jocelyn chua

F'FRIENDS

2012-01-22T20:58:00.005+08:00

6 scenes, 6 rooms, 6 couples - F’Friends, an original new full-length play by Jocelyn Chua and presented to you by this collective, takes place in various rooms across different HDB flats in Singapore and explores the intimacy of those in the thick of love, loins and awkward silences. Watch how relationships spill beyond the messy boundaries of the heart as friends look forward to more than the regular listening ear but find themselves tussling through strong desires, intense chemistries and countless piercing consequences. So skip the chase, keep your hands to yourself, and uncover the private conversations of pending lovers who prioritise sex over romance and best friends whose friendship works best under covers.

VENUE: The Arts House Play Den

DATE: 18, 19, 20, 21 JAN 2012

TIME: 8PM (incl. 3PM on Sat 21 JAN 2012)

TICKETS:
Online - www.bytes.sg
Email - bytes@toph.com.sg
In person - The Arts House Box Office
1 Old Parliament Lane Singapore 179429
Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday - 10am to 8pm
Sunday & Public Holiday - Closed
(Open 1 hour before show time for ticketed events)
Ticketing Hotline - (65) 6332 6919

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/FFriends2012

***

this collective is a group of writers, performers and all-round theatre makers keen on exploring creative possibilities with like-minded theatre enthusiasts. F'Friends is our inaugural theatre project, in collaboration with Jocelyn Chua, published playwright, theatre performer and drama educator currently based in Singapore.

The Substation Love Letters Project - FEBRUARY!

2011-02-12T13:55:00.000+08:00

Nightjar Reading Series Oct 2010

2010-10-10T12:31:00.006+08:00

Nightjar Readings Series
presents
Jocelyn Chua

And Whose Heart is not a Hungry Fish?

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
6.00pm

NTU HSS Creative Studio

A journey through the territories that belie our human relationships, And Whose Heart is not a Hungry Fish? is a 45-minute solo performance devised and performed by local theatre artist Jocelyn Chua. Featuring physical theatre choreography, semi-autobiographical stories, scientific research, voice-over text and poetry, this piece delves into the themes of human desire and forbidden love affairs through a reinvestigation of the urban myths surrounding the SPG - Sarong Party Girl.

Originally conceived and performed as part of SURGE Goldsmiths College MA in Performance Making festival of final graduation shows, And Whose Heart is not a Hungry Fish? premiered in London in 2008, before touring to the 8th International School for Actors & Directors at DAH Theatre Research Centre, Belgrade, Serbia in 2009.

This will be the first time the solo piece is performed in full in Singapore.

Jocelyn Chua is a published playwright, theatre performer and drama educator currently based in Singapore. Her work engages with aspects of physical theatre, writing for the stage and the choreography of movement with text. After graduating with Distinction in the MA Performance Making programme at Goldsmiths College, University of London, Jocelyn continued to create and present her original works both locally and overseas. Last year, she was invited to perform a self-devised solo piece commissioned by The Substation entitled Love Song for an Island at the 5th Aquarius Era Festival of Dance, Visual and Physical Theatre in Bourgas, Bulgaria.

Moving with Awareness Experiential Workshop

2010-04-14T20:49:00.005+08:00

Moving with Awareness Experiential Workshop

by Jocelyn Chua

22 April 2010 Thursday

7:30pm – 9:30pm

Awareness Place Well-Being Centre @ Bras Basah Complex, 231 Bain Street, #03-39

Many of you might have heard the benefits of doing meditation but dreaded the long hours of sitting still. But did you know that meditation can be practiced while you are moving too? In this experiential workshop, you will get to learn to visualise and be aware of how your posture could affect your emotional and mental state. Join Jocelyn to learn to be more mindful in a creative way! Come in your most comfortable attire as you will be doing simple physical activities with her. Limited to the first 20 participants who register!

Free admission for all

Registrations & Questions

CALL 6849 5346

SMS 9868 0495

EMAIL wsdp@kmspks.org

***
Jocelyn Chua is a drama educator and theatre performer currently based in Singapore. She pursued an MA in Performance Making at Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK, where she obtained a Distinction for her graduation performance And Whose Heart is not a Hungry Fish?, a self-devised solo piece partly inspired by physical theatre training techniques. Jocelyn has performed in various theatre productions both locally and overseas, as well as trained with various performance practitioners in contact improvisation, dance theatre and devised theatre practice, including Germany-based Fabrik Potsdam, Serbia-based DAH Theatre Research Centre, Japan-based Leni Basso and Singapore-based Ecnad. She is currently teaching drama and playwriting at various local institutions.

Singapore Writers Festival 2009

2009-10-17T14:39:00.005+08:00

Parents and Children, Lovers and Dates: Readings of Plays & Short Prose

Date/Time: Sun 1 Nov 2009, 3–4.30 pm

Venue: Earshot Café, The Arts House

Price: FREE

http://www.singaporewritersfestival.com/programmes-special-events.php#307

A hasty cremation, dreams of being gifted, an intimate first date, a woman who can’t commit suicide, a father’s ‘love’—five touching stories of parenthood and coupling from five exciting writers. For a thought-provoking time, make a date with the members of Magdalena (Singapore) as we read excerpts from our latest plays and short prose…

Works to be featured:
- ‘Selling Your Daughter for a Pig and a Carton of Cigarettes’ by Dora Tan
- ‘Gifted’ by Dean Lundquist
- ‘Questions Tied in a Knot’ by Shelly Quick
- ‘The Woman Who Swallowed a Knife’ by Jocelyn Chua
- ‘The First Time’ by Carolyn Camoens

About the Writers:
- Carolyn Camoens is a full-time PR consultant and part-time radio presenter. She has written for film and theatre, and performs when she can. Writing is a passion she indulges every opportunity possible. She is privileged to have had the opportunity to learn from some of the best local and international talents.
- Dora Tan has written stage plays and screenplays including 41 Hours, Out of Control, Just Late (2008 Wild Rice Singapore Theatre Festival) and I think I do (gala finals, Short and Sweet Singapore 2009). Her short stories include 'Selling your daughter for a pig and a carton of cigarettes' (2nd prize in NAC’s Golden Point Award 2007).
- Jocelyn Chua is a published writer and theatre performer currently based in Singapore. Her work has been featured in the regional anthology Silverfish New Writing 7 as well as in a debut book of self-written stage scripts "Restless and Other Plays". Jocelyn continues to engage with aspects of writing and performance, where such themes as identity, desire, memory and alienation are often explored.
- Dean Lundquist is an award-winning American playwright and director who now resides in Singapore. His plays have been produced in numerous productions spanning the globe. His hit play, I Can Tell Your Handbag is Fake, recently made its New York premiere as part of the Samuel French Festival at Playwrights Horizons. He is currently pursuing his MFA in dramatic writing at NYU-Tisch Asia. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc., and The Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Inc., an independent labor union.
- Shelly Quick was born in Kingston Ontario, Canada, and has been based in Singapore for the past thirteen years. She recently returned to writing after a long hiatus and has been a member of Play Pen since 2007.

