Esplanade Announces IN NEW LIGHT

Humans are creatures of habit. We fear changes that disturb our sense of self and our sense of belonging to a home or community. Yet we constantly crave the new. New tastes, sights, and experiences that excite and inspire us. These two contradictory impulses also underlie In New Light - A Season of Commissions as Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay marks its 20-year journey as an arts centre for everyone.

Presented from 12 Oct to 31 Dec 2022, In New Light's commissions celebrate 20 years of artistry and collaborations that have made Esplanade a home for the arts, and the arts an integral part of Singapore's cultural identity and diverse communities. In New Light also presents new works and a new venue. In a world still experiencing the aftershocks of the pandemic and existential crises on ecological, technological and other fronts, these commissions hope to provide new lenses through which we can better question, heal, and ultimately, create our future.

Firstly, five commissions will launch the much-awaited multi-format Singtel Waterfront Theatre at Esplanade. After two years of mostly online workshops and rehearsals, arts practitioners and collaborators from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Macau, South Korea, Japan and Australia finally come together in this new venue. They include theatre maker Chong Tze Chien, cultural medallion recipient Margaret Leng Tan, Kuik Swee Boon & The Human Expression (T.H.E) Dance Company, musician Safuan Johari who will lead the RATA Orkestra as artistic director, as well as Papermoon Puppet Theatre. In ways deeply personal yet epic in imagination, these five works experiment with projection mapping, immersive soundscapes, and puppetry, to present stories and experiences about nature, family, violence, cross-cultural conversations and more.

Next, two concerts that posit the new with the old will play in Esplanade's beloved Concert Hall. Singapore Chinese Orchestra will perform Daybreak, composed by Singapore Cultural Medallion Recipient Law Wai Lun and leading contemporary composer Chong Kee Yong, in a multi-media work inspired by the Chinese mythological stories of Pan Gu, Nü Wa and Huang Di. Singapore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Lien Boon Hua, will profile next-generation music talents Abigail Sin (piano) and Loh Jun Hong (violin) in a concert that includes a new commission Illuminations composed by Jonathan Shin (piano) and Phoon Yu (pipe organ).

Finally, we invite you to explore Esplanade's public spaces anew through a series of exhibitions, tours and installations commissioned to mark our 20th anniversary.

From 12 - 30 Oct, the walls of the Esplanade Courtyard along the waterfront will come alive with a larger-than-life projection Dancing with Light. It presents the human body as a site of energy, struggle, and transcendence. You can also explore Esplanade's waterfront and gardens via a new "Garden Tour" led by our Customer Experience team.

At the Esplanade Concourse, Home Grooves tells the story of Singapore's colourful live music venues over the last 60 years through archival objects and images, video interviews and music playlists, while Lights On is an exhibition and audio tour of insider stories about Esplanade's development and the evolution of its public spaces, told by the decision makers, cultural workers, and artists themselves.

In the Singtel Waterfront Theatre and along its façade, Building Dreams by documentary photographer Bob Lee features the people who built-literally-this new venue amidst the pandemic.

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