What happens when a community’s only toilet is taken away?
How does it feel to be helpless in the face of such adversity?
Is there hope for a community in shambles to overcome their differences and work together?
Embedded Files
Message from the Director & Cast
Message from the Director & Cast
Human struggle is a challenging issue in our daily lives and our own community, as well as across boundaries and cultures. When a basic fundamental right has been stripped from you, how far are you willing to go to save it? What are the actions of an individual that can cause a strong community to break down?
- Aaron Kaiser Garcia (Tobi)
~~
Is it better to live like a puppet or to revolt and die with dignity if needed?
- Kewal Kartik (Gaga)
~~
If you could save your family and the whole village by sacrificing yourself, would you?
- Lin Jiarui (Long)
~~
What is social privilege and its burdens? Do you trust your government?
- Marvin Acero Ablao (Baba)
~~
How would you feel if you lost your only toilet?
- Sandeep Yadav (Yaku)
~~
Oppression is not only happening in human society. On a more fundamental level, nature’s oppression is a reflection of the oppression that we impose upon ourselves.
So what changes in perspective do we have to adopt to first liberate ourselves, followed by nature and then society?
- Sonu Pilania (Lutin)
~~
Walk alone so it’s faster, or walk together so we can go further?
How many ways are there to be heard, to act, to impact, to change, to disobey, to negotiate, to suggest, to resolve, no matter how suppressed the circumstances are?
We must find a way out together, against the odds.
Thank you, wonderful team, for walking together.
- Li Xie (Director)
Credits
Credits
DIRECTOR
Li XieCAST
Aaron Kaiser Garcia, Kewal Kartik,
Lin Jiarui, Marvin Acero Ablao,
Sandeep Yadav, Sonu PilaniaFACILITATORS
Li Xie, Chng Xin Xuan, Chng Yi Kai (Drama Box)ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR & COSTUME COORDINATOR
Lim Chin HuatLIGHTING DESIGNER
Liu Yong Huay FaithSET & PROPS DESIGN
Puny Life Form
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Clarisse NgSTAGE MANAGER
Vivi AgustinaASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER
Julian Kenny
THE ITE TEAM
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Amirul Nabil Bin Mohd AmbranASSISTANT TECHNICAL MANAGER
James Tay Yong ChuanPRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER
Muhammad Isa Bin SulaimanLIGHTING HEAD
Yafiq Harraz Bin Mohamed YunosSOUND HEAD
Syafiqah Nurulain Binte Mohamed JuraimiSTAGING HEAD
Denan S/O GunaseelanLIGHTING OPERATOR
Ng Jing Wen NicoleSOUND OPERATOR
Estella Lee Ek HweeSTAGING / ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERS
Nurul Afiqah Binte Basiron
Ng Hui Min Tammy
Yeo Zhen Zhen
_______
Special thanks to Ng Yuan Ci who assisted with the performance of the soundtrack, On Staging Pte Ltd for their help with the set, Paper Monkey Theatre for the loan of a monitor speaker, FOH volunteers, and those who have contributed to the production one way or another.
ITI students work as a professional company in their third year, and undertake ticketed public performances. These Final Year Productions are an integral part of the ITI curriculum.
Cast
Cast
Aaron Kaiser Garcia
Email: aakaisergarcia@gmail.com
Aaron Kaiser Garcia
Email: aakaisergarcia@gmail.com
Aaron Kaiser Garcia is a performer and performance maker. An alumnus of the Dance Program (Folk Dance) at the Philippine High School for the Arts with a strong background in folk and contemporary dances, he has gone on to explore contemporary performance-making.
Aaron has been training as an artist-facilitator and has conducted works in various communities in the Philippines. He was a production manager for Sipat Lawin Ensemble’s productions Are You Ready to Take the Law Into Your Own Hands (which he choreographed for), and Nagwawalang Gubat (2018). He was also the youngest festival project manager for Karnabal Festival: Performance and Social Innovation PerYaKToi (2016) and Edukasyon Artist Residency (2017).
As a performer, Aaron has represented the Philippines in several international festivals in Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, and China. He also performed at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Choreographers Series: Neo-Filipino and Koryolab. His work, Dakel Saday: The Unpublished Philippine Folk Dances of the Tasaday, Volume I, was featured in CNN Philippines Life: 2018 in Philippine Art.
Post-graduation, Aaron will be continuing his practice with Komunidad X, an anti-disciplinary collective committed to creating “life” performances for civic engagement and social development, based in Manila under Sipat Lawin Inc.
