I was in yesterday’s ST Life!

Wed, 12 Sep 2012
6 min read
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Checkpoint turns 10
(via @oonshuan)

There was a feature on Checkpoint Theatre, Huzir Sulaiman and Claire Wong in yesterday’s Straits Times Life! section – and I managed to get three paragraphs – three! – all to myself!

Unfortunately, I can’t post the entire article because of The Straits Times‘s overly-strict regulations so here’s the snippet about me from the article:

Another Checkpoint protege, Lee, who was also a teacher, quit his job to be a full-time writer. He says that “Claire and Huzir have been great mentors to me”. Lee, who wrote Full Tank and Radio Silence, two plays about national service, started working at Checkpoint from 2010 on a voluntary basis because he wanted to contribute to the company and learn about the arts industry.

After helping out with Occupation, he hopes to scale back on his Checkpoint activities to focus on writing. He is working on three projects: a novel about his mixed heritage family called Crossroads; a book of poetry called The Zookeeper’s Boy And Other Poems; and a full-length play called Sons And Daughters, exploring what would happen if Singapore had a chance to rebuild itself from scratch.

With a laugh, Huzir says he “can’t claim any credit or blame for Laremy’s decision”. “I’m happy for him. He’s a phenomenally talented writer and I’m very happy that he’s doing writing full-time.”

If you wanna squint your way through the article, here it is:

A decade on the stage
(via @chrispychong)

The email interview which I had with Adeline Chia:

Huzir mentioned that you will quit your job to be a full-time writer soon. Will you also be an associate producer for Checkpoint after this? Is it a full-time job with a salary or are you volunteering your services?

Yes, I’ve resigned from my teaching job to be a full-time writer.

I was a teacher for four years. I’ve really enjoyed teaching as it’s been a rewarding experience and I will miss interacting with my students.

However, I felt that I should explore my passion and try out writing as a career now since I’m free from major financial commitments like car and housing loans.

I’ve been helping at Checkpoint Theatre in a voluntary capacity since Jan 2010 as Claire and Huzir have been great mentors to me and I felt that I wanted to contribute to the development of theatre in Singapore.

But after Occupation, I’ll scale back my involvement at Checkpoint and focus exclusively on writing until early next year. I’ve not decided on my plans after that but I hope to remain in the arts industry.

How did you get involved with Checkpoint Theatre? What made you want to join them?

It was a natural progression; something that happened quite organically. Huzir taught me playwriting at the National University of Singapore and I got to know Claire through Huzir after watching Cogito back in 2007.

I was impressed with and inspired by the work that the both of them had done and were doing

Huzir, Claire and I hung out from time to time – sometimes it’d be at Claire and Huzir’s home, during play readings that Huzir organised for the playwriting classes he was teaching. Other times, we’d meet for meals or coffee to chat about life and to catch up.

It was over these sessions that we discussed ideas and possibilities for the future.

At the end of 2009, I asked if it were possible for me to join Checkpoint Theatre in a voluntary capacity as I wanted to contribute to the company they had founded (seeing the good work they were both doing) and also learn about the arts industry at the same time.

They agreed and I officially joined Checkpoint Theatre in Jan 2010.

What are your plans now? I know you have outlined them here. What sorts of creative writing will you be concentrating on?

My last day as a teacher will be on 9 Sep. I’ve really enjoyed teaching as it’s been a rewarding experience and I will miss interacting with my students.

After I leave the teaching service, I’ll write full-time for at least six months.

I don’t have any other scheduled commitments besides being the dramaturg for the National University of Singapore Drama Fest 2012 (which I agreed to do earlier in the year).

I want to write for six months, partly so that I have a ‘target’ to meet and also to allow myself to evaluate whether a career as a writer is suitable for me.

I have several projects in mind and I hope to accomplish all of them. They include:

  • Exploring the writing of a novel about my family, hopefully with a grant from the National Arts Council’s Arts Creation Fund. The working title for this novel is Crossroads; it will be a fictionalised recount about my family and my life as a Singaporean of mixed heritage.
  • Finishing a manuscript of poetry for submission to a publisher. The working title for this poetry collection is The Zookeeper’s Boy and other poems and will contain poems I’ve written from 2009 until the present. I currently have 14 poems, including the eponymous poem, which is about teaching. I aim to have 30 poems in the collection – 30 because I’ll be 30 next year!
  • Writing a draft of a full-length play that will be ready for the stage either next year or the year after. The working title for this play is Sons and Daughters after a song by The Decemberists and will ask questions about what would happen if we had the chance to rebuild Singapore from scratch.

Exciting times ahead for all of us and I’m looking forward to it!

BTW I realised I said the same thing about what I wanted to work on four years ago – I’ve actually been waiting for four years to do this because I had to serve my dues and I didn’t want to shirk that responsibility.

Last but not least, very important links which you MUST click on:

E-mail Interview for Feature Story in NUS Artzone.

Fri, 6 Nov 2009
3 min read
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This post has been sitting in my Drafts folder for the last few months because I never found the chance/opportunity to post it. But today, I have the perfect excuse to do so: Google Alerts notified me about this article earlier this morning, and me relating this incident to you provides a nice segue for me to put up the e-mail interview and my responses in full!

~

  1. How is it like working with each other?
    Great! Jon and I have learnt a lot from each other over this production and the last. I’m glad to have had the opportunity to work with him, as he’s very committed to the craft and is always working to get the best out of the text: whether it is in terms of using the best line to convey a certain meaning, or in terms of putting the actors through their paces in order for them to convey the best emotion.

