Changing Places: Drama Box and the Politics of Space

Description This book examines how Drama Box negotiates the changing dynamics of space and place to produce art that is responsive to people’s needs and reflective of socio-political issues. Working at the intimate level of community and neighbourhood engagement, this Singapore-based company makes work that is challenging, uncompromising and provocative while being empathetic, supportive and inspiring. It manages to win the hearts and minds of people, and evoke the imaginations of audiences, who are often called upon to speak out, take part and/or become co-creators. Through the application of highly developed and attuned strategies of theatre-making, the company casts a light on difficult and often uncomfortable issues of life in contemporary Singapore. Adapting to new cultural stimuli and emergent modes of performance-making, Drama Box has transformed and developed as an interdisciplinary arts company. This wide-ranging scope of art-making, training and civic engagement demands that Drama Box constantly renews and revolutionizes its practice, never allowing tried-and-tested formulae to propagate complacency. The chapters in this volume focus on key projects since the early 2010s, and how the company’s social and political sensitivities are expanded and sharpened when it responds critically and empathetically to structural and physical changes.