Brief Encounters with Traditional Theatre Forms: In Critical Dialogue with the Contemporary

Rajendran, Charlene

doi:10.1007/978-981-4560-55-9_32

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Aware that much of the education system in Singapore is geared towards the Cambridge GCSE O-and A-level examinations, my theatre pedagogy aims to address an imbalance that gives priority to Western sources of knowledge, neglecting local and regional perspectives (see Rajendran 2013). This means 6.…”

Section: Discursive Agency As Actor: Reimagining the Self And Othermentioning

confidence: 98%

Acting as agency: re-connecting selves and others in multicultural Singapore

Rajendran¹

2014

Theatre, Dance and Performance Training

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Acting students in a postcolonial and multicultural society such as Singapore, where English is the language of education and the Western canon is still given priority, gain agency by attending closely to their own contexts, investigating and drawing from the seeming ordinariness of 'everyday life'. Here acting becomes a space to participate in the reimagining of cultural norms, and thus interpret and resist reductive categories that neglect cultural mixes and overlaps that rework official classification of Selves and Others. As such, acting can engage students in what Paul Gilroy calls a 'postcolonial conviviality' that is inclusive and empowering in its capacity to render heteroculture an ordinary feature, rather than be positioned as exotic Other. This article examines a particular acting task designed for undergraduate drama students at the National Institute of Education in Singapore, in which students devise and perform a locally based character. In cultural contexts such as Singapore, where students are rarely required to critically interpret their context, this approach to learning acting advances a capacity for taking responsible action by performing creative interventions. By making theatre that is invested with a strong sense of personal participation and imagination, students are effectively acting in and on their world, reimagining their cultural space, and claiming ownership of this context. This advances agency as a creative process.

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Section: Discursive Agency As Actor: Reimagining the Self And Othermentioning

confidence: 98%