Temporary Chinese Theatres《当场》

Synopsis:

Where does Chinese-language theatre go from here?
"If it dies right here and now, do we throw a party or hold a wake?"

Directed by Liu Xiaoyi and co-created with the inaugural graduates of NAFA's BA (Hons) in Contemporary Chinese Theatres, Temporary Chinese Theatres brings together six emerging artists standing at the threshold between student and practitioner.

As audiences dwindle, new work becomes rare, and linguistic borders blur, has Chinese-language theatre slipped into a small circle sustained mostly by love? Where, then, do "contemporary Chinese theatres" go next? Perhaps the contemporary is, ultimately, only temporary—a provisional site that appears and dissolves: brief, fluid, evanescent. The very structures and currents once hailed as "contemporary" may soon stand as fleeting ruins of the passing present.

Meanwhile, how do these six graduates look back on their years of study, and how do they imagine their futures as artists? Temporary Chinese Theatres is neither a paper nor a manifesto. It is a love letter written in the moment, a not-quite-finished obituary, and a live experiment by a new generation about presence, thresholds, and disorder.

A joint production by Emergency Stairs and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA),University of the Arts Singapore (UAS). The BACCT—Asia's first three-year undergraduate programme conducted primarily in Chinese. This production continues Emergency Stairs' vision of arts education as a laboratory for experimentation and innovation, and as a living space for cultural research and renewal.

华文剧场，何去何从？
"如果它当场死去，我们该撒花，还是该上香？"

《当场》由刘晓义执导，携手南艺"当代华文剧场（荣誉学位)"课程首届毕业生共同创作。

当观众越来越少，原创成了偶发的惊喜，语言的边界也渐渐模糊——华文剧场是否正慢慢变成一个靠爱发电的文化小圈子？"当代华文剧场"的未来，又将走向何方？或许，一切"当代"终究只是"当场"。在不断生成与消逝之间，它只是一个临时的现场，短暂、流动、过眼云烟。那些被视为"当代"的结构和思潮，是否都将沦为转瞬即逝的暂时性废墟？

而这六位毕业生站在"毕业"与"失业"之间的门槛上，他们又如何回望这几年的学习，如何思考各自的未来？《当场》不是论文，也不是宣言。它是一封写在当场的情书，一纸"还没完全死透"的讣告，也是六位年轻人关于现场、跨越与无序的剧场实验。

本作品由避難階段与新加坡艺术大学南洋艺术学院联合呈现。"当代华文剧场（荣誉学位）"课程是亚洲首个以华文为主要教学语言、为期三年的本科课程。《当场》延续避難階段的理念——让艺术教育成为实验与创新的前沿场域，并成为文化发展的研发空间。