Tbgg touring kit 2 jul 2018

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GOODMAN ROAD B L O C K B, # 0 2 – 0 3 GOODMAN ARTS CENTRE SINGAPORE 439053 T: + 6 5 6 3 4 5 8 9 6 7 C O. R E G. N O 2 0 0 2 0 9 2 5 1 R CHARITY REG NO. 01160

Thick Beats for Good Girls WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY JESSICA BELLAMY AND POOJA NANSI DIRECTED AND DRAMATURGED BY HUZIR SULAIMAN PRODUCED BY CHECKPOINT THEATRE (SINGAPORE)

CONTENTS Project Description

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Synopsis

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Audience Feedback and Press Reviews

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Off The Record with Jessica Bellamy and Pooja Nansi

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Key Artists

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About Checkpoint Theatre

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Contact Checkpoint Theatre

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PROJECT DESCRIPTION

PROJECT DESCRIPTION Thick Beats for Good Girls is a timely new work that explores urgent issues of gender power dynamics, relationships, body politics, music and culture.

Performance-poet Pooja Nansi (Singapore) and playwright Jessica Bellamy (Australia) first approached Checkpoint Theatre two years ago with the idea of writing and performing a play about their love for hip-hop (misogynistic lyrics and all) in the context of negotiating their way — as modern independent women — through life, love and loss. Since that initial pitch, Checkpoint Theatre worked closely with them to develop Thick Beats for Good Girls through numerous drafts, script discussions and workshops, led by Joint Artistic Director Huzir Sulaiman as dramaturge and director. Jessica and Pooja explore how the rhythm and poeticised rage of hip-hop have influenced their lives while growing up in conservative communities (Russian-Australian Jewish, Gujarati-Singaporean Hindu).

Staging: Black Box Theatre (200 - 350 seats) 2 Performers Approx. 85 min In English

With Thick Beats for Good Girls, Checkpoint Theatre continues to hone our reputation for nurturing exciting new dramatic writing and producing original Singapore theatre that is intelligent, insightful and important.

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SYNOPSIS

SYNOPSIS “Where’s all the women that still remember who they slept with?

Where’s all the girls too busy studying to make the guest list?

But when you do go out, you still working what you was blessed with [...]

Don’t make the good girls go bad, no.”

-- Game ft. Drake, Good Girls Go Bad But what is a good girl anyway? Does she have to know her prayers by heart? Can she ever let go, and get her freak on? Thick Beats for Good Girls is the electrifying collaboration between performance-poet Pooja Nansi and playwright Jessica Bellamy, who ask a ton of questions about the balancing act that is being a woman, an ethnic minority and—God forbid—a hip-hop enthusiast.

This is the coming-of-age anthem that wouldn’t make it on to national radio. This is love and finding a sense of belonging while rapping along to lyrics your mom wouldn’t approve of, the rush of walking into a club and feeling the bass in your bones. This is learning to stand in your own light. This is asking the question: Do good girls ever get to call the shots?

Directed and dramaturged by Huzir Sulaiman, Thick Beats combines the distinctive, bold voices of Pooja and Jessica as they ignite the stage with original poems, rhymes and musings on life. At once thoughtful and joyful, claiming and reclaiming, Thick Beats for Good Girls delves into the intersections between race, culture, femininity and hip-hop while embracing the contradictions that lie at the crossroads.

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AUDIENCE FEEDBACK & PRESS REVIEWS

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK “Slick use of a rebel beat. I enjoyed the take over that these women made of a music often seen as objectifying women.

They own the stage. It was therapy and spiritual.”

-- H.

“I feel so heard and seen, and recognised that it is even more important that women - my sisters - of other colours, religion, social status, and sexual identities had space to be heard and seen, front and centre, vulnerable and strong, charming and unapologetic.”

-- H. S.

“The show was a wonderful mix of humour and hard-hitting truths -- freedom, contradiction, reclamation -- everything a night out is, and more. Poetic as heck!”

-- K. C.

“Fantastically original, honest, and thought-provoking. Very professional in execution, and an awesome topic that taught me much about a world I thought I knew.”

-- P. H.

“This was amazing – really touched me both as a hip-hop lover and as an ethnic minority. It made me cry and had soul that is rare to find in Singapore.”

-- V.S.

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AUDIENCE FEEDBACK & PRESS REVIEWS

PRESS REVIEWS “A love letter to the soundtrack of the writers’ youth – and what a soundtrack it is... These are voices that still need to be heard.”

-- Olivia Ho, The Straits Times

“Bold, funny and uplifting… [Thick Beats] encourages us to turn up the volume of our lives and embrace who we really are.”

-- Naeem Kapadia, Crystalwords

“Nansi and Bellamy killed it… there’s a sharing of learned wisdom all through the night.”

