Ruby: My name is Ruby Lim and I’m the artistic director of ACT3 International. I am a co-founder of ACT3, one of three founders, who created this company in 1984. We were a children’s theatre company when we started. Today ACT3 International is an arts company and we do work which marry children with the arts beyond drama and theatre.

 

Kids Can Act: Can you tell us a bit about how the school came to be, how it was founded? Is it subsidized by any government agencies?

 

R: Firstly, to put the record straight, ACT3 is not a school, it is an arts company that is running an enrichment program that incorporates drama. So what that means is we use drama and theatre to encourage the process of development in young people. The definition of young people for us, would be from ages 18 months to 15 years of age, so that is our focus of enrichment and arts education.

 

We are right now sitting in Cairnhill Arts Centre, it is part of the National Arts Council’s housing scheme. We were very very fortunate and privileged to be a part of the growth of the arts in Singapore when the arts was just gaining prominence and people were just starting to notice that is was important to have the arts. And so we were part of that growth in the mid 80s.

 

We created our own path from the very beginning, in the early 80s, we were staging little theatre shows out to where people were, back when we were a small company of three.

 

Personally, I was a child performer, I was introduced to stage performance as a young person as early as age 8. And so I've always had that exposure as a child, right up to 18, even when I started working life, I got myself involved in amateur theatre so I didn't stop even as a young adult.

 

Then the opportunity came when we found each other, the three founders Jasmin Samat Simon, R. Chandran and myself, found each other in a workshop, we decided to form the company ACT3, and obviously the 3 is because it started with 3 people and the 3 of us did everything ourselves. So that was the start of the company.

 

ACT3 drama academy is going to be 20 years old next year. We started ACT3 drama academy in 1994, 10 years after we started the company proper. The reason was that it took us 10 years to develop our work as performers, to develop our work in theatre and to mature from young performers to young adults.

 

In the second decade of our work and our development we created ACT3 drama academy because we saw the need to nurture young people in the process. Our initial focus was primarily on performance and productions but what came very naturally was a desire to do work that could involve young people and children to perform as well as to understand the process developing themselves through drama. So from mini workshops we grew slowly to become an academy with a full fledged syllabus, program and terms, but purely on an enrichment basis.

 

At ACT3 Drama Academy, we emphasize enriching the children by giving them all fun and no stress. Therefore we are not exam oriented as we do not believe that passing an exam is a useful indicator of confidence or being able to speak well. The most important thing we wish to impart is life skills that the child can take with them into their adult lives. Through the process of drama, the children would hopefully gain the ability to be confident, to communicate, and to be brave about their ideas and not worry about being judged or what others would think of them.

 

KCA: You were talking a bit about the process, can you tell us a bit more about that?

 

R: We use drama tools which encourages participants, from younger children to teens, to bring forward your innermost fears. What this does for young children is that it allows them to play in an imagined world. In an imagined world, anything is possible, there is no fear of being judged, every idea is a good idea, every idea begets another idea and everything is deemed positive. So that process of drawing forth of what is inside you, be it ideas, thoughts, feelings.

 

This encourages the child and builds their confidence over a period of time. Other benefits are improved communication, the ability to maintain eye contact, the ability to speak your mind in a responsible way and also the ability to understand that the world is not just you. The world is made up of different people with different viewpoints and that would encourage children to grow holistically. So that is the process, in a nutshell, how drama encourages and enriches growth and personal development.  

 

KCA: How often do the children come for classes?

 

R: They have regular weekly classes throughout the year, 40 weeks a year. And they come for different programs depending on their age group. The youngest participants are 18 months old and they would come with their mums, dads or caregivers until they are 3 years old. After that they are on their own and they can continue until they are 15. It becomes a bit more performance based as they grow older, this means that they learn skills to present themselves before an audience. 

About the time that they are 8 -10 years old, we begin to develop those presentation skills but never forgetting social interacting, developing the language skills and drama skills. Under age 9, we use a lot of role playing, which can take all sorts of forms. From age 9 and above, we will do more improvisation which would include working with scripts.

