Besides presenting a spectrum of works for diverse audiences, Kripalani has also stayed true to the vision he shaped from his first edition of the festival in 2018 by providing opportunities for Singapore artists to produce original works as well as encouraging collaborations between local and international artists.

One such collaboration at Sifa 2021 is the festival commission between Singapore’s Nine Years Theatre, and New York-based Siti Company, which is co-founded by theatre luminaries Anne Bogart and Tadashi Suzuki. Transcending language, cultures, geographical space and generations, the two companies—which have developed a close relationship of over 15 years—will present a Chinese-English adaptation of Russian playwright Anton Chekov’s Three Sisters, while utilising digital technology to create a part-live-part-digital performance.

Kripalani explains, “Both companies are masters at using Suzuki’s method of acting to stage their works. Sifa presented Suzuki’s Dionysus in 2019, so audiences will get to see a continuation of the programming arcs, where one of the best companies in the US and in Singapore [will both] utilise his technique.” In fact, international cultural exchanges and collaborations have been part of the Siti Company’s DNA, and this production marks its return to the stage during the pandemic as well as its 30th and final season before taking a final bow in 2022. Even so, its teaching and training work will still continue.

Related: Gaurav Kripalani Steers The Singapore International Festival Of Arts In A New Direction

When Artistic Minds Connect

And then there is the collaboration between two cultural gems: the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and the Singapore Dance Theatre (SDT) in their first live collaboration—at least in a while no thanks to their packed performing calendars. The Rhythm of Us is a three-part production featuring new choreography by SDT artistic director Janek Schergen, homegrown choreographer Christina Chan and special guest choreographer Pam Tanowitz, along with a new commission by Singaporean jazz pianist, composer and arranger Chok Kerong.

Tanowitz has had to create the work through Zoom video sessions, which was unprecedented even for the famed US choreographer. Schergen enthuses, “Pam Tanowitz has managed to do a great deal without being physically present with us. Digital [technology] gave us an option to explore this possibility, but it will never replace one-on-one, in-person communication between a dancer and a choreographer. Movement, at its most physical, is about energy and space and those things are muted in digital communication. That said, the dancers with their abilities, and Pam’s choreographic craft, have made a one-of-a-kind new work.”

For SSO director of artistic planning, Hans Sorensen, such cross-disciplinary collaborations delight more than just the audiences. “Putting music together with other art forms brings new experiences, not only for the audience but also for the SSO musicians.”

Related: Choirmaster Wong Lai Foon on Nurturing Young Choral Talents in Singapore

One production that will surely find favour with Sifa audiences this year is The Commission, a sharp satire on theatre-making in a pandemic by the three leading theatre companies here: Pangdemonium, Wild Rice and Singapore Repertory Theatre—cheekily dubbed Singapore Ricepertory Pangedewildium. Their artistic directors Adrian Pang, Ivan Heng and Kripalani, respectively, star in this sequel to the short film The Pitch, which saw them collaborate for the first time last year.

Sifa 2021 also sees the world premieres of works—all festival commissions—by other homegrown companies such as The Necessary Stage’s The Year of No Return, Toy Factory Productions’ A Dream Under the Southern Bough: Existence, and The Finger Players’ Oiwa – The Ghost of Yotsuya. The retelling of the famous ghostly legend of Oiwa features both Singaporean and Japanese actors, and director and playwright Chong Tze Chien has never been more ready to stage a show. “For such a complex intercultural work, we require time and thankfully we were given three years (or four due to the postponement of Sifa last year) to mount this play. And here we are with [a production featuring] refined and intricate design elements that our designers and artisans have devoted to making and constructing over the past two years.”

Related: How this Philanthropist is Helping Smaller Arts Organisations in Singapore

With travel restrictions still very much in place in Singapore and around the world, Sifa 2021 seeks to bring the world to Singapore and vice versa through artistic encounters such as Lebanese-British artist Tania El Khoury’s Gardens Speak, an immersive sound installation on stories from the 2011 Syrian uprising; Australian performance artist Sophia Brous’ The Invisible Opera, which invites participants to see the city in a new light; and Swiss contemporary dance group Cie Gilles Jobin presents a large-scale live dance work onto the façade of the Victoria Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall with Cosmogony.

Related: Virtual Art Exhibitions, Online Auctions and More: The Art Trends of 2020

In a 2018 interview with Tatler Singapore for his first edition of Sifa, Kripalani highlighted how he hoped the festival can play a big part in Singapore’s growth as a cosmopolitan city: “Wouldn’t it be great if people said, ‘I go to Singapore every year because they have some of the best art in the world’. While such a dream might be put on hold for now, Sifa On Demand, the post-festival programme with video-on-demand access, from June 5 to 12, seeks to increase the festival’s reach to both local and international audiences.

Pandemic aside, how close are we to achieving this dream? “I think we are a generation away,” says Kripalani. “But I hope in the next 10 to 20 years, we would have grown Singapore into the cultural capital of Asia. If you look at the exponential growth of the arts scene over the past 20 years, we’re definitely heading in the right direction to achieve this goal. I’m very excited to see what the next 20 years will bring.” And so are we.

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