Magdalena (Singapore) (http://www.magdalenasingapore.com) comprises a group of local arts practitioners that aims to promote learning and networking amongst women in the creative arts. In 2006, we organised Crossroads, an international festival of women in theatre. In 2007, we started Play Pen, a writing support group. Four plays written by Play Pen members were produced as Blood Binds for W!ld Rice’s OCBC Singapore Theatre Festival 2008. Parents and Children, Lovers and Dates is the latest public reading of texts by Play Pen members.

Work Presentation at DAH Theatre International School 2009 in Belgrade

2009-07-08T07:32:00.009+08:00

Work presentation of And Whose Heart is not a Hungry Fish? on Wed 1 July 2009 during DAH Theatre's 8th International School for Actors & Directors at DAH Theatre Research Centre, Belgrade, Serbia. A wonderfully supportive crowd... thanks to all who were there :)

FARM: New on L.C.D.

2009-06-09T00:23:00.004+08:00

New on Local Creative Directory: Jocelyn Chua

Jocelyn is a published writer and theatre performer currently based in Singapore. Her work engages with aspects of physical theatre making and the choreography of movement with text, through which such themes as desire, memory and alienation are often explored.
www.farm.sg

Short+Sweet Singapore 2009

2009-05-27T13:02:00.006+08:00

Top 30 Week 3: 8 July to 12 July 2009 Rating: R18
Flexible Performance Space, LASALLE College of the Arts
www.shortandsweet.org/shortsweet/singapore

TICKETS @ The Arts House Box Office
Address: 1 Old Parliament Lane, Singapore 179429
Hotline: +65 6332 6919 Facsimile: +65 6339 9695
Email: tickets@toph.com.sg
www.theartshouse.com.sg

Canadian Tuxedo
By Nicole Pandolfo
Directed by Corinne Teo
Cast: Musa Fazal ,Stuart Lightheart
In need for money to marry his pregnant girlfriend, Sal helps a mafioso friend to kill a guy. The only problem is that this one ‘hit’ may turn out to have multiple targets…

Dickatorial
By Vicki Yang
Directed by Darren Guo
Cast: Hadri, Azizul, Woon Yong, Koustav
Fed up with his housemate’s infatuation with a new sex doll, Egan decides to get one of his own. But having a sex doll becomes a lot less fun when politics get in the way…

Green Eggs And Hamlet
By Judee Tan
Directed by Delvin Lee
Cast: Muhammed Faizad, Edward Choy, Merle Chen, Fahmy S
Hamlet re-told with a very MTV twist.

The Most Dangerous Woman in Europe
By Vince Bailey
Directed by Grace Soo
Cast: To be confirmed
For 60 years, Eric thought his mother had been killed in the London Blitz. The truth was something he could never have imagined.

A Mighty Fortress
By William Kovacsik
Directed by Joanne Tay
Cast: To be confirmed
Singapore 1942 — four young women imprisoned by the Japanese must decide who has the right to survive…

On Display
By Stephanie Gardner
Directed by Michael Quilindo
Cast: To be confirmed
Turns out you can connect with a stranger anywhere… even in an Ikea Display Bedroom.

Things Happen
By Jocelyn Chua
Directed by Mohamad Shaifulbahri Sawaluddin
Cast: Erwin Shah & Faye Wong
Don makes a seemingly innocent surprise visit to Ziggy’s place, only to be surprised himself by an unexpected confrontation….

Straightening Out
By Tay Woo Chiao
Directed by Naresh Ethan Subhash
Cast: To be confirmed
Two folks straighten out a queer argument over a cup of coffee.

Buds
By Nancy Kenny
Directed by Sarah Cheng
Cast: Yi Jun Tan, Endi Asmira
Even when you’re hungover, the Taste Buds still have to go to work.

The Table
By Lyn Coffin
Directed by Ng Yuhui
Cast: Matthew Heys, Debra Teng
A never legally married couple teeters on the brink of a symbolic divorce.

4th Physical Theatre Festival 2009 in Seoul

2009-05-21T17:34:00.013+08:00

Poisons
by Insource Theatre
at the 4th Physical Theatre Festival 2009 in Seoul, Korea
Dates: 14 & 15 May 2009
Time: 8pm
Venue: Jungbo Theatre

Director: Low Yuen Wei
Perfomers: Low Yuen Wei, Chan Yi Wen, Jocelyn Chua
Lighting Designer: Richard Koh
Multimedia Artist: Chew Kuan Hock

Who has never experienced any of these feelings - anger, sorrow, love, hate, fear, desire, joy...? It is not abnormal to feel it, as it is in our nature. However, it could be out of your normal realm if you have an over abundance of each, and it becomes... poisons. The performance Poisons makes use of liquid form such as H20, chemicals and bubbles to create a theatrical landscape of human complexity imprisoned in the confinement of poisons.

작품설명◎ 2008년 <제3회 피지컬 씨어터 페스티벌>에 라는 작품으로 참가하여, 동양적이고, 제의적인 형식의 공연을 보여준 바 있는 싱가포르의 인 소스 씨어터가 라는 신작으로 다시 한번 한국을 찾아 온다. 는 욕망, 미움, 공포, 증오, 기쁨, 슬픔, 사랑 등의 7가지 감정을 장 별로 정리하여 표현한 작품이다. 이런 감정들은 매우 자연스러운 것이며, 누구나 느끼는 감정이지만, 이런 것들도 과잉 되었을 때에는 독이 될 수밖에 없음을 그리고 있다. 그리고 이 독을 해결할 수 있는 방법들에는 어떤 게 있는지를 풀어낼 것이다. 무대 위에는 물과 비누 방울 등의 소품이 사용될 것이며, 젊은 세 명의 배우의 힘있고 역동적인 움직임에 기대가 간다.