 

We would of course have introduced texts early on, so children would be exposed to texts and interaction but underpinning it all is an element of play, the element of being brave to try and to have no fear. That is what allows you to be creative. If you are afraid to play, you are afraid to try. If you are afraid to try, you are afraid to be creative. If you are afraid to be creative, you will not use your imagination. And this has been proven, time and time again, when formal studies have been done on using drama as a tool in education, or in productions and today it is even used in therapy.  

 

KCA: What do you think motivates parents to bring their children to drama classes? 

 

R: A variety of reasons. At the very beginning, I would say it was a curiosity. It was an alternative to sending your child to strict music classes or dance classes. And we were seen as the lowest rung of the ladder, but there were parents who saw that acting looked like fun, that acting looked like easy entry and it is. More so when we put forth our philosophy, that it is all fun and no stress. We stress to the parents that it is okay if the child is not ready to participate actively in the class. There is no dogged following of an exam format that you have to complete in 40 weeks.  

 

The objectives of parents changed as we developed. In the early 90s, it was a mix of curiosity; some parents might have had experience in drama and liked it, or exploring the child's interest after trying music or dance. Eventually it grew into an understanding the benefits of drama exposure, not just as audience but as a participant in the process. Parents could see the development of their child. Over time more literature was written about the subject and also the advent of the internet saw an increased awareness about the benefits of drama.  

 

Through the journey that we have undergone over the last 20 years, we've seen parents come on board coming different outcomes for their children. It helps children overcome their shyness because they are in an environment that nurtures fearlessness. Other children who are extroverted, it helps them harness their energy. Overall, it promotes and builds creativity and teaches the child life skills. 

 

KCA: Are there parents that have ambitions for their child to be an actor?

 

R: Plenty. I think there is always that curiosity to find out if their child has the inclination or talent to become an actor but I'm happy to say that most parents come to ACT3 Drama Academy for the process. We do have presentations that push the envelope a little bit by having the children perform in a safe environment. Small, intimate affairs, with a bit of stage lights, costumes and a bit of discipline to know cues, what to say, when to move.

 

Which is good because it structures a certain set of disciplines within the individual. But most parents are just happy their children are enjoying what they do and that is key to learning anything.

 

KCA: Do you have any of your children (from ACT3) go on to become actors? 

 

R: A couple are going to be. A couple of them that are 16 this year, they joined us when they were 4 years old. They will soon be graduating from SOTA, there is a batch that has already graduated. As working actors, no clear names come to mind. So many children come through our doors. But it doesn't worry me, it doesn't make me feel like we've failed because our main purpose is really about the process and developing individuals as opposed to star performers.

 

KCA: You mentioned before that you had some experience in television? 

 

R: I started out as a child on stage. As I developed as a performer, I had the opportunity to work on television. It was in the infant stages of producing english language dramas. I was involved with a program that involved children and that is how I got into television. I also hosted some television programs that dealt with the arts. But I loved the stage more than anything else so I did not pursue work in television. 

 

KCA: Could you tell us some of the television programs that you were involved with? 

 

R: I've been on Caldecott Hill, that is revealing my age a bit. I've been on Arts Around, as a host and presenter. In the 1980s, there was a pilot, it was part of an initiative to produce home grown english language television programs for young audiences. There was another program called, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, it featured talented children.  

 

I was involved in television back in the RTS (Radio and Television of Singapore) days, so I had that span of years, on to when they changed to SBC (Singapore Broadcasting Corporation). But I was very much involved with television when it was SBC. It was exciting, we were exploring, television wasn't so rigid or mercenary as it is now.  

 

KCA: Can you elaborate on your experiences of working in television. 

 

R: It was exciting to be part of a magnificent team of people to make a show. It was mind boggling because we didn't have a sense of where was the start and where was the end. What was really gratifying was the ability to act and be a character. You must understand that actors love to act and at that time it was easy entry [to working in television].

