THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO PRETTY GIRLS – Programme by Pangdemonium Theatre Company

Pangdemonium 2019 Season

The World Premiere of

Starring

Oon Shu An Adrian Pang

Pam Oei

Thomas Pang

Serene Chen

Jamil Schulze

Paul Courtenay Hyu

Introducing Tess Pang Set Design by

Lighting Design by

Costume Design by

Eucien Chia

James Tan & Genevieve Peck

Leonard Augustine Choo

Sound Design by

Make-up Design by

Jing Ng (Ctrl Fre@k)

Cherylynn Poh

Directed by

Tracie Pang Produced by

Tracie Pang & Adrian Pang

Drama Centre Theatre â&#x20AC;˘ 10 to 26 May 2019 The duration of this performance is approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes, with a 15-minute interval.

Artistic Directors’ Message

“It doesn’t just happen to pretty girls, dear,” Bob told his wife, “it could happen to you too.” And that, as they say, is how the fight started. Don’t be like Bob. Because apart from the cardinal sin of casting aspersions on his wife’s face, to her face, Bob was also making the mistake of “mansplaining” the topic of sexual assault of women by men.

So, it is with irony and selfawareness in check that we embarked on a collaboration with playwright Ken Kwek on This Is What Happens To Pretty Girls. Because we believe

that men are accountable for the ramifications of casual chauvinism, insidious sexism, oppressive patriarchy, toxic masculinity, aggressive misogyny, sexual harassment, sexual assault and, yes, mansplaining. Because as a theatre company commissioning a male playwright to create this play, we are jointly taking ownership of that accountability. Because this is a personal reckoning of the myriad #MeToo issues: we (as parents of boys) and Ken (as a dad of a boy) hope that every mother’s son comes away from this play asking urgent questions and reassessing their attitudes and behaviour towards every father’s daughter. Because what we’re

Artistic Directors’ Message

exploring in this play is, in Ken’s words, “as much a men’s issue – if not more so - as it is a women’s issue”. And because this play is a damning indictment against anyone who believes that this is what happens to pretty girls. While we acknowledge the inexorable force of the MeToo movement, this is not a play about the MeToo movement. We’re instead cracking open the armour of the #MeToo juggernaut, to expose the labyrinthian maze of conundrums, contradictions, complexities and conspiracies, perilous grey areas and blurred lines, and questions with no easy answers. And that is what this play challenges us all to unravel. Ken conducted some 100 interviews with women and men, soaking in their truelife stories of sexual trauma and survival, and at one point confessed to feeling a mixture of heartbreak and outrage, and a responsibility to “tell all their stories”. But as it is impossible to recreate or represent every individual’s experience, what Ken has done is to distill these stories into a complex, multi-layered narrative that is provocative and potentially polarizing, but will resoundingly ring true and resonate with all too many of us.

Thank you, Ken, for being “man enough” (irony: check) to create this play – we know how much of yourself you gave to this. And to the brave individuals who shared their personal stories with us, we are very grateful.

York Times called “audacious, exhilarating, riotous, hilarious, sensational…the most gripping and galvanizing theatre experience.” But don’t just take their word for it, take our word – urine for a real treat.

A big thank you to our awesome Season Sponsor DBS, for being “ballsy” (irony: check) enough to stand by us. And much gratitude to AlfaTech, Ascendas-Singbridge, AWARE, all our Official Supporters, our super Season Ticket holders, fab Friends of Pangdemonium, and wonderful White Knights Anthonia and Leo.

For now, we hope you (and Bob) “enjoy” This Is What Happens To Pretty Girls.

Much love and appreciation to our brilliant cast for laying bare all your baggage in service of this story. Thanks to our fantastic Creative, Production, Technical and Stage Management Teams, for your heart and artistry. And to the kick-ass Pangdemonium family – thank you, thank you, thank you.

Adrian & Tracie Pang Artistic Directors

We’ve been working our asses off to make this play an asskicking experience for you, and we’re planning to kick your asses again in our September production of Urinetown: The Musical, a show that the New

Lots of love,

Playwright’s Message

Playwright’s Message That sexual harassment and assault are endemic problems is a given. My approach has been to show how these problems manifest over time, not only for survivors, but also for their families, friends and colleagues.

The Pangs and I were developing a different story when Harvey Weinstein and other Hollywood luminaries were accused of sexual assault in October 2017. As a deluge of similar scandals surfaced in other industries and countries, it became clear that this was no passing trend confined to American show business. We broke from our original plans to focus on the cultural watershed known as MeToo. We watched as the hashtag turned into a global movement, with large groups of ordinary women connecting to make their private traumas and shared outrage count. And whilst there was pushback in some quarters (and also instances of overreach), just about every industry saw male titans fall from grace, leaving behind them the entrails of institutional failure in the companies they led. In Singapore, the effects of MeToo were subtler than elsewhere, but no less serious. In the first month after the movement took off, the Sexual Assault Care Centre (SACC) saw a 79% spike in cases seen by their counsellors. A few – but not many – high profile cases have since emerged

in the public eye. A recent Ipsos survey showed sexual harassment to be the secondmost important issue facing Singaporean women, after caregiving responsibilities. In my research for this play, I spoke to social workers from the SACC and other organisations, whose insights on the manifestations of trauma were invaluable. I also benefited from material uncovered at a workshop for counsellors, led by the inspirational Dr Rosemary McGowan. Scores of women and men, comprising a few friends and many strangers, shared their opinions and personal experiences with me, with courage and candour. To them I owe tremendous thanks. The play’s title This Is What Happens To Pretty Girls is lifted from just one of the many indelible conversations I’ve had with interviewees, whose fields include the creative arts, the media, academia, sports, F&B, shipping and logistics, finance and banking, law, human resources, engineering, tech and the civil service. More significantly, they are spouses, parents, sons and daughters, siblings and intimates.

There are personal issues: a moment of misguided passion, foolish machismo or toxic masculinity can inflict more damage than we’re prepared to assume. There are systemic issues: how companies deal with workplace harassment is complicated but necessary. And then there are sociohistorical issues: how we respond to the ingrained gender biases of our forebears will affect the way our children negotiate sex in their lives. I hope you as an audience are as unnerved in the viewing of the play as I was in the writing of it. This project has been one of the most difficult, but also one of the most fulfilling, experiences I’ve had as a writer, a man and a father. I am grateful to my family for their support, and to the expert team at Pangdemonium for their industry and brilliance. Finally, a big thank you to Adrian and Tracie Pang, great friends and collaborators who resuscitated my love for playwriting after a ten-year hiatus. It’s great to be back in the theatre.

Ken Kwek Playwright

Of the some 100 interviews that playwright Ken Kwek conducted as part of his research for This is What Happens to Pretty Girls, here are a few excerpts: DP, 29

JY, 38,

Lawyer

Former flight attendant

The first time I told anyone I was being harassed by my boss, a female colleague and female friends cautioned me against speaking out—for the sake of my career and my ‘reputation’. It was heartbreaking, having other women tell me not to seek justice. After I lodged my complaint, my boss denied any wrongdoing and accused me of making the whole thing up. Later I met with two senior (male) partners, who told me I should be quiet and stop making life difficult for my boss. When I objected and persevered with my complaint, I was told to leave the company and to take the money offered to me, on the condition that I never speak about what had happened. I was reluctant to sign a nondisclosure agreement, but what other choice did I have? I signed, despite feeling that it was wrong. I started seeing a therapist some time later. It has taken me a long time to look at myself in the mirror and not be angry, or feel disgusted, or to question if I had somehow brought this upon myself.

