This is our third consecutive year undertaking the mapping exercise to document all the local productions in the calendar year. Back in 2017, we started the timeline because we kept hearing from new audiences that there wasn’t much happening in Singapore theatre. But avid theatre-goers knew otherwise — some weekends were so chock full of theatre that it was impossible to catch them all.
Singapore Theatre in 2019 maps a whopping 219 local productions, up from 163 in 2018 and 133 in 2017. It is a strong indication that Singapore theatre is producing more as a whole, but the increase could also be due to our mapping methodology. We began with the list of shows offered to our Citizen Reviewers, later cross-referencing that with online arts events listings like Arts Republic and the websites of various performance venues. The surge in this year’s total may be partly because more theatre performances (especially small productions) are documented online.
Starting last year, we’ve attempted to depict the daily level of performance activity going on in the scene. What we’ve come up with is a visualisation of the ebb and flow of Singapore theatre, with productions culminating to a fever pitch on weekends, before dying down on ‘dark’ days (Mondays) when the industry collectively takes a breather.
We’ve also had the unenviable task of deciding what could be considered “Singapore theatre”. We’ve settled on theatrical productions created and/or staged by local theatre-makers, which includes tertiary and arts schools, to independent theatre-makers, to the major established theatre companies.
Click on the PDF below to view the timeline.