The Singapore Drama Educators Association will be holding a memorial for the late Christina Sergeant on March 1, Friday, 7pm at Goodman Arts Centre. Everyone is invited.

They’ve also written something, which we’re reproducing below. Do read.

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IN MEMORIAM: CHRISTINA SERGEANT

SDEA (Singapore Drama Educators Association) is saddened by the loss of one of their founding members and dedicated committee member, Christina Sergeant.

As a fellow theatre practitioner, educator and colleague, her work over the past 30 years has made her an integral pillar of the local arts scene. Tina was an American actress, director, and teacher who first came to Singapore in August 1983 after getting married to a Singaporean.

In her early years, Tina worked with Scene Shifters, Actors Theatre Circle, The Stage Club and the Raffles Players. She was then invited to join Singapore Theatre Repertory Showcase (STARS) and became involved in their first production, Fiddler On the Roof, where she played the Fiddler.

Roger Jenkins, storyteller and an early collaborator with Tina, reminisces: “Christina Sergeant called me up in mid-1983 and said she’d just arrived in Singapore and that she loved masks and had heard I liked masks too. We met and in that first rehearsal, began a 30-year friendship that brought me so much joy, and a performance partnership that again and again brought out the best in me.

“We took over STARS and set up the Youth Theatre Singapore training programme, which Noorlinah Mohamad, Selena Tan and many others remember so well. In 1990 we created The Madhatters Theatre Company, Singapore’s first professional improvised comedy group, in which her lightning wit, spontaneous energy and flair for physicality, was a rock on which we sparked our crazy entertainment.

“She was dedicated and passionate about creating the best work she could with the materials she had on hand. She was a realist, but she never let the obstacles we faced in the early years of building Singapore theatre, deter her from presenting work, which she felt deserved to be seen. Just because she didn’t have as strong a cast as she would like, just because she didn’t have the budget or the technical resources to achieve her ideal, Christina was determined in her pursuit of her vision, believing it was better to try and fall short than not to try at all. In the theatre she was so versatile – a gifted actor, director, mime, comedienne. Many will remember her as an outstanding teacher – generous in her sharing, precise in her teaching, practical in the wisdom which she shared, exemplary in her attitude towards the work. She will be immensely missed.”

Selena Tan, actress and owner of Dream Academy recalls, “I was 14 years old when I went for my first drama camp and Tina was one of the facilitators. The main workshop she gave was on mime and she blew us all away with her talent. I was inspired and knew immediately that the kind of passion she had was what I wanted and what we should all be so blessed to have.“

In the late 80s, Tina and Shirley Smith started Actors Theatre Circle (ATC). One of its missions was to celebrate plays about women. ATC staged one of the earliest school assembly shows with 44 performances. It was a 5-hander with no microphones and audiences of 200 students per show.

In the early `90s, she went into learning specific methodology in the teaching of drama and went on to practice with speech therapist Juliette McCully and then at Julia Gabriel.

Armed with her earlier B.A. Drama, cum laude, from the University of Houston, training at Ecole de Mimedrame Marcel Marceau, Paris, a teacher’s Diploma in Speech and Drama from Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Tina went on to form Mime Unlimited with a group of performers who were in her mime workshops at The Substation. Mime Unlimited made its debut with a full stage production in the 1992 Festival of Arts Fringe. Mime Unlimited was unique in the performing arts scene being Singapore’s first and only pure mime company; its co-founders included William Morton and Mildred Tan. In 2000, Mime Unlimited made a transition from being a Society into a Limited by Guarantee Company, and was on the NAC Arts Education Programme offering courses in physical theatre and mime.

Tina went on to become an artist-in-school under the NAC scheme and first worked with Changkat Changi Secondary School. Her longest standing artist-in-school relationship was with Raffles Girls School, where she taught for three years. Tina has also taught in River Valley High School, Anglo Chinese Junior College, Crescent Girls and Nan Chiau High. She was involved in teaching drama at Lasalle since the programme first started in the 1990s. This engagement with Lasalle lasted a good twenty years. She also taught at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Her last teaching post was at the School of The Arts (SOTA). She has also worked with primary schools with the support of the NAC using drama as a pedagogical tool in maths and science classes.

“Tina was a very generous and giving artist’” says Chua Ai Liang, Director Audience Development, NAC. “Since the 80s, she has contributed actively to the theatre scene. Her leadership, commitment and exemplary work in arts education is very significant with far reaching impact. It will be a great loss. I am truly saddened by her passing.”

As an artist, Tina has worked as an actress and director with many theatre companies namely Asia in Theatre Research Centre, TheatreWorks, The Necessary Stage, Action Theatre, Wild Rice, I Theatre, The Finger Players and Mad Hatters Comedy Company.

Her recent performances include Georgia in A Murder of Crows, herself in Casting Back, and Hoopoe in Conference of the Birds for the 2011 Singapore Festival of Arts. Recent directing credits include Metamorphoses, The Gingerbread Man, On This Emerald Hill, and Ashputtel.

In late 2001, she was approached by Jeffrey Tan, then at TheatreWorks, to be part of the protem committee for the establishment of the Singapore Drama Educators Association (SDEA). The association allowed for the creation of a network for drama education to share practices. She was Vice President of SDEA from 2004 to 2011. Her aspirations for SDEA was for the association to be able to set standards and competencies levels and for these initiatives to reach and include drama educators at large. She had been helping SDEA work on competency levels for WDA and was working on SDEA’s upcoming Continuing Education and Training (CET) programme. She believed that SDEA could play a vital role in establishing competency levels recognised by a national body.

Tina helped create a milestone for SDEA when she headed a sub-committee to recognise drama education as a profession. This team worked on SDEA’s first Code of Professional Practice which she had hoped would develop years down the road into a Code of Ethics.

Noorlinah Mohamad, past president of SDEA, who worked with Tina as vice-president from 2005-2011, has this to say: “It is a testament of who she was as a generous creative spirit that for many who began the arts journey with her as students, later maintained a relationship with her as friends and colleagues. I’m grateful that she had been one of my mentors and privileged to have worked with her while at SDEA. Her gift to the Singapore arts community was immense.”

SDEA is heartened by the effusive outpouring of love from Tina’s fellow practitioners, students, and colleagues. She has touched many lives in her capacity as an actor, director, teacher, and friend. Her warmth, passion, and wit will always be remembered.

It has been our privilege to have worked alongside Tina. Our hearts and thoughts are with her family, friends, and our fellow members of the arts community.