Both Sides, Now, a long-term community engagement project on having end-of-life conversations; M1 Peer Pleasure Youth Theatre Festival, an annual youth theatre festival with a social conscience; The Greenhouse Lab and Sessions, an action-learning lab and community of practice respectively for multi-disciplinary practitioners, researchers, funders and policymakers working at the intersection of arts and communities, amongst others. 

Ezzat Alkaff
Moderator, SDEA Committee Member, and Drama Educator