In An Actor’s Conversation with Oliver Chong
Organised by The Arts House
17 Oct 2015 (Sat), 3pm
The Arts House created a new programme with In An Actor’s Conversation, a series of intimate dialogue with distinguished theatre actors in Singapore. Pure Talents veteran emcee Danny Yeo was invited to host the very first inaugural session with local director-writer-actor Oliver Chong.
Theatre making is a fine and complex art that runs deeper than memorising lines on a script. In Towards a Poor Theatre, Polish theatre director and theorist Jerzy Grotowski centred the art of theatre making on the skills of the actor. This art is built upon the relationship forged between the actor and the audience within a specific time and space, as every gesture and movement on stage stimulate and create drama. The format of In an Actor’s Conversation is inspired by the American television series, Inside the Actor’s Studio. Each actor will chat and share about his or her theatre career on specific sets of questions designed for the interviewees to demonstrate their inner state of mind and of course acting skills. The sessions were all conducted in Mandarin and moderated by an established arts personality to bring the actors through an authentic conversation. Chief Executive Officer of Arts House Limited Ms Lee Chor Lin moderated the other two sessions with Yeo Yann Yann and Nelson Chia.
Multi-talented Oliver Chong is one of Singapore’s most versatile directors/playwrights/actors. He has been nominated several times for his acting and directorial efforts at The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards. In 2011, he won ‘Production of the Year’ for A Cage Goes in Search of a Bird with his actors’ collective, A Group of People. In 2013, he won ‘Production of the Year’ and ‘Best Script’ for Roots.
A recognised media personality and theatre director-writer-actor, Danny Yeo is a multi-hyphenate with two decades of rich experience in the media industry across radio, television, newspaper, magazine and film. He is an Associate Artist with the Singapore Repertory Theatre and a Board Director with Drama Box.
