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Workshops
10-Part Stand-up Comedy Writing
Conducted By: Sharul Channa
Starts: 24 Jun
Enquire: writerslab@theatreworks.org.sg
Price: $400 (early bird rate before 7 Jun; U.P.: $500)
We’ve all done it at some point; telling a joke to our friends at a party or sharing a good story with our family members at the reunion. But, have you ever wondered what it would be like to jump up on stage and tell a joke? If you have, then this is your safe place for you to start attempting the art of stand-up comedy!
Conducted by the only full-time female stand-up comedian in Singapore, Sharul Channa, this course will be a full 10-session workshop with an opportunity to perform at a live show.
This course will include:
1. A brief background of the stand-up comedy scene in Asia/Singapore and the ethics of stand-up
2. A step-by-step guide to writing a joke
3. Different styles of joke writing/performance
4. Open-mic tips
5. Hosting a stand-up show
6. Discovering your voice as a comedian
The schedule will be as follow:
Mon, 24 Jun, 7.30pm–10pm (2.5hrs) – session #1

Wed, 26 Jun, 7.30pm–10pm (2.5hrs) – session #2
Fri, 28 Jun, 7.30pm–10pm (2.5hrs) – session #3

Mon, 1 Jul, 7.30pm–10pm (2.5hrs) – session #4 

Wed, 3 Jul, 7.30pm–10pm (2.5hrs) – session #5

Sat, 6 Jul, 2pm–5pm (2.5hrs) – session #6

15 Jul, 7,.30pm–10pm (2.5hrs) – session #7

22 Jul, 7.30pm–10pm (2.5hrs) – session #8

23 to 24 Jul – A possible excursion to an open-mic club (7.30pm–10.30pm) - sessions #9-10
Participants will then be divided into 2 groups to perform their material in front of an audience on either 26 or 27 July from 10pm - 11pm.
Encourage full attendance or at least 8 sessions to not miss out on preparation for writing and performance of stand-up material.
Public Workshop by Zarina Muhammad
Totems, Talismans, Curios and Pharmacopoeias: A Brief Time-Travelling History of Curses, Conduits and Cures.
Conducted By: Zarina Muhammad
Date: 12 Jul, 7.30pm–9.30pm
Admission: $25 per pax, including materials and exhibition tour
This workshop speaks of and to the mythologies, shared memories and contested histories of non-conforming bodies as well as the botanical and zoological situated between life and death, magic and mayhem, healing and killing, the demonised and desired, the domesticated and the feral. Participants will be invited to sift through the different layers of personal memory, collective-documented-archival histories and the fragmented nature of ancestral and regional knowledge on healing and killing and the feared and revered. Through the act of storytelling, ritual and gesture, we will revisit these intergenerational, interregional and cross-cultural narratives and create our own apotropaic texts, signs, marks and letters to them.
Public Workshop by Constance Singam & Dana Lam
Write Forum II
Conducted By: Constance Singam and Dana Lam
Date: 20 July, 11am–1pm
Admission: $25 per pax including materials and exhibition tour
Do you have something to say about the news stories you read in the papers? Are you bothered by issues of injustice or inequality? Writing letters to the papers is one way to express your views. Join Constance Singam and Dana Lam, two established writers and women’s rights activists as they share strategies of getting your ideas across effectively, succinctly and powerfully.
Symbols, Secrets, Silences: A Poetry/Art Workshop
Conducted By: Marylyn Tan
Date: 24 Jul, 3–5pm
Admission: $25 including materials and exhibition tour
Enquiries: ticketing@theatreworks.org.sg
This workshop works with existing canons or traditions of women protecting themselves and each other with knowledge passed on to each other, and invites participants to partake in this process by creating texts that are both visual and linguistic which serve to empower them. The first half of the workshop will entail a brief history of some of these symbols and practices of care in both mythology and real-life events. The second half engages participants in creating their own works, inspired by their own cultural context, history and mythos. Preparation: Materials will be provided. However, participants may wish to other materials to work with. These may include paint, chalk, glitter glue, markers, etc. Participants to think of one incident in their life which was empowering or taught them something that eventually helped to protect them.
24-Hr Playwriting Competition
Competitions
Date: 13–14 Jul, 11am–11am
Venue: Held in a secret location
Youth Category: 15 - 18 years old
Open Category: 19 years and above
Enquire: writerslab@theatreworks.org.sg
The TheatreWorks 24-Hr Playwriting Competition is back! First held in 1996, this competition is one of the longest running creative platforms in Singapore. Participants write a completely new play in 24 hours, with various stimuli given throughout the time period. This year’s edition will take place in a secret location. In partnership with the South East Community Development Council as part of TheatreWorks Writers’ Lab’s Writing & Community programme, the 24-Hr Playwriting Competition aims to nurture and develop playwrights from the community. Writing & Community is a holistic, unique writing programme that serves communities through harnessing their talents and creativities.
