Over the last two decades, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay’s The Studios has been a space for inspiration, innovation, and imagination. It has presented an eclectic collection of more than 160 productions that has asked artists and audiences to reconsider possibilities in contemporary theatre and performance.
From 2023, The Studios will be expanding. At the most fundamental level, the season is moving beyond its intimate home in the Esplanade Theatre Studio to include presentations in the recently opened Singtel Waterfront Theatre at Esplanade, opening up the possibilities for art-making and performance. This shift is mirrored in the expansion of the geography of the programming, inviting both Singapore-based and international artists to congregate in these spaces and exchange ideas, perspectives and stories.
Our overarching theme for the next three years of The Studios is Land. Land is immediate and tactile. It encompasses a vast number of today’s pertinent issues, including global development, climate change, land rights, displacement and migration, duty of care and responsibility to our environment and the people around us. For 2023, we turn our lens inwards and examine our relationship with land under the specific theme of Landings. How much do we know about the land on which we reside—its history, its natural character? What does it mean to us, and to what extent do we understand what we are trying to protect or preserve?
Taking place from 28 Jul to 3 Sep 2023, the six productions and the accompanying companion programmes in our 2023 season are a starting point to examine some of these complex questions.