Years ago when I was a young flight stewardess, I was serving an off-duty pilot his meal when he molested me. I reported him to my flight supervisor and she told me to make a police report after we landed in Amsterdam. Back in Singapore, however, I ran into problems with my employer. The panel of five men who interviewed me basically didn’t believe me and refused to take action against the pilot. Or maybe they didn’t think the pilot’s offence was that serious. Later on, a lawyer friend advised me to take my case to the authorities here. So I did. I pursued it all the way and the pilot was brought to trial. During the trial, the pilot’s lawyer tried to paint me as a loose woman. He said I’d flirted with the pilot and that’s why he grabbed me—’cos “I wanted it”. It was absurd and I won the case. It was a good outcome for me, but I knew I was lucky. Lucky that my supervisor was a woman who believed me. Lucky to have a friend who gave me good legal advice. Lucky that my parents supported me emotionally. Without them, things would’ve turned out very differently for me.

#MeTooSG

Elizabeth Clements, 23 Journalist What would I do if my brother or boyfriend were to have someone come out and accuse them of sexual assault? Gosh, the thought of that immediately makes me turn cold. It would be quite a defining part of a person’s personality, and I think I’d be quite selfish and feel it was a betrayal. Still, it’s not possible to abandon your family. Like my dad used to say, “Even if you murdered someone, I’d still find a way of loving you.” But with boyfriends or friends, oh god, that’s a hard one. I’d wonder, how can you hide such a terrible secret from me? How does it not tear you apart? Were you drunk or overcome with madness when you did what you did? Have you been depressed since? If they confessed and said they really regretted it, then I’d ask: are you doing it because you’re genuinely remorseful or because you’re scared of being shamed on social media and professionally compromised?

#MeTooSG

LP, 46 Writer

JC, 38 Financial consultant When I went to the police station, I had to wait over seven hours in a freezing aircon room before the duty officer arrived. He was very unhelpful and condescending. He asked me what I was wearing when I was assaulted. Then he said he couldn’t file an official report because too much time had passed since the assault. Instead, he offered to “do me a favour” by calling my attacker to “give him a warning”. This was unacceptable to me, so I called a policemen friend of mine, who came to the station and insisted that the duty officer write the report. Only then was I referred to the Sexual Crimes Unit (SCU). The female SCU officer assigned to my case was also very cold and basically repeated the points made by the duty officer. I was frustrated and appalled that in a country that prides itself on law and order, I could walk out of a police station feeling so demoralized. The assault was bad enough. But the experience of making the police report made it much worse.

Women have known sexual aggression all their lives, whereas men are just waking up to the horrific reality of how pervasive the problem is. In almost all cases of misconduct, it’s never about sex. It’s about power. And men have been conditioned to dominate. I’m not saying women are completely off the hook. We’ve been conditioned to not make a fuss. ‘Let’s be polite.’ ‘Let’s not make the guy feel bad.’ ‘Let’s take care of his feelings before ours.’ There’s also fear involved. What if I piss him off and he turns aggressive? I’ve been in that situation a lot and there’s always the internal conflict of how to put your point across so the situation doesn’t turn ugly.

CG, 48 Charity worker I saw (Canadian psychologist) Jordan Peterson in an interview where he said basically that you have to factor in biological differences between men and women in any sort of debate about gender equality and sexual behaviour. He argues that women are just inherently more “agreeable” than men. Not weaker, but more agreeable, more inclined towards non-confrontational behavior. When you piss a man off, chances are he’ll immediately react. If you grab his crotch, chances are high that he’ll immediately call you out and tell you to piss off. Most women are simply built to be less confrontational and absorb the stress of a situation in order to find a more peaceful solution. I find that there are some truths in his arguments, and they make sense to me as a woman.

SLR, 45 Executive in banking & Financial services When I was in my late twenties I was sexually harassed by my boss for over two years. It was the most stressful thing I’ve ever had to endure, but I never reported him for a variety of reasons, including the fact that I saw him as a friend and respected him on so many other levels. My husband and a close colleague thought I should report him to HR, but I didn’t feel it was the best course of action for me at the time. Other women in the #MeToo movement might say I’m weak, that I shouldn’t have had to take all that shit, but to this day I feel I made the right decision for myself and I’m able to live with that decision. I don’t see myself as weak.

#MeTooSG

Aravindh P, 42 Computer engineer Kelly Fan, 37 Photographer I always thought, if I ever encountered a flasher in public, I would react boldly. I’d call him out, mock his dick size, shame him in front of everyone else and have the last laugh. But when it actually happened at a bus-stop in Orchard Road, I just froze. I was seated on a bench when a man unzipped his pants and exposed himself to me, just inches from my face. Instead of confronting the man, I backed away. I felt violated and sick. As I moved away, the flasher’s gaze lingered on. All I could do at that time was glare back while I phoned a friend to calm myself, to feel safe again. When I think about it today, I’m still angry that I didn’t yell. Why didn’t I react more aggressively and call him out? There was no screaming, no instinct even to call the cops. In that instant, it was more about selfpreservation than justice.

Laura N, 34 Assistant professor When #MeToo happened a lot of women’s Facebook feeds started getting flooded with stories, and while I thought it was a good thing and felt this reckoning was a long time coming, it was also exhausting seeing women re-live their traumas yet again. I mean, all these stories of harassment and abuse - guess what? – they’re nothing new. Because we’ve been living with this all our lives and this is what it’s like to be a woman, this is what it’s like to inhabit a woman’s body, it’s exhausting. We’ve been saying it forever, for years and decades. You also hear these stories of men going ‘Oh, now I get it, I’m really looking at my life and realising this and that about my behaviour’. Again, whilst that’s a good thing, there’s a part of me that can’t help rolling my eyes because women have been saying this for years. Why weren’t you listening then?

Growing up in India, boys were brought up basically not to know how to deal with women, and vice versa. In primary school, I had a teacher who threatened to reduce my grade if I talked to girls. She did likewise with the girls. So when you come of age you don’t know how to interact with the opposite sex, how to engage with them and you just act like a fool. Or if you think you’re popular you go a bit crazy. Some boys will be really pushy or irritating towards the girls because now they feel their popularity gives them access to the strange pedestal that women are put on. It’s totally distorted. Then when I came to America I started to see things differently, men and women relate to each other in a different way here. And gradually I learnt, adapted to the more open culture of men and women being able to engage quite freely. At the same time I was totally uncomfortable with that pressure to have sex, to chat women up in bars and sleep with them just ‘cos it’s the thing to do. I was never comfortable with that.

#MeTooSG

May Ooi, 42 Former Olympic swimmer and mixed martial arts fighter Gillian Tee, 36 CEO of eldercare startup ‘Homage’ Bro culture is very pronounced in Silicon Valley, you have to work extra hard as a woman to have a voice, to counter gender biases. As a woman it’s tiring to have to deal with that culture and when I was younger I was definitely more affected by it. All business developers and engineers in tech have to know their domains and code but as a woman I had to make sure that my performance and coding was rock solid, so there was no excuse to criticise my abilities. And you know there’s the matter of a woman’s outspokenness. If you believe in gender equality, you can’t remain silent and not take a stand about certain issues. But if you do speak up, you have to be very measured, you don’t want to be labelled as that women who’s a complainer, who’s bossy, who should be focusing on the work instead of constantly going on about feminist issues. It’s something that women face that men never have to think about.

Not long ago I attended a Rugby 7’s event. At one point, this big lug of a guy came up to my group and started talking to me. He was drunk, he gave me the whole “you must know who I am” spiel. I didn’t know who he was, though apparently he was a prominent rugby player. Anyway, this guy comes up to me and he starts feeling up my arms. He says, ‘Wow, you’ve got some guns on you.’ But then he doesn’t stop there, he starts basically running his hands all over my shoulders and body. Like WTF? And the horrible thing is that not a single one of the men around me said or did anything to stop the guy. I wanted to take the guy down myself. I could have too. But in the end a female rugby player came over and ‘rescued’ me.