Aaron is a beneficiary of the Möbius Fund, which provides loans for actor-students.
Kewal Kartik
Email: sir.kewal@gmail.com
Kewal Kartik
Email: sir.kewal@gmail.com
Kewal Kartik is an actor from the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan. His artistic journey began from hosting and acting for various events in his hometown. He left his home region due to the lack of opportunities, in order to pursue the arts as a profession.
Kewal holds a Diploma in Dramatic Arts from Madhya Pradesh School of Drama, and completed a year-long internship where he created and directed several original works.
He has travelled and worked with various theatre groups across India, such as Rangrez Theatre Productions and Breathing Space- The Drama Company. To better himself as a performer, Kewal decided to come to ITI.
In the future, Kewal plans to develop the theatre scene in his home region.
Kewal is a recipient of the Tan Chay Bing Education Fund Scholarship and a beneficiary of the Möbius Fund.
Lin Jiarui
Email: 463618988@qq.com
Lin Jiarui
Email: 463618988@qq.com
Lin Jiarui is an actor from China, who believes that drama education can better enrich the growth of children.
From 2016 to 2018, Jiarui worked as a theatre project manager for Shenzhen Xinhuajie Culture Communication Co., Ltd. He then joined the Little Comma Children’s Theatre part-time in 2017, where he performed his original puppetry piece, Where is my Monster? before coming to ITI.
After ITI, Jiarui is keen on furthering his studies in theatre and engaging in drama education for children.
Marvin Acero Ablao
Email: themarvinablao@gmail.com
Marvin Acero Ablao
Email: themarvinablao@gmail.com
Marvin Acero Ablao is a dancer, actor and visual artist from Bohol, Philippines. He has received extensive training in contemporary dance and classical ballet since 2008, and has coached dance and theatre to various youth communities in his province.
He started his theatre journey in 2016 as a member of Kasing Sining Teatro Bol-an Ensemble. Marvin’s works include Dagohoy: Dagon sa Hoyohoy The Musical and Blue Way (Bohol Dance Project Company), created by Romanian choreographer Gigi Caciuleanu.
In Singapore, he has performed in Waltz of the Flower, an original piece by ITI alumna Caroline Chin, at The Substation SeptFest 2021 and Room 0505 (2020) with alumna Lina Yu.
Marvin came to ITI to hone his skills as an actor and ultimately give back to his community in Bohol as a performer, educator, and researcher. He also intends to explore and experiment with different mediums of art through theatre.
Marvin is a recipient of the Tan Chay Bing Education Fund Scholarship and a beneficiary of the Möbius Fund.
Sandeep Yadav
Email: sandeepy859@gmail.com
Sandeep Yadav
Email: sandeepy859@gmail.com
Sandeep Yadav is a theatre practitioner from India, who believes in art as healing and artists as healers.
His theatre journey began in 2009 with Nautanki, one of India’s oldest folk theatres, in his hometown, Allahabad. He holds an MPA in Theatre Arts from the University of Hyderabad, and performed in various university productions such as Woman (an Indian adaptation of Thesmophoriazusae) and A Tempest by Aimé Césaire.
His final-year production, BUTTERFLY, received a theatre grant from the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, and was invited to Prayogam Theatre Group’s online national theatre festival. Besides acting for stage and screen, Sandeep has ventured into roles such as costume designer, technical advisor, and director. His works include Hawalaat, Neela Parcham, Red Frock, Beyond the Land of Hattamala, Gateway to Heaven (which received Special Mention at the 4th Mumbai International Film Festival), and Mitti-Back to Roots. He has also coached acting in various schools and institutions, as well as to theatre groups, across India.
His training at ITI has opened up new dimensions of work for him, rediscovering himself as an artist through theatre. He also wants to continue exploring the training he received in ITI in his future works.
Sandeep is a beneficiary of the Möbius Fund.
Sonu Pilania
Email: sonupilania88@gmail.com
Sonu Pilania
Email: sonupilania88@gmail.com
Sonu Pilania is an actor currently based in Singapore. In the crafts of acting for stage and screen, he specialises in the genres of realism and naturalism.
Sonu holds a BA in History from Delhi University, and a Diploma in Mime from National Mime Institute, Kolkata. His questions and curiosity about the craft of acting were what drew him to ITI.
