Hello everyone, and welcome to the website for TS3240 Theatre Criticism, a Theatre Studies module at the National University of Singapore. By way of introduction, I’m Corrie, the course convener – this was my first time running the module, which has been a cornerstone of the Theatre Studies undergraduate course for many years, and I’m indebted to Associate Professor Robin Loon for allowing me to inherit the course and develop my own pedagogical approaches to it.
When I first wrote the description of this module I knew I wanted to create a space for my students to play, explore, and overcome their insecurities around producing critique. For many of these students, this class marked the first time they were practising performance criticism. I wondered if we could collectively orient ourselves away from criticism as a fault-finding, classist and elitist arbitration of taste, and towards a practice of empathy and generosity that is also fierce and unflinching. I also wanted to advocate for more collaborative and creative approaches to criticism, with an emphasis on feminist, queer and postcolonial theory:
This module will support you in developing a critical practice when writing about and responding to performance. We will survey various approaches to performance criticism while taking stock of both its colonial lineage and contemporary practices in Singapore and Southeast Asia. We will pay particular attention to the shifting role of the critic and criticism in an age of opinion, as well as the different vantage points the performance critic can take in the dynamic relationship between writer, practitioner and spectator. This includes looking at feminist practices in criticism, criticism as a political act, embedded criticism and creative criticism. This is also a hands-on module where you will get to develop your voice as a critical writer and researcher in tandem with the seminar’s theoretical underpinnings, and we will attend performances together and look at how we can respond to work with both emotional and intellectual rigour.
From August to November 2019, the students of this module attended three different performances in Singapore and responded and engaged with them in a variety of ways:
- The Adventures of Abhijeet by Patch & Punnet (August 23 to 25)
- A Clockwork Orange by Teater Ekamatra (September 26 to 29)
- Tanah•Air 水•土 by Drama Box (October 16 to 20)
We also had a series of invited speakers who introduced us to a variety of subjects, including Katrina Stuart Santiago who spoke about cultural criticism in the Philippines…
… as well as embedded writing / documentation processes that have become an integral part of the Singaporean dance company P7:1SMA:
I’ve learnt so much from my inaugural group of students: they are passionate, committed, generous and sensitive, and I’ve loved reading and engaging with their various critical practices, both in writing and in conversation. I will forever be grateful to these women for helping me to develop the cornerstones of my pedagogy. They suggested creating an online platform that could more permanently (and publicly) house the work they’ve produced this semester. In the menu bar above, you’ll be able to read and experience their responses to the three performances, and follow their journey together as they made sense of performances over a four-month period.
I hope you’ll enjoy their work as much as I have.
– Corrie
Exploring Theatre Criticism 