ACT 3 Theatrics – “Pay It Forward”

This is Ameer Jumabhoy today. A student in the USA. An international Polo player. An Ambassador for the Texas Children’s Cancer Centre.

This is Ameer, the child-actor, in ACT 3 Theatrics’ ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’. He’s the one in the middle row on the extreme left.

The young man’s first stage adventure pre-dates this. He was six years old then and I had the privilege of being Banquo to his Fleance in our production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Playing dual roles I spent a good ten minutes as Hecate, queen of witches, carrying him on my back before he revealed himself as the third child apparition.

This is how Ameer reflects on his experience. “I’ll never forget the first lines I spoke on stage as an actor. ‘Macbeth will never vanquished be, until great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him.’ I was six years old and that is what ACT 3 Theatrics gives you – the confidence to step out on stage in front of 400 people at a time and live without fear. That confidence, the creativity and desire to bring joy into the lives of others is something that has stayed with me till today.”

Yes today, Ameer is a member of the ACT 3 Theatrics creative and management team entrusted with the mission to equip children with the joy and confidence to step not just onto the theatre stage but the world stage.

'Ali Baba & the 40 Thieves" by ACT 3 Theatrics.

Ameer with his fellow youth actors.

R Chandran/ACT 3 Theatrics. 2013. All Rights Reserved.

ACT 3 Theatrics - Time and Space to Dream & Play

ACT 3 Theatrics - Time and Space to Dream & Play

  As a child,  I used to spend close to an hour in the shower. I was not just having a bath. I was staging a football match with a wooden clothes peg standing in for the real ball. The interesting thing was my team didn't always win, even in my fantasy.

  I think I had it great as a child. I had the space, time and freedom to run a parallel life. In it, I was the son of the richest man in the whole wide world. We even had a zoo with a complete collection of animals in our imaginary sprawling bungalow.

  I was Zorro, correcting the world's injustices, with my very own cave hideout. I was a world champion motor racer, competing in my inverted half-wooden half-metallic chair that went faster than any F1 car today. (I even created my own advertisement blurbs and pasted them on the fantasy car.)  I was an explorer. A scientist. And of course I was the planet's finest footballer. The fact that I didn't always win made my parallel life all the more exciting and layered.

  Setting up ACT 3 with Ruby and Jasmin allowed me to give shape and form to my wide-ranging visions. I wrote plays, directed actors to bring the stories alive, had props, sets and costumes created, music included - and was fortunate enough to share them with generations of children and their families.

 
 

  

Today 's ACT 3 Theatrics is designed to 'pay it forward'. It is a space that gives children the time and freedom to use as their backyard, playground, nature trail, workshop, laboratory. So they too can dream and play with abandonment.

ACT 3 Theatrics - the fourth decade and beyond. Children-driven Professional Theatre Company.

R. Chandran. 29 Jan 2013. All Rights Reserved. chandran@act3theatrics.com 

ACT 3 Theatrics - always evolving

ACT 3 Theatrics - always evolving.

The most refreshing aspect of life and all things around us is that they keep evolving.

In 30 years, ACT 3 Theatrics has evolved much, some naturally some by design.

This is me in the 1980s...

This is me, evolved, in 2013.

When the company was established, our focus was children. Stepping into the fourth decade as Singapore's first professional theatre company our focus continues to be children. The means and ways we use to reach out, connect, engage and involve them is evolving.

Where once professionals were the creators and enactors, today we want to be the catalyst to inspire children in their hands-on quest to learn, explore, experiment, create, articulate and present their thoughts, dreams, writings and performances.

What children enjoy most and get the best thrill is in the act of doing things. They blossom to their true potential when surrounded by a sense of joy, wonder, spontaneity and freedom.

Having spent the past year in hibernation and some thought, we are ready to launch the new phase with a team brimming with enthusiasm and ideas. The next generation - Sharief Bobo, Amy J Cheng, Anna Belle Francis, Ameer Jumabhoy, Mehreen Mir Abid, Anis Razali.....

ACT 3 Theatrics - children-driven professional theatre company.

Almost Stabbed by Boy with a Plastic Fork!

Family audience. (Photo courtesy of ACT 3 Theatrics.)

The Magic of Children’s Theatre is that the audience, without a moment’s hesitation, enters into the world we are creating. They become one with the characters. The characters’ joy, pain, anxiety, fear become theirs.

This is why it is vital for makers and actors in Children’s Theatre to be exceptionally sensitive. It is such a delicate balance between keeping the children physically, emotionally and mentally thrilled and yet not allowing them to snap. It is a huge responsibility.

Engrossed. Enthralled. (Photo courtesy of Jack Yam.)

 The young audience does not just want to say yes, no, yeah, hiss, boo. They want to be able to affect proceedings – to share opinions, to assist, to right the wrongs.

That brings me to the day I was almost stabbed by a boy with a plastic fork.

It was a birthday party performance and we were staging Little Red Riding Hood in the living room. The children had just had their slices of birthday cake, hence the plastic fork in hand.

Wolf. (Photo courtesy of ACT 3 Theatrics.)

