Interview: Tracie and Adrian Pang Already Prepared Eclectic and Electrifying Stories for 2017 Shows!

As stated on their website, Pangdemonium is a theatre company with a mission to tell stories on the stage which are challenging, inspiring, relevant, accessible, and above all, of the highest artistic, entertainment and production values, in a league with the very best of theatre internationally.

In the current Season 2016, Pangdemonium brings the iconic work of Jonathan Larson, RENT. RENT has showcased everywhere in the world including Stage film, film adaptation and Touring and Adaptation Productions. Performed in 2001 by Singapore Repertory Theatre, Pangdemonium proudly brings back the 20th anniversary show to Singapore audiences.

After Oct 11th RENT show, Tracie and Adrian Pang from Pangdemonium agreed for an interview with Broadway World. Here is the interview...

How did the decision to showcase RENT for this season came about? It was coincidental with RENT's 20th anniversary.

Tracie Pang: It's one of those musicals that has been on our radar for a while, I supposed we wanted to have a good reason for putting it on. I think the fact that it's the 20th anniversary was very timely. We were talking about it when somebody pointed it out, "Do you know it's the 20th anniversary next year?" And we were like, "Oh, really?". Because of the plays that we put together earlier in the season, it seemed to fit with the theme that we were putting together as well.

Adrian Pang: It's almost done subconsciously. The theme for the season kinda found itself. As we programmed the first play called "THE EFFECT", and it was a play deconstructing romantic love. And then the second one was a play called "FALLING" which was about a family dealing with a son who is was diagnosed with autism. "FALLING" explored parental love... unconditional love... There seems to be a theme forming there. And so for the third show we were like, "Maybe it's about time we do a musical... A musical about love... LOVE???" And I remember the moment me and Tracie were looking at each other across the room and well it was like, "Really?" and when we found out that it was the 20th anniversary, we thought, you know what, I think it's been telling us to do this. And I think in essence the heart of the piece is about love in our community, and solidarity in times of diversity, and strive, struggle, or survival... I think that message especially in this time where... I mean as I said in any other part of the world is just falling apart. It's a reminder of that we ought to stick together, no matter what our differences, in any kind of way, otherwise we're just gonna kill each other. Problems aside, just love the music.

How do audiences respond to Pangdemonium's works, particularly RENT?

Tracie Pang: It's been pretty good. I mean you can see what they were like tonight, right? You know, very vocal. Really, it's quite lovely to see people who made it today. Just really enjoying themselves. So I think the response has been great. So we are very, very happy with the response.

Adrian Pang: The majority of audience are Singaporeans. We know for a fact we have people who came specifically to see the show, from Indonesia... The Philippines... Hong Kong... Australia... People asking us to tour this thing (Pangdemonium's RENT). But I think there has been quite a lot pressure, because RENT is so special to many people through the generations. And surprisingly, even to us, it touched the hearts of twenty-somethings. That means so much to them. People got so excited when we announced that we were going to do RENT. Tracie, as the Director when she saw that was like, "Oh my God, people are expecting so much!" So there was always the pressure to live up to people's expectations. But the thing right from the start, Tracie decided that we are not going to try to copy any previous productions of RENT because that would be pointless. At the same time we need to honor the heart and spirit of the piece. So we just try to tell the story as truthfully as possible and enhancing it.

Tracie Pang: Yes, add a little bit of us to the piece. I think that is important- to have our own mark and inject our own artistic impression on the piece as well, without taking away from what the piece is and what people want to see.

How did the audition process go?

Tracie Pang: We did six months of casting.

Adrian Pang: Once we decided we were going to do RENT- this was almost two years ago. We planned far, far ahead. At that point we perhaps have had a couple of people in mind already, but then we started holding auditions from maybe, mid that year.

Tracie Pang: We were still holding auditions at the beginning of this year.

Adrian Pang: It just took a long, long time, because you know these are characters that people loved.

