{"id":28944,"date":"2016-05-01T15:36:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-01T07:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/?p=28944"},"modified":"2021-04-30T16:31:38","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T08:31:38","slug":"id-like-to-know-alfian-saat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/id-like-to-know-alfian-saat\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019d Like To Know: Alfian Sa\u2019at"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Do you have a ritual when it comes to writing?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>I usually fix a cup of coffee before I settle down to write. Then I get on my bed and do my writing while lying prone. As I\u2019m full of restless energy, I\u2019ll often be shaking my feet from side to side. I think of that feet-shaking as a case of warming up my engine to write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What keeps you up at night?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Writing! I can\u2019t write in the day because it\u2019s too hot. And I\u2019m slightly allergic to air-con so that doesn\u2019t work for me (Mother Nature thanks me for that). This means I\u2019m often up writing at night, usually until daybreak. People know this because sometimes I take a break and update my Facebook at, like, 4am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>You\u2019re throwing a dinner party for five guests \u2013 dead or alive, real or fictional. Whom would you invite?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Dorothy Parker and Mae West for the&nbsp;<em>bon mots<\/em>. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford just to see the sparks fly. And Judy Garland for the entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What\u2019s one of your pet peeves?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u2018buat bodoh\u2019 face. \u2018Buat bodoh\u2019 roughly translates to \u2018act dumb or feign ignorance\u2019 and some Singaporeans have perfected it as their default facial expression. You\u2019ll see this on people who don\u2019t give up their seats to the pregnant and elderly, or those who take their sweet time at eating places when there are others who are holding their trays and waiting for seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>If you were entertaining a visitor from overseas, what\u2019s the one place in Singapore you\u2019d take them to?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Haw Par Villa. Drugs are banned in Singapore, but who needs them when you have the fantastic acid trip that is Haw Par Villa? Look \u2013 a crab with the head of a woman! Oriental mermaids! A woman breastfeeding her mother-in-law! Giant sumo wrestlers! Entrails unravelled in Hell!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What\u2019s your favourite Singaporean movie?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s this movie by Daniel Hui called&nbsp;<em>Snakeskin<\/em>, which I adore. It\u2019s got elements of sci-fi, documentary, video diary, and it\u2019s elliptical and enigmatic. I make it sound like it\u2019s a frustrating viewing experience but it\u2019s not \u2013 it\u2019s like a waking dream that embroiders together personal memory and history. I hope it comes out on DVD or gets a cinematic release, because I think more Singaporeans should watch it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Tell us about the theatrical experience that changed your life.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>I was in Secondary Two when I watched a play by The Necessary Stage called&nbsp;<em>This Chord and Others<\/em>&nbsp;at the old Drama Centre on Fort Canning Hill. It was a play about the friendship between three colleagues: a Punjabi, a Eurasian and a Chinese, written by Haresh Sharma. It left a deep impression on me \u2013 I learnt about allegory, the richness of Singapore\u2019s multiculturalism, the possibilities of creating entire worlds with just three actors. Later on, I was mentored in playwriting by Haresh Sharma himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>If you could import something that you can\u2019t get in Singapore, what would it be?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Tan Pin Pin\u2019s documentary,\u00a0<em>To Singapore, With Love<\/em>. It\u2019s ridiculous that this tender and nuanced valentine to Singapore from its exiles is banned here. And I think, after that, there should be amnesty for these exiles and they should be allowed to enter the country and live the rest of their days in the land of their birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>HOTEL\u00a0<\/em>and<em>\u00a0GRC<\/em>, written by Alfian Sa\u2019at, play at the Singapore Theatre Festival this July. Alfian will also be conducting a\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/singaporetheatrefestival.com\/festivities\/workshop\/\" target=\"_blank\">playwriting workshop<\/a>\u00a0during the Festival on 23 and 24 July. Visit\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.singaporetheatrefestival.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.singaporetheatrefestival.com<\/a>\u00a0for more information!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How and when does he write? What pisses him off? What was the theatrical experience that changed his life? Find out here!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":28945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[129,34],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28944"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.wildrice.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}