Let's talk contemporary

Notwithstanding the mourning period for His Holiness, the late Supreme Patriarch and the subsequent postponement of many stage events, the Bangkok Theatre Network, organiser of the Bangkok Theatre Festival (BTF), Thailand’s largest annual showcase of contemporary theatre, has decided that the 11th edition will proceed, albeit with some venue and schedule adjustments.
Pradit Prasartthong, the secretary general of network, is back running the festival that he initiated more than a decade ago. He explains his decision.
“We’ve carefully studied the pros and cons of a postponement and finally decided to proceed. This is after all not entertainment but an arts and culture event. We’ve been planning for this for the whole year and we’ve already spent so much money from our budget that postponing it is impossible.”
The original plan was to have as the festival’s main venues the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) as well as Santi Chaiprakan Park and restaurants along Phra Athit Road. Now it’s only BACC and a few other theatres in the city.
Pradit explains, “The morning after the Supreme Patriarch passed away, which was also the day we had scheduled for our press conference, I made a few calls to our main supporters, namely the Bang Lamphu Community and the OCAC [the Culture Ministry’s Office of Contemporary Art and Culture] and the BACC. We concluded that having outdoor activities at the Santi Chaiprakan Park and performances in restaurants and cafes along Phra Arthit Road, the way we’ve always done, wouldn’t be appropriate, not least because these venues are very close to Wat Bovornnives.
“On the other hand, OCAC and BACC agree that the performances at a cultural centre like BACC shouldn’t be a problem. And since we made this major decision for the move, the director and staff members of BACC have been very generous and helpful to us. We’ve now been able to move most of the performances initially scheduled for Santi Chaiprakan Park and restaurants and cafes along Phra Athit Road to any room that’s available at BACC during the festival period. We were thinking about moving them to other venues too but decided that would make the management and public relations too difficult.”
The festival’s main stage, which used to be at Phra Sumen Fortress, will now be outdoors in front of the BACC, right at the Pathumwan intersection, with performances from afternoon to late evening on Saturday and Sunday as well as November 9 and 10.
Another main space is the BACC’s fourth-floor studio, which has been reconfigured and equipped with an audience stand to function as a black box theatre. This is where selected performances by core member troupes of Bangkok Theatre Network will take place.
 And when the BACC is closed on Monday, theatre fans can still enjoy performances at other venues like B-Floor Room in Soi Thonglor, which will host ‘The Last Gasp of a Mournful Heart’.
“Another new venue is joining us for the first time – Chulalongkorn University’s Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts,” Pradit continues, noting that the centre will hold free workshops on Thursdays and performances on Fridays and Saturdays.
Other activities at BACC include panel discussions on such topics as “Artist-in-Residency Programmes: Connecting Artists with Theatre Schools” and “Online Theatre Criticism: Who wins and Who Loses?” Members of the Thailand chapter of the International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC) will also watch as many performances as they can and give out awards in many categories when the festival brings down its curtain at BACC on November 17.
“The problems we’ve been going through have resulted in drawing the core members closer together. We’ve been able to communicate with one another through different means, brainstorming and solving problems,” Pradit says.
He politely refuses to pick which shows he’s looking forward to watching, but notes that most of the works being presented at the festival are premieres. “But there are also works which have recently been staged overseas, like New Theatre Society’s ‘Khon Song Chao’ seen not long ago in China, and revivals of works that are soon to be staged overseas like B-Floor’s ‘Sandan Ka’ which is on its way to Mexico.”
Pradit is happy to report that his Silpathorn Award colleague Manop Meejamrat will also perform at this festival. He says, “Over the past few years, we’ve worked together on a few small projects. I called him and asked if he’d like to join BTF. He didn’t have any work prepared at the time but is now creating a new work for BTF.”
Having seen his brainchild grow into an 11-year-old, Pradit says the most important outcome of the BTF has been the creation of a major space for both artists and theatre lovers.
“It’s a place that allows them more than the opportunity to work but also allows encourages them to continue developing in this field. Young theatre artists who joined the first BTF as university graduates have finished their graduate studies overseas and are now teaching at many theatre schools. They continue to present their works in BTF. Meanwhile, theatre troupes have matured and the quality of their works continues to rise and they consistently take in new and young members. And so I think BTF is when they get to prove their artistic strength.”
Pradit aims to keep Bang Lamphu and BACC as the festival’s main venues for the next editions and is also hoping to expand to other new venues like the OCAC’s contemporary art centre on Rajdamnoen Avenue.
 

CURTAINS UP
The Bangkok Theatre Festival runs from Saturday until November 17 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre and a few other venues.
Some shows are free. For tickets, visit www.BangkokTheatreNetwork.com. Also, look for “Bangkok Theatre Festival” on Facebook.