Tracie Pang: They're just iconic characters. You just want to get the right people for the role. So we didn't want to take you know, "oh yeah, can do" kind of people. You know what I mean? Like you know yeah, he can sing but... oh, all right, well... I actually want somebody who can reembody the role. So, we did do a lot of auditions.

Adrian Pang: I think what everyone has been trying to do right from the start was that we tried to discover new talents. So it was never a case of, "Ok, we know this person can do it. Let's just cast them." Easy usual suspect kind of thing. We wanted it to be a surprise so we just said "Okay well, we are holding auditions guys, show us what you got". People just kept on coming. Even after we decided, "Okay you know what, I think we can close." People were like, "Oh my God! I just heard that you hold auditions! Can I audition? Please, please!" People just kept on coming out of the woodwork, wanting to try and get a bite, you know? But in this process we found new talents.

Tracie Pang: Some people had as many as up to five callbacks.

Adrian Pang: It's kind of rare here to have to go through that kind of thing (five callbacks). So it's interesting to see many auditionees who didn't make it but came to see the show.

Pangdemonium's 2017 Season presents three productions that promise to be unforgettable: Kicking off with the iconic hair-raising black comedy/psychological thriller THE PILLOWMAN, followed by the world premiere of our first ever original production TANGO, and ends with the critically acclaimed, Tony Award-winning Best Musical FUN HOME.

How did you come up with this season's theme? Did you decide on all the plays first, find the underlying thread and then figure out the theme or, the theme comes first and then you select which plays that suits the theme?

Adrian Pang: Not really...

Tracie Pang: We choose the play first, and then once we got the first one we just kinda do the next production that comes in.

Adrian Pang: We would never conciously go like, "Oh we have to do a season that has a theme." They just find each other.

Tracie Pang: Sometimes the theme just kind of comes out of the plays that we brought. Sometimes we just go, "Ok leave it. It's the 2017 season." You know?

Adrian Pang: Ironically, having said that... I mean, even for this we were like,"let's not have a theme!". "But our last two seasons sort of have a theme...", And for next year we decided go, "Ok let's not have a theme! It's too much pressure to have a theme!" So we said... "Ok then we're gonna do this, and do this, and do this." It's hard enough choosing three pieces, let alone trying to unite them into a theme. But then we kinda looked at it and... "You know, there's a theme? The theme is about family." "Oh God you're right." So next year, even though the plays are very, very diverse, in subject matter or style... There is this underlying thread about family. That's what we want to do. We just want to tell stories that will impact people.

A major component of Pangdemonium's mission is to nurture aspiring artists and technical practitioners. Their Community Outreach Educational Programme, called Next Generation Innitiative, aims to provide opportunities for emerging talents to work with and to learn from industry professionals in a challenging and inspiring environment. With these practical yet instructive series of specialised workshops and master classes in various theatre disciplines, Pangdemonium aims to reach out to the community, fuel the creative instincts of young minds, cultivate the passion for the art of story-telling on stage, and share hands-on experience in the craft of theatre making. They've launched the inaugural Triple Threats Musical Theatre Workshop and Showcase in November 2014, mentored by US-trained actor and professional Musical Theatre teacher Caleb Goh, and Musical Director Joanne Ho; with the success of this first Workshop they went on to conduct another workshop in 2015, and will continue to do so into the future. With the Play Right Workshop, under the mentorship of actor-playwright Stephanie Street, that aims to nurture and champion emerging young dramatists. Pangdemonium aims to discover the next generation of exciting playwrights who have dynamic and unique voices, and gives them the opportunity to showcase their writing.

Pangdemonium always discover new talents. You guys have this art residency programme called Next Generation Innitiative for youths. Aside from that, do you have any advice for youths that are pursuing education and career in arts?