One Imperative: Virgins

2009-03-20T09:20:00.012+08:00

One Imperative
Each issue is hinged on a theme.

Once that has been decided, everyone is completely free to explore in whatever way they desire. Hence each piece, poem, painting, and design, is re-thinking of this theme.

You have but one imperative.

Experienced Virginity

A reflection on the creative processes of the performer-creator in physical theatre practice. By Jocelyn Chua.

"...If we regard virginity as a state of being uncultivated, unprocessed, pure, natural and unsullied, then the performer-creator-as-virgin entails the need to be in a psychosomatically pure, unsullied and natural state when exploring potential performance material for the stage. In particular, when employing improvisation as the key creative technique in devising a stage performance, one is often called on to “not think too much” or to drop all planned meanings in one’s actions, both mind and body taking that initial leap of impulse to come up with an improvised movement, sound or gesture. In fact, one could argue that almost every form of artistic creation involves this manner of improvisation, from the playwright filling a blank page, the musician striking that first chord to the painter shaping images from scratch..."

Wine, Women and Words II

2009-02-16T14:00:00.004+08:00

WINE, WOMEN AND WORDS II

Fri 27 & Sat 28 Feb 2009

7.30 pm

The Substation Theatre (45 Armenian Street)

Tickets: $35

For more information about tickets and Magdalena (Singapore), visit http://magdalenasingapore.com/ or http://www.substation.org/whats_on/performing_arts.html

Dear Theatre Lovers and Wine Aficionadoes

By popular demand, Magdalena (Singapore) is bringing back Wine, Women & Words. Apart from good wine paired with local food, there's a buffet of poignant stories, inspiring songs and dance, and performances that will make you smile. Come enjoy works by Loke Loo Pin, Verena Tay, Jocelyn Chua*, Wee Li Lin, Dean Lundquist, Felisa Batacan and Joao Santos Lucas. Hosted by Bridget Therese Lachica.

*I will be presenting a short excerpt from And Whose Heart is not a Hungry Fish - a solo piece combining poetry with movement choreography and autobiographical text.

WHIPLASH

2009-02-14T00:54:00.008+08:00

WHIPLASH was developed under Ecnad Education's student showcase entitled ‘Part Time Day Dreaming’ held at the Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre in December 2008. WHIPLASH explores the idea of tension, release and suspension by attempting to push the performer's body to its physical expressive limits. The featured self-choreographed movements were originally improvised along the concept of gravity, falling and the surprise element in solo performance, thus resulting in the medical title of the piece - whiplash is a condition that occurs when the soft tissue in the spine - often the neck - is stretched and strained after the body is thrown into a sudden, forceful jerk.

WHIPLASH was also featured as a key choreographic element in the creation of the self-devised solo performance Love Song for an Island presented at The Substation Theatre in February 2009.

Love Song for an Island

2009-01-25T13:12:00.007+08:00

Love Song for an Island

by Jocelyn Chua

12 & 13 February, 8pm

The Substation Theatre

Admission By Donation

http://www.substation.org/

"Have you ever gotten into one of those really intense relationships where you love someone to death one moment and then feel like blowing their head off the next? I think I know how it feels." Love Song for an Island grapples with issues of self-identity through a montage-style narrative of autobiographical stories, dance movement choreography, voice-over text and satirical renditions that seek to uncover the ambiguities behind our human perceptions.

As a theatre performer who also writes for the stage, I constantly ask, "How can one fully articulate spoken text in performance? What dramatic vocabulary can I employ to convey a more keenly felt performance onstage?” In Love Song for an Island, I employ sequences from a dance piece WHIPLASH* as a movement score to further express the textual narrative of my performance – my body is seen at times to cooperate with the play's spoken words and at others, to struggle against its own expression.

In addition to movement choreography as a creative tool in devising a theatrical piece, I also explore, specifically, aspects of solo performance making by drawing together personal stories, voice-over text and elements of satire in order to layer my solo presence onstage and subsequently, maximise all storytelling possibilities on hand. What also compels my interest in staging a solo performance is the challenge of presenting a rich and dramatically effective piece of work with limited resources available to me: How can one engage audiences in a given space with only one’s own body and several key props or costumes onstage?

Finally, in the aftermath of returning from my overseas studies in the UK, I found myself feeling a sense of loss as to where I stand in a rapidly advancing Singapore. I have the impression that we're busy forging ahead both economically and culturally but where are we headed? Are we changing much faster than we can manage to sustain these very changes? Love Song for an Island is, in part, a response to the raging ambivalence I often experience as a citizen living under the fast-paced social atmosphere of Singapore.

*WHIPLASH was developed under Ecnad Education's recent student showcase entitled ‘Part Time Day Dreaming’ held at the Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre in December 2008. WHIPLASH explores the idea of tension, release and suspension by attempting to push the performer's body to its physical expressive limits. The featured self-choreographed movements were originally improvised along the concept of gravity, falling and the surprise element in solo performance, thus resulting in the medical title of the piece. Whiplash is a condition that occurs when the soft tissue in the spine - often the neck - is stretched and strained after the body is thrown into a sudden, forceful jerk.

Imprimatura - Solos

2009-01-18T00:05:00.014+08:00

The Substation Performance Lab Presents : Imprimatura - Solos

Dates: 6 & 7 and 12 & 13 February
Times: 8pm
Venue: The Substation Theatre
Admission: By Donation

Visit

http://www.substation.org/

In 2004, The Substation presented a well-received series of monologues written by Verena Tay, called "3 Men Meet 3 Women". They led to further editions of intimate, chamber-style monologue presentations by young theatre practitioners in 2006 and 2007. For any performer and writer, presenting a solo work is both a challenge and an opportunity: it's a chance to explore material close to one's heart, yet it is also a risk as the performer is laid bare onstage, without the aid of cast members and special stage effects. The project will also include a new solo performance by one of the alumni, Jocelyn Chua.

