In the Press

Class of its own: What makes Intercultural Theatre Institute different

'In 2000, Sasitharan and the late legendary playwright-director-activist Kuo Pao Kun founded the Theatre Training & Research Programme to produce artistes who work interculturally.

It trained diverse students in classical Asian and Western performance traditions, ideally resulting in creations of works that might not obviously contain Indian, Malay, or Chinese art forms, but instead come from conversations between cultures and thus, often be more authentically Singaporean.

Sixteen years on and a change in name — to ITI — later, the school continues in its unique focus, setting it apart from most schools who often embrace specialised art-forms.'

- TODAY

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《一團和戲》

Alumna Amy Tam speaks on-air on 關於 Action about her upcoming show and her theatre training at ITI. 

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Conversation with actor, Al-Matin Yatim

Alumnus Al-Matin Yatim performed in Between Consciousness with Theatreworks.

'We engaged in a conversation with one of our actors, Al-Matin Yatim on his experience in bringing his character to life, as well as working with the creative team. Been practising theatre since 2007, Al-Matin furthered his passion for theatre in Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI). Since then, his understanding of working with different people from different cultural background has deepen. Al-Matin was exposed to different form and styles of both traditional and contemporary, and is looking forward to this new role he take on, as the father of a special-need son.'

- Writing & Community

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Cross Talk with T. Sasitharan and Raka Maitra: Trusting the critic

'In the fourth instalment of Cross Talk, a fortnightly series where two major figures in the arts have a chat with Life, theatre practitioner T. Sasitharan and dancer-choreographer Raka Maitra talk about their partnership and what defines intercultural art.'

- The Straits Times

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Is NAC reverting to its past censorious role?

ITI Director T. Sasitharan's and Board Member Tan Tarn How's opinion piece on the National Arts Council was published in the Straits Times.

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Arts festival gamble pays off

'The blockbuster Singapore International Festival of Arts concludes with many of its local commissions drawing warm reviews.'

Features Drama Box's It Won't Be Too Long: The Cemetery, which starred ITI's final-year students.

- The Straits Times 

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SIFA 2015: Drama Box’s poignant tribute to Bukit Brown Cemetery

Read TODAY's review of Drama Box's It Won't Be Too Long: The Cemetery, which starred ITI's final-year students.

'Construction for an eight-lane highway cutting through Bukit Brown Cemetery has already begun, but questions surrounding its fate continue to haunt us.

And, as this year’s edition of the Singapore International Festival of Arts came to an end over the weekend, the issues behind the world’s biggest Chinese cemetery outside of China — the campaigns to save it and the debates that surround it — got an airing once more with theatre group Drama Box’s second production under its It Won’t Be Too Long series, titled The Cemetery.

It had come after The Lesson, which took place during the General Election and saw audiences deciding on what site they thought most expendable in the name of a fictitious new MRT station and progress. With a fictitious columbarium-cum-heritage site chosen as the least important site to keep in two of the four nights, Bukit Brown was thrown into even sharper relief in The Cemetery.

Directed by Kok Heng Leun, it comprised two distinct shows: Dawn and Dusk. The former took place at the famous cemetery, with audiences gathering at 5.30am to witness a wordless performance of what could be interpreted as a gathering of the place’s own ghosts — a group of dancers in white performing on a candle-lined inclined road, on top of which was a piano.'

- TODAY

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Theatre's generation gap

'I recently attended a forum at the Intercultural Theatre Institute that featured three chronological panels of theatre practitioners: the "emergents", the "sandwich class", and the "old guard" which, put together, told the story of contemporary Singapore theatre.

It struck me then that the older generation of theatre-makers carried with them a sort of bright-eyed idealism that art could change the world, a sort of fierce activist flame, fanned within a tightknit community, that kept them going forward. They were the trailblazers, the torchbearers, unshackled by any sort of expectation - because they were the first ones there.

The subsequent generation of practitioners were practical infrastructure-builders. They saw gaps in the theatre scene and plugged them, focusing on issues such as succession, training and mentorship. They were sceptical of art's impact on society, but healthily so, enough to check a growing sense of comfort in the scene as arts funding from the Government spiked and there were more platforms to showcase work.

The newest generation of practitioners were weighed down by two things: their own sense of identity and the burden of expectation. They were a generation entering the fray after dozens of theatre icons had made their mark, creating plays that have become, for younger artists, the stuff of legend. How could they separate themselves from the past?'

- The Straits Times

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Actor's tribute to the late Kuo Pao Kun

'The legacy of late drama doyen Kuo Pao Kun looms large in Q: Protagonists At The Edge. The new play by Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI), a theatre school founded in 2000 by Kuo and T Sasitharan, begins with three actors standing around in a rehearsal space, waiting for their director to arrive.' 

- The Business Times

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“The theatre is an encounter”: Review of Q: Protagonists at the Edge

'Theatre master Grotowski once said, “The core of the theatre is an encounter”. In Q: Protagonists at the Edge, Ang Gey Pin, a director-actress who is trained in the Grotowskian tradition of theatre making, allows everyone in the space to encounter both the living and non-living elements; reality and imagination; past and present; theatre-doing and theatre-viewing in the space known as a rehearsal studio in the play. She explains the play as a process that is ongoing and changing in the rehearsal room where creativity and confrontations occur.   In preparing the audience for such an “encounter”, Ang and her performers interact and play games with the audience before the start of the “performance”.'

- Centre 42

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