Today I share My Theatre Story

Today started off unusual, I was scheduled for an interview, not really knowing what is it for but just knowing that the ministry wants to find out more about what I do. So there was Mahal,my interviewer, Indian lady with a beautiful purple shade for her lipstick colour. I signed some consent forms and requested for the transcript just to remind myself of the stupid things I might be saying through the course of the interview.

And so the first question came, "How did you get to where you are and what you do in the theatre?". Nostalgia sank in, because my relationship with the theatre started from long long ago. I told her about how in Secondary school I was in the Chinese Drama club and then the constant volunteering with the Singapore Arts Theatre at victoria theatre. How the group of us learn to change scenes in the dark and operate the smoke machines while hiding behind sets, I was called "Smoke boy" because the smoke machine was my main role, here is when I fell in love with glow tapes. We organised drama camps and empowered so many students to tell stories, it was an amazing point in my life. So the story went on about how I chanced upon the Technical Theatre Training Programme at Esplande while I was in Sydney inspired by the Sydney opera house. How that trip to Australia changed my life and brought to me where I am today.

So later I brought up a point that I want to blog about, which is the value of the things we do. I love the ides of teaching and passing down my knowledge, I've had experience mentoring students and I impart to them not only skills to get the lighting job done, but also the value of getting the job done. Because if they do not see the value of what they do, it becomes just work. So seeing the value in things matters more than doing it, without value, what you create will be just be an empty vessel. This cannot be taught, but it is an attitude that can be imparted, my discipline towards my values will rub off on them and one day, they will wonder how they even picked up such standards.

Mahal kept digging, she wanted emotions,she wants the dirt and grim of my past. So we talked about the mentorship I was priviledged to be given through the course of my career. This is a huge problem faced by freelancers in the industry, a lack of professional mentorship. I was lucky to have met my trainer, who is still a huge inspiration in my life, a fantastic leader with great foresight. I learn a great deal from him during my course of training. And then I got unofficially handed over to recieve mentorship from the most difficult person in Esplanade, it went smoothly for the first 3 months because I picked up fast and my learning attitude was pretty alright. "We finally found tiger food for the tiger", that's what my boss said. But soon these good days left, my mentor stopped talking to me after realizing that I was to be groomed to fill in his position if he were to leave. And so I got cut off, ignored, shelved. My most jaded moment in my career with the theatre, was when I realize politics and corporate culture can make its appearance in a Theatre Art scene. I do not blame my mentor, because it is the system that made him behave that way, he needed to protect his niche and his specialty. There is no incentive for him to train up a specialist to be as successful as he is, moreover train them to be better than himself. There is a presence of threat towards his position,hence in his best interest,he would rather stifle a potential successsor. Cut off the air supply and slowly let him suffocate. So I said," Mahal, the Ministry needs to do something about this, mentorship is of the essence in our line of work and they need to protect the mentors so that they will be willing to impart their skills 100%,200%, this way our industry can grow and isn't it such a waste if they were to die with all that knowledge". Mahal nodded and told me she knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Whatever I shared today might not bring about an immediate change in the industry or anything, but Mahal promised that what I did, was amazing, "we cannot change things 180º today Alvyn, but what we are doing right now, we can help move 1º each time, and one day we will reach that 180º."

Thank you Mahal :) saying my story out loud with you helped me find myself and feel more certain about my footsteps in this industry. If I ever continue in the theatre industry, I can definitely see myself going somewhere. Unless the system changes, I doubt I will find peace, because I am a strong believer in mentorship. And I found the best Mentor waiting for me in another industry, Social enterprising, it is the ideal environment for good and beautiful things to thrive. This will be another blog post, so till then, let us all strive to live an amazing life. Keep strong :)