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STUDENTS DRIVEN BY THEIR LOVE FOR THE ARTS GET TOGETHER
TO MAKE SOME MAGIC.

EMILY LEK SHOWS YOU HOW

Fifteen-year-old Nurraihan Razali from Ang Mo Kio Secondary School is passionately in love with the arts.

Not only does she play the guitar, she is also a member of her school’s art club.
And she took that passion to a whole new level when she volunteered to produce Happening, a series of interdisciplinary performance projects showcasing various art forms.

Nurraihan is one of 11 youths who collaborated with the Singapore Drama Educators Association (SDEA) and *scape, a youth community space in Orchard Road youth community space *scape, in the first installation of the series, Untitled.

Untitled premiered on March 31 and is the first of many more installations to come.

So what made Happening happen?

In December last year, *scape and the association came up with the concept of Happening, in a bid to help promote the arts as an attractive platform for youth creativity and expression.

They appealed to youths through schools and sent out e-mail to students in the online arts community.

Nurraihan responded to the call. She became part of the team, conceptualising and producing Untitled all by themselves.

Aged between 15 and 19, the students hail from Ang Mo Kio Secondary School, Raffles Junior College, Republic Polytechnic and the National University of Singapore.

Debut installation Untitled showcased four different elements of the arts via a short film, an art exhibition, a play and a live band performance. All these segments revolve around the central theme Break.

SDEA’s Rosie McGowan, who facilitated the Untitled piece, explained: “Break is a theme that youths can relate to on many different levels, for example, break-ups, breaking free from presumptions and so on.”

Nurraihan and her friends explored this theme over a period of 10 weeks in preparation for Untitled.

They wrote drama scripts, created art pieces and got together to jam live music late into the night.

All their dedication and hard work seem to have paid off.

Said SDEA president Noorlinah Mohammed: “The audience described their performance as a generous and honest effort.”

Group member Joanna Hioe Zhi Hui, from Raffles Junior College, was encouraged by the response.

She said: “Several members of the audience said they would definitely come back for future installations.”

The second installation in June will feature youths aged 13 to 15 and will also take the form of a performance event.

It was nothing short of an exhilarating experience for Nurraihan, who gushed: “It just feels great being able to express my creativity.”

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