The Unpressionist by Bani Haykal
6 & 7 February, 8pm
The Unpressionist is a composer thinking up his greatest work for his late father's birthday. In context, is his head. The Unpressionist absurdly experiments musical compositions through thought experiments, continuously giving form to a song that has no clear indication to where it's headed. The piece questions choice, and the significance of choices as an entity of insignificance.

Love Song for an Island by Jocelyn Chua
12 & 13 February, 8pm
"Have you ever gotten into one of those really intense relationships where you love someone to death one moment and then feel like blowing their head off the next? I think I know how it feels." Love Song for an Island grapples with issues of self-identity through a montage-style narrative of autobiographical stories, dance movement choreography, voice-over text and satirical renditions that seek to uncover the ambiguities behind our human perceptions.

Part-Time Daydreaming

2008-12-01T12:32:00.005+08:00

Performing a short self-choreographed dance piece entitled WHIPLASH at the following event:

Part-Time Daydreaming
Date: 5 & 6 December 2008
Time: 8pm
Venue: Ecnad Studio, Level 4, 182 Cecil Street, Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre
Tickets: S$10

Hope to see you there :)

Too Little Too Late

2008-11-30T22:01:00.010+08:00

Excerpt from a recent short story:

[...]She took a sip of her icy coffee and nodded. He was talking about a recent promotion or some other highlight of the long hours he was keeping at the PR agency he was with and how it was his day off today as he had some medical check-up to attend to that morning. Also, he had recently converted his local gym membership to a regional one.

“I’m leaving the country next month actually,” he said.

“Oh, where to?”

“Hong Kong.”

“For?”

“For good. For work. Applied for a post there through the company. That’s why been pretty busy lately. You know, getting things underway.”

“I see,” she said. “Excited?”

“Kind of, I guess,” he said. “About time to move on, anyway. Gets kinda stifling here.”

“True. Congratulations then,” she said, sincerely. “So... how’s your wife taking it?”

“Oh. We’re divorced,” he said, after a pause. “Since last year.”

“Oh,” she replied. She didn't know what to think. There was a sudden whiteness in her head and then a crack beginning to inch its way down the middle, bleeding into an unfurling darkness of terse resentments, ceaseless waiting for the phone to ring and radiant bruises screaming on tight flesh. Those lost days of the same old excuses and him not showing up.

“It was already heading that way. Sooner or later.”

“You mean later than sooner.”

“Look, I thought about…” He couldn’t form the word.

“About?”

She waited some more.

“How’s it feel?”

"Look, it just happened that--"

Someone at an adjacent table laughed and they both turned to look. It was a girl in denim shorts and halter top with long black hair, forever legs and a teeth-filled grin on her face.

“God she’s skinny,” he commented.

“She’s pretty. You like that, no?” she said.

“Well, she's nice to look at but I always have a fear of breaking these girls if I ever dated them,” he replied.

“I’m very sure you would,” she said and let out a sharp sound, somewhere between laughter and a cry.

He looked at her and in that instant, sensed a rekindled desire in them both. She was never one of those too-skinny girls with their long black hair and fair sunless skin but she realized of late that she too was easily broken. He had mistaken her aloneness for strength and she had mistaken his hunger for stamina, maybe even, conviction. Urgently, he made to speak but just as quickly decided against the thought. She averted her gaze and continued to observe the laughing girl of the adjacent table, relieved by the inability to know such things. Funny how old lovers still had new lessons to teach. [...]

The Woman Who Swallowed A Knife

2008-10-04T15:35:00.009+08:00

Excerpt from a recent short story:

[...]Day by day, the woman brought him food and drink and herbal remedies she would prepare, perhaps a little too strong for his liking but which he appreciated nonetheless as she fed him by the spoonful, its bitterness scarcely bearable except that he focused on the hand that held the spoon and the kindly figure who looked upon him to finish everything down to its last painstaking drop. Some days, she brought in flowers and maybe even a gift of fruits like strawberries or mangosteens. On those days, she seemed brighter, happier by some unknown reason, or perhaps realising in sudden moments that caught her by the scruff of her neck that her life seemed to have a focus once more, such that she had forgotten momentarily all further attempts at suicide. And he, on the other hand, luxuriated in an atmosphere of ignorance and contentment, feeling loved and taken care of in ways he had never before known. He did not ask her where she came from or what she was doing outside of patient-visiting hours, nor did he try to find out why she had appeared on the road in front of him on that fateful day his taxi smashed haplessly into her. She seemed the silent sort and he was content to let it settle as that, peaceful in the embrace of her unquestioning attention, all eagerness for his speedy and unblemished recovery. In fact, her dedication was so true, so unrelentingly true that one day, after returning from the pouring rain without an umbrella to get him a box of kueh lapis from the bakery three streets away for he was having an insufferable craving stuck as he was in bed for more than 15 days now, he looked upon her wondrously uncultivated face, her rain-soaked body with those charming nipples just visible beneath that same cotton night dress and so overwhelmed was he by an untameable fervour, that he asked her if she would marry him.

Caught unawares by the proposition and filled with such tender and indescribable love for this taxi driver she had nearly murdered two weeks ago along the AYE, the woman let out a cry of painful joy. And the moment she did, her happiness shot up so rapidly inside her, that it dragged out on its ascend the kitchen knife still embedded inside her womb and out it came, flying past her gaping lips, straight into the heart of her beloved. [...]

That Other Task

2008-10-01T01:56:00.008+08:00

Excerpt from a recent short story:

[..]When he left that night just after 2am in the cool summer darkness, she liked him enough to weep a little and he was heartened by her generosity. He kissed her on the lips, gentle and lingering with a touch of playfulness entwining their tongues, before closing the metal gates behind him and walking to the bus stop, all of two backward glances signing off his departure.

