These are exciting times indeed for SRT. When he first joined the non-profit charity 20 years ago, Kripalani was one of only three staff and together, they managed to stage three productions a year. Today, SRT employs more than 20 staff and the company produces eight to 10 shows a year. “There has been a huge change and massive growth in the arts scene in a very short amount of time and that’s what makes it exciting — that we are at the vanguard of driving that change. And I think this gives everybody who works in the arts a high. In terms of the industry, you could almost go to the opening of a show every week. If you take that to a bigger picture of the arts, you could go to the opening of a play, a concert or an art exhibition every night and that’s how exciting things have become here,” observes Kripalani.
As artistic director, Kripalani has a set formula for SRT’s programming: “Say we do four main stage productions a year. I will choose from a comedy, a classic, a musical, and what I refer to as a ‘hot new work’, which is something that’s been a big hit in London and New York — the hottest play in town,” he offers. “It would be very easy for us to just do three musicals a year and I think that would make us very successful but we don’t want to be known as the musical theatre company of Singapore. We want to be the de facto national theatre of Singapore, and that means doing a broad repertoire of shows.” He adds: “There will definitely be shows in every season that are crowd pleasers because that is what pays the bills. But there has to be a show in every season that pushes the envelope. Not necessarily by being controversial but by doing a style of theatre that has not been seen before.”
With the ambition of being the “de facto national theatre of Singapore” comes a patriotic duty to produce original works that will help fly the Singapore flag. “In a season of eight plays, we make sure that at least two are original. I find more of the original work now is happening with our children’s theatre, because we want to tour them around the world and these are proving very successful,” says Kripalani. An original adaptation of the classic fairy tale, The Three Little Pigs is by far SRT’s most successful children’s production to date. The company commissioned the Olivier Award-winning writers of the musical version of Mary Poppins, George Styles and Anthony Drewe, to develop the production and the show has been staged in several countries including a monthlong run in London’s West End. Forbidden City is another “transformational” production for SRT: “It’s the one show that singlehandedly changed the company because we were commissioned by the Esplanade to create it for their opening in 2002. We suddenly went from doing shows in a 400-seat theatre to creating a musical for a 2,000-seat theatre. Expectations were huge because we were opening our national arts centre,” recalls Kripalani. “We wanted to create a universal story that would be able to go anywhere in the world and Forbidden City was so hugely successful that we brought it back in 2003 and 2006. It’s probably the best-selling local musical of all time: We went from having a half a million dollar deficit every year to suddenly having a half a million dollar profit. It changed the entire direction of the company,” he shares. If Forbidden City was pivotal in changing SRT’s fortunes, then The Bridge Project changed the game altogether. SRT scored a major coup when it was selected to be part of The Bridge Project, a transatlantic venture between the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in New York and The Old Vic in London, with Academy Award-winner Sam Mendes in the director’s chair. “We co-produced a series with them for three years with three shows that toured around the world, and that absolutely put Singapore on the map,” Kripalani says, beaming with pride. The first year was The Winter’s Tale starring Ethan Hawke and Rebecca Hall; the second year they did The Tempest with Stephen Dillane; and the third was Richard III with Kevin Spacey. “The Bridge Project became an amazing calling card for Singapore and SRT. When I tried to sell Forbidden City around the world before, I would talk to producers and they all said it’s beautiful and they loved it, but they had never heard of SRT and they weren’t going to invest millions in this unheard of musical by this unheard of theatre company. The Bridge Project changed all that. Now, I can go to the biggest venues in the world and say ‘we have an amazing product for you’ and they treat us so differently.” Charting a new direction
Looking back on his 20-year journey with SRT, Kripalani shares how the focus of the first few years was on establishing the brand and building a theatre company with first-rate production quality: “We invested a lot in making sure we had firstrate lighting design, set design, costume design… so that the production quality was the same as you would find anywhere in the world.” The second decade was channelled towards developing a body of original work and building up SRT’s educational programme and children’s theatre. The goal for the next decade, says Kripalani, is to “go international” and make Singapore the “Broadway of the East”. He plans to do this by expanding children’s theatre, focusing on the successful Mandarin shows that have strong potential to tour China, and finally, creating more original productions with global appeal and therefore, with the potential to be licensed and tour around the world. To this end, SRT has commissioned playwrights to create three new musicals and five new children’s work over the next 10 years. “In a decade’s time, we would have a library of intellectual property that we can either license or tour ourselves,” he says. The revenue stream from that, he hopes, would fund SRT for the “next few decades”. The next major milestone he is extremely excited about is the opening of one of the new musicals in 2018, the title of which he cannot yet reveal. It is based on a famous figure in Asian folklore and the project is already generating much interest among theatre folk at home and abroad. “We’ve put together a phenomenal international creative team that is incredibly passionate about it and we’re already speaking to a potential partner in China who is interested in co-producing with us and touring it through Asia. Then, of course, we would love to get it to London,” he says optimistically. What sort of legacy would someone so prolific hope to leave? “Money is always a challenge for any theatre almost anywhere in the world. We’re a non-profit charity and I would love for there to be an endowment so my successor is able to programme exciting theatre without having to worry about sponsorship and ticket sales,” he says. Speaking of funds and sponsors, SRT’s iconic annual Shakespeare in the Park outdoor event will be going on a hiatus next year due to the rising costs of staging the event. “We lose about $200,000 a year staging it and that loss has almost doubled in the last couple of years. We would love to do it but we really need two or three more major sponsors to make it happen.” So before he takes his final bow at SRT (whenever that may be), Kripalani would like to leave in place a company that has a solid succession plan, solid long-term funding, and an artistic direction that ensures SRT’s relevance in the future. Throughout the entire interview, he took his time to contemplate each response, emphasising certain words for dramatic effect. After a long, pensive pause, he finally says: “I would love my legacy to be ensuring the longevity of SRT for the next 100 years.” Jamie Nonis enjoys writing about luxury lifestyle, business, and holistic wellness. This article appeared in the Options of Issue 744 (Sept 5) of The Edge Singapore.
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