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My Love Affair with Theatre...
I began creating solo performances while working with The Necessary Stage as an actor-facilitator (1996–1998) and found that it was an ideal mode for me to express the themes and issues I felt compelled to explore through theatre. Since 1997, I've been steadily experimenting with the form, mostly self-directed and produced.
Various Solo Performances Between Woman and Man: The Erasure of Verena Tay (2007)
Dates: a) 20 Apr 2007: Male Instincts; b) 21 Apr 2007: Women Wise Venue: The Substation Theatre Presented by: The Substation & Little Red Shop (Photo: Lu Huen) What The Critics Say: "Trying on the different outfits hung onstage, she was transformed - by a mysterious act of spiritual possession - into a lively storyteller, inhabiting different narrating personae for the stories. Tay was clearly in her element, narrating with much gusto and spark." ~ Adeline Chia, Life! Section, The Straits Times, 24 Apr 2007, p. 9 3 Women (2005, 2007)
(Photo: Jori Ketten, courtesy of Magdalena USA) History: I first created and performed The Perfect Shoe for The Necessary Stage in 1997. Since then, it has been performed many times in Singapore and showcased in New Zealand (1999), Norway (2000), Hong Kong (2004) and Iowa City, USA (2007). Subsequently, I completed Good Girls Don’t Wait and Jiving on Java during 2003. I publicly read all the three monologues at The Substation in June and Aug 2003. Then The Substation produced a triple bill performance entitled, 3 Men Meet 3 Women, in Jul 2004. I began rehearsing my own performance of the three monologues in 2005. 3 Women: A Work-in-Progress was shown at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts on 22 Apr. Subsequently in 2005, 3 Women was performed at The Substation’s Dance Studio (30 Jun–1 Jul) and at the Magdalena USA International Festival of Women in Contemporary Theatre (31 Jul–6 Aug, Providence, Rhode Island). In 2007, 3 Women was revived and was the inaugural performance at the Republic Cultural Centre's Lab (2 Aug); it was also performed at beGallery, High Falls, NY (18 Aug) and Union College, Schenectady, NY (22 Aug). What The Critics Say: “…but she shone most brightly in Good Girls Don't Wait, in which she played a simple-minded, insecure girl who is waiting (and waiting) for her ah beng boyfriend who never shows up - except he finally does, but in a way that is a bittersweet surprise for the character and the audience. When I first saw Good Girls Don't Wait in an earlier staging it lacked the tautness of structure and focus on character that Tay gave it in this version. In writing and performance, Wait was well-handled and came alive with an honesty that gave this simple story the x-factor it needed. …But even as they are now, there is much to appreciate. These are stories that are worth telling and are being told reasonably well, but more importantly they are being told with a lot of heart and sensitivity, which is what matters most in intimate productions of this nature." ~ Kenneth Kwok, 30 Jun 2005, The Flying Inkpot Theatre Reviews, Review of 3 Women and Still Flight, http://inkpot.com/theatre/05reviews/0623,stilflig,kk.html (last accessed: 19 Feb 2007) Medea: One on One (2002)
(Photo: Sherman Ong)
History: a) 11–14 Jul 2002, 8 pm,
The Guinness Theatre,
The Substation What The Critics Say: “I wonder what Verena Tay was thinking when she decided to put up a one woman play production of Euripides’ Medea. The odds against her were high. She took a classic Greek tragedy by one of Western theatre’s iconic playwrights and infused it with dollops of Asian influences. She played both the lead role – Medea the anti-heroine – as well as role-playing all other characters. She gave herself one hour, two eggs, a couple of masks and costumes, an altar, incense sticks, a drum, cloth and a strip of black cloth for backdrop painted with a mandala-like symbol. Formidable task or not, nevertheless, Verena rose to the occasion and crafted a highly accomplished production that gave the audience more than just a straight reading of a well-known play. Performer, Director, Conceptualiser and