Brown Voices

When Frederic Jameson came up with the notion that all third-world literature was a ‘national allegory’ he created a furore amongst third-world writers and critics. At the same time, many writers embraced this concept as a very useful reading strategy that allows for interrogating the effects of nation-building and overcoming the ‘crippling habits of colonialism’. This workshop explores how this concept can be usefully employed or subverted to create new play scripts. The workshop will use Haresh Sharma’s Model Citizens as an important case study of a play that (consciously) uses and perhaps deconstructs the national allegory.

Through the workshop, participants should gain a greater consciousness of the ubiquitous and insidious presence of the national allegory in numerous local plays. This consciousness should provide them with a tool for coming up with plots and characters who can both exemplify the effects of nation-building and maintenance of national identity as well as question, deconstruct and subvert them.

Our everyday is full of objects—things that enact our actions, give shape to our work, and stand for our presence. This workshop explores the material experience and expressions of ‘Indian-ness’ in Singapore. Through a series of guided activities, we will identify salient objects and discuss the ways objects give form to the varied ways of being Indian here.

While serving as a space for considered discussion, the workshop will inform

1. A staged lecture-performance, and
2. Vithya Subramaniam’s doctoral thesis.
    

As part of Centre 42’s Co-Lab Residency, Brown Voices’ Hemang Yadav presents a playwriting mini-series exploring mythology in plays! A brand new work-in-progress, Purana Residences, will be presented alongside with a two-part workshop titled Makyng the Myth Myne: Using Mythology in Playwriting.