-- Teo Dawn, Popspoken

“Rousing in their cry for independent voice and rousing in its anger… you can be sure that we’ll all be dancing to the same thick beats.”

-- Richard Neo, Bakchormeeboy

“Pooja and Jessica share a chemistry on stage that’s electric and joyous to watch…Brilliant writing that seamlessly weaves all the different storytelling elements into one complex, layered and cohesive masterpiece.”

-- Arman Shah, The Everyday People

“The duo’s uninhibited embrace of hip-hop reveals a certain vulnerability about their personal selves against hip-hop’s broader cross-cultural, politically driven history. It is utterly magnetic and it proves that one thing’s for sure—this shit’s tight.”

-- Patricia Tobin, ArtsEquator

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OFF THE RECORD WITH JESSICA BELLAMY & POOJA NANSI

OFF THE RECORD WITH JESSICA BELLAMY AND POOJA NANSI How did the idea for Thick Beats for Good Girls come about?

JESSICA: Pooja and I met when I was on a writing residency in Singapore in 2013. We made a list of everything we had in common: gender, love of poetry, [ethnic or religious] minority background and so on. Then we landed on something a bit unexpected: a passionate love for hip-hop. Something about this more specific and less expected focus drew us in. The work we ended up making with Huzir Sulaiman (director and dramaturge) touches on all our other intersections through the frame of this music.

You’ve both described hip-hop as the older sister teaching you about life and a prism through which you have a point of view of life. What has hip-hop taught you?

POOJA: What hip-hop does for me, it does on the level of me being a minority. It’s music that comes from being invisible or silenced and it’s so loud and in your face that it’s almost impossible to not feel recognised, especially when you come from any minority.

JESSICA: Hip-hop has given me a way to tap into the potential that I didn’t know could be my life. There’s so many versions of me that hip-hop allows me to be— I might be in a monogamous relationship, but I’m still going to hurl out rude lyrics about sexuality.

I might wear whatever I want while still recognising and accepting that other Jewish women might want to dress in ways that are more modest.

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OFF THE RECORD WITH JESSICA BELLAMY & POOJA NANSI

What does being a ‘good girl’ mean to you?

JESSICA: We both come from quite progressive parents and families but there’s always that sense of being the ‘good girl’ in a minority community. Growing up as a Jew in Australia, there was always the question of “How would a good Jewish girl act?” They’re typically quiet, they’re not the centre of attention, and they don’t act in ways that are viewed as lewd or rude. Thick Beats has taught me that it’s OK for good girls to be angry, rude, and stand squarely in your own light.

POOJA: I think growing up in Singapore has meant knowing there’s a safe path to walk, and as a child of immigrant parents I’ve also been brought up to walk a path that will lead me to a life more comfortable than the ones my parents had to struggle for. But growing up an ethnic minority in Singapore has also meant learning how to deal with discomfort, learning to define yourself when you don’t like how others define you. I think we need to reclaim what it means to be “good” girls and that’s part of what Thick Beats does.

Why should people come and watch Thick Beats for Good Girls?

POOJA: This is a show for everyone who has ever felt trapped, defined, reduced or confused. We hope to entertain and educate. Plus, everyone needs­a thick beat in their lives and this show is going to have an amazing soundtrack.

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KEY ARTISTS

KEY ARTISTS

JESSICA BELLAMY

Playwright & Performer Jessica Bellamy is a playwright and theatre-maker. She has worked with companies including Griffin Theatre, Grey Projects (Singapore), Sipat Lawin Ensemble (Manila), Malthouse Theatre and Rock Surfers. Jessica has been an Artistic Director for Outback Theatre for Young People, and has also collaborated with Sydney Living Museums, Arts Centre Melbourne, Dreamhouse Theatre and the Australian Open Kids Tennis Day on youth arts projects.

A recipient of the atyp Foundation Commission for Compass, she is also the winner of the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award for Sprout. Her play Shabbat Dinner was read by Tamarama Rock Surfers and Checkpoint Theatre, and will be produced by Griffin Theatre in 2018. She trained at National Institute of Dramatic Art.

POOJA NANSI

Playwright & Performer Pooja Nansi is a poet, educator and Singapore’s first Youth Poet Ambassador. In 2016, she was conferred the prestigious Young Artist Award. She has published two poetry collections, Love is an Empty Barstool (2014) and Stiletto Scars (2007). A founding member of SingPoWriMo, she co-edited SingPoWriMo: The Anthology (2014). In addition, Pooja co-authored Local Anaesthetic: a Painless Approach to Singaporean Poetry (2014), a teachers’ resource for Singaporean poetry. Pooja has been active in poetry projects such as Speechless (British Council, 2009), for which she engaged in a month-long tour of the United Kingdom to explore issues surrounding freedom of speech.