Paul Tobin, 55 Engineer in oil and gas industry I think the #MeToo movement is a great thing because women have been silenced for so long. However, the pendulum has swung rather too far in the other direction so it sometimes implicates men in rather unfair ways. One of the problems I think is how the movement has caused people to look at the past through a different prism. Take Monica Lewinsky, for example. Before she was pretty clear that whatever happened between her and Bill Clinton was consensual. But now she’s looking back and saying there was some coercion. So it makes you wonder. What if you’re with a woman and you both enjoy kinky sex, and then many years later, after you break up, she comes back and says she never enjoyed it, it was abusive. That’s kind of a scary thing that I would never have thought of before #MeToo.

#whyididntreport

“This is what happens to pretty girls”: Why many women don’t report Abby Ellis, a former at journalist at media giant Vice, said that in 2013 Jason Mojica, the former head of Vice News, tried to kiss her against her will. She said that she yelled at him and hit him with an umbrella multiple times. She further faced other unwanted advances from Mr. Mojica after the incident. Following that, their professional relationship soured and she felt she was missing out on work opportunities. She reported it to Nancy Ashbrooke, Head of HR, who responded by telling Ms. Ellis that because she was an attractive woman she would face similar behaviour throughout her career. Incidentally, Ms. Ashbrooke worked as vice president of human resources at Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax Films from 1991 to 2000.

“As women, we get harassed everywhere and we don’t feel compelled to report it because it’s not considered a reportable offense,” Ms. Ellis said to the New York Times. “We were expected to put up with it; women felt that rejecting sexual advances from bosses could result in reassignment or lost work, and that when they reported problems, executives downplayed the allegations. Some said that while they considered taking legal action, but lacked the financial resources and feared retaliation from Vice.”

“There is a toxic environment where men can say the most disgusting things, joke about sex openly, and overall a toxic environment where women are treated far inferior than men,” said Sandra Miller, who worked as head of branded production at Vice from 2014 to 2016. Executives erected a wall of silence around the company. Employees were required to sign a confidentiality agreement when they joined Vice, stating that during and after their employment they would not publicly disparage the company. “Because she was an attractive woman she would face similar behaviour throughout her career.” In our research for This is What Happen to Pretty Girls, we have heard similar testimonies from multiple women, who reported that these seven words that make up the play’s title have been said to their faces when they spoke up about an incident of sexual assault or harassment. These words (and its variants, eg. “what do you expect, when you dress like that?”, “It’s not surprising, if you put yourself in that situation”, etc.) were spoken by heads of HR, bouncers at clubs, teachers, police officers, etc. If this is the kind of response that women are receiving when they report sexual misconduct, being further patronised and cheapened after an already demeaning and traumatising violation, is it any wonder that so many women choose not to speak up?

#whyididntreport

But experts say that some of the most commonly raised causes for doubt, like a long delay in reporting or a foggy recall of events, are the very hallmarks of sexual assault.

Indeed, when we hear a victim of rape, sexual assault or sexual harassment recounting the experience, and especially if it occurred several years back, many people judge it based on sincerity and severity: If it really happened, if it was that bad, why didn’t she report it then? But perhaps the questions we should ask is: Why would women report? Why would you report if no one believes you? If the result of reporting is further upheaval of your life, risk to your safety, your relationships, your career? And what if the outcome of that effort, that risk is ... nothing? In Singapore it has been found that false myths about rape continue to discourage women from reporting. And the fact is that cases of rape and sexual assault are some of the most difficult to prove. Those who do report face a burden rarely placed on victims of any other crime: Proving that it happened. Investigations take a long time, can be invasive, and centre on the credibility of the accuser as much as the accused — whether the crime, in fact, occurred.

When people are mugged or robbed, they are not asked why they did not resist. But in sexual assault cases, failure to resist can be one of the biggest sticking points for jurors. Often both sides acknowledge that a sex act occurred, and the question is whether it was consensual. Fighting back is viewed as an easy litmus test. But women are conditioned not to use violence. Men and women both tend to compare a victim’s actions with what they think they themselves would have done in a similar situation, and research shows that their imagined response usually involves aggressive resistance — even when the attacker is larger and stronger. Neurobiological research has shown that the so-called fight-or-flight response to danger would more accurately be called “fight, flight or freeze.” And even after that initial response, victims can be rendered involuntarily immobile, becoming either paralyzed or limp as a result of the brain’s and the body’s protective response.

The fact is, victims behave in a wide variety of ways. There is no one response to sexual assault. A trauma victim can as easily appear calm or flat as distraught or overtly angry. Later, they may react by selfmedicating, by engaging in high-risk sexual behaviour, by withdrawing from those around them or by trying to regain control. Some child victims initiate sexual abuse, experts say, just so they will know when it is coming. In our digital age, it is no surprise that a teenager conditioned to use “likes” as a measure of self-esteem and having a sense of control, would turn to social media to deal with posttraumatic stress from an assault. Statistics show that a woman who reports more than one assault is less likely to be believed. And when it comes to the most serious assaults, the public imagines that they are committed by strangers in a dark alley, and base their view of how victims should react on that idea — even though the vast majority of assaults occur between people who know one another. Experts say that when the perpetrator is someone trusted, it can take years for victims even to identify what happened to them as a violation. There is a risk of over-simplifying and over-generalising, but Beverly Engel, a psychotherapist of over 35 years, lists the following as the primary reasons that a sexual assault victim does not make a report:

Gershen Kaufman stated in his book Shame: The Power of Caring, “Shame is a natural reaction to being violated or abused. In fact, abuse, by its very nature, is humiliating and dehumanizing.” This is especially true with sexual violations. The victim feels invaded and defiled, while simultaneously experiencing the indignity of being helpless and at the mercy of another person. This sense of shame often causes victims to blame themselves for the sexual misconduct of their perpetrator. Case in point, Lee Corfman, the woman who reported to a Washington Post reporter that she was molested by US politician Roy Moore when she was 14, said, “I felt responsible. I thought I was bad.” It is often easier to blame oneself than to admit that you were rendered helpless or victimized by another person. Time after time, clients who experienced sexual harassment have said things like: “I assumed it was my fault. I’m a very friendly person. I think he must have thought I was flirting with him”; or “I liked all the attention I was getting from him. I guess I was sending him the wrong message.” Engel says that sexual harassment and assault can be a humiliating experience to recount privately, let alone publicly. As human beings, we want to believe that we have control over what happens to

Very often compounding this feeling of shame is the victim’s fear that their own past conduct – from sexual promiscuity or previous sexual abuse, to events like divorce and even employment history, would be added “shameful” factors that further stack the odds against them. Shame is a powerful debilitating force.

Denial, Minimization This tendency to blame themselves and to be overwhelmed with shame leads into the next important reason why victims don’t come forward: denial and minimization. Many victims refuse to believe that the treatment they endured was actually abusive. They downplay how much they have been harmed by sexual harassment and even sexual assault. They convince themselves that “it wasn’t a big deal.” As one client told Engel: “I know a lot of women who were brutally raped, and I have friends who were sexually abused in childhood. Being sexually harassed by my boss was nothing compared to what these women went through. I told myself to just move on and forget the whole thing.” There are also victims who, in the grip of denial, choose to keep in contact with, and even go out of their way to form (or continue) a relationship with their abuser, apparently in an effort to “normalize” the abuse.

#whyididntreport

Shame

us. When that personal power is challenged by a victimization of any kind, we feel humiliated. We believe we should have been able to defend ourselves. And because we weren’t able to do so, we feel helpless and powerless. This powerlessness causes humiliation — which leads to shame.