His theatre journey started in 2014, working in various stage productions with different theatre companies and directors since then. He has participated in several theatre festivals, exploring Classical, Psycho-Physical, Forum, Parsi, and Realistic Theatre.
After graduation, Sonu intends to continue acting on stage and screen. He also aims to work towards using theatre as a tool to address environmental issues, such as climate change.
Sonu is a beneficiary of the Möbius Fund.
Headshots by Bernie Ng
Creative Team
Creative Team
Li Xie
Director & Facilitator
Li Xie
Director & Facilitator
As a freelance theatre practitioner, Li Xie performs, writes, directs, and teaches.
Li Xie trained under Gennadi Bogdanov and is the only teacher in Singapore who has been actively teaching Russian director Vsevolod Meyerhold’s Biomechanics for the past 18 years. She has developed a new training system for actors and practitioners by combining Meyerhold’s system with “Heart Sutra”. She has been invited to Taiwan and Macau to conduct masterclasses on her actor training.
She is immensely involved in community theatre as a seasoned facilitator and educator (Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed). She has directed, written, and facilitated forum theatre pieces dealing with issues such as SARS, AIDS, domestic violence, palliative care, poverty, and problem gambling. Recently, she worked with female inmates to devise storybooks for their children.
She was conferred the Young Artist Award by the National Arts Council in 2006.
Her participatory creation The Lesson (Singapore International Festival of Arts 2016) was nominated for Best Director and Production of the Year in The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards. Since 2016, The Lesson has been invited to Thailand, Taiwan, Macau, and Rotterdam. She has also created mockumentary newspaper theatre, site-specific performances, installation art pieces, and digital immersive works such as the murder mystery series BODY X. Her poetry and paintings were published in 2007.
As a professional voice talent and past radio producer/presenter, she has written and produced over 20 radio plays. She was the producer and creative director for the audiobook A Symphony of Our Voices, commissioned by the Ministry of Education’s Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning in 2018.
Lim Chin Huat
Assistant to the Director & Costume Coordinator
Lim Chin Huat
Assistant to the Director & Costume Coordinator
Lim Chin Huat is a cross-disciplinary artist who has over two decades of experience as a visual artist, performer, dancer, choreographer, costume designer, facilitator and educator. In particular, he is known for his stunning visual creative works which are cross-disciplinary, site-specific, outreach and non-conventional in nature. Chin Huat has worked with Toy Factory Theatre Ensemble (1990-1996), and later, as co-founder and artistic director of ECNAD (1996-2013). He is a faculty member teaching Movement at ITI.
A prolific creator, he has more than 70 works to his credit, mainly full-length dance, since 1993. Some of his signature and collaborative works were seen and presented at the Singapore Arts Festival, Belgrade International Theatre Festival, Vienna Arts Festival’s Asia Village, Festival of Asia (New Zealand), Asia Interaction (Indonesia), Actor Studio (Kuala Lumpur), Chaoyang Cultural Centre (Beijing), Esplanade Raw Series, Gardens by The Bay Opening, Mercedes-Benz Asia Fashion Award, Artwine Festival, Singapore River Festival, MediaCorp Star Awards and the Asian Civilisations Museum. Chin Huat is a recipient of the Young Artist Award (2000) and a nominee for the Spirit of Enterprise Award (2004).
Chng Xin Xuan
Facilitator
Chng Xin Xuan
Facilitator
Xin Xuan is a theatre practitioner, having first received her professional acting training from LASALLE in 2014.
Her recent works include Tanah•Air 水•土：A Play In Two Parts (Drama Box) and Inak Fly (Esplanade). Xin Xuan is also a founding member of the collective Go-Go Girls, which uses devising as a framework for creating new works.
RevoLOOtion is Xin Xuan's second involvement in an ITI production and she is grateful and humbled by the work created by the cast and production team.
Chng Yi Kai
Facilitator
Chng Yi Kai
Facilitator
Chng Yi Kai is currently a resident artist at Drama Box. He is a budding artist who aspires to create effective means of engaging the community through art. A graduate from Yale-NUS College with a major in Anthropology, his foray into theatre began with joining the second cohort of Drama Box’s youth wing ARTivate after graduating from Singapore Polytechnic’s Diploma in Applied Drama and Psychology.
His theatre experiences include Bus Stop, Confessions, Exit (Drama Box), and Art Studio (Singapore International Festival of Arts 2017) as a festival opener by Nine Years Theatre. He also co-produced and performed in KNOTS by STRANGER, a theatre collective he co-founded, presented at the New Works Festival 2019. He was the Assistant Artistic Director of SCENES: Participatory Practices (Drama Box).
