Writing in the Thick of Now
A devising performance workshop
By Manuela Infante
TheatreWorks Writers’ Lab invites lauded Chilean playwright and director, Manuela Infante, to Singapore to conduct a devising performance workshop.
Whether you have an idea brewing, or a work-in-progress, this interdisciplinary workshop will take you to the next step! This workshop is open to writers, directors, performers, and designers interested in developing their work collaboratively.
Infante will focus on devising and writing by drawing materials from what is created in the rehearsal room with performers. By applying her methodology towards your creative process, you will explore theories of non-anthropocentric theatre, in which other forces such as light, sound, words, and other non-human entities find time and space to participate in the forging of the work.
Participants will write on the spot, in the rehearsal space, and after the rehearsal, breaking the conventional approach of writing where “the words come first”.
In this workshop, the body, the space, and improvisation stand at the forefront, thus removing the human author from the centre of creation.
Infante was last seen in Singapore presenting, Vegetative State as part of the Singapore International Festival of Arts in 2017. She regards her plays as essays in a corpus of broader currents of thoughts that stems from theoretical writings, science, and cultural studies, characterising her work as a kind of ‘irresponsible philosophy’.
“Irresponsible in the sense that we strive from stealing from theory to make work, and not having to inscribe myself responsibly/responsively back into the academic corpus. My work is about letting ideas acquire a material life of their own, watching them find their way into the material world, into our bodies and our relations, and thus into time.” – Manuela Infante
Infante is widely celebrated for feminist re-envisioning of famous historical figures, combining slapstick humour and prose.
Her works have toured around the world and have been widely applauded by critics and audiences. From 2001 to 2016, she was part of Teatro de Chile, one of the most highly regarded young theatre groups in Chile. Infante’s repertoire of works includes Fin (2008), co-produced and premiered at the festival of Modena, Italy, and What’s He Building in There? (2011), created in residency at The Watermill Center, and premiering and shown in several spaces in New York. In 2012, she directed On the Beach, curated by Robert Wilson and premiered at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York; as well as Don’t Feed the Humans, premiered in Hebbel am Uffer in Berlin, Germany. Infante was also selected as Artistic Director of the XVI Playwright Selection 2014, organized by the Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes.
This is your chance to develop your own work with guidance by Manuela Infante; one of the most prolific and interesting voices in contemporary theatre in Chile and Latin America.
Dates & Times:
6 Sessions:
- 26 Nov, Monday
- 28 Nov, Wednesday
- 30 Nov, Friday
- 1 Dec, Saturday
- 3 Dec, Monday
- 5 Dec, Wednesday
Mon, Wed, Fri: 7.30pm – 10.30pm
Sat: 2.30pm-6.30pm
Venue: 72-13, Home of TheatreWorks, Mohamed Sultan Road Singapore 239007
Registration Fees:
Participants: $800 (Up to a maximum of 5 people. Groups can comprise of writers, directors, actors, and designers).
If you do not currently have a group, and would like to join the workshop, please write in, and we shall try to connect you with other individual artists to form a group.
Observer:
If you would like to observe the workshop, you can join as an Observer for a fee of $20 per session.
Please send an email to writerslab@theatreworks.org.sg to register. Include details of your project and the bios of the group members who will be attending the workshop.
Structure of the Workshop:
Session 1
- Introduction to non-humanist approach and devising methodology
- Discussion of reading materials
Session 2
- Project presentation and discussion
- Designing a methodology for your project
Session 3 – 6
- Working on a methodology for your project
About Manuela Infante
Born in 1980 Manuela Infante is a Chilean theatre playwright, director, script writer and musician. Infante holds a BA in Arts from the University of Chile and a MA in Cultural Analysis from the University of Amsterdam. With her group Teatro de Chile (2002-2016) she wrote and directed numerous works with the support of the Chilean Funds for the Arts. Four of her plays have been published and translated into English and Italian. Her work has toured internationally to the U.S., Argentina, Brazil, Perú, Mexico, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Switzerland, Singapore and Korea. She has produced work with Hebbel am Uffer, Festival de Modena, The Watermill Center, FIBA and FITAM. In 2015 she was the first woman to be appointed director of The National Festival for Dramaturgy (Muestra Nacional) in Chile.
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Supported by:
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About The Writers’ Lab
Conceived by Artistic Director Ong Keng Sen in 1990, the Writers' Lab has been pioneering in encouraging and developing Singapore playwriting with its varied as well as far-reaching programmes. The Writers' Lab aims to provide exceptional first-time and emerging playwrights with opportunities to hone their creative writing skills through an incubating environment.