Lianhe Zaobao in Singapore published a recent article, giving a brief overview of Chinese children’s plays in Singapore. In recent years, these theatrical works have become more popular, attracting many theaters to produce more high-quality plays, including Theater Practice and Singapore Repertory Theater. Among them is Esplanade Art Centre, a Singapore national art institute also creating appealing plays to suit audience appetites.

Singapore Repertory Theater: Children’s plays in English and Chinese

Charlotte Nors, the executive director of SRT, gratefully acknowledged the contribution of SRT in creating the plays. Since 2013, SRT has performed at least one Chinese children's play each year, with eight plays produced up to now. In 2002, the theater produced an English play, and its subordinate The Little Company turned the English version into a Chinese one.

"More and more children’s plays in English appeared in the market, but Chinese versions were less common. We believed we had the capability to make up the shortfall." Nors said. "With our experience making English children’s plays, and professional translators and producing teams, we were confident we could create more Chinese children’s plays. According to current trends, these plays are worth our continuous investment."

Theater Practice: A ‘parent-child’ play every year

Guo Jianhong, art director at Theater Practice, described children’s theater as "parent-child" theater. She believes the chief goal of parent-child plays is to let the family enjoy art together. For 20 years, the art development program of the Singapore National Arts Council in schools helped young audiences become bigger and stronger.

Guo said parent-child Chinese theater and Chinese learning are inseparable. Since 1990s, Theater Practice’s actors have performed in schools, with most plays designed for juveniles. "2010 was the true start for the parent-child plays. Since then, we regularly created at least one parent-child play each year."

Esplanade Art Centre: Driving the theatrical market

Esplanade Art Centre has produced children’s plays since 2006. From 2010 till now, the center has co-produced or introduced nine works, many of which were adapted from Chinese folk stories.

Li Guoming, producer of Esplanade art centre, thought there were several factors influencing positively the development of Chinese children’s play. First, purchasing power of middle-income class has increased, enhancing recreational consumption. With growing number of permanent residents from China settled down in Singapore, the targeted audience increased. As Chinese has gained more worldwide popularity, parents hope their children more attach native language through drama art.

Not just for kids

"In Theater Repertory Theater, three generations of a family often come together to watch Chinese children's plays, but there is no such phenomenon in English children's plays," Nors pointed out. "The average attendance rate of Chinese children's plays in Theater Repertory Theater exceeded 90 percent during the five-week performance cycle, because they were often watched by elders."

Li Guoming said: "Plays are first introduced to parents, that means they should primarily appeal to parents. In fact, when parents are watching plays with their children, they could relax and see the world from a different perspective."

Building Chinese skills through theater

"Not simplifying language is one of our producing principles. If parts of actor’s lines are difficult to understand, we use actions and sounds to help audiences comprehend stories," Guo said. "The degree of language and age don’t have a positive correlation, that’s why we don’t change language and instead pay attention to communication in various ways."

Li Guoming agreed with that. He pointed out a producer of children’s plays think from the children’s perspective. "Don’t underestimate the learning potential of children," he said. "Through appreciating these plays they would acquire more vocabulary."

Nors said just because a play is for children doesn’t mean its quality must suffer. Showing a great story on the stage cannot be separated from good performances, direction and production — and more importantly, an intriguing use of language.

Mom Liang Xiaoping has been taking her child to watch plays for two years, including Kid’s Game and The Monkey King. "English is mainly used in Singapore, so it's challenging to let my kid get in touch in Chinese. I attach special importance to it."

After watching Fantastic Mr. Fox with her two children, mom Chen Cuiwei especially enjoyed the word games her children played on the stage. She believes watching Chinese children's plays is as much fun as watching English ones, and interest in drama could be gained through attending. Watching dramas has become a pleasure for the two children — especially Chinese plays.