Her one-woman show You are Here was first commissioned

by Checkpoint Theatre, which explores her own family history of migration. It was showcased as part of the Esplanade’s The Studios series in 2016 and has since toured to Australia for the Queensland Poetry Festival.

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KEY ARTISTS

HUZIR SULAIMAN

Director, Dramaturge & Producer Huzir Sulaiman is the co-founder and Joint Artistic Director of Checkpoint Theatre. A critically acclaimed and award winning playwright, his Collected Plays 1998-2012 was published in 2013. His plays have been translated into German, Japanese, Polish, Indonesian and Mandarin. His essays and commentary pieces have appeared in The Star, The Straits Times and The Huffington Post.

Recent directing includes Thick Beats for Good Girls (2018); FRAGO (2017); The Good, the Bad and the Sholay (2015); Interrogating the Interrogators: Selected Plays of Chong Tze Chien (2015); and #UnicornMoment (2014).

Currently an Adjunct Associate Professor with the National University of Singapore’s University Scholars Programme, Huzir has taught playwriting at the NUS English Department; School of the Arts; New York University Tisch Asia; and Nanyang Technological University.

He also heads Studio Wong Huzir, a creative consultancy.

Huzir was educated at Princeton University, where he won the Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize, and is a Yale World Fellow.

CLAIRE WONG Producer

Claire Wong is the co-founder, Joint Artistic Director and Producer of Checkpoint Theatre. Trained in both Asian and Western performing arts, Claire obtained her Master of Fine Arts (MFA, Theatre Arts) from Columbia University. She directs and acts for the stage and camera.

As a theatre director, Claire recently directed Faith Ng’s Normal (2017, 2015); Luke Somasundram’s Swipe Right (2017); and The Last Bull: A Life in Flamenco by Huzir Sulaiman (2016) which was a commission of Singapore International Festival of Arts. Also an established actress, Claire has performed in landmark Singapore productions and international arts festivals.

Claire holds a law degree from the National University of Singapore, and practised litigation and corporate law. Claire is also co-founder and Senior Consultant of Studio Wong Huzir, a creative consultancy.

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KEY ARTISTS

PETRINA DAWN TAN

Set & Lighting Designer Petrina Dawn Tan holds a Masters of Art with Merit in Collaborative Theatre Production and Design at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She currently practises scenic design and has conceptualised a range of projects including music festivals, circus acts and installations with elements of audience participation.

Petrina first worked with Checkpoint Theatre as a Stage Manager on Occupation (2012) Upon pursuing a design career, she returned to collaborate on #UnicornMoment (2014 and 2016) and Recalling Mother (Singapore, Brisbane and Adelaide). The 2016 production of Recalling Mother was a milestone for Petrina as a set and lighting designer, providing her with the valuable opportunity to expand her design practice.

SHAH TAHIR

Sound Designer Shah Tahir has been involved in various aspects of the Audio and Music industry for over 20 years. He has also arranged and composed for Mediacorp Channel 8 television series. Shah currently serves as the Audio Consultant/ Sound Designer for the National Day Parade (2009-2017), corporate events and ‘live’ TV broadcasts.

His passion has led him to work on numerous theatrical productions with theatre companies such as Checkpoint Theatre, Dream Academy, Pangdemonium, Toy Factory and Wild Rice.

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KEY ARTISTS

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A B O U T C H E C K P O I N T T H E AT R E

ABOUT

“ Singapore’s multi-disciplinary Checkpoint Theatre, already a repository of much of the territory’s best stage talent...”

-Financial Times (UK)

WHO WE ARE Established in 2002, Checkpoint Theatre creates and presents original theatrical and multi-disciplinary work with strong writing, performance and direction. With honesty and humour, head and heart, we produce and develop vibrant and important contemporary Asian plays that connect with, challenge, and inspire both local and international audiences. We are the home of new Singapore playwriting, and we nurture the next generation of Singapore theatre makers.

Checkpoint Theatre is a registered non-profit arts company with Institute of Public Character (IPC) status.

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A B O U T C H E C K P O I N T T H E AT R E

What we do 1. We create and stage theatrical and inter-disciplinary work.

2. We focus on playwriting in developing original Singapore plays.

3. We mentor emerging theatre-makers through workshops, internships and collaborations, and through providing professional resources and platforms to showcase new work.

4. We publish anthologies of original plays written by Singapore playwrights and books on theatre.

5. We pursue collaborations with international partners to show Singapore work abroad. www.checkpoint-theatre.org

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C O N TA C T C H E C K P O I N T T H E AT R E

C o nta c T U s Jerusha Tan Company Manager jerusha@checkpoint-theatre.org www.checkpoint-theatre.org Mailing Address 90 Goodman Road Block B, #02-03 Goodman Arts Centre Singapore 439053 Telephone Number +65 6345 8967 General Enquiries contact@checkpoint-theatre.org

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