  2. What changes were implemented from the previous run of OTOT in 2008?
    The main consideration has always been giving the customers what they want, so we’ve listened to audience feedback when revising the plays. We wanted to make the play a better experience for audience in terms of entertainment and artistic value, so I’ve made changes to the action and the dialogue. For example, there were some concerns that last year’s version of Full Tank! was draggy and heavy-handed; I’ve gone through the script again to cut out repetitive lines and reduce clumsy expressions.

    At the same time, I actually experimented with a few different scenarios, character motivations, etc. while making revisions to the script that was used during the OCBC Singapore Theatre Festival 2008. However, I’ve returned to the original plot that made Full Tank! a success, because I realised the stories that were told were what endeared the play to the audience. All that was needed was a bit of tweaking to the mechanics of the plot and it’d be good to go.
  3. Did you join any Arts clubs/Theatre societies when you were an undergraduate?
    I was a hostelite through and through so I participated mainly in activities within Kent Ridge Hall. I co-wrote and edited two Hall Productions and contributed three short plays for an Inter-Hall Drama Fest in 2008 (one of which – The Last Political Animal – was censored by the Media Development Authority).

    However, I think it wouldn’t be wrong to say that participating in activities outside of clubs and societies might have had a greater part to play in helping me hone my writing abilities. I read two modules taught by Huzir Sulaiman – EN2271: Introduction to Playwriting and EN3271: Advanced Playwriting. It was during that period that an early draft of Radio Silence, an absurd play about National Service, was read by Ivan Heng. This resulted in Ivan nominating me to participate in World Interplay 2007, an international playwriting festival held in Australia. My participation in this festival was co-funded by grants from the University Scholars Programme.
  4. What led to your decision to pursue a career in the Arts?
    Unlike the others, I’m not working in the Arts full-time. I’m actually teaching the General Paper at Saint Andrew’s Junior College, but I still enjoy writing as a means through which I can take part in the Singaporean conversation about things that aren’t always very easy to talk about in the mainstream.

E-mail Interview with Art Jam

Sat, 18 Jul 2009
4 min read
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Some answers to the questions posed during a recent e-mail interview with Art Jam, a publication by Nanyang Technological University’s Cultural Activities Club. If you scroll all the way down, you can find an embedded PDF of the magazine for your reading pleasure.

  1. Back by popular demand! Wow! ArtJam congratulates you. How does it feel to make such a comeback?

    It feels great to be staged again, and I’m glad to have an opportunity to work with such talented thespians in the creative team, cast and crew.

  2. Even though the times have changed, the topic on NS never fails to fall far from the conversation when guys gather together. Why do boys always talk so happily about NS?

    National Service is a shared experience for the majority of Singaporean men.

    Full-time National Servicemen (NSF) talk happily about NS because they have no choice; it is their life, so there are only these experiences to talk about.

    Operationally-Ready NSmen talk about NS because it provides a sense of nostalgia for them and allows them to bond over this shared experience.

  3. Full Tank! sounds like great fun. Why did you choose to write a play about army boys going AWOL?

    The original concept for Full Tank! sprung from the story of Corporal Dave Teo Ming, the soldier who absconded from his camp with a SAR21.

    Many people, from netizens to Members of Parliament, were asking questions like: “Why was security so lax?”, “How could this have happened?”, and “What action will be taken to prevent this from happening again?”

    I felt that the questions that should have been asked instead were: “Is Dave okay?”, “Could the military environment have exacerbated his condition?” and “Is there anyone else like him who is at risk of engaging in this behaviour, and if yes, how can we help them?”

    I hope Full Tank! will provide the space within which we can discuss these issues so that we can carry on with our transformation into a more caring society.

  4. In what way has writing about NS allowed you to reflect on your personal army days? And what has NS imprint on you that you perhaps may have used in your pieces?

    My Full-time National Service (NSF) was one of the best experiences of my life.

    I learnt a lot about administration, management, organisation, fitness, etc. while in service, and met some very interesting characters along the way.

    Nevertheless, I also had my fair share of frustrations such as having to stay back on weekends for duties and ‘burning’ public holidays for extra duties, so there were unhappy moments too.

    I went through the entire spectrum of NSF ranks – I was a Recruit, Private, Corporal, Third Sergeant and Officer Cadet before finally commissioning as a Second Lieutenant.

    That, coupled with the fact that my various postings to different units required me to constantly utilise different skill sets, resulted in a very challenging two and a half years for me.

    But it also meant that I saw many things that most people would never get a chance to see.

    This alternative perspective has a part to play in why I have chosen to write about NS in Singapore: while I fully understand the importance of NS to Singapore, I have also managed to get a glimpse of the tiresome yet comical aspect of military bureaucracy from various angles, along with the segments of military life that seem really absurd in both the original and the philosophical senses of the word.

    I feel it necessary to juxtapose these tensions dramatically in order to highlight little known facets of the Singapore military to society at large, as part of my outlook on education and how it should also seek to provide different points of view for and from as many people as possible.

    The style and tone of the absurd exchanges in ‘Full Tank’ have been culled from my own experiences with the bureaucracy and social rituals of the military.

    At the same time, the comedy, camaraderie and warmth of the characters is something I have also experienced during my National Service.