Fear of the Consequences Fear of the repercussions is a huge obstacle victims face when it comes to reporting sexual harassment or assault — fear of losing their job, fear they won’t find another job, fear they will be passed over for a promotion, fear of losing their credibility, fear of being branded a troublemaker, fear of being blackballed in their industry, fear of their physical safety. This is true whether it is a case of a young woman in her first job being harassed, or a career woman desperately trying to break through the glass ceiling. Many don’t disclose, because they fear they won’t be believed, and until very recently, that has primarily been the case. The fact that sexual misconduct is the most under-reported crime is due to a common belief that women make up these stories for attention or to get back at a man who rejected them. Victims’ accounts are often scrutinized to the point of exhaustion. In high-profile cases, victims are often labelled opportunists, blamed for their own victimization, and punished for coming forward. Another reason why victims don’t report or delay reporting is that they fear retaliation. Sexual harassers frequently (directly or indirectly) threaten the lives, jobs, and careers of their victims. And many victims are frightened by the perpetrator’s position of power and what he could do with it.

#whyididntreport

Feelings of Hopelessness and Helplessness Research has shown us that victims who cannot see a way out of an abusive situation soon develop a sense of hopelessness and helplessness, and this in turn contributes to them giving up and not trying to escape or seek help. Specifically, learned helplessness is a condition in which a person suffers from a sense of powerlessness, arising from a traumatic event or persistent failure to succeed and considered to be one of the underlying causes of depression. Most women feel they are on their own when it comes to protecting themselves from sexual harassment. While they may take precautions to protect themselves, overall, they still feel helpless about changing the situation. Many women have learned the hard way that going to their company HR is useless, since HR departments are notorious for protecting the company at all costs. Victims feel it is useless to come forward, because they have seen the way others have been treated. They feel it is hopeless, because they won’t be believed, and their reputations will be tainted, if not ruined. Women who have already been sexually assaulted or harassed feel especially helpless, since the chances are extremely high that they did not receive the justice they so desperately needed. These fears can cause women to think there is nowhere to turn, to feel trapped and even hopeless. And, as is the case in many instances, if the response they get when they report is along the lines of “this is what happens to pretty girls”, women are made to feel a mixture of shame, denial, fear, hopelessness and helplessness.

There is Hope and Help At the end of the day, if victims of sexual assault or harassment are able to fight through all the above blocks and find it within themselves to speak up and seek help, they are making the first step on the path toward healing. Association of Women for Action and Research’s (AWARE) recently launched their “Aim for Zero” campaign (aimforzero. sg), which strives to “ensure the spaces we occupy are free from harassment and violence, and be supportive first-responders to those who have been assaulted or harassed.” Endorsing the campaign, Minister for Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam said: “It takes courage and conviction for victims to come forward to tell their story. There will be zero tolerance for sexual assault, whether it is against women, men, children, or people of different sexual orientation. The CPC has been updated, and the Penal Code will be amended soon. We have introduced new procedures to strengthen protection for victims and will be introducing new laws to deter sexual assault. We take this seriously.”

Helpline Sexual Assault Care Centre (SACC) 6779 0282 sacc@aware.org.sg

Or was it “an awkward sexual experience”, as she had reluctantly engaged in, and had had to repeatedly curtail, Ansari’s “tone deaf” sexual manoeuvres, which she only afterwards expressed regret over? The chorus of dissent against Grace (many of whom are women who have been in similar situations) claims that she is retrospectively making herself out to be a victim, by twisting an “unwelcome seduction” into an “assault”.

Stories of Men’s Regret

“I’m sorry…”: Stories of Men’s Regret

The first group accuses the second of “victim blaming”; the second group counters with cries of “witch hunt”. In the midst of the he-said-shesaid-they-said maelstrom, Ansari eventually released a statement:

Aziz Ansari: sex offender or lousy Lothario?

In early 2018, an online site called babe.net published a controversial interview with a woman who called herself “Grace”, detailing her date with award-winning US comedian Aziz Ansari, during which they engaged in intermittent sexual acts which she told the interviewer she had felt uncomfortable with. The day after their encounter, Ansari had messaged her, saying: “It was fun meeting you last night,” to which Grace responded: “Last night might’ve been fun for you, but it wasn’t for me. You ignored clear non-verbal cues, you kept going with advances. I want to make sure you’re aware so maybe the next girl doesn’t have to cry on the ride home.” “I’m so sad to hear this,” Ansari replied. “Clearly, I misread things in the moment and I’m truly sorry.”

Grace said in the interview: “I was debating if this was an awkward sexual experience or sexual assault. I believe that I was taken advantage of by Aziz. I was not listened to and ignored. It took a really long time for me to validate this as sexual assault.” There followed a very polarizing and very public debate: was it indeed “sexual assault”, going by her description of the sexual activity being non-consensual? Supporters of Grace’s stance are adamant that she had been mentally and emotionally traumatized by Ansari’s wilful disregard of her protestations against his escalating sexual advances, and he should therefore be held accountable for a sex crime.

“In September of last year, I met a woman at a party. We exchanged numbers. We texted back and forth and eventually went on a date. We went out to dinner, and afterwards we ended up engaging in sexual activity, which by all indications was completely consensual. “The next day, I got a text from her saying that although ‘it may have seemed okay,’ upon further reflection, she felt uncomfortable. It was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and concerned. I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said. “I continue to support the movement that is happening in our culture. It is necessary and long overdue.” A few months later, The New York Times challenged male readers: “Have you ever behaved toward girls or women in ways you now regret?” In three days, they received more than 750 responses. Below are some stories of men who chose to share. “It required some agony to say yes, but I have tried to live as honestly as I am able to do,” wrote Arthur J. Slavin. “We all need to help this discussion go forward.”

Stories of Men’s Regret

Gene Biringer When I was in high school, a group of 10 to 12 friends — boys and girls — occasionally indulged, for reasons I can no longer fathom, in friendly “rumbles,” a kind of group wrestling match. I suppose it was a way to express our need for a little chaos amid our structured suburban lives.

Patrick Herron When I was 15, two of my friends and I once took a drive with a girl who lived on my street. We drove to the top of Mulholland Drive and told her she would have to walk home unless she would allow us to fondle her and expose her breasts. It was a sort of trick to play on girls that had been “passed down” by my friend’s older brothers. As a father of two millennial daughters and one millennial son, I would be horrified today if anything close to that ever occurred. This is the first time I have ever spoken about it. What stayed with me about this was somehow both the innocence of youth and the giddy power I felt over this girl. We met again last year at a funeral for a mutual high school friend, and she was very cordial, albeit brief. I did not offer an apology because the circumstances of the interaction were public. As I drove away it occurred to me how embarrassed I felt meeting her again, and I wondered how she viewed me as an adult now.

On one such occasion, I took advantage of the evening darkness and the jumble of bodies to grope the breast of a girl to whom I was attracted and in whose presence I felt intimidated, because of her beauty, intellect, and grace. It was a spontaneous, unpremeditated act — too public for me to have derived any sexual pleasure from it; too meaningful, because of who she was, for me to have targeted someone else. I think I did it because she seemed otherwise out of reach for me; perhaps such one-sided contact was all the intimacy I could ever hope to enjoy with her. And yet, with so many elbows, knees, hands, and feet flying about, I also recall making an instantaneous calculation: Maybe I can get away with this. I don’t know whether she ever knew who groped her, but she immediately extricated herself, clearly upset, and promptly left without saying a word. I have never forgotten the look on her face: she seemed at once hurt, disappointed, indignant, and bewildered. Seeing her expression, I was seized with remorse for what I’d done, although I had not the courage to confess and apologize, then or later. I knew that what I was doing was wrong, but I didn’t realize how wrong it was until I saw the young woman’s reaction, and I’ve regretted it ever since.