He thought about her on the ride home and all the next day at the library, trying to memorise the details of her body, the delicate lines, the dips and valleys of her skin, the almond eyes dark and unremitting with their single eyelids and above all, her pert bosom – smooth, childlike, immaculate. She didn’t appear during his shift that afternoon but he consoled himself that perhaps no particular duty or purpose of study was summoning her just yet. He returned home that evening, more tired than usual and restless with the contemplation of contacting her on a casual note but declined the temptation. Instead, he prepared for himself a simple dinner of tossed greens, sliced tomatoes and half a can of leftover tuna, drizzled with olive oil and a sprinkle of basil. Then a cup of breakfast tea – a watered down cost saver brand – served with a spot of soy milk, just the way he liked it.

An hour later, lying in bed with a copy of The Guardian newspaper, a message came to his phone. He dived for the beeping mobile. But it was Rachel. Pretty lonely Rachel from an affair that had started more than a year ago now. Something he should’ve resolved ages since but has been drifting about him every now and again like endless trials of seaweed billowing and blinding his attempts, both of them lost boats bumping together amidst unidentified waters, once thriving with wildlife of every colour but now a strange and clouded wasteland, cold unfinished business choked with icebergs of unknown dimensions.

He read the message, closed his mobile and focused his thoughts elsewhere. Pert breasts, almond eyes and a flawless canvas he remembered so sensitive to the touch, so giving and receptive to his ardent manipulations. Young, soft and ready.

Just before lights out, he masturbated to her memory in his too-large double bed, coming with a bolt to the heart at any rate. Then, with a predictable sigh and a moment’s reprieve, he wiped himself clean, tossed the bunched up Kleenex into the wastepaper bin and slept, for the first time, right through the night. [...]

And Whose Heart is not a Hungry Fish?

2008-08-01T05:09:00.021+08:00

SYNOPSIS

“A heart is a piece of muscle, like any other in the human body. It is elastic, it can stretch, it can scar… It is sometimes also prone to doing stupid things.” A journey through the forbidden territories that belie our human love affairs, this solo performance combines movement choreography with documentary reports and personal stories through the eyes of a Singaporean woman.

RESEARCH STATEMENT

And Whose Heart is not a Hungry Fish? was first inspired by Singaporean writer Cyril Wong's latest poetry collection tilting our plates to catch the light, which explores the theme of love through a reinterpretation of the myth surrounding two Hindu male gods Shiva and Vishnu. This solo piece seeks to uncover the themes of human desire and forbidden love through a reinvestigation of the urban myths surrounding the SPG - Sarong Party Girl - a derogatory term used in Singapore to label local (and mainly Oriental) girls who date only foreign men, specifically Westerners (known locally as angmohs), for their money or imagined social status.

To what extent can I draw a trajectory from the particular to the universal in a dramatised examination of my own cultural identity as a Singaporean female? This research question has prompted me to structure a variety of storytelling angles through which the notion of the SPG can be re-examined, including dance movement choreography based on the evocative visual language of Cyril's poetry; voice-over reports on world headlines, evolutionary psychology factoids and animal mating behaviour; as well as personal anecdotes describing complicated courtships and love affairs.

Perhaps having been born and raised in a highly regulated society, I sometimes find myself overcome with self-consciousness or even a need to self-censor when creating a show that features semi-autobiographical stories. How can I, as a solo performer, be as honest as possible when sharing such sensitive social and political material with an audience? What techniques or approaches can I employ to shed my everyday persona while still maintaining a sincere and engaging personality onstage?

Attracted to the challenges of a solo show, I am also keen to explore ways in which I can effectively layer my physical presence throughout a performance with the strategic use of basic theatrical elements such as music, lights, one chair, one set of costume and my own body onstage. How can I engage audiences in my story with limited physical resources on hand throughout the creative process?

And Whose Heart is not a Hungry Fish? premiered on Wednesday 25 June 2008 and Friday 27 June 2008 at Studio 2, Goldsmiths College.

Video Courtesy of Zeljko Hrs 2008

TEXT EXCERPT
Who is the SPG?
She is the 18-year-old girl strangled to death by her father for befriending a foreign soldier. She is the middle-aged woman who burnt herself to death when the foreigner gave her human rights. She is the prostitute who left her country in search of foreign currency. She is the up-and-coming writer of post-colonial fiction because we should have a voice too damnit and she’s married to her angmoh husband because he understands. She is the student who flew overseas in search of higher education. She is the mother of too many mouths to feed begging tourists on the streets for spare change. She is the first concubine ever to refuse to bind her feet.
Who the hell does she think she is?
She’s still young. She doesn’t know what she’s doing. She’s still her mother’s daughter. She’s still fresh from her first big love affair. She has an inkling of what it might take to raise a child with someone she loves. She’s belligerent about her right to wear small, short skirts, but also terrified by the power and danger something so ridiculously simple could invite. She wants to pop her gum in the face of middle-aged men. She wants to be free of her mother. She wants to do all the things people tell her she can’t do, like write books, be your own boss, have as many lovers as you want, find a cure for cancer, join the army, be President. While raising four babies at the same time. Sometimes she wishes she could hide under the safety of a chador. She wants to tell you she’s more than tits, ass and a pretty face, although she does go to the gym regularly to ensure that all her respective body parts are nice and tight. At the same time she wants to be ravished. She wants to be looked at like your favourite flavour of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, only because you will love ice cream forever. If youth and a little beauty can be granted clemency for stupidity, then let her keep dreaming that she is powerful and immortal.
(with text contributed by Ruby Pan)

REVIEW EXCERPT
"It is the successful universalisation of the particular - along with the formal qualities of careful compositional craftsmanship and a refined sense of performative presence - that prevents the piece becoming self-indulgent. It’s about her, and yet, in the end, it isn’t about her. It’s about any of us, and what it is for any of us to be who we are. And the ambivalent pride and fear the artist feels about her Singaporean nationality is mirrored by an ambivalence about the idea of identity itself. By the end of the piece, the weight of social expectations and heritage and hard-wired species behaviour seems inescapable: our identity is largely fixed by forces outside ourselves. We are bound always to return, like salmon, to the particularities of our birth. The artist’s life story is shown to be bound up with those of others everywhere - her birth date is linked with world events, and with Singapore’s own birthday. Yet right from the opening movement sequence, the work is a defiant assertion of individual autonomy and personal power. The very making and performing of the piece is such an assertion (and will become even more so when it is performed in Singapore), and in that sense it is an effective ritual of self-actualisation.
It is precisely the juxtaposition of this assertion of autonomy with the constraints that range against it that make the piece moving and powerful. We are left with an inspirational sense of hopeless courage, of implicit faith against all reason; and, in the end, with longing - the hunger of the fish. “What is a heart?” It is a symbol of individual identity, of a fixed core of a person’s body and being; but also of mortality, and of love, which is a reaching out beyond oneself. The piece suggests that if there is anything universally human, beyond the situated nature of identity in society and culture, it may be a deep longing, often hidden, for freedom, for universality itself."