 

It was gratifying to know that you were part of a pioneering team developing something for television and that it would be seen. We knew that it would be seen by people but in the 80s, not everybody had television so there wasn't a sense of [fame] that came with it. But ultimately theatre was in my lifeblood and so that is where I went. 

 

KCA: You said that television back then was less rigid, could you elaborate on that? 

 

R: It was more open, less structured. I think everyone was figuring how what to do. I had a sense that there was adventurism, exploration; there was more give and take. Of course, over the years as it developed - TV is going to be 50 years old this year right? - They found all their processes and they threw out what they don't like and they kept what worked. So they've become quite sleek and chic about it and rightly so.

 

Television in the rest of the world also developed in the same way. People are just copying each other and so it is hard to create something original. That's something I think they had at the start, originality. So it was really exciting times. That's not to say that these are not exciting times, just different. These are challenging times for television because of the advent of new technology, it makes it more open. #00:25:24.6#

 

KCA: You also mentioned that compared to now it is more mercenary? 

 

R: Yes. It is transactional now. I never felt it was transactional then. It was more because you believed in a cause and you come together to make it work. Not that it wasn't professional but it was not transactional, there was more of a human connection.

 

KCA: What do you think of the recent trend of having more child actors?

 

R: We must always be very responsible when working with children, whenever we put them before an audience. They are not adults, I find it distasteful when they put the children on and they make them look like adults. That I find distasteful and rather disturbing. Not so much in Singapore but in places like China and Taiwan. I think one has to be careful primarily because their cognitive skills and emotional maturity have to be handled well, no matter how precocious the child is. 

 

To answer the question, I think it is a platform, I'm not saying we should do away with it - I'm not conservative in that way - but I think people around that platform, be it writers, producers, production managers or parents who put their children on the stage, have to carry that process through with a sense of responsibility. They should not feed one's own vanity, forgetting that it is still a child that is experiencing this process. They are not robots, tools, or machines. 

 

KCA: We notice that recently there is a trend towards cultivating a cult of personality around child actors. You see things like the introduction of the Young Talent Award in Mediacorp's Star Awards and children running their own fanpages on Facebook. It seems like a lot for a child to deal with and it makes you wonder if the people around them are treating them with responsibility.  

 

R: One needs to manage that very well with clarity of purpose. You must be sure  why you are doing it. My own son was a voice-over child, he was naturally gifted and people approached me to do voice-over work and I said "Yeah sure", but as long as he likes it and enjoys it. That was my rule of thumb. If he didn't, I would stop it at the risk of missing out on the next 'job' - even though I didn't see it as a job but more his pleasure of performing. Afterwards he told me he didn't want to do it anymore and I said "It's okay". I encouraged him to a point but not further than that.  

 

KCA: How old was your son when he started doing voice-overs? 

 

R: He was pre-primary - that time it was called pre-primary - to primary 1. So about 7. He was clear, he knew how to enunciate and he was not afraid. There was one incident when the producer for a voice-over couldn't make up her mind about what she wanted.

 

When you direct a child - well actually you can't direct a child, you just let the child play and expose the child to various stimuli and draw as much as you can from the child and then when you edit you pick the parts you want - but the producer in that particular instance couldn't figure out what to do. So eventually she broke him down and he cried to me "I don't know what she wants Mummy" and I said you've got to stop. So it is that kind of sense of responsibility. I had to step in and stop it even if it meant not pleasing the 'customer'.

 

KCA: What type of voice-over work did your son do? 

 

R: I don't think I can mention them because they are brand names, but they are advertisements on radio. At one point there was a lot of radio advertisements that featured children and they were horrible, not because of the child. They featured children just because they sound cute and you can't even hear what they were saying. And these types of mistakes still happen today, when you stick a child in front of a camera and you don't put the child at ease, you are not going to get a good performance. The Americans do it quite well, they keep the camera quite quiet and they relax the child, they engage the child and then you do clever editing after that. 

 

You know, you asked me about television and it got me thinking of the Bruce Willis movie with the child that can see dead people. 

 

KCA: The Sixth Sense? 