Liu Yong Huay Faith
Lighting Designer
Liu Yong Huay Faith
Lighting Designer
Liu Yong Huay trained at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in Lighting Design (2016), under the National Arts Council Arts Scholarship (Postgraduate). In September 2017, she co-founded 微Wei Collective with Neo Hai Bin. She loves the collaboration of nature, space and art, and seeks to embark on creative projects that encompass these elements. She is honoured to have worked with many theatre and dance companies in Singapore.
Puny Life Form
Sets and Props Design
Puny Life Form
Sets and Props Design
Fuelled by her curiosity and desire to make things, Puny Life Form became a self-taught multidisciplinary designer. She reconciles art and function, using analogue and digital tools to craft experiences internationally. Her practice is guided by the everyday and social aesthetic, but what inspires her the most are the underdogs.
Recent works include The Class Room (ArtsWok Collaborative), Chinatown Crossings (Drama Box) and The Story of the Banyan Tree (Danny Yeo and 3Pumpkins).
About ITI
Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI), based in Singapore, is a three-year, practice-based, professional actor training programme founded on a rigorous, intercultural learning methodology with a view to producing original, contemporary theatre.
The school began as the Theatre Training & Research Programme (TTRP), founded in 2000 by renowned dramatist Kuo Pao Kun (1939–2002) and current Director T. Sasitharan – both Cultural Medallion recipients. It is shaped by Kuo Pao Kun’s vision of intercultural learning that draws from a matrix of traditional theatre systems and modern theatre-making.
ITI’s distinguished alumni include Yeo Yann Yann, winner of two Golden Horse Awards for her performances in Wet Season and Ilo Ilo and International Emmy Award nominee for her role in Invisible Stories; Peter Sau, recipient of the 2011 Young Artist Award and several The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards; Felimon Blanco, recipient of the 2013 Most Outstanding Zambosurian Award (Philippines); and Sankar Venkateswaran, recipient of the 2019 Shankar Nag Theatre Award, presented to theatre all-rounders under the age of 40 who embody the spirit of service to theatre in India.
Support ITI
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“I was trained to be not only a good actor but also a better person. So to those who want to make a difference, please consider supporting a student in ITI and we will make this world a better place using the arts” ~ Denise Mordeno Aguilar ‘14
Peter Sau (‘03, Singapore) is the founder of Project Tandem, a training programme for disabled performing artists. He is also associate director and cast member of And Suddenly I Disappear: The Singapore/UK ‘d’ Monologues, the first disability-led theatre project created between Singapore and the UK. Peter is a recipient of the 2011 Young Artist Award and the Best Actor Award at the 2015 Life! Theatre Awards.
Sankar Venkateswaran (‘06, India) is the founder and artistic director of Theatre Roots & Wings. He has set up a cultural space in Attappady, Kerala, where he works with the impoverished indigenous communities. Sankar is a recipient of the International Ibsen Scholarship 2013, Aditya Vikram Birla Kalakiran Puraskar 2016 and Shankar Nag Theatre Award 2019.
Denise Mordeno Aguilar (‘14, Philippines) is the artistic director of Pasundayag Community Arts, secretary of the National Committee on Dramatic Arts and the Mindanao designated coordinator of Women Playwrights International. She is a recipient of the Lambago Art Award 2016, in recognition of her outstanding work as a theatre artist and her invaluable contribution to the development of arts and culture in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines.
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Special Research Adviser, Institute of Policy Studies
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Dr Nazry Bahrawi
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Academic Board 2020–2023
Prof Erik Ehn
Playwright
Visiting Professor, Department of Theatre and Dance, University of New MexicoDr Quah Sy Ren
Associate Professor, School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University, SingaporeDr Frances Barbe
Senior Lecturer & Course Coordinator - Bachelor of Performing Arts, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts
Examination Board 2020–2023
Mr Aarne Neeme, AM (Order of Australia)
Director and educatorDr Paul Rae
Associate Professor, Head of English and Theatre Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of MelbourneMr Noushad Mohamed Kunju
Director, actor and educator
Associate Professor, Department of Theatre Arts, Sarojini Naidu School of Arts & Communication, University of HyderabadMr Peter Sau
Director, actor and educatorMr Nelson Chia
Artistic Director, Nine Years Theatre, Singapore
Final Year Productions 2014-2020
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