New 550-seat waterfront theatre at Esplanade

Ms Tan Hsueh Yun, Life Editor, The Straits Times

Mr Ivan Lim, Director, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, M1 Limited

Ms Petrina Teoh, Assistant General Manager, Corporate Communications, M1 Limited

Ladies and gentlemen,

1. I am pleased to be here this afternoon to honour the best of Singapore’s theatre.

2. Each year, the awards represent both a closure and a new beginning. While we look back at what you have achieved in the past year, we also look forward to the new stories you will tell in the coming year – stories that will move and inspire us.

3. According to the judges, 2016 was “a year of strong scripts and experimentation”, with a wide variety of themes. Your works looked beyond the surface, and challenged us to consider different perspectives. Thank you for working tirelessly, on and off stage, to share your passion for theatre with us.

Strong support for the performing arts sector

4. Indeed, the growing vibrancy of our performing arts scene is testament to the dedication and talent of our arts practitioners, as well as strong support from art audiences and partners.
   

5. We have invested much, through the National Arts Council (NAC), to enlarge the space for our arts sector to grow. NAC provides grants for the creation, production and presentation of the performing arts, and these have encouraged practitioners and arts groups to present their works both locally and overseas. For example, Malay theatre group Teater Kami was able to stage resonant plays such as Hayat Hayatie, which captures the life of a woman who endured hardship during Singapore’s WWII years. NAC also supported the OzAsia Festival 2016, which featured home-grown talents such as artist Choy Ka Fai and the Singapore bands Charlie Lim & The Mothership, and The Steve McQueens.

6. To grow our pipeline of audience, NAC has also been working to raise the quantity and quality of programming for children, youth and families. This year, it is establishing a dedicated children’s arts centre at Goodman Arts Centre, and is also partnering Esplanade on a pilot Student Visit Programme. These efforts will enable more students to experience the arts in a more authentic setting. The Esplanade pilot in May will feature the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra and DJ Koflow.

Esplanade’s role in Singapore’s arts landscape

7. As Singapore’s national arts centre, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay has been a key player in growing the arts sector. It has commissioned and supported several theatre productions, some of which are in the running today. These include productions that cater to young audiences, and reflect Esplanade’s strong mission to not only entertain and engage, but also to educate and inspire. It has also commissioned and presented dance works, such as The Second Sunrise by local choreographer Raka Maitra, which debuted at Esplanade’s da:ns festival in 2016 and went on to be performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C..

8. Esplanade’s success as our national arts centre is premised on the strong partnerships that it has built up over the years with the arts community. It has featured local community and traditional arts groups regularly in its programmes. Through its annual cultural festivals such as Kalaa Utsavam, Pesta Raya and Huayi, Esplanade has showcased the rich diversity of Indian, Malay and Chinese cultures. This has facilitated cross-cultural understanding through the arts. With more than 70% of its shows each year being non-ticketed and open to the public, it is truly an arts centre for everyone.

Positioning Singapore’s performing art scene for the future

9. Let me share with you our plans for performing arts in the coming years. We would like to see Esplanade as a launch pad for our artists – where they can present their works to our local audience and then take it to the world – and as a space where the community can enjoy the arts.
   

10. Our plans for the sector takes into consideration the immediate needs of the arts communities for suitable space and financial sustainability. Recently, I watched the second-run of Normal by Checkpoint Theatre at the Drama Centre Black Box. With highly-acclaimed reviews and sold-out performances, I was surprised to learn that ticket sales from the show could not cover the costs of staging the production. It needed a 300-seat theatre for the show to break even, whereas the Drama Centre Black Box only has 120 seats.

11. This need for appropriate space is something that many of you have told us about. While there are large spaces, such as the 2000-seat Esplanade Theatre, and more intimate ones like black boxes and studio theatres; we lack mid-sized venues that can seat between 500 to 1,000 people. Indeed, this is a gap that we are keen to plug, so that there can be more of such platforms for our arts groups to present their works in a more sustainable manner. While some may say that it would not be prudent, given the economic climate to build more infrastructure, we nevertheless think it is timely to address this gap, as we work towards our longer term vision for the culture sector.

12. Hence, I am delighted to share with you our plans for a new 550-seat waterfront theatre at Esplanade, which we estimate will be completed by 2021. We will start construction in 2019 and the theatre is estimated to cost about $30 million. Of this amount, the Government would fund at least $10 million, and Esplanade will raise funds to cover the remainder.

13. With this 550-seat theatre, our arts groups will be able to scale up works previously presented in small studios.  Today, majority of the works produced for major festivals require medium-sized venues. We hope that the new theatre would give our arts groups an appropriate space to create new content, not only for our local audience, but also for regional and international audiences. In time to come, audiences can look forward to a greater variety of offerings, as well as a rich canon of Made-in-Singapore works.

14. This new theatre will also benefit our community and traditional arts groups, as they would have an additional platform to showcase their works and reach out to more audiences. Esplanade will also be able to expand its in-house productions and community engagement programmes. With this new theatre, Singaporeans will have more opportunities to experience the captivation of quality performances.

Conclusion

15. This is indeed exciting times for the arts in Singapore. And we could not have reached this point without your support.

16. I would like to thank The Straits Times Life! for initiating these Awards in 2001, to celebrate the achievements of Singapore’s theatre community, and for keeping it going all these years. M1 – thank you for supporting the Awards for the third consecutive year – we hope you will continue to do so.

17. Above all, my appreciation goes out to all the nominees here, who have laboured both on and off stage to take Singapore theatre to new heights. This stage belongs to all of you. Thank you.