In The Vault: Ties That Bind, the TS3103 Theatre Lab students of the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Theatre Studies programme engaged with and responded to the text, dramaturgy and context of Eleanor Wong’s Wills and Secession. But as they were developing their work, they had to contend with the escalating COVID-19 crisis. They continually adapted their performances to increasingly stringent social distancing measures, and ultimately, to a new medium when the national Circuit Breaker measures came into effect.
The class, led and facilitated by Robin Loon and Nora Samosir, met on Wednesdays and Fridays, from Jan 2020 till the NUS campus closed due to the Circuit Breaker on 6 Apr. The original public presentation of Ties That Bind was supposed to have taken place on 18 Apr, but was cancelled. Instead, the students adapted their stage performances for the Zoom platform, and presented it in a private teleconferencing session on 17 Apr.
This timeline documents the students’ and Centre 42’s activities and the development of the students’ performance responses as the COVID-19 situation unfolded. Events that are rendered in italics represent the key developments in the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore.