Kuo Pao Kun
Encyclopedia
Kuo Pao Kun was a playwright
, theatre director, and arts activist in Singapore
who wrote and directed both Mandarin and English
plays. He founded three arts and drama centres in Singapore, conducted and organised a number of drama seminars and workshops, and mentored Singaporean and foreign directors and artists. Kuo is acknowledged by both locals and foreigners as the pioneer of Singapore theatre, and was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 1990 for his contributions to Singapore theatre. His plays are characterised for their dramatic and social commentary, use of simple metaphors and multiculturalism themes, and have been staged locally and internationally.
Kuo lived with his father in High Street
, and first attended Catholic High School’s primary section. Due to various circumstances, however, Kuo transferred between both Chinese and English-medium schools many times. At one point, when he attended the Chinese High School in 1956, his father transferred him to Kallang West Government Chinese Middle School (now Dunman High School) before moving him to Hong Kong due to the student unrest generated by politically activist Chinese high school and middle school students, largely out of concern for the political expedience of the unrest. When the student unrest ended in 1957, Kuo returned to Singapore to attend the English-medium Pasir Panjang Secondary School. Kuo attended a total of six schools in six years.
In 1955, Kuo joined Rediffusion
’s Mandarin radio play section at 14 years of age, (Lo) and worked as a broadcaster, in addition to performing and writing radio dramas and Chinese xiangsheng
. His early years in Hebei and Beijing had led to his acquiring of his trademark Beijing-accented Mandarin, which he once described as “like having a BBC
accent in English”, and which advantaged him as a broadcaster. After Kuo finished high school in 1959, his experience in broadcasting and bilingual advantage from his education enabled him to secure a job as a translator/announcer in Melbourne with Radio Australia
, where he worked for three and a half years. In 1963, he took up an intensive, two-year drama programme with the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) in Sydney, while working in technical theatre at the Old Tote. The course gave him a “strong, solid grounding” in many aspects of contemporary Western theatre and introduced him to Western classical theatre. During his studies in NIDA, Kuo also became engaged to choreographer and dancer Goh Lay Kuan.
and drama
courses. The founding date was also the day that Kuo married Goh. As public perception of Chinese drama during that era was that it had always been a part of cultural and mass political movements, many were unreceptive towards the charging of fees to teach drama. For many years, the dance wing subsidised classes in the drama wing. Despite the fact that the idea of professional theatre was not widely accepted then, Kuo noted that young people from all walks of life devoted themselves to theatre courses and remained highly involved in PPAS productions even after they had completed the drama course.
In 1966, Kuo translated and produced The Caucasian Chalk Circle
in Mandarin, the first Brecht
play performed in Singapore . Kuo and Goh’s first daughter Kuo Jian Hong was born in 1967, followed by their second daughter Kuo Jing Hong in 1971.
Singaporean Chinese contemporary theatre in the 1960s and 1970s was highly politicised, given the field’s roots in social movements, the turbulent state reforms of the local social and political environment after Singapore
’s independence, and the increasingly political and revolutionary environment internationally . The Cultural Revolution
in China, which began in 1966, impacted local Singaporean Chinese in the 1970s. Many were influenced by its trend of thought, viewing art, literature and drama as weapons of struggle and tools of social change.. Kuo’s first plays, written from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, were also “highly politicised” and “critical of social issues.” One of the plays, titled The Struggle (1969), was written by Kuo to reflect the social turmoil resulting from rapid urban reconstruction and inflow of multinational investment, but its performance was banned by the authorities.. Critics also noted that Kuo's early plays characteristically displayed a clear-cut distinction between the “good” (tradition and class unity) and the “bad” (exploitative capitalists).
In 1972, Kuo and his students and ex-students from PPAS launched the “Go into Life Campaign” to experience life of labouring masses in Singapore and Malay Peninsula.. Their guiding ideology was that “art came from life. Without knowing life firsthand and deeply, especially the life of the labouring masses, it would be difficult to write good artistic work”. The campaign resulted in the proliferation of original works based on real life stories of labouring people, including The Fishing Village.