Hosted By: Munah Bagharib
Judges: Jean Tay, Rayann Condy, Ma Yanling
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Registration Fees
Youth: $55* (Age: 15–18 years old)
Open: $65* (Age: 1 9 and above)
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*Inclusive of a 2-hour basic playwriting workshop on 6 Jul (11am–1pm), and a ticket to Three Fat Virgins Unassembled on 10 July, 7.30pm.
Prizes for each category (Youth and Open)
1st: $700
2nd: $500
3rd: $300
Merit: $100
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Register Here
Opening Panel
Talks
Women's Voice: Perceived or Real Challenge?
Date: 10 Jul, 7.30pm - 9.00pm
Admission: Free (Registration required)
In art and society, how have women's expressions of our place, role and desires changed over time? Where do we go from here? Moderated by N.O.W. Artistic Director Noorlinah Mohamed, this panel will bring together the voices of artists, creators and advocates together for a reflective start to the three-week event.
The Way We Walk With Each Other: An Interdisciplinary Conversation about Apotropaic Symbols, Texts, Gestures and Practices
Featuring: Marylyn Tan, Zarina Muhammad, Izzaty Ishak and Hasyimah Harith
Date: 17 Jul, 7.30pm–9pm
Admission: Free (Registration required)
What kinds of unspoken/ understood trauma is marked, carried upon and inherited by certain gendered/ non-conforming bodies? What are some strategies of thriving and surviving these narratives and experiences? In this panel conversation, 4 women speak of the varied ways of averting/ embracing danger, magic as embodied, personal and political, and their respective talismanic tools in carving out care, humour, justice, resistance across the multiple worlds they traverse.
Inchoate to Materiality: Process of Creation
Featuring: Wong Chen-Hsi, Edith Podesta and Akshita Nanda
Date: 20 July, 2pm
Admission: Free (Registration required)
Join three indefatigable women creators – Chen-Hsi from film, Edith from theatre and Akshita from literature – as they share an afternoon unpacking their creative minds. What attracts them to create the way they do? How do they begin and when do they know their creation is completed? From bits of information that startle, sights and sounds that prick the imagination, to reflections born out of moments of solitude, these are sparks that begin the process of creation. Each share how they stoke the sub-conscious and awaken the unconscious to let the imagination run wild and thereafter tame to a sense of coherence.
First Read: Readings of New Works by Emerging Playwrights
Readings
First Read: Well of Silence
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Written By: Aswani Aswath
Directed By: Grace Kalaiselvi
Featuring: Sharda Harrison, Mumtaz Maricar, Ruban Mohan and Hemang Yadav
Rating: Advisory (Some Mature Content)
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Date: 28 July, 11am
Admission: Free (Registration required)
25-year-old Sanjeevan doesn't believe in many things – that men can run home to look after their babies, do household chores and perform Hindu prayer rituals at home. His single mum, Suseela, believes her breast cancer is a punishment from the gods. She tells him to hide her shame. Suddenly, Sanjeevan is left with a caregiver role he didn't sign up for and struggles to grapple with his family's trauma. What happened to "manning up"? 

Well of Silence explores hypermasculinity, caregiver challenges of adult-children and deeply entrenched stigmas in the Indian community. Who is enabling these cultural systems to thrive? From when? And why?
First Read: The Book of Mothers
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Written By: Eleanor Tan
Directed By: Yeo Yann Yann
Featuring: Isabella Chiam, Edward Choy, Jordan Gan, Joshua Lim, Jo Tan, Debra Teng and Jasmine Xie Hui Ling
Rating: Advisory 16 (Mature Content)
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Date: 28 July, 2pm
Admission: Free (Registration required)
Motherhood... It encompasses every genre, from comedy, to tragedy, to courtroom drama, to disaster movie. It is a blessing, a curse, a comfort, a burden, the greatest joy, the deepest pain, and countless other contradictions wrapped up in one life-changing journey. Every woman has been a child, but does that prepare them to become a mother? What are the myths surrounding motherhood, and how do they shape the experience of being a mother? Is a woman truly free to make her own decisions, when her body has been co-opted as residence and food source for another? This play attempts to begin asking these questions through the eyes of Louise, whose complicated relationship with her mother leaves her ambivalent about her own pregnancy and impending motherhood.
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