Arthur J. Slavin I was in the US air force, aged 19. I was in a relationship with a woman two years older than I was; we were sexually involved, but not having intercourse — I was committed to being a virgin until marriage. Our sexual life was frustrating for both of us. One night, I urgently tried to convince her to give me oral sex. She did not want this. I did not coerce her physically, but I urged her to do something she rejected, and I played on our emotional entanglement until she did. This was wrong, harmful to her, and I knew it. I have thought about that night ever since, repelled by my behaviour toward a young woman I cared for. I knew it was wrong then, ethically and morally, and I apologized the next day. I am now in my 80s. I think standards may have changed, but I think many young men still act as I did.

Terry Wheaton

In my second year in community college, me and three friends visited a young woman’s apartment — I knew her in passing. Her girlfriend was there. I either grew aware, or remembered — I’m not sure which — that she had a reputation as being “down,” meaning down for a good time.

I dated a lot of girls in high school. On most of our dates we “made out,” with lots of kissing, a little petting and wandering hands but with no genitals exposed to the air. My memory is that I went absolutely no further than the girl wished to go. Stop was stop. No was no.

Yes, but not this time. Her demeanour was different, sadder than usual. Clearly she had decidedly changed, and said as much. Still, my party immediately started coaxing her verbally. I sat back, unsure of exactly where this situation was leading the six of us. She was consistently standoffish, but they continued to lead her into the dark pantry. She did not want to go. I stood outside with the victim’s friend; we were silent, eyes down, Frozen together. The girlfriend must have felt I was keeping watch; and though I was not, I was complicit because my party must have also thought the same. It’s difficult to say why I failed to intervene, but not from social ostracism. I was and am definitely ashamed of what was happening around me, but this was not why I froze. I wasn’t sure what I was experiencing, but I knew exactly what was happening and that the atmosphere overwhelmed everything. I don’t actually know what happened to her in the pantry. I’ve always blocked it out until now. Would I be frozen in that situation again? Definitely not — if it happened today, I would intervene.

Tom Lynch When I was 21, a woman I worked with asked me to take her daughter to her senior prom. Her daughter had a reputation for being “easy.” I went to the prom with her daughter and remember trying to put my hand up her skirt in the back of the limo. She protested, and I persisted. She was very uncomfortable and somewhat distraught. I’m sure I was somewhat high or drunk. I felt guilty when I saw her mom at work that next week and felt her mom knew something had happened. I felt I had ruined the prom for this young woman. And I felt sad I had done that. It still haunts me a bit. This reader call-out prompted me to search for this woman on Facebook, with the intent of messaging her and apologizing. I was not able to find her in my initial search, but I will try to search more extensively.

Stories of Men’s Regret

Fanon Frazier

But my most vivid recollection is of kissing Diane in the back seat of a car on a double date and her just sitting there frozen. She obviously didn’t even want to kiss. I tried again and again. She didn’t say no or stop. She just sat there. To this day, I think of that experience with shame and regret. Those feelings come over me at unexpected times. And I’m nearly 82 years old now. I should have stopped. And I’m sure I should have apologized. I did neither. I’m sorry, Diane.

I do wonder if part of my persisting with this young woman was to prove something to myself? I was not particularly attracted to her. Then again, I was generally not sexually attracted to women, which is one of the realizations that prompted me to come out two years later. I think “conquering” her sexually was something I expected I needed to do.

Behind the Scenes 20

Behind the Scenes

Boys will be boys

“Boys will be boys will be boys…” In This is What Happens to Pretty Girls, the Lester/Charles storyline uncovers something of a “subplot” of the #MeToo narrative, but nevertheless is absolutely pertinent because it comes down to whether it is just “boys being boys”, or an outright case of cruelty, entitlement, and violence. Gillette’s recent “We Believe” ad addresses issues like toxic masculinity, bullying, sexual harassment and the #MeToo movement, playing on the company’s tagline “the best a man can get” to challenge men to be “the best men can be”. Some have voiced their support for Gillette’s rebuke of the “boys will be boys will be boys will be boys” mentality (eg. “This commercial isn’t antimale. It’s pro-humanity’) while others have threatened to go so far as to boycott Gillette (eg. “I will no longer support your company. I will NEVER apologize for being a male because you want to appease the ‘political correctness movement’. Sad day when the best a man could get is a company calling out males for being men.”)

There’s been a lot of talk over the past year about youthful indiscretion— about boys being boys, about the liminal space that separates adulthood and its stark accountabilities from the heady years that precede them. The discussion’s most high-profile round came when US research psychologist and professor Christine Blasey Ford publicly accused then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in the early 1980s, when he was a 17 and she was 15. She said that Kavanaugh, “stumbling drunk” at a party, corralled Ford into a bedroom, with a friend of his, and then pinned her down onto a bed; that he groped her, grinding his body against hers; that he tried to remove her clothes, and then the bathing suit she wore underneath them, while putting his hand over her mouth, to muffle her screams. What Ford is talking about is not the behaviour of boys simply being boys. What she is alleging, instead, is cruelty, entitlement, violence. You would not know that, however, from some of the public reactions to Ford’s allegations. The White House defended its nominee in the broadest of terms. Donald Trump’s evergreen advice

on countering allegations of misconduct: “You’ve got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women. If you admit to anything and any culpability, then you’re dead.” A lawyer close to the White House reiterated the idea that, regardless of Ford’s claims, Kavanaugh’s nomination would not be withdrawn, saying: “If somebody can be brought down by accusations like this, then you, me, every man certainly should be worried. We can all be accused of something.” We can all be accused of something: It’s a neat rhetorical trick. It shifts the accountability from the one person to the many; it claims expansive empathy while revealing just how limited a resource, in the government of the people, empathy really is. Or, rather: He could be any man. And here is the deeper venality of the boys-being-boys defense: It normalizes. It erases the specific details of Ford’s stated recollections with the soggy mop of generalized male entitlement. What red-blooded guy, after all, its logic assumes, hasn’t done, in some way, the kinds of things Ford has described?

Once again, in much of the public discussion, the empathy settles on the man accused. There but for the grace, etc.: If youthful indiscretions like that are allowed to affect the fate of a basketball-coaching, soup-kitchen-volunteering, daughter-nurturing, carpooldriving Supreme Court nominee, whose fortunes wouldn’t be affected? “We’ve now gone from ‘he did this terrible thing at 17’ to ‘he’s a man who treated a woman like that,’” the professor and author Tom Nichols tweeted. “Man, I hope all the people who are making this case had spotless lives at 17, because I sure as hell didn’t.” Nichols has since deleted the tweet; in erasing it, though, he reiterated the general point: “All of you arguing that what someone did at 17 is relevant when you’re 53 better be ready *always* to die on that hill, because it’s going to be the new rule. Don’t complain later when the revolution eats its young.” Even in this reconsidered argument, it is not the substance of Ford’s claim that is treated as the primary outrage; it is the vintage of her claim that is. We all did terrible things when we were young, obviously; do we really want to live in a world that holds us accountable for them?

And so, the salient question about Ford’s allegations became, in some quarters, not whether they are true, but rather whether they count as allegations at all. The cruelties she describes—the alleged acts of dehumanization that left her traumatized, she says, as a 15-year-old and, still, as an adult—might be “terrible,” yes, but they are also … simply part of the natural order of things. Boys, figuring out how to be men. Locker-room talk, made manifest. Who wouldn’t be implicated in that? Who doesn’t see himself, in some way, in this age-old story? If somebody can be brought down by accusations like this, then you, me, every man certainly should be worried.

A YouGov/The Economist poll found 55% of Republicans thought Kavanaugh should be confirmed even if the allegations of sexual assault were true. At the end of the day, Kavanaugh was sworn in as the 114th Justice of the Supreme Court, and one woman’s claims of sexual violence was met with a collective shrug by people who see themselves in the accused but cannot see themselves in her. They weaponized their apathy. They are all Spartacus. They defend each other. And they defend a world in which— as a point of anxiety but also, it seems, as a point of pride—they can all be accused of something.