Alex Crowe
fellow theatre artist

MA Performance Making , Goldsmiths College
July 2008

MA Performance Making Graduation Show 2008

2008-06-09T22:39:00.002+08:00

Girl Next Door

2008-05-12T07:28:00.009+08:00

An excerpt from a recently completed short story:

[...] He was clean-shaven this time and the effect seemed to have at once softened yet highlighted his features in parts, though it was hard to tell if it wasn’t just the room’s lighting. For the first time, she noticed his eyelashes, downcast as they were and curled so thickly that he seemed to be naturally eye-lined. Had it really been more than a month since they last came face to face at the pub? More than a month since he had sent her home that same night, took her face in his hands and kissed her full on the mouth by the void deck? They had stood that way for a while, drunkard bodies pressed together against the wall and heads lolling in circular slow motion. She remembered the thrilling brush of his stubble on her cheeks and how she had been excited by the unfamiliar touch of his dark-haired arms. But she pulled away when they heard someone passing by and coughing – a neighbour or perhaps that hawker auntie from the 24-hour Kopitiam nearby who recognised her? She didn’t stop to think but squeezed his hand a little as she turned towards the lift lobby and staggered into the awaiting elevator. Could they not even make out undisturbed by a void deck at 3am in the morning? She was thankful he had an apartment all to himself.

Here in the dimness of their quiet surrounds, they clinked their glasses and downed the wine, one bottle dwindling into another, and then another… until their bodies became helplessly groggier by the minute, slouching across the sofa amidst the dizzy bantering and witty nothings. Mostly, he talked about women, in a brazen tone not unlike his brethren down at the riverside pub – the women he had dated and dumped, the ones whose company he had repeatedly sought above all others or the ones that simply did not work out. Occasionally, the conversation slipped into politics or observations on the local society (“What’s up with all this paranoia and taboo on drugs?”). Otherwise, he was content to explicate on his personal theories revolving round the laws of physical attraction and sometimes teased her for stories of her own. But she shared little about herself in return, except the one revelation that she had ran away from home about three years ago while on the verge of her A’level exams because she just “could not take it anymore” and he saluted her with reckless affection.

“That’s the spirit! That is absolutely brilliant!” he exclaimed, in that heavy accent of his and striking his finger through the air to make a point. “You know, all parents should get a fuck-off speech from their kids when the time comes!”

“Hmm… maybe,” she mumbled absently, head tilted in contemplation.

She refrained from mentioning that she had stayed at her then boyfriend’s place in the three weeks following her domestic coup and how that had utterly destroyed the relationship – her first of several subsequent romantic entanglements and certainly, the most serious one since. It didn’t help that she had to retake her A’levels as a private candidate, which only further soured her parents’ attitude towards her. That was why she had decided to work weekends at the pub from day one of her university course. She just didn’t want to have to rely on her parents for money, though living with them and a younger brother in a humble four-room flat near Commonwealth MRT wasn’t exactly the most independent statement one could make due to her current financial constraints. Plus, school fees were an unavoidable element out of her father’s CPF account but a sum she intended to repay in full one day.

It was at these ruminations that she started to experience a quiet aching in the heart, a gathering of sharp desire to reach for something more than just the accidental brush of his arm against her waist or the whisper of his breath on her ear as he leaned in close with that disarming machismo of his, relating yet another one of his irreverent jokes. She was by now craving with all the subdued ferocity of her sex to taste his tongue inside her mouth once more and fought within her the excruciating restraint, which surely the moment demanded. How do you articulate these things without entirely blowing your chances? [...]

I want to frame you within me

2008-04-23T18:42:00.016+08:00

Photo by Dafne Louzioti  2008

I want to frame you within me, thread your pearls through me and wish with all my heart that I could've saved you from where I was sitting in this forest of students who remained thoughtless at your coaxing is a collaborative performance by myself and visual artist Sarah Trouche under the MA in Performance Making programme at Goldsmiths College, University of London, presented on 19 March 2008.

Inspired by the short story A Brief Affair with Infinity which highlights the inner journey of a girl who falls in love with her married teacher, I want to frame you within me seeks to explore the themes of obsession and forbidden desire through the interactions of a live body with scenographic material onstage. To what extent can the body be an extension of such material (here being shaving cream) and the material be a simultaneous extension of the performing body throughout this collaborative piece.

This project is also an experiment in finding a common language between two individuals of differing artistic cultures and technical approaches. In what ways can two creators from a visual arts and a playwriting/performing background respectively, combine their styles and interests to sustain a performance with narrative coherence? How can the use of spatial and temporal elements such as lights and music in a theatrical setting be successfully married with the durational, often repetitive qualities of two bodies performing within sensitive sculptural material onstage?

I want to frame you within me is also a result of an ongoing dialogue between two artists beginning with the use of text to inspire movements and in turn, how such movements when executed by both individuals can be articulated and juxtaposed alongside one another in the presence of voice-over text and music.

Silverfish New Writing 7

2008-04-10T20:53:00.005+08:00

Silverfish New Writing 7 is the latest anthology of short stories published by the Malaysia-based company Silverfish Books. The Morning After, a self-written short story, can be found within.

Silverfish New Writing 7 edited by Ashraf Jamal & Shanti Moorthy (RM 25.00)
... stories cannot merely renounce the present dilemma and limits, they must also address them ... in this collection, we find ourselves between memories and desire, the old and the new. However, even in the stories that seem more familiar we find a subtle ungrounding or vertigo. It is as though the story writer today finds themselves resembling Marcel Duchamps' bride: stripped bare, or, like Shakespeare's Lear: a bare forked animal stripped of custom and tradition, the dull toll of faith, bereft and wondrous in a strange unbounded place of possibilities.

