FLYING THE FLAG

Theatre veteran Gaurav Kripalani has every right to feel jaded. Yet he remains just as enthusiastic as he was when he started over 20 years ago, pushing the boundaries of creativity.

“I find it heartbreaking that literature is no longer a mandatory subject in schools,” Gaurav Kripalani laments. “There are kids today who will grow up with very little exposure to the classics. I have met young adults who don’t even enjoy reading.”

Despite this, the artistic director of the Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT) forges ahead, unrelenting in his belief that the arts and theatre are integral to a young nation’s cultural landscape. Kripalani was one of the few Singaporeans with a degree in theatre in 1996. When he and his team staged the inaugural edition of Shakespeare in the Park the following year, they had to fly in three-quarters of the actors and creative team.

He is glad to tap into a rich pool of trained talent today. “Ninety per cent of the people we hire for these productions are Singaporeans,” Kripalani shares.

Even so, he knows that Singapore still has more work to do, especially if it wants its art scene to be financially viable. Pandemic-related stress has battered professionals in this arena, and many have had to find alternative employment to survive. Now that the Covidian cloud is lifting, Kripalani hopes they will return or “it will set us back for years”.

However, he sees a silver lining. “There is now a greater appreciation of the arts. People didn’t realise how much they missed going to the shows. It’s impossible to beat the visceral experience of watching a live performance with others,” he says.

Nevertheless, he believes we can do more, beginning with the funding. Interestingly, Kripalani believes SRT’s reliance on public funding (70 per cent comes from ticket sales) hinders artistic expression. “An ideal model would be 40 per cent of revenue from ticket sales, 40 from government support and 30 from donations. This will allow artists to be more daring and push more boundaries,” he says.

Indeed, Kripalani remains enthused despite the pandemic and the public’s increasingly tepid response to the arts and theatre. His four-year tenure as festival director of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) shows Singapore’s viability to be a cultural force in the region. In addition, the festival proved to Kripalani that there is still life in this nation as it had to be organised in just a few weeks, as opposed to the usual two years needed to plan a physical festival.

It’s all about being creative. In November, to get around the restriction on outdoor events, the SRT is staging The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) – all 37 plays in 97 minutes! – at the Pasir Panjang Power Station. He’s also committed to holding more Shakespeare in the Park shows even though they are lossmaking ventures.

Kripalani says, “I strongly believe Singapore can be the arts capital of Asia. I want to create Singaporean shows that will tour the world and fly the Singapore flag. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every tourist who came here made sure they set aside one night on their itinerary to watch a performance? Better yet, they planned a trip to Singapore just to see a show, and arranged their sightseeing around that.”

“There are kids today who will grow up with very little exposure to the classics. I have met young adults who don’t even enjoy reading.”