SINGAPORE — Next year, theatre company Drama Box won’t just be encouraging you to go to the theatre — they’ll be bringing the theatre to you. Literally.

The theatre company yesterday announced plans to build Singapore’s first inflatable pop-up theatre space. Dubbed GoLi–The Moving Theatre, it comprises four portable structures, from two to four storeys high. The biggest has an area the size of a basketball court.

Named after the popular traditional game of marbles, Drama Box Artistic Director Kok Heng Leun described GoLi as “a new possibility in community theatre”.

The bubble-like structures were designed by Atelier Watt — a Hong Kong-based creative studio by Singaporean architects William Tan and Ting-Ting Zhang (both of whom previously worked with renowned architect Zaha Hadid) — and are made of the same material used for parachutes. They take approximately two-and-a-half hours to assemble, and the company said these venues will be used for Drama Box’s community theatre programmes. These include their carnival-like events, intimate performances, multi-disciplinary efforts and site-specific works. “We can create various performances in Chinatown, for example, by putting the different pieces in different places. We can do it at car parks, bring it to schools ...”

The idea was floated in 2010 during discussions between Zhang and Koh Hui Ling, Drama Box Associate Artistic Director and recent Young Artist Award recipient, who were both in London at that time. “We were thinking of the best way to marry architecture and theatre,” said Koh. “We hope to stretch the imagination of the public even more and also, in a way, to bring up the aesthetic level of community theatre.”

But first, Drama Box is looking for support and has launched a fund-raising campaign to meet its S$200,000 target by April next year, the amount needed to build the first of the four structures. They plan to raise S$400,000 by December next year.

Apart from the new Cultural Matching Fund initiative, the group’s fund-raising plans include looking at crowd-sourcing via Indiegogo, cash donations from individuals and corporations, as well as a “GoLi Keeper” initiative, which encourages businesses to set up donation boxes.

GoLi is set to be ready in July next year, beginning with a “carnival” week, when it will travel to a couple of housing estates before beginning a community theatre showcase at Bukit Ho Swee. In 2015, they are also planning a festival centred around forum theatre.

During the projected eight-to-10- year plan for GoLi, the group hopes to play to 80,000 people and for around 600,000 people to have seen the mobile structures.

Said Koh: “We hope we can bring this to the community, to have people walk out of their houses and see these.” Mayo Martin

For more information on how to donate to GoLi—A Moving Theatre, visit www.dramabox.org or email nicole [at] dramabox.org or jiaying [at] dramabox.org.