{"id":9565,"date":"2021-01-18T01:45:33","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T01:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newmandala.org\/?p=54561"},"modified":"2021-01-18T01:45:33","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T01:45:33","slug":"the-digital-turn-in-southeast-asian-theatre-new-routes-through-a-global-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/18\/the-digital-turn-in-southeast-asian-theatre-new-routes-through-a-global-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"The digital turn in Southeast Asian theatre: new routes through a global pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
In late July, sitting in my sister-in-law\u2019s home in St. Louis, Missouri, I waited in the \u201clobby\u201d area of Cloud Theatre<\/a> for Zoom Parah <\/em>to begin. Itself a creation born of the pandemic, Cloud Theatre is an online platform which strives to offer a seamless digital theatre experience to global audiences. Their \u201clobby\u201d is a simple but smart artificial space: a live chat box, available to attendees as they login for a show, is positioned next to the image of a theatre stage, framed by red curtains. The waiting room attempts to replicate the experience of audience members mingling and chatting before a performance begins. Joining others in this virtual space, I was excited to see another Malaysian, also based in the United States, mention that they were from Petaling Jaya\u2014my hometown. I excitedly typed back, \u201cI\u2019m from PJ, too!\u201d The spark of recognition flashing across the chat box was akin to overhearing a conversation between strangers, and interjecting to share a mutual connection. Months into social distancing protocols, the Cloud Theatre lobby reminded me that there was something inherently sociable <\/em>about joining hundreds of people from around the world to watch this production together\u2014albeit, online.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had people who\u2019d never seen theatre before experience it for the first time<\/em> using Zoom.\u201d Malaysian theatre director, actor and writer Jo Kukathas<\/a>\u00a0stressed this point repeatedly when discussing Zoom Parah<\/em>, the online adaptation of the critically acclaimed play<\/a>, Parah<\/em>. This digital theatre performance, and the new viewing experiences it made possible, is just one of many examples of innovative work being produced by Southeast Asian directors, producers, and actors since the pandemic. In the early days and weeks of Covid-19, theatre makers from this region\u2014like so many others around the world<\/a>\u2014watched in despair as stages went dark and theatres shut their doors. Despite the dire conditions, they rallied\u2014with little to no funding and even less governmental support\u2014to reimagine theatre in the time of COVID. They created innovative forms of theatre designed for Zoom, streamed recordings of award-winning plays that had not previously been available online, and held numerous talk-back sessions to reflect on the creative process. The digital turn in Southeast Asian theatre has provided unprecedented access to experimental and critically acclaimed work from the region. These productions have connected audiences and diasporic communities around the world, focusing often on urgent questions of race, identity, and belonging. These developments offer models not only for the professional theatre world, but also for teachers and students of the performing arts who are navigating online education.<\/p>\n In their articles for Offstage<\/em><\/a> and The Business Times<\/em><\/a>, Akanksha Raja and Helmi Yusof discuss half a dozen new Singaporean and Southeast Asian theatre projects which have embraced the digital turn. These include: Murder at Mandai Camp <\/em>and The Future Stage<\/em> from Sight Lines Entertainment; Long Distance Affair<\/em> from Juggerknot Theatre and PopUP Theatrics; Fat Kids Are Harder to Kidnap<\/em> from How Drama; and Who’s There?<\/em> from The Transit Ensemble and New Ohio Theatre. While these are just a few of the productions that have emerged since the pandemic began, they are impressive in scale, quantity, and range of forms. These performances have taken advantage of every feature offered by Zoom, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media platforms. They\u2019ve incorporated chat boxes, polls, and even collaborative detective work on the part of the audience. In addition to Zoom Parah <\/em>(by Instant Caf\u00e9 Theatre), I\u2019ve had the opportunity to watch Who\u2019s There<\/em>?, as well as a recording of WILD RICE<\/a> theatre\u2019s celebrated play, Merdeka<\/em>, written by Singaporean playwrights Alfian Sa\u2019at and Neo Hai Bin. Of these three, Zoom Parah<\/em> and Who\u2019s There?<\/em> illuminate the technological and socio-political interventions of Southeast Asian digital theatre, as well as the ways in which COVID-19 has redefined performance and spectatorship.<\/p>\n In addition to the virtual lobby and chat function, Zoom Parah<\/em> employed live English translation in a separate text box, making the production accessible to those not fluent in Malay. Who\u2019s There<\/em>? like Zoom Parah,<\/em> also made the most of the chat function, along with approximately a dozen polls which punctuated the performance. Each poll gauged audience reactions to the complex issues the play addressed and reflected the responses back to the viewers. This feature required audience members to pause, reflect on a particular scene and its context, and assess the perspectives through which they were viewing the performance. In effect, the polls created a dynamic feedback loop between the cast, crew, and viewers, offering an alternative to the in-person audience response that is so crucial to live performances. Augmenting their efforts to keep audience members plugged in, the play experimented with layering lighting, sound, and mixed media to produce different visual and sound effects within the Zoom frame.<\/p>\n Alongside their adaptation of online technologies, both plays are also noteworthy for their socio-political interventions. Parah<\/em>, the critically acclaimed play<\/a> on which Zoom Parah <\/em>is based, was written in 2011 by award-winning Singaporean writer and resident playwright at WILD RICE theatre, Alfian Sa\u2019at<\/a>. It follow a group of 11th grade students of different races (Malay, Chinese, and Indian) as they navigate reading the controversial Malaysian novel,<\/a> Interlok, <\/em>which sparked national debates surrounding racial stereotypes. The classmates, who share a deep friendship, challenge each other\u2019s views of the novel by reflecting on their lived experiences. Zoom Parah<\/em> retained the original plot and script, bringing the play\u2019s pressing questions into a national landscape marked by pandemic lockdowns and political upheaval<\/a>, and shadowed by new iterations of Malay supremacy<\/a>. At a volatile time for the country, Zoom Parah <\/em>questions what it means to be Malaysian, making visible the forms of belonging and exclusion that continue to shape national identities.<\/p>\n