Esplanade announces new S$30 million mid-sized theatre

SINGAPORE — A new building is in the works for Esplanade — Theatres on the Bay. Budgeted at S$30 million,  the new waterfront theatre will be able to seat up to 550 people, and offer the arts venue more flexibility in terms of programming.

Ms Grace Fu, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, announced the plans at the M1-Straits Times Life Theatre awards at the Esplanade Recital Studio on Monday (April 10).

“With this 550-seat theatre, our arts groups will be able to scale up works previously presented in small studios,” she said.

“Today, a majority of the works produced for major festivals requires medium-sized venues. We hope that the new theatre would give our arts groups an appropriate space to create new content, not only for our local audience, but also for regional and international audiences. In time to come, audiences can look forward to a greater variety of offerings, as well as a rich canon of made-in-Singapore works."

The Esplanade’s chief executive, Mr Benson Puah, said in a media preview last week that the venue — announced in conjunction with the Esplanade’s 15th anniversary this year — will allow the arts centre to collaborate with, and then showcase, works with local as well as regional artists.

Such works “will, hopefully, become the stories, music, movements or even traditional art forms, that the next generation of Singaporeans will hold dear,” he said.

The Esplanade’s two main venues are its Theatre, which can seat 2,000 people, and the Concert Hall, which seats 1,600. Its smaller Theatre and Recital studios house around 200 each.

Ms Yvonne Tham, assistant chief executive officer of the Esplanade, said that over the past three to four years, the Esplanade has been ramping up commissions and co-productions with various artists and art groups. Last year, the arts centre commissioned 60 original works.

Programming at the new theatre will comprise 60 per cent of such works from the Esplanade, while 40 per cent will be works from others hiring the space.

With a mid-sized venue, the Esplanade will also be able to accommodate more works for traditional arts groups, as well as schools, children and young adults. These sit best in a mid-sized space, said Ms Tham.

Construction will begin in 2019, and the new space will be up and running by 2021. The Government will provide S$10 million of the budget, while the Esplanade will engage in fund-raising activities for the remaining S$20 million.

Ms Sarah Martin, chief executive officer at the Arts House Ltd, was one of those who lauded the announcement of the new theatre. Ms Martin, who took over the helm of the arts company in December, said that the Esplanade’s new venue would provide artists with another option to present quality works.

“There is room (here) for another venue of this scale,” said Ms Martin, adding that such a space will be “important for the arts ecosystem”.

Existing mid-sized venues are the Drama Centre and the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, which fell under the Arts House Ltd’s purview in November last year.

Prior to that, those venues came under the Esplanade. The Victoria Theatre, which seats around 600, is booked solid until 2019.

Award-winning poet and playwright Alfian Sa’at noted that when the Esplanade first opened, “one of the controversies that emerged (in the arts scene) ... was the absence of a mid-sized theatre”.

“Being able to perform in mid-sized theatres is an important step towards professionalisation in the theatre industry,” he said, adding that those who rely on box-office takings cannot make a profit if they only have access to small “black box spaces”.

At the same time, playing in a large venue with a capacity of 1,500 may be too much of a step up, and may be out of an artist’s reach because “of the expenses involved”.

The Esplanade will now call for proposals for the project’s different consultants, including a theatre consultant and architect, the Esplanade said in a statement.

Regarding fundraising efforts, Ms Tham said the Esplanade will be “exploring ways (for) members of the public to be involved in whatever fun and accessible way”.

“We really want people to say that ‘we helped build it’ in whatever small way.”

Its new space, at 3,000 sq m, will take up the existing areas of The Edge and Waterfront Carpark, near Makansutra Gluttons by the Bay.

The arts centre has played host to 34,000 performances in its 15-year history, and drawn an audience of 88 million visitors. Each year, it offers some 3,000 free activities.