DR Puva

Dr Puva Arumugam, Deputy Artistic Director

Puva is a home grown playwright who has written a total of 10 plays and 8 poems. She is well-versed in all the four national languages of Singapore; Mandarin, Tamil, Malay and English, and considers herself to be a cultural hybrid. Her exposure in theatre and media started during her undergraduate days at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia where she graduated with her Bachelors of Arts degree majoring in Communication Studies.

After pursuing her Masters of Arts (Southeast Asian Studies) degree at the National University of Singapore, she realized that her interest for theatre never settled. Thus, she chose do a research paper pertaining to Malay theatre in Singapore as part of her PhD thesis which she completed in 2005 while working at Deakin University as a lecturer in the School of Communications and Creative Arts.

Puva’s theatre debut was in 1994 when she acted as part of the ensemble team in the Singapore Festival of Arts performance, ‘Scorpion Orchid’ staged by Theatreworks, directed by the late Krishen Jit. In 1998, Puva started her field work for her PhD on Malay theatre in Singapore where she was conducting dramaturgy work with local Malay theatre groups like Teater Ekamatra (1998-1999) and Teater Kami (1999-2000).

Her involvement with the Malay theatre also opened up many avenues for her to work with Tamil theatre groups and this opened up avenues for exploration of social issues that were not addressed openly in the Indian society. Using theatre as a tool, Puva wrote her first play, ‘Pulambal/Lamenting Part 1’, in 1998 which brought up issues of unrealistic expectations held by Indians and Indian women of marriage and relationship. Ravindran Drama Group staged this bilingual play in 1998 under Puva’s direction.

In 2000, she wrote two plays, ‘Pulambal/Lamenting Part 2’ and ‘Price’ which were staged in the same year together with a monologue (Ignored and Ignorance) as part of RDG’s first full English triple bill production. Lamenting Part 2 and Price, both explored issues pertaining to minorities within the mainstream society such as sexually abused women and homosexuals. Her monologue, ‘Ignored and Ignorance’ voiced concerns over the government’s policies pertaining to ethnic minorities from the perspective of a blue collar worker.
Her other plays include ‘Kurugiya Vattam/Tight Circle’, ‘Samuthra – A collection of Four monologues’, ‘Because We are Husband and Wife’ which were staged in Melbourne during the Melbourne Fringe Festival (2002 – 2003) and in Melbourne’s Midsumma Festival, 2005. These plays highlight the plight of Indian women and women in general who were bound by traditions and social expectations.

Puva’s social awareness and concern for the marginalised members of the mainstream society has been the impetus behind her course of work. Her plays depict the ‘other side of the coin’ without sensationalising the content but with the idea of being to the point and brutally blunt about the main issues at hand. With this as background, Puva is looking forward to keep highlighting social and political issues through her writing.