- Introduction, Ashraf Jamal & Shanti Moorthy -

If hands could free you, heart

2008-03-01T23:46:00.003+08:00

If hands could free you, heart is a movement-based solo performance inspired by Philip Larkin's poem of the same title. The five-minute piece was presented as part of a diagnostic showcase of student works under the MA Performance Making, Goldsmiths College at the Georgewood Theatre on 30 October 2007. It explores the notion of human desire through the use of my body in relation to a red cardboard box onstage. Larkin's poem is as follows:

"If hands could free you, heart,
Where would you fly?
Far, beyond every part
Of earth this running sky
Makes desolate? Would you cross
City and hill and sea,
If hands could set you free?

I would not lift the latch;
For I could run
Through fields, pit-valleys, catch
All beauty under the sun--
Still end in loss:
I should find no bent arm, no bed
To rest my head."
-Philip Larkin

My Secret Surrender

2008-03-01T23:14:00.002+08:00

My Secret Surrender was a short dance movement solo performed at Ecnad Studio B on 2 June 2007 as part of a showcase of student works under Ecnad's Dance Explorer programme. It's the first time I had created a dance item and enjoyed every part of the process, with much thanks to Tan How Choon, our dance instructor, for his guidance. Exploring physical movements in relation to the use of a scarf throughout the piece, My Secret Surrender is partly a development of the work I did in A Brief Affair with Infinity. It was also performed to the music of Trainspotting by Primal Scream.

Just the Three of Us

2008-03-01T22:40:00.003+08:00

Just the three of us was a ten minute play I wrote that was staged at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Studio Theatre from 18 to 22 April 2007 under the Singapore Short and Sweet festival 2007. It is about a man who shares an intriguing revelation with his best friend on the night of their football match gathering. Directed by Tracie Pang, the play was performed by Anton Chan (above left) and Jared Kok (above right) - very fun lads to watch ;)

A Brief Affair with Infinity

2008-03-01T22:23:00.009+08:00

A Brief Affair with Infinity was my debut solo performance of a self-written monologue and was presented under the Little Red Shop's Resident Artist programme at the Arts House Play Den in Singapore from 22 to 25 March 2007. Adapted from my short story of the same title, the monologue was a physically driven piece employing improvised interactions with a chair and a scarf as key choreographic material in the storytelling. The performance was directed in collaboration with Ruby Pan, an ex-schoolmate and theatre colleague. To view excerpts, click here.

“Readers will not be disappointed, as [Jocelyn’s] plays, which have all been performed before, contain a keenness of observation and understanding of subtext that belie her young age.”
-Stephanie Yap, The Sunday Times, Read - New Arrivals, 3 December 2006

“While the spunky 21-year-old has had barely two years of experience in the local theatre, she has chalked up a considerable portfolio to date. With her animated gestures and outgoing personality, [Jocelyn] is every bit the bona fide theatre actress.”
-Carolyn Quek, The Business Times, Campus Life, 18 October 2004

Restless and Other Plays

2008-03-01T00:23:00.006+08:00

Restless and Other Plays is my debut book of three original one-act plays. The Fish Bowl was written during the year-long TheatreWorks WritersLab programme in 2003 and first presented as a dramatised reading in December that year at the then TheatreWorks Black Box at Fort Canning Centre. It is set in the living room of a HDB flat and is about two siblings struggling to survive in an increasingly desperate situation. The play was read by Brendon Fernandez & Serena Ho, and directed by Norlina Mohamed. Home & Station was a second prize winning entry at the TheatreWorks 24 Hour Playwriting Contest 2003 and is about two young artists who are threatened by figures of a higher authority. Last but not least, Restless is a play commissioned by TheatreWorks about four characters living in a world where sleeping is not permitted.

The book was launched on 1 December 2006 at library@esplanade, Singapore. You can get a copy of the book from Select Books, Books Actually, Kinokuniya, Substation or contact me jocechua@gmail.com. Copies are also available in all lending libraries under the National Library Board, Singapore.

“These three plays… display to full effect Jocelyn’s unique voice and outlook. Home & Station and The Fish Bowl are particularly imaginative and unpredictable. These little gems leave one discomfited and thinking – like all good writing.”
-Tan Tarn How, playwright and former Associate Artistic Director of TheatreWorks

“Jocelyn Chua is a strong new voice in Singapore's small playwriting community. Having watched her plays dramatised I am convinced that having them published is godsend. The themes explored combine beautifully a knowing resonance with surprising freshness. Readers will be moved and impressed by the depth of understanding displayed by this wonderful playwright.”

-Prof Kirpal Singh, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Singapore Management University

"If there were censors' classifications for these plays, their advisories could be inverted to indicate content – parental guidance is abandoned within… and mature audiences must re-connect with themes of despair and anguished sexual reference."
-Prof Stephen Hazell, Head of Visual and Performing Arts, National Institute of Education, Singapore

Magdalena Singapore: Crossroads 2006

2008-03-01T00:08:00.002+08:00

As part of Crossroads 2006 organised by Magdalena (Singapore), I presented a dramatised reading of excerpts from a self-written short story A Brief Affair with Infinity. The story, written in 2005, is about a girl who falls passionately in love with her married English tutor. Throughout her journey, she parallels the love affair with the concept of infinity. Here is an extract of the performance text:

[...] Mathematics 401: Each student had to complete a final assignment to prove their number-crunching abilities as the teachers would then number-crunch a grade according to the scholar’s efforts. I was allotted the task of uncovering infinity.

How could this ungraspable entity contribute to our daily calculations?

Terrorising the ancient Greeks while crowning itself godhead amongst the more philosophical Christians, Infinity went on to drive several early mathematicians to insanity while always being just out of reach, that untameable and unsolvable plague wiping its own path out, like a black hole sucking off the curious spaceships that seek too close to its edge. The harder you went in search of Infinity, the more effortlessly it eluded you. Like the sweat of Sisyphus, the temptations of Tantalus and the pain of Prometheus, Infinity is as mythological as it is existent.

One had to know a subject thoroughly in order to present it.