Tracie Pang: I supposed there's a couple of things. You got to be very passionate. You got to know about this. I cannot possibly think about doing anything else, if I wanted to all day. I mean I would ask myself, "What else would I do? What else would I qualify to do? I can't do anything else." So you kinda have to have that kind of mindset. At the same time, you got to have a very realistic view of your abilities as a performer. It means, for a lot of people, training, improving yourself, going to singing lessons, going for acting lessons. You need to start as a teenager. Starting in youth clubs things like that, to asses yourself among your peers. To get a feeling of, "Am I any good at this?" "How am I doing" Before making that step into, "I wanna go to drama school." Because it's expensive. It's not cheap to go to drama school. So joining whatever I supposed clubs or small arts communities. They are very, very useful for teenagers to try to assess those abilities within the art form before they can make that choice. Because once you make that choice, it's a very difficult career to be in.

Adrian Pang: Also just to add on to that I think one piece of advice for anybody thinking about this is: never think that you know everything, because it's gonna be a lifetime learning. There's always somebody better than you. There's always more to learn. There's always the opportunity to get better. Even at my age, I know I still want to learn a lot more.

Tell us more about Next Generation Innitiative.

Tracie Pang: In the programme, they will learn solo numbers, they will learn group numbers, and we have a vocal coach who'll give each person at least one to one session about vocal coaching. Our course director then will put a whole show together with them. And they present the show at the end of two weeks and perform it.

Adrian Pang: With a cabaret style, like a showcase.

Tracie Pang: For the majority of the young people who join that would be the first time performing in front of an audience.

Adrian Pang: We were very realistic about two weeks- we're not gonna turn young kids into overnight sensation or anything like that. The self-confidence that they get from the two weeks is just wonderful to witness. It literally gives them a voice. A lot of these kids are so shy they never performed in front of anyone in their lives. It means a lot to them to do this. To see them over two weeks just coming out of that shell. It's brilliant. You know, even if they never ever choose a career in arts, never mind. It gives them self-confidence as human beings.

Tracie Pang: It's a big confident booster for the kids. We do get one or two who were following on from the course and used that experience to audition for drama schools and have gotten in, which is fantastic. There are others that have used it, and enjoyed it, and loved it, but more than anything, they have gained self-confidence, and you can see it in them when they talk to people after the show. That is just a wonderful journey in such a short space of time to know, "I can do something. I am not afraid to stand up and talk in front of a stranger and be sure that they will listen to me." It's a wonderful experience.

Pangdemonium believes that theatre should strive to enrich, enlighten, and empower; it should surprise, stir, and stimulate; it should be aspirational and inspirational, passionate and compassionate; it should have an impact on audiences viscerally, intellectually, emotionally. With this in mind, Pangdemonium tells stories that tackle challenging issues, ask difficult questions, provoke constructive debates, and hopefully lead us all on a path towards discoveries of our communal human experience; that jolt us all from a collective passivity and make us take positive actions, that expose us all for our flaws and frailties, and dare us to change; that help us see someone else's point of view, and share in someone's else's journey; that celebrate life, and champion struggle, survival and the human spirit, and at the same time, have a global resonance and universal significance.

Adrian Pang: Over the years- and we're only 6 years old, so we're quite a newish kid on the block, as far as our company is concerned. Individually, we've been doing this for almost 20 years. As a company we realized that what we really want to do is to tell stories. Have an impact on people.

Tracie Pang: That's important for us, what we're doing. We're just not in it to do fluff and commercialism. If the story is commercial, great! But it's about the story. That's what really means something to us.

The RENT production is now sold-out, but as stated on their Facebook page, you may get last minute chance which will only be available *half an hour prior to performance on the day of the show* to those who show up at the theatre on a *first-come-first-served* basis. Cash only and there are no guarantees on last minute ticket availability. Pangdemonium cannot accept requests to reserve seats via phone, email or Facebook message. Remaining shows: Tue - Fri: 7:30PM, Sat & Sun: 2:30PM & 7:30PM.

You can reserve for your 2017 Season Ticket here, and you can also participate in Pangdemonium's silent auction for RENT Roger guitar here.