 Ruby was Red Riding Hood, Jasmin, both the Woodcutter and Grandma. And I, the Wolf! Throughout the play the aforesaid boy, with the other children, had been helping Red navigate the forest to Grandma’s house.

As the story went, the Wolf was there, waiting to ambush her. Of course, at the last minute the children tipped off Red and started calling – well, screaming out - for the Woodcutter. When the Woodcutter appeared the Wolf dashed into the audience to hide.

As the other children were pointing the hiding Wolf out to the Woodcutter, me the Wolf – who is alert to such things – noticed a boy heading menacingly closer. And then I spotted a fork in his hand.

Animal, human, actor’s instinct all came to play. As he was about to do damage I – lightly, I must say – grabbed hold of him, stood still and waited for the Woodcutter to arrive, (with a smirk in his face), to not just arrest the Wolf for the crime he did, but also to save the actor from being the victim of a crime.

It was nothing personal I am sure. The boy was a child playing his part in unravelling the story.

© 2012 Copyright R Chandran. All Rights Strictly Reserved.

The Power of Writing that First Word

THE POWER OF WRITING THAT FIRST WORD

Ten hours ago - spread over three Saturdays - a group of youngsters started with a blank piece of paper.

Seeds if imagination being planted. (Photo courtesy R Chandran)

By the end of the ten weeks they had their first published Story Books in hand.

Young Authors with their First Story Books and Proud Parents. "Writing My First Story Book" - Writers' Lab for the Young initiative by ACT 3 Theatrics. November 2012 at Lasalle College of the Arts. (Photo courtesy of R Chandran)

In-between, they were set writing exercises and offered individual guidance. Finding the Joy in writing was the key to the sessions.

Young Authors at work and their stories being read aloud. (Photos courtesy of R Chandran)

What inspired me to undertake this project was hearing people, especially adults remark - "How do you write?" "I don't know what to write about." "I have no ideas."

It was like a chore. Anna Belle Francis, a mother of two, shared the fact that her eight year-old son Abbra hated writing. His clever retort was: "I don't like writing. The pencil is too heavy." Today, if Abbra is asked to write five sentences, he asks for ten.

Our 'Writers' Lab for the Young' initiative sets out to inspire the joy in writing, then to hone individual skills through pleasurable practice.

Write that first word on a blank piece of paper and let that lead you on. 

Finding inspiration indoors as well as outdoors. (Photo courtesy of R Chandran).

ACT 3 Theatrics - Singapore's First Professional Theatre Company

page 6

Saturday 22 September 2012

ACT 3 THEATRICS - Singapore's first professional theatre company.

Let the debate be put to rest once and for all. 
ACT 3 Theatrics, incorporated on 1st July 1984, is Singapore's first professional theatre company. On that day the organisation became a legal entity; Jasmin, Ruby and I became full-time theatre practitioners.

We set-off to scale a mountain, with our back-packs strapped on, and perhaps with nothing more than our combined gung-ho spirit to rely on. That mountain adventure continues to this day, as the range goes on extending and expanding.

Our first home was a hotel room along Victoria Street. It had an attached toilet but was stripped of all its furniture. (thank you Uncle Ricky!)

Our first office served as our creative hide-out, rehearsal space,

admin corner and function room - here, celebrating my 29th

birthday with Debbie, Marianne & Srinivasan.

We were there for six months. We didn't even give it a thought, but it certainly was the first stage in a do-or-die mission. In the months and weeks before this, I had just parted with my copywriter's job, Ruby, her marketing executive position and Jasmin had just returned after a year's stint in Jakarta.

We had saved some money from the previous 30 months. Our well-wishing friends and families had chipped in.

But what would it take to run a company? A theatre company in Singapore?

And...

Though we had previously functioned as a group we had in most parts, creatively, worked independently. Now we were in a room with no place to hide (maybe the toilet) in case tempers frayed - which did. And now, Debbie had also joined us - so there was even less physical room to manouvre. 

We must have done quite well staging family theatre performances that we were commissioned to create and stage a full-length musical - Strawberry Shortcake Extravaganza. (Thanks "Playthings"). This was going to be our first venture into a structured theatre - World Trade Center Auditorium. With 30 adult and child cast members. How to rehearse in that room? Ha Ha. Fortunately Sylvia Mccully came to our aid in lending us her dance studio. (many thanks, Sylvia!)

                  

How we managed to produce our first full-scale theatre production, I shall talk about later.

Next, I'd like to share the charm of children's theatre, where we interact with the audience and where spontaneous reactions take on a live of their own.

The journey continues with: "Prince, you have to kiss her harder"........

2012. all copyrights strictly reserved. R Chandran/ACT 3 Theatrics.

21 September 2012

The Journey continues...

I now know what bears feel like. They hibernate and come back refreshed. Well here I am. Back and Inspired!

And with a designer-photo to take along with me. 

As I recount the ACT 3 journey my wish is also to share the joy in doing something - be it staging a play or creating and writing. Don't make it a chore.

Okay, I better resume this journey by taking baby-steps. 

Please feel free to add on and share with me your thoughts.