Boys will be boys

Even more egregiously, we see the accused often employing the tactic known as DARVO: “Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender”, wherein the offender may Deny the behaviour, Attack the individual doing the confronting, and Reverse the roles of Victim and Offender such that the perpetrator assumes the victim role, and turns the true victim, or the whistle blower, into an alleged offender.

And in the case of Lester, hiding his secret trauma behind an armour of uber-machismo; and Charles, denying and burying his past shame under a façade of righteousness - is this really the best that men can be?

Here, a very particular norm is being litigated: the way we talk about sexual violence. Whether such violence will be considered an outrage, or simply a sad inevitability. Whether it will be treated as morally intolerable ... or as something that, boys being boys and men being men, just happens.

Brett Kavanaugh

Cast Biographies

Oon Shu An Amanda Oon Shu An is an actor who has been spreading her natural warmth and infectious energy across theatre, TV, film and internet. Her first show out of LASALLE College of the Arts brought her to kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels with The King Lear Project. She is currently an Associate Artist with Checkpoint Theatre. Her sell-out one woman show, the cross-media production #UnicornMoment with Checkpoint Theatre, was nominated for Best Original Script at the 2015 Life! Theatre Awards. Other theatre work includes: ‘Ellen’ in Mergers and Accusations (Esplanade Studios); ‘Chief of Army, BG Wong’ in Army Daze 2 (Michael Chiang Playthings); ‘Miss SQ, Jeanette’ in Boeing Boeing (Wild Rice); and ‘Xi Yan’ in Chinglish (Pangdemonium), for which she was nominated Best Actress.

Television credits include Jing Fei in Netflix’s Marco Polo and leads in Code of Law; Mata Mata; and Meet the MP for which she was nominated at the Asian Television Awards for Best Comedy Actor/Actress. Recently, she represented Singapore at the Asian Academy Creative Awards in the Best Actress category for her role in HOOQ’s How to Be a Good Girl. Her feature film credits include Rubbers; Our Sister Mambo; and 4Love.

Tess Pang Natasha Tess (it/its) is an interdisciplinary performer, choreographer, and model, whose body of work is constantly evolving. Tess recently made it’s debut in theatre at Five Arts Centre in Kuala Lumpur in the devised work Tiga 3, which traveled to Penang in March. This Is What Happens To Pretty Girls is Tess’ first professional theatre production in Singapore. As a dancer, Tess trained and toured with Malaysian artist Mizz Nina and choreographer Marcus Tucker (US), prior to a brief period at LASALLE where it performed in works by Marie Gabriel Roti (UK), Akiko Kitamura (Japan), Eva Tey (MY), and Sandhya Suresh (SG). Tess was then an apprentice under T.H.E Second Company in Singapore, working with choreographers Inma Marin (ES) and Goh Shou Yi (SG). In recent years, Tess has created solo performance art pieces, including: No Regrets For Our Youth under DXXXXD Collective (Aliwal Arts Fest/ SG), For Others (Urbanscapes Festival/MY), and Grace (Halal/Haram exhibition at Cult Gallery/MY). Tess is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to share the stage with such talented, supportive, and compassionate human beings.

Cast Biographies

Serene Chen Pam Oei

Becky

Maureen

Serene Chen is a graduate of the National University of Singapore’s Theatre Studies programme. She has worked professionally in radio and television, and is an Associate Lecturer at the School of Technology for the Arts, Republic Polytechnic.

Pam has been in over a hundred theatre, television and film productions and is known equally for being a dramatic as well as a comedic actor. Her theatre acting credits include the critically acclaimed Hotel; Animal Farm; The Campaign to Confer the Public Service Star on JBJ; Titoudao; Everything But The Brain; Rent; and Boeing Boeing but is probably most known for being one third of the Dim Sum Dollies®, Singapore’s most popular comedy cabaret act. This is What Happens to Pretty Girls is her first play with Pangdemonium. Pam’s film credits include Peggy Su! (BBC Films); Forever Fever (Miramax Films); The Blue Mansion (Tiger Tiger Pictures); Porn Masala (Butter Factory); and Unlucky Plaza (Kaya Toast Pictures, 2014). Coincidentally, every single film has featured Pangdemonium Artistic Director, Adrian Pang. In December 2012, Pam made her directorial debut with the Singaporean musical, Hansel & Gretel. Since then she has directed The Emperor’s New Clothes; Boeing Boeing; and Mama White Snake for theatre company Wild Rice. Pam is also the lead singer of Singaporean rock band Ugly in the Morning, which released their latest album 3 or More If You Can Afford It in 2018.

Serene is a three-time winner of the Straits Times Life Theatre Awards for Best Supporting Actress, for Landmarks: Asian Boys Volume 2 (Wild Rice, 2004); 8 Women (S’ing Theatre, 2014); and Public Enemy (Wild Rice, 2016). Other recent stage credits include Framed, by Adolf; Writes; and Wong Kar Wai Dreams (The Finger Players); Detention Katong (Dream Academy); The House of Bernarda Alba (Wild Rice), and Charged; and GRC for the Singapore Theatre Festival (Teater Ekamatra). On film, Serene starred in Colin Goh and Woo Yen Yen’s 2006 award-winning Singapore Dreaming; 3Meals; Paper House; Autograph Book; My Autograph Book, Dirty Bitch; Singapore Panda; The Studio – The Songs that sung her; and Pencil. On television, Serene has reprised her role of Deputy Public Prosecutor Sally Cheng for all 3 seasons of criminal series, Code of Law. She is excited to be working with Pandemonium for the first time and to be reunited with Ken Kwek after acting in his 2012 award-winning film, sex. violence.family values.

Thomas Pang Sean (he/him/his) is an actor, theatremaker, and acting coach. He conducts acting workshops, as well as private and production coaching. He continues to train with Master Teacher I Putu Budiawan Miller. Selected Theatre Credits: Ophelia; Versus (Cake Theatrical Productions); The Good the Bad and the Sholay (Checkpoint Theatre); This Chord and Others (Esplanade - Theatres On The Bay); Great Wall (Glowtape Productions); The Shape of a Bird (Saga Seed); Julius Caesar; Hand to God; Romeo and Juliet (Singapore Repertory Theatre); 13.13.13. (TheatreWorks); Peter and the Starcatcher; Dragonflies and Tribes (Pangdemonium). Directing credits: Salt Pepper Ketchup (San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company); Cold Bones No More (Think City, KL); you/ me in collaboration with Lim Pei Ern (M1 Dance Festival). TV and Film credits: Average Guys; Glitch; Tiong Bahru Social Club

Cast Biographies

Paul Courtenay Hyu Charles

Jamil Schulze Ray Jamil Schulze is an actor, teacher, and #bedroommusician, raised and based in Singapore. Since graduating from LASALLE College of the Arts’ Acting programme, Jamil has taken on a variety of productions in the theatre, most notably: Jo Tan’s Forked (M1 Singapore Fringe); Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons (Adeeb & Shai); and Dragonflies (Pangdemonium). This Is What Happens To Pretty Girls marks Jamil’s second collaboration with Pangdemonium. Jamil is also starring as Brian Gomez in the new Toggle series Paddles Up. Outside of the theatre he labours obsessively on his many passion projects - mainly his music, and a handful of original writing and devising works with friends and colleagues that he hopes will find their way to bloom.

Paul is a British born actor. He wrote and produced a sketch comedy pilot broadcast by the BBC and wrote a controversial 4-part satire broadcast on the UK’s Channel 4. In 2000, he created a cabaret act, Chinese Elvis, which has taken him around the world, and he has performed as such for celebrities including Kylie Minogue, Bob Geldof, Sting, Angelina Jolie, Mick Jagger as well as fronting an advertising campaign in the UK for AOL and winning an “international Elvis” episode of The Weakest Link. This is Paul’s third time in Singapore having appeared with Adrian Pang in Singapore’s first production of The Magic Fundoshi in 1993 and for SRT in The Fantasticks in 1997. He occasionally works in Germany due to his having grown up there and speaking the language a little.