. Kuo spent four years and seven months in detention, during which the state renounced his citizenship. Kuo described the detention as “a moment of humbleness” and “a very sobering experience– you get cut down, you know that you don’t know enough.” The incident caused Kuo to undergo a major re-evaluation and reflection of his perceptions and thoughts. He was released in 1980 under restrictions in residence and travel, and resumed teaching drama at PPAS in 1981. The restrictions were lifted in 1983, and his citizenship reinstated in 1992.
, and was well received by the Chinese drama circles.
In 1984, Kuo wrote the draft of his first English play, a monologue entitled The Coffin is too Big for the Hole. Kuo later submitted Coffin in response to the Singapore Arts Festival guest director’s call to local writers to present sketches of Singapore life. Some of these submissions were incorporated into a performance entitled Bum Boat. Although The Coffin was not selected. He also wrote a monologue "No Parking On Odd Days" a story of a Singapore man who faced the fines he get from the traffic police. Kuo carried on to write the play in Mandarin, and staged it in 1985 with Zou Wen Xue in the lead role. He then invited Lim Kay Tong to perform the original English version. The performance was well received, and brought Kuo to the forefront of the English language stage in Singapore. The Coffin has since been adapted and performed numerous times both locally and internationally, in countries such as Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and Japan.
, drama
and music training, and create a symbiosis between creative performance and arts education. Kuo served as principal of the school until 2002.
The PPAS has played an instrumental role in grooming local talents , some of whom mentored under Kuo. Graduates of PPAS include:
in 1990 from a disused Public Utilities Board
power station at Armenien Street, with the aim of nurturing local artists and to serve as a community-funded, non-profit arts centre for workshops, concerts, lectures and exhibitions. He first visited the station in 1985, and, with advice from architect Tay Kheng Soon, submitted a proposal to the Singapore government to set up an arts centre. The proposal was accepted. Kuo himself oversaw the renovation and design of the building’s interior. In 1989, he formed a team with Tan Beng Luan to prepare the launch of the arts centre as “The Substation – A Home for the Arts”, and was appointed as its artistic director during its official opening in 1990. Kuo served this role until he resigned in 1995, to spend more time writing and directing plays. He also stated that he stepped down to devote his energy to the PPAS, of which he was acting principal, and to PTE, of which he was artistic director.
Under Kuo’s direction, The Substation
’s orientation during the 1990s was as an inter-disciplinary, multicultural and pioneering arts space, particularly for experimental arts. With diversity, The Substation also provided a platform for young talent, who did not have the money or influence to mount their work elsewhere. The Substation
was initially criticised for its unsophisticated repertoire of new and young artists. There were also concerns that The Substation
promoted “rock culture”, and that Kuo was being too lax in embracing any form of work as “art”. Kuo’s views remained unchanged by the criticisms; his primary concern was that "it is the process that counts. I am not interested in the end product, the finished piece. Where else will these budding talents get space to call their own?"
It was through his endeavours in The Substation
that Kuo’s quote on failure arose:
, was founded in 2000 by Kuo and T. Sasitharan, after a period when Kuo seriously considered closing down the PPAS due to lack of funds. When Kuo informed two of the School’s supporters, Creative Technology
’s founder Sim Wong Hoo
(whom Kuo first met in the 70's when the latter studied music at PPAS) and the Lee Foundation
about the closure, both responded with monetary donations. Sim made a S$2 million donation to the school in addition to offering the use of 12000 sq ft (1,114.8 m²) of Creative
's premises to house the new TTRP, while the Lee Foundation
donated S$400,000.
Kuo remained as the programme’s co-director until 2002. Later, TTRP was moved from Creative Technology
's headquarters in Jurong Industrial Business Park to its current premises in June 2005.
The TTRP was the result of Kuo’s effort to create a training programme rooted in different classical Asian performance traditions. The programme covers Chinese
, Japanese, Indian, Indonesian
and contemporary Western theatre
, and implements the ideals and ideas in theatre training that Kuo accumulated and developed over his lifetime career . In the three-year course, students are trained in areas encompassing acting, performance, theatre theory and the practice of working across linguistic and cultural boundaries. Its curriculum includes courses in Acting Approaches, Movement, Voice & Speech, Taiji
and Meditation
and immersions in Theatre Traditions. Faculty members included both local and foreign experts such as Noh
master Kanze Hideo and Ma Huitian, and graduates from the program include actresses Yeo Yann Yann
and Leanne Ong Teck Lian.
to join PTE as resident director. Besides initiating creative exchanges with the new theatres of Northeast Asia
and Southeast Asia
, Kuo was also invited to foreign countries and international conferences, including the USA, China
, Germany
, France
, Japan
and Korea
, where he delivered papers and keynote addresses, and assessed theatres and drama institutions. Kuo also collaborated with directors and artistes from Taiwan
, Hong Kong
and mainland China
in projects, including Stan Lai
, Li Jiayao and John Saltzer.
Kuo’s plays have been translated into German
, Japanese
, Hindi
, Malay
and Tamil
. Since the 1980s, they have been performed in Asian countries, including Hong Kong, Malaysia and China, as well as in Australia, the USA, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
In 2000, the Tokyo Asian Art Festival organised a tribute to Kuo by staging three of his plays. The plays were each directed and performed by people of different nationalities in their own languages. The Coffin was directed by Putu Wijaya and performed by Teater Mandiri of Indonesia
; Lao Jiu was directed by Anuradha Kapur and performed by Dishantar of India
; and The Silly Little Girl and the Funny Old Tree was directed by Makoyo Sato and performed by the Black Tent Theatre of Japan
.
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, theatre director, and arts activist in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
who wrote and directed both Mandarin and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
plays. He founded three arts and drama centres in Singapore, conducted and organised a number of drama seminars and workshops, and mentored Singaporean and foreign directors and artists. Kuo is acknowledged by both locals and foreigners as the pioneer of Singapore theatre, and was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 1990 for his contributions to Singapore theatre. His plays are characterised for their dramatic and social commentary, use of simple metaphors and multiculturalism themes, and have been staged locally and internationally.
Early life
Kuo Pao Kun was born in Hebei Province, China in 1939 to Kuo Fung Ting and Zhou Qiao. He moved to Beijing with his mother in 1947 , and spent nine months in transition in Hong Kong before being called to Singapore at the age of 10 by his businessman father.Kuo lived with his father in High Street
High Street
High Street, or the High Street, is a metonym for the generic name of the primary business street of towns or cities, especially in the United Kingdom. It is usually a focal point for shops and retailers in city centres, and is most often used in reference to retailing...
, and first attended Catholic High School’s primary section. Due to various circumstances, however, Kuo transferred between both Chinese and English-medium schools many times. At one point, when he attended the Chinese High School in 1956, his father transferred him to Kallang West Government Chinese Middle School (now Dunman High School) before moving him to Hong Kong due to the student unrest generated by politically activist Chinese high school and middle school students, largely out of concern for the political expedience of the unrest. When the student unrest ended in 1957, Kuo returned to Singapore to attend the English-medium Pasir Panjang Secondary School. Kuo attended a total of six schools in six years.
In 1955, Kuo joined Rediffusion
Rediffusion
Rediffusion was a business which distributed radio and TV signals through wired relay networks. The business gave rise to a number of other companies, including Associated-Rediffusion, later known as Rediffusion London, one of the first companies to win a terrestrial ITV franchise in the UK...
’s Mandarin radio play section at 14 years of age, (Lo) and worked as a broadcaster, in addition to performing and writing radio dramas and Chinese xiangsheng
Xiangsheng
Xiangsheng , sometimes translated as crosstalk, is a traditional Chinese comedic performance in the form of a dialogue between two performers, or, much less often, a solo monologue or, even less frequently, a multi-player talk show. The language, rich in puns and allusions, is delivered in a rapid,...
. His early years in Hebei and Beijing had led to his acquiring of his trademark Beijing-accented Mandarin, which he once described as “like having a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
accent in English”, and which advantaged him as a broadcaster. After Kuo finished high school in 1959, his experience in broadcasting and bilingual advantage from his education enabled him to secure a job as a translator/announcer in Melbourne with Radio Australia
Radio Australia
Radio Australia is the international broadcasting and online service operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation , Australia's public broadcaster.- History :...
, where he worked for three and a half years. In 1963, he took up an intensive, two-year drama programme with the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) in Sydney, while working in technical theatre at the Old Tote. The course gave him a “strong, solid grounding” in many aspects of contemporary Western theatre and introduced him to Western classical theatre. During his studies in NIDA, Kuo also became engaged to choreographer and dancer Goh Lay Kuan.
Career and Works from 1965 to 1976
Upon returning to Singapore in 1965, Kuo and Goh founded the Practice Performing Arts School (PPAS) on July 1 that year, providing professional danceDance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
and drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
courses. The founding date was also the day that Kuo married Goh. As public perception of Chinese drama during that era was that it had always been a part of cultural and mass political movements, many were unreceptive towards the charging of fees to teach drama. For many years, the dance wing subsidised classes in the drama wing. Despite the fact that the idea of professional theatre was not widely accepted then, Kuo noted that young people from all walks of life devoted themselves to theatre courses and remained highly involved in PPAS productions even after they had completed the drama course.
In 1966, Kuo translated and produced The Caucasian Chalk Circle
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. An example of Brecht's epic theatre, the play is a parable about a peasant girl who rescues a baby and becomes a better mother than its natural parents....
in Mandarin, the first Brecht
Brecht
Brecht is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Brecht proper, Sint-Job-in't-Goor and Sint-Lenaarts. On January 1, 2006 Brecht had a total population of 26,464...
play performed in Singapore . Kuo and Goh’s first daughter Kuo Jian Hong was born in 1967, followed by their second daughter Kuo Jing Hong in 1971.
Singaporean Chinese contemporary theatre in the 1960s and 1970s was highly politicised, given the field’s roots in social movements, the turbulent state reforms of the local social and political environment after Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
’s independence, and the increasingly political and revolutionary environment internationally . The Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
in China, which began in 1966, impacted local Singaporean Chinese in the 1970s. Many were influenced by its trend of thought, viewing art, literature and drama as weapons of struggle and tools of social change.. Kuo’s first plays, written from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, were also “highly politicised” and “critical of social issues.” One of the plays, titled The Struggle (1969), was written by Kuo to reflect the social turmoil resulting from rapid urban reconstruction and inflow of multinational investment, but its performance was banned by the authorities.. Critics also noted that Kuo's early plays characteristically displayed a clear-cut distinction between the “good” (tradition and class unity) and the “bad” (exploitative capitalists).
In 1972, Kuo and his students and ex-students from PPAS launched the “Go into Life Campaign” to experience life of labouring masses in Singapore and Malay Peninsula.. Their guiding ideology was that “art came from life. Without knowing life firsthand and deeply, especially the life of the labouring masses, it would be difficult to write good artistic work”. The campaign resulted in the proliferation of original works based on real life stories of labouring people, including The Fishing Village.
Detention and Effects
The growing force and increasingly political nature of Chinese theatre culminated into the 1976 massive leftist purge , where hundreds, including Kuo, were detained without trial under the Internal Security ActInternal Security Act
The term Internal Security Act is often given to a piece of legislation laying down regulations that enable the executive government of a jurisdiction to preserve the internal security of the nation...
. Kuo spent four years and seven months in detention, during which the state renounced his citizenship. Kuo described the detention as “a moment of humbleness” and “a very sobering experience– you get cut down, you know that you don’t know enough.” The incident caused Kuo to undergo a major re-evaluation and reflection of his perceptions and thoughts. He was released in 1980 under restrictions in residence and travel, and resumed teaching drama at PPAS in 1981. The restrictions were lifted in 1983, and his citizenship reinstated in 1992.
Written Plays and Productions
Kuo resumed directing, producing and writing plays immediately after his release. His first production, The Little White Sailing Boat (1982), was written and directed by him on behalf of 14 Chinese drama groups at the Singapore Arts FestivalSingapore Arts Festival
The Singapore Arts Festival is an annual arts festival held in Singapore. Organised by the National Arts Council, it is one of the most significant events in the regional arts scene. The festival, usually held in mid-year for a stretch of one month, incorporates theatre arts, dance, music and...
, and was well received by the Chinese drama circles.
In 1984, Kuo wrote the draft of his first English play, a monologue entitled The Coffin is too Big for the Hole. Kuo later submitted Coffin in response to the Singapore Arts Festival guest director’s call to local writers to present sketches of Singapore life. Some of these submissions were incorporated into a performance entitled Bum Boat. Although The Coffin was not selected. He also wrote a monologue "No Parking On Odd Days" a story of a Singapore man who faced the fines he get from the traffic police. Kuo carried on to write the play in Mandarin, and staged it in 1985 with Zou Wen Xue in the lead role. He then invited Lim Kay Tong to perform the original English version. The performance was well received, and brought Kuo to the forefront of the English language stage in Singapore. The Coffin has since been adapted and performed numerous times both locally and internationally, in countries such as Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and Japan.
The Practice Performing Arts School (PPAS) (1965)
The PPAS was founded by both Kuo and Goh as the Singapore Performing Arts School. It aimed to integrate danceDance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
, drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
and music training, and create a symbiosis between creative performance and arts education. Kuo served as principal of the school until 2002.
The PPAS has played an instrumental role in grooming local talents , some of whom mentored under Kuo. Graduates of PPAS include:
- Dramatist and Cultural MedallionCultural MedallionThe Cultural Medallion is a Singapore cultural award conferred to those who have achieved artistic excellence in dance, theatre, literature, music, photography, art and film....
winner Han Laoda, who participated in PPAS’ eighth drama course in 1970. - W!LDRICE artistic director Ivan HengIvan HengIvan Heng is a Peranakan- -Hokkien-Chinese-Singaporean stage actor and director. He is the founding artistic director of W!LD RICE, a theatre company in Singapore....
, and Alvin TanAlvin TanAlvin Tan is Founder and Artistic Director of The Necessary Stage and co-Artistic Director of the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. Under Alvin, TNS has grown from a society in 1987 to one of Singapore’s most prominent and respected theatre companies...
, artistic director of professional drama company, The Necessary StageThe Necessary StageThe Necessary Stage is a non-profit theatre company with charity status in Singapore. Formed in 1987 by current Artistic Director Alvin Tan, The Necessary Stage has been identified as one of the Major Arts Companies by the National Arts Council. The company is also the organiser and curator of the...
. Both attended the school’s third directing workshop. - Ong Keng SenOng Keng SenOng Keng Sen is a Singaporean director of the theatre group TheatreWorks, which was founded in Singapore in 1985.Ong is a member of the Asia-Europe Network, which promotes the artistic exchange between Asia and Europe...
, artistic director of TheatreWorksTheatreWorksTheatreWorks may refer to:*TheatreWorks *TheatreWorks *TheatreWorks *Theatreworks *Theatreworks *Theatreworks USA*TheaterWorks...
and winner of the National Arts Council Young Artist Award in 1993. He attended the school's second directing workshop in 1986.
The Theatre Practice (1986)
Kuo officially founded The Theatre Practice company in 1986 as the bilingual, semi-professional Practice Theatre Ensemble (PTE), based on a plan worked out in 1967 with Lim Kim Hiong. The company was later renamed The Theatre Practice in 1997. Kuo served as the company’s artistic director until his death in 2002. Kuo mentored a number of local talents who worked with the Theatre practice, including Ang Gey Pin of Theatre Ox, Verena Tay and Cindy Sim.The Substation (1990)
Kuo founded The SubstationThe Substation
The Substation is Singapore's first and only independent contemporary arts centre. It was founded in 1990 by Kuo Pao Kun.The Substation is centrally located in the city's civic district. Venues at The Substation for hire include a black-box theatre, a gallery, a dance studio, the Random Room and...
in 1990 from a disused Public Utilities Board
Public Utilities Board
The Public Utilities Board is a statutory board of the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources under the Government of Singapore....
power station at Armenien Street, with the aim of nurturing local artists and to serve as a community-funded, non-profit arts centre for workshops, concerts, lectures and exhibitions. He first visited the station in 1985, and, with advice from architect Tay Kheng Soon, submitted a proposal to the Singapore government to set up an arts centre. The proposal was accepted. Kuo himself oversaw the renovation and design of the building’s interior. In 1989, he formed a team with Tan Beng Luan to prepare the launch of the arts centre as “The Substation – A Home for the Arts”, and was appointed as its artistic director during its official opening in 1990. Kuo served this role until he resigned in 1995, to spend more time writing and directing plays. He also stated that he stepped down to devote his energy to the PPAS, of which he was acting principal, and to PTE, of which he was artistic director.
