2022

Puppet Origin Stories @ ONE-TWO-SIX

A drag queen, a filmmaker and a movement artist walk into… ONE-TWO-SIX Cairnhill Arts Centre.

Home to The Finger Players, and home to puppets that the company has amassed since 1999, three artists give these puppets new lives, enriching their histories and extending their lifespans beyond what they were made for.

Puppet Origin Stories @ ONE-TWO-SIX is a night of site-responsive performances + an exhibition of the company’s tangible histories + an easter egg hunting-esque/lucky draw-esque… thing.

Come join us lah.

ARTISTS’ LINE UP

A triple bill performance featuring puppetry-led works by Becca D’Bus, Hairi Cromo, and Tan Wei Ting.

SUCK SWEAT DRY, BABY! by Becca D’Bus
Performed by Becca D’Bus, Deonn Yang and Mitchell Fang

There is a crisis and at the centre, inside, are queer bodies. They imagine their way forward. Nothing satisfies. Outside, the voice of Johnny Cash. A woman appears. She may, or may not, be a goddess.

JABBER by Hairi Cromo
Performed by Chai Jean Yinn and Liew Jia Yi

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!”

A child encounters his inner struggles personified in the form of an amorphous being, and faces obstacles in trying to comprehend this manifestation. Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky, JABBER is part movement, part textual, and very much puppetry.

AH MA by Tan Wei Ting
Performed by Tan Beng Tian and Yazid Jalil

The Curator studies AH MA through the glass enclosure, observing her closely with a magnifying glass while drafting her artefact writeup. In this world, puppets no longer have a place on stage, but are kept in museums, doomed or due for forever preservation.

If Art has a right to live, should it also have the right to die?

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

Becca D’Bus/Eugene Tan creates work with text, performance, entertainment, and garments. Eugene Tan is Becca D’Bus, Singapore’s biggest drag queen, who was born at the age of 27 in Boston, Massachusetts. Currently, Becca is the producer and host of RIOT!, Singapore’s only regular drag revue, which is staged every Saturday at Hard Rock Cafe. Becca’s most recent credits include being the creative director of The Non Season public art intervention at Design Orchard and a new ongoing durational performance entitled “Will somebody get off on this? Please?“, streaming on OnlyFans, as well as the director of Cabaret Joy, an all queer woman cabaret at T:Works’ NOW Festival 2021. Becca is interested in ideas of pleasure, queerness, fatness, and silliness bordering on stupidity.

Hairi Cromo is one third of TiTam Co. He is a space and theatrical designer, as well as a performer with a background in Malay, urban and contemporary dance. In recent years, Hairi has also developed an avid interest in puppetry and puppet making. Some of his notable works include installation art for Singaplural (2017), set designs for Ma’ma Yong: About Nothing Much to Do (2015), Pandan (2021) and Rindu Di Bulan (2022). Choreographic works include docu-dance piece Gen No-Sides (2019) and Tompang Lalu: The Innate Gesture (2022). As of late, Hairi seems to be experiencing a renaissance in his practice, encountering new personal frontiers in performance, making, and performance making. He is excited by the prospect of delving into new challenges in order to further understand and hone his many-faceted craft.

Tan Wei Ting was first trained in theatre under the first batch of Drama Box’s youth wing, ARTivate. She later went on to School of Arts, Design and Media in Nanyang Technological University (NTU ADM), where she specialised in Digital Filmmaking. Her short film debut CA$H (2018) was selected for the 41st Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France, the largest international film festival dedicated to short films. She also edits and writes films. Wei Ting loves an engaging and honest story.

FEATURED PROGRAMMES

Mini Exhibition
Curated by Ellison Tan and Myra Loke, this exhibition is a showcase of TFP’s tangible histories.

A Night to Remember (hopefully)
Before the night begins, audience members will be clued in to the grand prize of the night. Through the exploration of ONE-TWO-SIX Cairnhill Arts Centre architecture, audience members will be united through a common stake – who will go home with the grand prize of the night?

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Curators: Ellison Tan & Myra Loke
Dramaturg: Sindhura Kalidas
Artists: Becca D’ Bus/Eugene Tan, Hairi Cromo, Tan Wei Ting
Spatial Designer: Bernice Ong
Sound Designer: Bani Haykal
Lighting Designer: Genevieve Peck
Puppet Designers and Makers: Daniel Sim, Myra Loke, Joshua Jonathan Lim, Ellison Tan, Jasmine Xie Huilin, Ong Kian Sin
Costume Coordinator: Loo An Ni
Project Manager: Tan Xiang Yi
Production Manager: Celestine Wong
Production Assistant: Ang Cheng Yan
Stage Manager: Ng Siaw Hui
Assistant Stage Manager: Marilyn Ang and Koh Yi Wei
Technical Crew: Huang Xiangbin, Ian Tan, Melvin Lee, Raymond Goei, Mohammad Amirul Bin Azm
Key Visual Designer: Sim Xin Feng
Key Visual Photograph: Crispian Chan
Photo & Video Archival: Tuckys Photography

DATE & TIME

9 – 13 Nov 2022
8pm

VENUE

VARIOUS spaces at ONE-TWO-SIX Cairnhill Arts Centre
126 Cairnhill Road, S229707

LANGUAGE

Performed in English

SHOW DURATION

2hrs
(No intermission)

ADVISORY

Please note that this performance is a rain or shine event. We apologise that as the venue does not have accessibility-friendly amenities, patrons are advised to exercise discretion before purchasing tickets.