Adrian Pang Lester Adrian’s UK theatre credits include Hair; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Comedy of Errors; The Magic Fundoshi; The Mens Womb; A Christmas Carol; Tormented; The Circles of Paradise; One for The Road; Sleeping Beauty; New Territories; Take Away and Privates on Parade. Singapore stage work includes the title roles in Hamlet, Macbeth and The LKY Musical; Twelfth Night; Forbidden City; Into the Woods; The Glass Menagerie; Little Shop of Horrors; They’re Playing Our Song; Barefoot in the Park; A Twist of Fate; Boeing Boeing; The God of Carnage; The Weight of Silk on Skin. For Pangdemonium: The Full Monty; Closer; Dealer’s Choice; Spring Awakening; Swimming with Sharks; Next to Normal; The Rise & Fall of Little Voice; Frozen; Circle Mirror Transformation; Tribes; Chinglish; The Effect; Falling; Rent; The Pillowman; Fun Home; Dragonflies; Peter and the Starcatcher; Late Company. At the Straits Times Life Theatre Awards Adrian has won the Best Actor Award four times, for The Dresser; Much Ado About Nothing; Rabbit Hole and The LKY Musical. The productions he is most proud of are his two sons Zack and Xander.

Creative Biographies

Creative Biographies Tracie Pang Director Tracie trained at Croydon College, London, and has clocked up 25 years working throughout the UK and Asia working with Quicksilver Theatre Company, Johnny Ball Productions, Mu-Lan Theatre Company, Pimlico Opera, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Surrey Opera, and Theatreworks. Tracie set up The Little Company, a theatre company that provides quality plays for children aged 3 –14, for whom she has written and directed numerous productions. She was Associate Artistic Director for Singapore Repertory Theatre from 2006-2010. In 2010 Tracie founded Pangdemonium Theatre Company with her husband Adrian. At the Straits Times Life Theatre Awards, Tracie received Best Director nominations for Pangdemonium’s The Full Monty; Dealer’s Choice; Rabbit Hole; Next to Normal; Fat Pig; Tribes, Dragonflies and Late Company, and also previously for The Dresser; The Snow Queen and The Pillowman. She won the Best Director Award for Pangdemonium’s Falling. Other productions she has directed for Pangdemonium include Closer; Spring Awakening; Swimming with Sharks; Gruesome Playground Injuries; The Rise & Fall of Little Voice; Frozen; Circle Mirror Transformation; Chinglish; The Effect; Rent; The Pillowman; Tango; Fun Home; The Father; Peter and the Starcatcher; and Late Company.

Tracie is very proud to have been awarded the 2015 AWA International Woman of the Year for The Arts, and the 2017 Women’s Weekly “Great Women of our Time” Award for Media and the Arts.

Ken Kwek Playwright Ken Kwek is an award-winning screenwriter, director, playwright and author. His screenwriting credits include The Blue Mansion (2009), Kidnapper (2010), It’s A Great Great World (2011), Republic of Food (2018) and Trafficker (2019). His directing credits include the satirical short film anthology Sex.Violence. FamilyValues (2013) and the comedy thriller UNLUCKY PLAZA, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and won Best Director at the Tehran Jasmine Film Festival 2015. His previous full-length plays include Apocalypse: LIVE! (Wild Rice, 2008) and The Composer (Spare Room, 2009). His first children’s novel Timothy and the Phubbers (2018) was a national bestseller and his second, Kelly and the Krumps, will be published in September 2019. Kwek is also a contributing writer for the South China Morning Post and lecturer of film at the National University of Singapore.

Eucien Chia Set Designer This is What Happens to Pretty Girls marks Eucien’s tenth outing with Pangdemonium, following his recent set designs for The Father and RENT. Previous collaborations with Pangdemonium include the plays The Pillowman, Fat Pig, Frozen and Chinglish. His work on Pangdemonium’s musicals Little Voice and Spring Awakening both received nominations for Best Set Design at the ST Life! Theatre Awards. Selected productions: A $ingapore Carol, The Emperor’s New Clothes (Wild Rice); Superhero Diaries, Shanghai Blues (Toy Factory); H is for Hantu (STAGES); Sing To The Dawn (I Theatre); Normal (Checkpoint) Awards: ST Life! Theatre Awards Best Set Design winner for Company (Dream Academy); December Rains (Toy Factory); and Dealer’s Choice (Pangdemonium) Eucien thanks God for his amazing family.

Creative Biographies

James Tan Lighting Designer James was conferred The Young Artist Award and awarded an Arts Professional Scholarship by The National Arts Council of Singapore. He was a recipient of the Arena Stage Allen Lee Hughes Lighting Design Fellowship; United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) - YD&T Lighting Design Award; USITT Commissioners Grant & International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) - Education Trust for IALD Enlighten Americas; and The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards - Best Lighting Design 2017/2018. Master of Fine Arts in Lighting Design, University of California, San Diego. Selected Theatre Lighting Design Credits: The Father; Dragonflies; and Peter and the Starcatcher (Pangdemonium); Press Gang and Public Enemy (Wild Rice); Disgraced and Hello Goodbye (Singapore Repertory Theatre); Red (Blank Space Theatre in collaboration with Esplanade – Theatres On The Bay); Lord of the Flies (Blank Space Theatre with Sightline Productions); and Ah Boys To. Men. – The Musical (Running into the Sun). Selected Architectural Lighting Design: OCBC Garden Rhapsody: Rainforest Orchestra – Asia & Australia Edition (Gardens By The Bay) and The Art of the Brick® Exhibition by Nathan Sawaya (MBS ArtScience Museum). International & Regional Tour: Relatively Speaking (The British Theatre Playhouse) & God Of Carnage (Singapore Repertory Theatre).

Genevieve Peck Lighting Designer 28

Genevieve graduated from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London in 2012 with

a BA(Hons) in Theatre Practice, specialising in Lighting and Projection/Video Design. Design credits include Tango; The Effect (Pangdemonium); Lear is Dead; Art Studio (Nine Years Theatre); Four Horse Road; I Came At Last To The Seas; Lao Jiu 2017; Liao Zhai Rocks 2016; If There’re Seasons 2014 (The Theatre Practice); I Am Trying To Say Something True (Esplanade); Missing; sixpointnine; The Silly Little Girl and The Funny Old Tree (Drama Box); Prism (Toy Factory); Sides 2016 (Frontier Danceland); ASEAN Para Games 2015 Opening and Closing Ceremonies (Philbeat Pte Ltd); Kit Chan Spellbound Concert (Banshee Empire); Soul Journey Nine Songs (Siong Leng Musical Association).

Jing Ng (Ctrl Fre@k) Sound Artist/Composer Awarded with National Arts Council Scholarship, Jing graduated with First Class Honours from Rose Bruford College (UK) specialising in Performance Sound. He has a keen interest in sound design in theatre and dance; and enjoys collaborative, devised and experimental works. Singapore credits: Silly Little Girl and The Funny Old Tree; Titoudao; A Fleeting Moment; Lord of The Flies; Red Sky; Prism; Fundamentally Happy; Dragonflies; Art Studio; Attempts, The Father. Nominated for Best Sound Design in the 2014 Off West End Theatre Awards for Outfox Productions’ Corpus Christi (UK). Nominated for Best Sound Design in the 2018 The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards for Dragonflies (Pangdemonium Theatre Company).