Under Kuo’s direction, The Substation
The Substation
The Substation is Singapore's first and only independent contemporary arts centre. It was founded in 1990 by Kuo Pao Kun.The Substation is centrally located in the city's civic district. Venues at The Substation for hire include a black-box theatre, a gallery, a dance studio, the Random Room and...
’s orientation during the 1990s was as an inter-disciplinary, multicultural and pioneering arts space, particularly for experimental arts. With diversity, The Substation also provided a platform for young talent, who did not have the money or influence to mount their work elsewhere. The Substation
The Substation
The Substation is Singapore's first and only independent contemporary arts centre. It was founded in 1990 by Kuo Pao Kun.The Substation is centrally located in the city's civic district. Venues at The Substation for hire include a black-box theatre, a gallery, a dance studio, the Random Room and...
was initially criticised for its unsophisticated repertoire of new and young artists. There were also concerns that The Substation
The Substation
The Substation is Singapore's first and only independent contemporary arts centre. It was founded in 1990 by Kuo Pao Kun.The Substation is centrally located in the city's civic district. Venues at The Substation for hire include a black-box theatre, a gallery, a dance studio, the Random Room and...
promoted “rock culture”, and that Kuo was being too lax in embracing any form of work as “art”. Kuo’s views remained unchanged by the criticisms; his primary concern was that "it is the process that counts. I am not interested in the end product, the finished piece. Where else will these budding talents get space to call their own?"
It was through his endeavours in The Substation
The Substation
The Substation is Singapore's first and only independent contemporary arts centre. It was founded in 1990 by Kuo Pao Kun.The Substation is centrally located in the city's civic district. Venues at The Substation for hire include a black-box theatre, a gallery, a dance studio, the Random Room and...
that Kuo’s quote on failure arose:
"Instead of shunning failure, The Substation endeavours to thrive on it... that a worthy failure is more valuable than a mediocre success." (emphasis mine)
The Theatre Training & Research Programme (TTRP) at PPAS (2000)
The tertiary-level TTRP, now located at Middle RoadMiddle Road
Middle Road is a road that may refer to*Middle Road, Hong Kong, in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong*Middle Road, Singapore*The Middle Road, Canada, which was renamed as part of the Queen Elizabeth Way in 1939...
, was founded in 2000 by Kuo and T. Sasitharan, after a period when Kuo seriously considered closing down the PPAS due to lack of funds. When Kuo informed two of the School’s supporters, Creative Technology
Creative Technology
Creative Technology Ltd. is a Singapore-based global company headquartered in Jurong East, Singapore. The principal activities of the company and its subsidiaries consist of the design, manufacture and distribution of digitized sound and video boards, computers and related multimedia, and personal...
’s founder Sim Wong Hoo
Sim Wong Hoo
Sim Wong Hoo is the CEO and Chairman of Creative Technology, a designer and manufacturer of products for personal computers and personal digital entertainment devices.-Early life and career:...
(whom Kuo first met in the 70's when the latter studied music at PPAS) and the Lee Foundation
Lee Foundation
Lee Foundation is a charitable foundation in Singapore created to aid "the advancement of education, medicine and cultural activities; helping the poor; and assisting victims of fire, flood and famine", It also funded other philanthropic work...
about the closure, both responded with monetary donations. Sim made a S$2 million donation to the school in addition to offering the use of 12000 sq ft (1,114.8 m²) of Creative
Creative Technology
Creative Technology Ltd. is a Singapore-based global company headquartered in Jurong East, Singapore. The principal activities of the company and its subsidiaries consist of the design, manufacture and distribution of digitized sound and video boards, computers and related multimedia, and personal...
's premises to house the new TTRP, while the Lee Foundation
Lee Foundation
Lee Foundation is a charitable foundation in Singapore created to aid "the advancement of education, medicine and cultural activities; helping the poor; and assisting victims of fire, flood and famine", It also funded other philanthropic work...
donated S$400,000.