It was therefore a school requirement for me to have a torrid affair with Infinity, to sink my teeth into its everlasting mystery, this unattainable siren who has led many a disciple to a bottomless misery.

So as I fought to imagine the limitless confines of the Greek-named apeiron – the modern equivalent of the term chaos – my thoughts began to savage its way to another… the wild and uncontrollable danger of you. [...]

The Morning After

2008-03-01T00:05:00.001+08:00

Written in 2006, The Morning After describes a young woman's experience following her one-night stand with a foreign man. It won second place at the NUS Literary Society Creative Writing Competition 2006/7. Here is an excerpt of the short story that was read at the prize presentation ceremony on 10 February 2007, library@orchard, Singapore:

[...] When she finally untangled herself from the bed sheets and found her beige cotton underwear flattened beneath one of the pillows, he had already set the table with two cups of coffee, a small container of condensed milk, a bottle of honey, a crumpled packet of artificial sweetener and a spoon. He stood with his back towards her as she approached the dining table and once again, the sight of his abundant wheat-golden hair overcame her. It was pulled back now, in a loose ponytail of thin and frizzy tangles that caught glints of light from the nearby window. All the (few) local male friends she ever knew had hair down to their ears at best, straight and black. He was lighting a cigarette and at the sound of her steps, turned to face her. She paused, arrested by the sight of his eyes. It was a colour somewhere between ice cubes and the sky which she hadn’t quite noticed but now, seemed evident in the play of his expression and the late morning light. Perhaps everything was taking on a different sensory hue and she became suddenly unaccustomed to this foreign visage. Had he always been this much taller than her? Hunched over slightly and cupping the lighter in his hands, he gave it a few unsuccessful flicks before turning this way and that to shield the expectant flame. He was broad-shouldered and his arms, covered with a layer of fine blonde hair, bulged in steady contours she hadn’t previously observed. She wondered if she appeared differently to him as well. Finally, he took a deep drag on his cigarette – a Virginie Slim – held limply between those surprisingly delicate fingers and gestured at the spread on the table.

“Breakfast is served,” he pulled out a chair for her and she slid into place. “I’m afraid it’s just coffee and a lot of sweet things.”

She smiled, observing the bits and pieces of another’s kitchen – this man, this lone bachelor, this foreigner – and how it all seemed to fill her with an inquisitive amusement. She sipped from her cup (it had a slight chip on the rim which she avoided) and cringed at the bitter coffee, discerning from the shift in his expression that he probably had not tasted his own concoction. She took the single spoon – a tablespoon – and served herself a generous dollop of condensed milk. He offered her a cigarette but she declined.

Then, they started to talk, about everything and nothing in particular, the conversation floating from one thread of thought to another without intent or anticipation. He talked about returning to Germany after more than ten years of being away from home and said he felt neither excitement nor apprehension, just a hazy sort of preoccupation with the logistics of his departure and many things, family-wise, still hanging unspoken in the air, urging his return. Then she mentioned in passing, the trivia of her current duties – meetings with parents at the childcare centre, revising a new syllabus with the primary level cohort – and other superfluous events like an upcoming wedding of a distant cousin she had not met since she was twelve and how she could already sense the pressure from relatives to find a husband of her own. It was hard being single in Singapore, she admitted and he nodded. They continued to exchange titbits of their personal histories in such a manner, listening with interest the factual redundancies as well as with the vaguely consoling knowledge that they would probably never see each other again in their respective lives. [...]

Serum City

2008-02-29T23:35:00.005+08:00

Serum City was a student short film I directed and wrote as part of my final year project, pursuing undergraduate studies at Nanyang Technological University's Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information. It depicts a world where eating has been made illegal, exploring the themes of social surveillance, state control and forbidden desire. The film was completed in March 2006.

Visit library@esplanade or check out the National Library of Singapore online catalogue for a copy of the film. The Asian Film Archive also holds a copy. Alternatively, you can email me jocechua@gmail.com if you wish to get the DVD.

Home & Station

2008-02-29T23:15:00.004+08:00

Photo courtesy of The Fun Stage Ltd  2005

Home & Station was a self-written stage play which I directed as part of the Fun Stage Fringe 05. The script had been written and had won second place during the Theatreworks 24 Hour Playwriting Contest 2003. Home & Station depicts a young artist Xin trying to deliver a painting to a fellow artist Jay. However, their reunion is thwarted by two ominous figures of authority whose casual repartee turns increasingly to interrogations, violence and coercion. It was presented at the Substation Guinness Theatre, Singapore from 23 to 25 February 2005.

Lovers' Words

2008-02-29T20:56:00.002+08:00

Photo courtesy of The Fun Stage Ltd  2004

Lovers' Words, written by Taiwanese playwright Chiu An Chen, was staged from 7 to 9 September 2004 at the Xing Huo Theatre in Kunming City, Yunnan, China as part of the 5th Chinese Drama Festival 2004.This marked my debut performance in a Mandarin play as well as in an overseas touring production.

3 Men Meet 3 Women

2008-02-29T20:39:00.000+08:00

Photography by Richard Chua  2004

3 Men Meet 3 Women featured a weekend of monologues written by Singaporean playwright Verena Tay in which I performed The Perfect Shoe, Jiving on Java and Good Girls Don't Wait under the direction of Ferlin Jayatissa - a committed director and patient mentor. Other performers of the same three monologues included Ernest Seah (directed by Richard Chua) and Elizabeth de Roza (directed by Sonny Lim). The event marked my acting debut in a monologue performance. It was presented from 22 to 24 July 2004 at the Substation Guinness Theatre, Singapore.

Eat a Bowl of Bonbons

2008-02-29T20:16:00.001+08:00

Design by Priscilla Phuah  2004

Eat a Bowl of Bonbons was an evening of seven short plays which I directed under the adhoc drama company Paparazzi Productions 2004 during my student days at the Nanyang Technological University's Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information. Besides the staging of five American short scripts, this production also saw the debut of 2 original Singaporean plays - Kin written by Leon Foo and About Us written by myself. About Us tells the story of two ex-lovers, Ivan and Mae, recounting their affair on the evening before Ivan's wedding. The event was staged at the Alliance Francaise AGF Theatre on 13 and 14 August 2004.