Synopsis:

Challenge your ideas of inclusivity, community, and creativity at the SDEA Theatre Arts Conference 2021 as we question: How have our notions of 'theatre' been disrupted within people and places, allowing for new ways of living and working? What can we do to ensure better access and representation in our practices? How do we expand our capacity for discovery and reinvention?

Creatives, by nature, are catalysts for change — they disrupt, raise questions, challenge thoughts, and seek out a sense of agency. As community workers, educators, applied theatre practitioners, and artists, we tilt the axis when we dare to re-imagine, re-create and re-define the status quo. We strengthen our ecosystem when we come together to share and build upon each other's insights and creative processes.

This 5th iteration of the SDEA Theatre Arts Conference invites attendees to explore working with the unfamiliar, the challenging, the new, and the alternative, within Singapore, Asia and the world. What challenges do artists have to overcome when working in or alongside societies that expect conformity? How can art-makers re-conceive the use of public, mainstream, and non-conventional spaces? How do the conversations of drama educators and theatre practitioners change from community to community, place to place?

The conference will feature a range of research papers and presentations as well as interactive, experiential and practical workshops on applied drama and theatre practices within the citizenship, community, education, and health sectors. We invite explorations and responses to the 2021 theme, Creative Disruption: Exploring New Ground, addressing but not limited to:

- Artistry in process-driven work
- Disability representation in the arts and creating performance using the Aesthetics of Access
- Creating work in spaces and places of tension
- Reimagining creative pedagogies in education
- Inclusion in creative practice within and beyond the classroom
- Applied arts and physical and/or mental health
- Unconventional interventions in conventional spaces
- Artist-led responses and strategies to creating work from disruption

In light of disruptions caused by COVID-19, The SDEA Theatre Arts Conference 2021 will be adapted to an online digital format, and will take place between Saturday 22 May 2021 and Sunday 30 May 2021.

Despite the easing of circuit breaker measures in the host country of Singapore, the impact of COVID-19 has far reaching consequences, and much uncertainty remains on a global level. The TAC organising committee and the SDEA committee of 2019-2021 has therefore taken the step to move the conference online, to make it accessible to those who would not have been able to make it down to Singapore due to scheduling conflicts or travel restrictions.

To apply

1. Download the Proposal Open Call Form here.
2. Email a completed form to conference@sdea.org.sg by Saturday, 31 October 2020, 11.59pm (SGT)
3.SDEA will get in touch with you regarding your application.