A Mouthful of Birds

[scroll down to view images from the work]

Produced by World-in-Theatre

In collaboration with the artistic team, Ang Gey Pin, Ranice Tay, Eleanor Ee, & Theresa Wee-Yenko

With support from Lee Foundation

Virtual presentations:

28 May 2020 ~ Cloud Sharing session (Work-in-Progress fragment)
19 July 2020 ~ Full digital presentation

On behalf of the artistic team of A Mouthful of Birds ~

We would like to THANK YOU who have attended our digital presentation on 19 July, as well as the Cloud Sharing session on 28 May. Your impressions in the chat via the virtual sessions and your thoughts after viewing the work are all very much appreciated. We are very thankful to you for journeying and experiencing with us in an incredible way in this extraordinary period of creating a performance/non performance.

We thought to share with you some essential information about the video documentation of the work which you may have watched:

First Phase of this work (first 25mins of the video) was developed during the circuit breaker period (or lockdown) in Singapore, during April and May 2020, virtually from individual homes, and,
Second Phase (after 25mins of the video), during June 2020, in individual homes and later on moved in an actual studio (for a period of three weeks, 3 sessions per week, 3-6 hours per session).

The artistic team has made the decision to present the process throughout the development of this work: First Phase (first 25mins of the video, Work-in-Progress via virtual rehearsals) and Second Phase (after 25mins of the video, Video Documentation of the rehearsals from the actual studio).

The work was developed, shifted and adapted according to the safety implements and physical distancing in Singapore linked to the pandemic situation.

It is never intended to be or closed to the media of film. The video of the work is composed of originally intended to be a performance but found its way to meet with other human beings through the “windows” of the virtual screens, and later part, video documentation of the work from the actual studio space.

For further information, here is a programme booklet, which you can access:
https://www.yumpu.com/…/r…/63600770/a-programme-booklet-amob.

BACKGROUND

Early April 2020, we had only begun Day One of rehearsals before “Circuit Breaker” (or “lockdown”) was implemented, and all of us were relegated to our homes in the different corners of Singapore. Circuit Breaker has often been described as a series of “restrictions” that were imposed upon us, but we would like to think of it as an opening of possibilities.

A Mouthful of Birds explores the idea that possibilities lie all around us – bedrooms, balconies, and living rooms transform into distant lands, and neighbours and passing dogs become our unlikely audiences, as we weave our story and take flight on our mythical search for something more.

On May 28, we presented our work-in-progress – A Cloud Sharing – an exploration into how being confined to our own spaces and minds can lead to the opening and discovery of new possibilities. As the world slowly reopened and began to readapt to its new circumstances, we similarly entered our transition into a new phase of living and working.

A Mouthful of Birds is a phenomenological experience – a rediscovery of space, our sense of time and our relationship with one another.

SYNOPSIS:

In an empty space, the carpet unrolls like a sky and the story begins. Souls come, gathering like birds. The child, searching for a name and dreaming of flight, meets a poet trying to find her wings, and a stork that attempts to re-discover her voice. Quests and songs guide the steps of these perpetual wanderers.

Will they find what they are looking for?

Where is the sky and how can we touch it?

Inspired by Conference of the Birds and The Little Prince, this is a journey about hope, magic and imagination in times of great uncertainty.