Producer, Verena gave a sensitive and thought-provoking rendition of an abominable tale. To answer the perennial question – was Medea mad or justified to commit the quadru-murders – just watch the play intently. Verena cleverly cued the audience with various simple yet suggestive gestures that signified Medea’s psychological makeup. … While many one-person play productions could turn out to be vehicles for affected indulgence or projected therapy, Verena’s ‘one on one’ of an abridged Medea came across as controlled with a mature sense of direction. The message seemed to be one of empathy for a vengeful, proud woman even if she was also manipulative and criminal. Medea is not meant to be a likeable character. But watching Verena dart around playing Medea, Jason, Aegeus, Nurse, Creon, Creon’s daughter, et al, elicited a certain response from me that bordered on part sympathy and part-admiration. Indeed, it is a kind of reciprocal understanding from woman to woman of just how much a woman has to constantly multi-task and work doubly hard in order to earn her niche.” ~ Grace Chia, ‘Mediating Medea’, Review of Medea: One on One, July 2002, http://www.singaporetheatrereviews.net/medearv1.html (last accessed: 7 February 2003) “To mount this classical Greek play of betrayal and sexual jealousy is no easy task for one person. Yet Verena Tay pulled it off with aplomb, sustaining the show’s energy throughout the one-hour performance. With the innovative use of masks and cloth, she slipped in and out of the different roles in the play and brought each character to life convincingly. … In the end, her undeniably powerful stage presence prevented the show from descending into mediocrity. Tay said she spent one year preparing for the show, and this showed in the precision of her acting and movements. All in, Medea: One on One was a satisfyingly meaty show with an emotional punch.” ~ Tessa Wong, Life! Section, The Straits Times, 15 July 2002, p. 7 Cotton & Jade (2000/2001) Synopsis: A recreation of the stories of the women in Verena Tay's family, from her great-grandmother down to her nieces, Cotton & Jade explores universal issues of identity, family ties and womanhood.
(Photo: Sherman Ong)
History: a) 21–24 Jul 2000, The
Guinness Theatre, The Substation; as part of Septfest 2000 Silent Man (1998)
History: 13, 14, 22, 27 & 28 Aug 1998, Cairnhill Studio, 126 Cairnhill Road; produced by The Necessary Stage as part of I'd Like to Thank My Mother, My Father, Myself. (Photo: Courtesy of The Necessary Stage) What The Critics Say: "...warm, fuzzy nostalgia..." ~ Clarissa Oon, Life! Section, The Straits Times, 22 Aug 1998 |
It
was very exciting to start out in Singapore theatre during the late eighties
and early nineties when
the contemporary theatre scene began to bloom. I learnt much of my craft
as a performer/director/playwright on the job and through taking part
in numerous
workshops. 
Synopsis: 
Synopsis: A
woman waits for her boyfriend. A woman rejects work, buses and car
ownership, desiring peace and tranquillity. A woman seeks to keep her
feet happy... 
Synopsis:
In this solo performance based on
Euripides’ classic text, Medea, Verena Tay confronted the power of one
woman’s wrath to understand the nature
of rage. How far will a proud
woman, betrayed by her husband, be driven to seek revenge, even at the expense
of her children? To
prepare for Medea: One on One, Verena carried out her own physical and
vocal training as well as devised the staging of the production over more than a year, painstakingly finding
compelling ways to evoke Medea's
passion through a unique combination of
voice, movement and Balinese topeng masks.
Based on several years of research, Cotton & Jade is
an experiment in multimedia theatre. Strong physical
work and dynamic prose interweave with projections of old photographs, archival documents,
and evocative video clips; sound bites from oral history interviews;
excerpts of poetry from Asian women writers; and the cooking
and serving of longan soup. Directed by Brian Seward.
Synopsis:
Verena Tay makes sense of the art and life of her late father, David Tay Tian
Swee, a photographer, through her art as an actor