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| : ACTION THEATRE in review |
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| Ready for 'Action' at 42! Waterloo Street is characterised by a varied neighbourhood - a Jewish synagogue, Catholic church, Chinese temple, Indian temple, Singapore Art Museum, several National Arts Council (NAC) arts housing projects, hawker centre and kopi tiams, and even a budget hotel further down the road. In the evenings, the whole street, right from the Albert Street junction, comes to life with a myriad lights, scents and colours. Just a sneeze away from this sensory-charged setting is now the spiffy new home of ACTION THEATRE at no 42. When artistic director of Action Theatre Ekachai Uekrongtham first saw the place, the pre-war bungalow was a dilapidated heap sitting on a deep rectangular plot half buried in a jungle of wild vegetation. And he was won over. 'They (NAC) showed us all the different housing available, and I actually picked this one because it is very small and cosy. At one time they were talking about the other one, the church (now Sculpture Square), but I felt that that was too large and, sitting at the corner of the main road, it could be very noisy. Whereas this one may be very near the main road yet it is very quiet; it allows us to do some outdoor performances.' Concept In the brief to Vincent Lee of Han, Yip & Lee Associates (HYLA), the place should retain its 'old-bungalow-in-the-middle-of-the-city' ambience, the form of the building, and the scale and intimate spaces around it, particularly that of the front and rear courtyards which were to be used for alternative outdoor performance spaces. Essential spaces required were an enclosed flexible performance hall, rehearsal and seminar rooms, an office, a cafe and also a theatre bookstore - the last is something that members of the theatre community in Singapore would surely appreciate! Description Upon arrival at 42 Waterloo St, one is greeted by tall signages of mild steel and timber bearing banners announcing the latest Action Theatre productions. (Ekachai fastidiously got the contractors to put up scaffoldings to simulate the actual size of these signages before they were erected to make sure that the height was just right and would not block the building!) The gate is a pattern of horizontals and verticals in mild steel and timber, a recurring pattern in the details of the building. Walking through these gates, one is greeted by the spacious well-textured and well-planted garden. Says Vincent: '(Ekachai's) intention is always to have the place feel like Jim Thompson's house in Bangkok, you know, outside is all madness and rush and hard concrete.' The perimeter walls are deliberately left in their original weathered condition as a reminder of the house that was. To one side of the compound will be an outdoor timber stage (under construction at press time). Although 42 Waterloo St did not fall under the government's conservation guide plan, the existing 'shell' of the building was nevertheless retained as required by URA. New reinforced concrete structures were erected to achieve a clear span within the building. This is particularly necessary for the upper storey of the existing building where the 'black-box' style theatre is located in the multi-purpose hall, since such theatres rely on a column-free space for their flexibility. |
Located at the first floor foyer will be the theatre bookstore.
A delightful play of horizontals and verticals form a band above the double-leaves
doors where the sponsors' names are mounted. Beyond the foyer is a lovely
space perfect for a cafe complete with garden courtyard and patio for
alfresco dining. The operator is yet to be named but Ekachai promises
that it will be 'something very special'! A flight of timber steps leads to the upper foyer and the theatre fondly called 'The Room Upstairs'. In this symmetrical space, strips of timber line the floor as well as the ceiling, which is cladded close to the underside of the roof structure for greater ceiling height. One of the limitations of this adaptive re-use project was the existing low ceiling height over the second-storey designated-as-theatre space. To overcome the problem, the architect installed a steel frame structure to hold the roof, thus freeing the ceiling space directly beneath for the lighting rig and the controls' booth. Say Vincent: 'An original idea was to gut out the whole interior to create a double volume box within the old building, but it was abandoned due to requirements for a cafe· etc.' The office and two more rehearsal rooms are housed in a new L-shaped erection behind the existing building, differentiated by its mustard yellow coating. A slight skew taken from the perimeter of the site marks its deviation, literally, in terms of architectural vocabulary and function, appropriately giving this block a relaxed back-of-house feel. A portion of the office space is pushed out and cantilevered as a horizontally framed timber-and-glass box over the second courtyard. Signatured HYLA detailing in mild steel and timber can be seen in the handrail and balustrade designs. Noted is the consistent horizontal-and-vertical pattern that occurs as a theme even in the cabinet and door details. 'The design vocabulary is both new and modern; it derives its forms from the past and still lets the old building's architectural presence pre-dominate,' says Vincent. 'Dark local timbers - balau, chengai, and some nyatoh - are set within mild steel framing. Essentially, these are the only two materials used throughout, on the handrails, gates, signage, poster boxes, office cabinetry etc. Emphasis is on the creation of "rhythm" and texture created by the physical structure of the building itself, as well as light and shadows which result from it. These are all-important aspects of Asian buildings.' At the courtyard incidentally formed between the old and the new blocks is where Ekachai hopes to stage informal readings and presentations. 'Here is where you are allowed to make mistakes,' he says, not quite tongue-in-cheek. '42 will be a place for young talents to showcase their works without being judged too harshly by the critics,' he explains. 'a sense of ownership' To restore and build 42 Waterloo St needed a whopping $1.3m. While NAC provided about half the project's cost, part of the rest also came in the form of sponsorships in kind - Carrier Singapore for the air-conditioners, Saniton Pottery Pte Ltd for the sanitary wares, Nam Huat Tiling and Panelling for the floor tiles, Garden & Landscaping Centre Pte Ltd for the plants, and ICI Paint for the paints. But the theatre company is reportedly still $60,000 shy of the total for completion. 'NAC doesn't fund the whole thing; they make you look for a fair bit of the money yourself,' says Ekachai. 'It's a give-and-take situation I think, but I would rather have this than not have the opportunity to try at all... It's good in the end because, by doing this, you have a sense of ownership; it will be your home base for a long time to come.' |
Reprinted with permission from: d. vol 1 no. 3 issue Writer: Debra Teng Photographs: Vincent Lee courtesy of Han, Yip & Lee Associates (HYLA) |
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