 

R: Right and I love watching shows that feature child actors because I’m always fascinated about how they manage to get the naturalness out of the child actor.

 

KCA: So you feel like the people that work in television in Singapore, they don't know how to deal with children?

 

R: I don't think they do not know. I would say we need to have a level of know-how in directing a child. Children are unpredictable and you have to be tuned in to that. You need to have a level of sensitivity to be able to bring forth what you need from the child. Because you are asking the child to be somebody, in acting you are in the most basic terms being somebody else, and that is really hard to do.

 

KCA: Do you think that this is a problem that could be addressed with education? 

 

R: I think you have to be clued in and some people are better able to read signals and we are all like that to a certain degree. You cannot read certain signals, I cannot read certain signals. It is part and parcel of what we are as human beings. I think you must learn how to do it. You cannot just casually decide that you want to do children's shows because you think they are cute and you can make them do anything. They are not puppies. You cannot go in and train the children.

 

KCA: What about educating the people that produce the shows?

 

R: I think so. I don't know the world of television that well. But I'm sure that there have been inroads made in this area already in developing skillsets for people to work with certain character types or certain type of person. Children are a certain, very special type that you need to understand. You probably need to read child psychology, you need to understand behavioral patterns. So yes, I think being more informed I think is certainly helpful. 

 

KCA: Do you incorporate child psychology into creating your syllabus?

 

R: I encourage our teachers to read up on their own. I read it on the side, I'm not qualified in psychology. I'm a theatre maker primarily, but I've learned and picked up skills over the years working in this job. I think reading up and learning and adding on to your skillset is important. But you don't have to get hung up on it. What is important is that you have a passion for what you are doing and a sense of responsibility for what you are doing, I think those things would bring you quite far. 

 

KCA: Your premises are under the National Arts Council Housing Scheme. Do you receive other assistance or funding from the government? 

 

R: No, we don't. We support ourselves through the fees we charge parents. We run productions and we produce work and we earn project fees or sell tickets, like any other arts companies. We also do work with schools; I think that is another exciting area. 

 

KCA: What do you think of government efforts in building up the arts, especially in terms of nurturing young talent. Do you think that they are doing enough? 

 

R: That is a trick question. I think that to say that they are not doing enough is not fair. I think over the past 30 years, there are clear indications that the government has put aside substantial money to support the arts. Sometimes, I personally think that the money can be put to better use.

 

There is always the debate about hardware vs. software. And even within software development meaning developing people, you wonder why they are doing specific things. I think it is a question of focus. I think that the government is in a difficult position and I think that they have to be responsible and very clearheaded. Clarity is what I am after. 

 

KCA: Do you see that clarity in government policies with regard to developing young people? 

 

R: I think there is space for that. Is there more that can be done? I feel that it requires a lot of players, I don't think it is totally dependent on the government. The government would provide the infrastructure and they need to help ave the way, in terms of social enterprise of business enterprise. You must protect the people that are committed to this country, whether they are locals, foreigners, or people who have come to make this place their home. Recognise and be aware of what is happening on the ground. Be aware that maybe TV producers are not trained. Be aware that maybe it is not a good idea to create this 'glam factor' around child actors without being sensitive to the children's needs. 

 

KCA: What do you envision or what do you hope to see in the development of young talent in Singapore? 

 

R: In the area of the performing arts, it feels like we are chugging along. I'm not dismal or pessimistic. We are a small country and I hope that there will always be that rare talent that will come about and find the opportunity to blossom. But this is in a sense peripheral, you can use talent in so many ways not just in performing. I think that the most important thing is the process because it affects everyone in different ways, you are not all going to be star players, but you will take something away from being exposed to the arts, be it performing, visual or literary arts. And I think being allowed to encounter the arts is important, because if not what does it leave a people? Hollowness. 

 

So I think that the people that work with children, be it in child caring or enrichment, must be aware that it is a process and that this is paramount. For too long, our society has been grades driven. Which is fine if the child is an A student. But if he is a B+? If he is a B+ student and he is a wonderful person, I would have that. And it is how to have a society thinking that way.