Kuo remained as the programme’s co-director until 2002. Later, TTRP was moved from Creative Technology
Creative Technology
Creative Technology Ltd. is a Singapore-based global company headquartered in Jurong East, Singapore. The principal activities of the company and its subsidiaries consist of the design, manufacture and distribution of digitized sound and video boards, computers and related multimedia, and personal...
's headquarters in Jurong Industrial Business Park to its current premises in June 2005.
The TTRP was the result of Kuo’s effort to create a training programme rooted in different classical Asian performance traditions. The programme covers Chinese
Chinese theatre
Theatre of China has a long and complex history. Today it is often called Chinese opera although this normally refers specifically to the more well-known forms such as Beijing Opera and Cantonese Opera, there have been many other forms of theatre in China.-Classical Chinese theatre:There are...
, Japanese, Indian, Indonesian
Culture of Indonesia
Indonesian culture has been shaped by long interaction between original indigenous customs and multiple foreign influences. Indonesia is central along ancient trading routes between the Far East and the Middle East, resulting in many cultural practices being strongly influenced by a multitude of...
and contemporary Western theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, and implements the ideals and ideas in theatre training that Kuo accumulated and developed over his lifetime career . In the three-year course, students are trained in areas encompassing acting, performance, theatre theory and the practice of working across linguistic and cultural boundaries. Its curriculum includes courses in Acting Approaches, Movement, Voice & Speech, Taiji
Taiji
Taiji 太極 is a Chinese cosmological term for the "Supreme Ultimate" state of undifferentiated absolute and infinite potentiality, contrasted with the Wuji 無極 "Without Ultimate"...
and Meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
and immersions in Theatre Traditions. Faculty members included both local and foreign experts such as Noh
Noh
, or - derived from the Sino-Japanese word for "skill" or "talent" - is a major form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Many characters are masked, with men playing male and female roles. Traditionally, a Noh "performance day" lasts all day and...
master Kanze Hideo and Ma Huitian, and graduates from the program include actresses Yeo Yann Yann
Yeo Yann Yann
Yeo Yann Yann is a Singapore-based actress. A pioneer-graduate of The Theatre Training and Research Programme , she has worked in theatre, television, and film; recent performances include Singapore Dreaming , Thunderstorm 雷雨 and a movie in August 2007, 881...
and Leanne Ong Teck Lian.
International Links and Influence
Kuo met with and invited many distinguished experts in the arts to Singapore to contribute to drama camps, seminars and workshops which he organised in Singapore. Yu Qiuyu and Ren Baoxian were invited in the early 1990s to PPAS as guest lecturers, and May Wong was invited from Hong KongHong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
to join PTE as resident director. Besides initiating creative exchanges with the new theatres of Northeast Asia
Northeast Asia
Northeast Asia and Northeastern Asia refers to the northeastern subregion of Asia. Though the precise definition of Northeast Asia changes according to context, it always includes Japan and the Korean Peninsula, and is sometimes used to refer to these two regions exclusively.-Definitions:The...
and Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
, Kuo was also invited to foreign countries and international conferences, including the USA, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, where he delivered papers and keynote addresses, and assessed theatres and drama institutions. Kuo also collaborated with directors and artistes from Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and mainland China
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
in projects, including Stan Lai
Stan Lai
Stan Lai or Lai Sheng-chuan is a highly influential award-winning US born Taiwan based playwright and theater director, also known for his award-winning feature films, known for Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land...
, Li Jiayao and John Saltzer.
Kuo’s plays have been translated into German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
, Malay
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
and Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
. Since the 1980s, they have been performed in Asian countries, including Hong Kong, Malaysia and China, as well as in Australia, the USA, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
In 2000, the Tokyo Asian Art Festival organised a tribute to Kuo by staging three of his plays. The plays were each directed and performed by people of different nationalities in their own languages. The Coffin was directed by Putu Wijaya and performed by Teater Mandiri of Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
; Lao Jiu was directed by Anuradha Kapur and performed by Dishantar of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
; and The Silly Little Girl and the Funny Old Tree was directed by Makoyo Sato and performed by the Black Tent Theatre of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.