Marina Barrage Snapshots Part 2

Courtesy of SECDC!

Marina Barrage Snapshots Part 1

Hi everybody!

I hope you had enough rest for the past 2 days after the competition ended, it must be tough squeezing your creative juices for 24 hours and having very little sleep. Did you have fun? I sure did 🙂 It’s great meeting new people and getting hyped up about the event, running around and feeling the adrenaline rush during the process and upon completion of this project.

If you’d like to share pictures and messages regarding this year’s competition, please email me at projects@theatreworks.org.sg – this blog will serve as another platform to communicate between all of us.

Anyway, snapshots below (Courtesy of Berny Tan) for your viewing!

Peace,
Valerie
Project Coordinator

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To participants of 2009

Hi everyone! It’s Valerie here and I am the project coordinator for the competition this year. Some of you are perhaps, just like me, a first timer at this event. It’s less than 3 days to the camping trip and I hope you are as excited as I am because I’m looking forward to meet all of you!

Right now my desk and storage area is really messy. I’ve got signboards, registration kit materials, first aid, just bought a few big bags of refreshments (in case any one of you goes hungry at midnight), running off to collect banner and tee shirts later, getting volunteers, blah blah blah… The list and planning goes on and on, luckily I’ve got all TheatreWorks staff to help me out. I expect on actual day I’ll be running around like a mad person, setting up, making sure food is there, we’re on schedule, everybody’s happy.. 🙂

We’re doing our best to ensure that you have a fun and safe time here, please bear with us if there are any unsatisfactory areas. Please do not hesitate to feedback to us at the end of the competition and we will improve from there.

Just wanted to say: All the best for the competition, See you there!

Love,
V.

P.S. Remember to read and follow instructions that have been sent to you via email, come prepared yes?

From (past winner) Bryan Tan to all participants:

As property agents love to intone, “Location, location, location.”

I mean, how can you resist a playwriting competition set at Marina Barrage? Doesn’t it scream inspiration? Or at least excessive use of water-related imagery?

So slap on your sunscreen and slip on your shades. Flex your neck and crack your knuckles. And for those 24 hours this weekend, just chant the mantra, “Right here, write now.”

Bryan Tan

Visual Intro to Marina Barrage

Click here to find out more about Marina Barrage, the venue for 2009. Click the thumbnails below to see larger versions of the images.

Photos by Berny Tan

Countdown 24 Days To Go

Hello everyone, I’m Robin Loon, one of the current Associate Directors of TheatreWorks and I am in charge of the Writers’ Laboratory. Just a bit of background on the 24-hour Play-writing competition. Back in 1996, as part of the then SPH Festival of New Writing, I started the 24-hour playwriting competition. The idea was adapted from a Canadian Theatre Company that runs similar writers’ retreat.

This year (2009), we’re going the Marina Barrage and we couldn’t be more excited. The view, the architecture and the overall environment – all of it is so inspiring. And I know it will be a lot of fun. I mean 24 hours in a space to write a play based on 5 stimuli integrated into the play in the order they are revealed, what could be more kick-ass than that?

I get asked often how and when I come up with the stimuli – and the truth of the matter is, I don’t really think about it until 2 – 3 days before the competition. The standard operating procedure is several tours of the competition venue to get inspiration for the non-specific stimuli but even that, I don’t really know what the non-specific stimuli will actually be. It’s risky, I know, but it keeps the competition exciting for me too.

I also get asked if I have a schema for composing stimuli – the answer is: NO. I try to make it as random as possible and honestly, I don’t have a theme or a central controlling idea. The secret is – for a few years, I literally come up with the stimuli hours before it is revealed. That can be quite stressful but it keeps me on my toes.

But there is a general pattern – the first stimulus is always the opening line of the play; and that will be followed by 2 specific and 2 non-specific stimuli.

Check in tomorrow when I’ll be talking a bit more on specific and non-specific stimuli.

Cheers,
Robin Loon