***

IN THE BEGINNING WAS GOD ALVIN: In 1986, we adapted and staged Woody Allen’s God for the NUS Students’ Union drama competition where it won the outstanding production award. But as we were rehearsing it I already wanted to form a drama society. I was telling the other people who were participating in the competition that after that, can we gather and talk about a longer term kind of thing. There was the Varsity Playhouse, who had a lot of Law undergrads – (Ong) Keng Sen, Ivan (Heng), Claire Wong… The Arts students all started their own groups. THE ARTISTS FORMERLY KNOWN AS ! ALVIN:! was the name we gave to ourselves because we wanted anonymity. So that the whole group be acknowledged. But later on, when we met to discuss how to carry on, people were saying that ! was very difficult to market. Someone mentioned The Necessary Theatre so we wrote it on a white board – and I kinda liked it. It was long and could occupy a lot of space in the newspaper. (laughs) We discussed it and felt The Necessary Stage had more layers of interpretation. There was a lot of excitement; it was very dynamic at the university. There was no Theatre Studies then, but there was a hunger. People wanted to do it on their own steam, on their own accord. We volunteered, gathered and organised ourselves. I didn’t find that anymore after Theatre Studies was formed. (Outside of campus,) there was TheatreWorks and others that were already there. TheatreWorks was (led) by Lim Siauw Chong then. There was The Stage Club, Theatre Practice and Act 3. That was the scene that we grew into.

*** (AND NOW FOR SOME RANDOM STUFF)