Leonard Augustine Choo Costume Designer Leonard Augustine Choo is an international costume designer, textile shopper, and bespoke maker currently based in Singapore. He was the principal fabric shopper for the costume department of the New York City Ballet for 12 seasons, and has worked on over 75 unique ballets – more than a third of which have been new works or complete rebuilds. Leonard designs costumes for dance, opera, theatre, and film, and his credits include Guards at the Taj (Singapore Repertory Theatre), iSing International Opera Festival (Suzhou, China), American Ballet Theatre Fall 2018 Campaign Video (Ezra Hurwitz), Moulin Rouge! Video Spot (Ezra Hurwitz), Forest Boy (NY Musical Theatre Festival), Out of the Basement (RADD Theatre Co., NY), Imagining Madoff and Pattern of Life (New Repertory Theater Co.), Don Giovanni (BU Opera Institute and Huntington Theatre Co.), and House (Boston Center for American Performance). Leonard has draped and tailored for the Juilliard School, the television shows Gotham (FOX) and Crashing (HBO), TransSiberian Orchestra, Ballet Academy East in New York, Manhattan School of Music, Barrington Stage Company, and Opera Omaha. Leonard holds an MFA from Boston University, and in 2011 was the first costume designer awarded the Singapore National Arts Council Overseas Arts Scholarship.

Cast Oon Shu An Amanda Tess Pang Natasha Pam Oei Maureen Serene Chen Becky Thomas Pang Sean Jamil Schulze Ray Paul Courtenay Hyu Charles Adrian Pang Lester

Creative Team Tracie Pang Director Ken Kwek Playwright Eucien Chia Set Designer James Tan Lighting Designer Genevieve Peck Lighting Designer Jing Ng (Ctrl Fre@k) Sound Artist & Composer Ctrl Fre@k Sound Designer Leonard Augustine Choo Costume Designer Cherylynn Poh Make-Up Designer Anais Matthew Directorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Assistant

Production & Stage Management Team Sunitha Nayar Stage Manager Cat Andrade Assistant Stage Manager Toh Wen Fang Assistant Stage Manager Oops & Undo Technical Managers Melissa Ho Props Master Maryam Noorhimli Props Assistant Noorasmidah Rashid Costumes Coordinator Nureen Rider Wardrobe Supervisor Nadya Noordin Dresser Elim Lew (Ctrl Fre@k) Sound Operator No.1 Rachel Ong Sound Operator No.2 Enqi Chee (Roadie Pte Ltd) Lighting Board Programmer Syira Raffei Make-Up Artist Natalie Chung (Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Atelier) Scenic Artist

Pangdemonium Team Tracie Pang Artistic Director / Producer Adrian Pang Artistic Director / Producer Debbie Andrade Company Manager Crispian Chan Creative Director / IT Katerina Tiapula Donor Relations Manager Kelvin John Lim Business Development Manager Kristal Zhou Marketing Manager Jasper Lim Creative Designer Victoria Lim Production Manager Leah Sim Production Coordinator Kimberly Wong Company Administrator Leau Xin Ning Company Senior Accountant Kusum Sandhu Sales & Ticketing Manager Amanda Chan Ticketing Assistant Stephanie Street Resident Playwright James Tan Associate Artist Lily Zorrilla Solk Production Apprentice

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO PRETTY GIRLS Team

Pangdemonium Board Aun Koh Tan Kheng Hua John Currie Raeza Ibrahim Tracie Pang Adrian Pang

Friends of Pangdemonium!

Thank you for being our Friends

The Grace, Shua and Jacob Ballas Charitable Trust

Wee Chwee Heng Jaime, Erin, Emily, Erica & Evelyn Azmeen Moiz Anonymous Lucy Reed & Michael Glennon Roopa Dewan Christian Lukey Bynd Artisan Pte Ltd Goh Sze Wei Shawn Galey & Katherine Krummert

Benedict Ong Sophine Chin & Avon Neo Ronald & Janet Stride Toh Bao En Bernard Lau Anonymous Mylene Tay Gretchen Liu Dr Jason Tan Alvin & Christina Liew Cecilia Ee Beng Neo Prof. Tommy Koh Agnes Ee Peng Neo Jake, Ta & Sasithon Jacobs Dr Lim & Prof Stringer Douglas & Christy Lee-OLoughlin Heng Gek Hwah Sardool Singh Yvonne Tham Anonymous Mahita Vas Anonymous

Crusaders

Champions

Pangdamaniacs

Jeanette Tan Holywell Foundation Anonymous

Beth Hollahan Jordan J Dea-Mattson John Currie & Hong Sun Chee Ferry De Bakker & Yoon Lai Cheng

Nithia Devan Lim Tze Min Janet Y.K. Lim Cynthia Wong Jupiter Tsui Benedict See Toh Andrew Lim Lim Mingcheng Susan Sim Nicholas Deroose Geoffery Baker Siva Govindasamy & Malini Sitaram

Heroes White Knights Anthonia Hui & Leonardo Drago

Winged Crusaders

Superheroes Mrs Lee Li-ming Jim Rogers & Paige Parker Conrad & Andrea Lim Anonymous

Steven Mark Miller Leslie Lee Gerry & Sharon Craggs Mary Ann Tear Jackson See & Diana Lim Nick and Nikki Weber Ronald Gwee Catherine & Elvin Too David Neo

Anonymous Kang Mei Ling Ronald JJ Wong Kelvin Loh Matthew Hing Yap Zhi Jia Phyllis Tan Lauren Mehrbach Tasneem Rehana Haq Liew Kim Fui Foo Yee Ling Wei Yiming Jane Binks & Zelig Chua Petrine Yap Alan & Brooks Goodyear Ann Mei & Mahat

Sincere thanks to all our new Friends who made their kind donations after this list went to print.

Join our philanthropic friends and help us tell the stories that you want to hear.

Friends of Pangdemonium!

Become a Friend of Pangdemonium!

You will receive complimentary tickets, priority seating, discounts on additional purchases, pre-show drinks, backstage tours, and acknowledgements.

Pangdemaniac Champion Hero Superhero Crusader Winged Crusader White Knight

$500 $1,000 $2,500 $5,000 $10,000 $25,000 $50,000

Pangdemonium Theatre Company Ltd is a registered charity with IPC status and your cash donation is eligible for a 250% tax deduction. For information on joining our Friends of Pangdemonium programme, contact fundraiser@ pangdemonium.com Donate directly at: www.pangdemonium. com/support-us/

Acknowledgement

Tracie and Adrian would like to say a big thank you to the following for creating further pangdemonium with us on our production of This Is What Happens To Pretty Girls.

SEASON SPONSOR

PRODUCTION SPONSOR

SUPPORTED BY

OFFICIAL F&B

OFFICIAL WINE

OFFICIAL GIN

OFFICIAL TIMEPIECE

OFFICIAL ACCOMMODATION

OFFICIAL COMMUNITY PARTNER

OFFICIAL WHISKY

Pangdemonium Theatre Company is a recipient of support from the National Arts Councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Major Company Scheme for the period from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2020

When the pure, cool beauty of the Arctic and simple elegance of the Danish design melt into one, a n e w e r a d a w n s : I t ’s B E R I N G - T i m e .

• S C R AT C H - R E S I S TA N T C E R A M I C • S TA I N L E S S S T E E L • S A P P H I R E G L A S S

beringtimesgp

beringsgp

www.beringtime.com

SHOP 24 HOURS AT COCOMI.COM

27 Sep - 13 Oct Drama Centre Theatre

“A fresh, unique, original, impudent, colourful, exciting, irreverent, surprising and wonderful musical!” (New York Observer)

Book & Lyrics by Greg Kotis Music & Lyrics by Mark Hollmann

URINETOWN was produced on Broadway in September, 2001 by the Araca Group and Dodger Theatricals in association with TheatreDreams, Inc. and Lauren Mitchell

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO PRETTY GIRLS – Programme

Articles inside

Pangdemonium's Programme Booklet for THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO PRETTY GIRLS.