ABOUT ARANGAM 08

Arangam drama festival aims to battle the notions of disinterested, disengaged and disenfranchised youths through theatre art. Arangam is a Tamil theatre festival, open to Junior Colleges, Institutes of Technical Education, Polytechnics and Art Colleges was initiated to serve as a platform for creative exploration. This event is endorsed by Languages and Literature Branch of the Ministry of Education and supported by Jurong Junior College, Tamil Language Learning and (the) Promotion Committee (TLLPC) of MOE, Peoples Association Narpani Pearavai (PANP) and Tamil Language Council.

Since its initiation in 2007, Arangam has grown to be a house-hold name in many colleges, polytechnics and institutions with students and teachers alike anticipating the festival for the awards it offers, the opportunities it presents to develop and share their creativity and ideas, as well as learn the various skills and strategies of theatre-making during the workshops. Also, Arangam festival is unique in the way it collaborates with a different institution each year. This collaboration was flagged off with Raffles Junior College in 2007 and had been succeeded by Jurong Junior College this year. By working with various institutions, Arangam creates remarkable opportunities for students to understand key concepts of networking and the importance of establishing cordial relationships with students from other institutions.

The theme for this year’s competition is ‘Nirangal’ (Colours). Students have explored the theme implicitly and explicitly. They showcased various representations and understanding of colours, students also explored the diachronic reflection of certain colours in relation to certain actions and incidents from multiple perspectives. Abstract and conventional depiction of various moods, behaviors and seasons were also reflected in their performances. The participants were given the liberty to depict one or more colours in their performance; this equipped them with a broad platform to showcase their exploration artistically, critically and morally.

Nine institutions, namely, Singapore Polytechnic, Nanyang Polytechnic, Pioneer Junior College, Tamasek Junior College, Republic Polytechnic, Yishnun Junior College, Millennium Institute, Tampines Junior College and Anderson Junior College, took part in this year’s Arangam Festival.

Arangam 1st Component

There are four components to Arangam. The first component is the drama competition pegged closely to the Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) drama competition where the central judging provides the opportunity for groups to benchmark their performance standards. Participating institutions will be awarded certificates based on their performance. There is no determined number of gold, silver or bronze awards. This first component to Arangam was held on 14th and 15th February 2008.

Arangam recognizes outstanding achievements and performances in the various categories, by presenting them with certificates and awards at the end of the festival. Apart from the certificates which will be awarded to all participants, outstanding individuals have also been nominated for the ten “BEST” awards. Though the top three finalists had been notified earlier to allow them to be prepared for Arangam finals performance, the results of the certificate awards as well as the ‘BEST’ awards will only be announced during the finals. The judges for this round were Mr Mathiyalagan, a prominent and award winning stage and television actor and RDG’s Artistic Director Mr G Selvananthan.

Arangam 2nd Component

The second component to Arangam is a series of intensive theatre training workshops. All participants including members of the hosting institution were invited to participate in a two day intensive theatre workshop led by theatre practitioners and experts in the field of drama. These workshops were conducted on 16th and 17th February 2008. These collaborative workshops enabled the participants to network and share their problems and ideas through collective workshops, clinics and forums. The top three finalists who are performing today have also been given additional sessions through a series of process oriented forums in which their scripts and acting performed at the preliminary rounds were deconstructed to better understand their text and performance. This training is to aid participants to see beyond text and actions. This process will elevate theatre presentation from a school standard to that of a public performance standard, which will gear them to face the third component of Arangam, the finals performed for public viewing.

Arangam 3rd Component

Arangam’s third component is a public performance witnessed by honourable guest principals and teachers from various institutions. The winners of this round of the competition will be awarded with the RDG champion trophy, individual gold trophies and cash prize for the group. This is only awarded after they successfully satisfy one more fete in the finals, the improvisation theatre round. Here, the genre of the drama and the props provided will only be revealed before they commence their enactment, this is the most challenging aspect of this round. The aim of this segment is to see how effectively participants are able to apply the improvisation skills acquired during the workshops, to complete their task.

Arangam 4th Component

The final component of Arangam is known as ‘Puthiya Uthiram’ meaning New Infusion. Here all the participants of Arangam will be invited to join hands and stage a revised version of the scripts used during Arangam finals to stage a public performance with members of RDG. This would fulfill RDG’s aim of nurturing the next generation of theatre practitioners for Tamil Theatre.