Wright Stuff Festival Press Conference
This article was originally published on Artjam Online on September 5th, 2019
On the 16th of July, theatre company Toy Factory Productions Ltd held their very first press conference introducing this year’s Wright Stuff Festival at Hotel G’s Ginett Wine and Bar Restaurant. We were warmly welcomed by the playwrights and directors, who introduced us to The Wright Stuff Festival 2019.
First held in 2017, The Wright Stuff is a biennial playwright-mentorship programme where amateur playwrights submit their scripts to an open call. Three playwrights then receive the opportunity to undertake an intensive six-month scriptwriting programme, receiving professional mentorship coaching them to learn and grow as playwrights.
Following the success of its inaugural season, this year, Toy Factory Productions Ltd is collaborating with Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), which will also be hosting the festival at its studio theatre. The festival will kick off with a familiar face, as 2017’s mentee Gina Chew will be returning to restage her play Permanence to a bigger stage and audience. Beating out a dozen other hopefuls, Rajkumar Thiagaras, Mark Cheong and Titus Yim emerged as the three new play-writers selected this year to undertake the scriptwriting programme. We sat down with the playwrights and directors present at the press conference to learn more about their plays and The Wright Stuff experience.
Permanence by Gina Chew
One of the winners from The Wright Stuff’s inaugural season, Gina Chew is back with her play entitled Permanence. The play follows the character Blanche, who is tired of running away and wanting more, and returns to the old life she left behind. Colliding with toxic relationships and her fear of falling into a domesticated life, the play weaves through Blanche’s life at different points in time, following her struggle to survive as new doubts about her life unfold.
Permanence will be staged from the 10th to 13th October 2019.
Ashes, Ashes by Rajkumar Thiagaras
Ashes, Ashes tells the story of an elderly Indian woman, Janaki, who revisits her childhood home for the last time in an attempt to reconcile herself with the lifetime of trauma she spent coping with the devastating loss of her siblings. A fellow NTU student, playwright Raj is about to further his studies with a Masters in English Literature. When asked about the challenges he faced while working on the script, Raj pointed out the casting of the actors as a step out of his comfort zone. The premise of Ashes, Ashes represents the life of an Indian family, and Raj’s own culture. Due to a lack of suitable Indian actors however, Raj and director Andy Pang made the bold creative decision to stage the play with an entirely non-Indian cast. Still, despite the Anglophonic tones, Raj is confident that the essence and dynamic of the Indian family featured in the play will reach his audience.
Ashes, Ashes will be staged from the 17th to 20th October 2019.
Random Access Memory by Mark Cheong
If the choice was up to you, would you erase every memory you don’t wish to remember? Random Access Memory (RAM) poses this question to us, as the main characters RAM and GIG – two inseparable parts in charge of memory in a computer – are encumbered with the task of deciding which memories of a dead boy are worth keeping. As they struggle with the weight of the impossible job, the play pushes us to contemplate what it means to be human, and the value of memories.
It was a pity that Mark was not present at the press conference to promote his play. But we did get to speak to Stanley Seah, director of Random Access Memory (RAM) and Associate Artistic Director of Toy Factory Productions with regards to his first impressions of RAM. “When I first read RAM, I quickly realised that it is not only a page turner, with very witty writing,” said Stanley, “It also has a lot of heart. And I think audiences will really gravitate towards its emotional themes.”
Random Access Memory will be staged from the 24th to 26th October 2019.
玩具王 (The Puppet King) by Titus Yim
Seventeen-year-old Titus had already written his script when he came across the Wright Stuff competition. The Hwa Chong Junior College student had initially intended on funding his production out of his own pocket, but had trouble finding the right cast. Through The Wright Stuff, Titus managed to juggle his duties as an A-Level student while making improvements on his script over the past year. His play, The Puppet King tells the story of an abandoned toy shop. Once a place of joy, it is now the final resting place for 5 defective toys, ruled by an elusive Puppet King. With a demolition notice looming over their heads, the toys soon turn against each other and through their disagreements, they discover the true meaning of their existence.
Although it is a Chinese play, English subtitles will be present for non-Mandarin-speaking audiences.
玩具王 (The Puppet King) will be staged from the 1st to 3rd of November 2019.
The press conference not only gave us a preview of what to expect from the upcoming festival. It was also an appreciation to the months of effort that went behind preparing for it. Goh Boon Teck, Chief Artistic Director of Toy Factory Productions and mentor to The Wright Stuff playwrights admits that “Planting seedlings is tiring and time-consuming. Yet it is a most sacred and important duty to begin cultivating the forest of tomorrow, today.” Indeed, it takes a lot of patience to dedicate oneself to the theatrical arts in Singapore, but we are glad that Toy Factory Productions took it upon themselves to promote the Wright cause. We would like to thank Toy Factory Productions for inviting us to their press conference. We really enjoyed interviewing the playwrights and directors and we look forward to the festival this coming October.