In conversation with the playwrights from Writings from The Heart: Part 1
Our Engagement Intern, Shifaa Jonoh spoke to the three different playwrights who are part ofWritings from The Heart. They are: Chan Lishan, Samantha Chia and Serene Tan, playwrights of Conversations with My Father, No Regrets and Hazy Pre- Nuptials respectively.
Between the three of them, it would seem as though they would have nothing in common- Lishan is an administrator working in mental health services planning and development, Samantha is freelancing as a stage/events manager and Serene, is an accountant. Yet, they share a strong passion for expressing their creative sides through writing and hold on to the belief that writing is a means to explore, understand, reflect and reconcile issues within oneself and society.
Tapping into their personal biographies and histories, each of their plays reflect a strong sense of individual identity. When asked whether the characters in their plays were an extension of themselves, Serene shares how she has a habit of people watching and develops her characters based on her observations of their speech, behaviour and idiosyncrasies. Likewise, for Samantha, her characters are based on a mish mash of people’s experiences and shared stories.
With writing comes its challenges, and both Lishan and Serene experienced difficulties during their time of developing their script. Despite Lishan’s experience in writing a book titled “A Philosopher’s Madness” as well as publishing non- fiction articles in the opinion sections of The Straits Times and The Business Times, she shared how writing dialogue was personally challenging for her because it does not come as easily. On the other hand, Serene found that writing her second draft of the play was more challenging than the first because she grew attached to her first draft and found it difficult to trim lines.
When asked about how attending the Writing from The Heart programme mentored by Tony Perez helped them develop their scripts, both Serene and Samantha agreed that it provided a platform for them to write from a more honest and “real” point of view. A memorable moment for Serene was the “Emotional Truths” session during the workshop where it allowed them to be in touch with their raw emotions, giving way to a better understanding of characters and developing dialogues. As she elaborates, “As long as our characters speak words true to their emotions, the dialogue delivered to the audience will come across as genuine and believable. The emotional truths breathe life into the characters. I guess this is what writing from the heart is all about.” Scripts aside, Lishan mentioned that the workshop also made way for a better understanding of herself.
They also felt that such programmes were important because it provides a platform for playwrights to have a taster to the process of writing and developing plays and stressed the importance of receiving feedback as a means to improve and make progress in their scripts. Or as simply put by Lishan, “Important, because, sometimes, we just need a kick in order to get writing!”
With their plays done and dusted for this weekend, I asked if they would continue writing after the end of their programme, to which I received three resounding yeses. Serene left with a parting word of advice for all the aspiring playwrights out there: “I would encourage anybody interested in playwriting to participate in such programmes.”
