Formerly known as Very Special Arts Singapore, ART:DIS Singapore is a non-profit organisation that champions persons with disabilities (PwDs) through arts. And this August, just in time for National Day, the pioneer cohort of ART:DIS’s BEYOND DIS:PLAY theatre training programme is set to present a new musical: Chachambo: Taking Flight.

In Chachambo: Taking Flight, journey with a visually-impaired girl as she tries to revive an entertainment club to its former glory. From battling against revolting employees who challenge her at every turn, to discovering her mother’s struggle to raise her to stand tall, will she succeed and lead all performers with disabilities into a new dawn?

Presented in conjunction with the non-profit’s 30th anniversary of advancing disability inclusion, Chachambo: Taking Flight is set to raise the bar of what performance excellence by persons with disabilities (PwDs) can be. The production’s collaborators include industry veterans such as Golden Horse Award Winner actress Yeo Yann Yann, costume designer Max Tan, video designer Brian Gothong Tan, sound designer Dr Philip Tan and lighting/set designer Dorothy Png.

“The ambition of this production is to raise the bar of excellence in disability-led content produced and performed by artists with disabilities. We want to journey with the disabled artists that train and work us with to reach their fullest potential, to be included, represented and respected in our arts landscape,” said Angela Tan, Executive Director of ART:DIS.

A year in the making, the production fully embraces disability inclusion, with members of the creative team including visually impaired young playwright Claire Teo (2022 Goh Cheok Tong Enable Award Winner) to develop the script; a pan-disability casting of 11 main performers (three visually-impaired, three autistic, two persons with Down Syndrome, two Deaf and one a wheelchair-user who has muscular dystrophy).

The musical has also received the support and collaborative inclusion of 7 community partners, namely Special Education schools APSN Tanglin and Lighthouse, social service agencies and interest groups Down Syndrome Association, YMCA Y Stars, Yong En Care Centre, Ageless Bridge, and Spring Wind Divas, and integration of access across all shows, including Creative Captioning, Singapore Sign Language (SgSL for the Deaf) and Live Creative Narration during the performance.

One of the main considerations at the forefront of playwright Claire’s and Artistic Director Peter’s mind was highlighting the strengths of PwDs on stage. “For instance, one of our autistic actors Luo Mang isn’t very eloquent. But this is theatre and we want to give her a solid character, not a decorative one. Since playing the violin and dancing are her fortes, we thus weaved in scenes where her instrument and movements carries the story forward,” added Peter, Head of Performing Arts at ART:DIS.

Luo Mang, who plays the character of Bao Yu (late-20s) and Violin Sally, views the arts as a medium to express her thoughts and feelings, one credited by her mother as the key that unlocked Luo Mang’s heart to the world, giving her the confidence to interact with others. In one rehearsal Luo Mang confessed to having difficulties, stating: “I need to speak many lines. This is more than what I have to say in everyday life.”

Under Peter’s gentle coaxing and guidance, she has slowly learnt to embrace her characters, even taking the initiative to research the era by listening to music and speaking with her mother. “I find out that women in the past were very pure and innocent just like me,” shared Luo Mang.

As a pan-disability production, another main challenge was accessibility especially with regards to the actors on stage. This required precise choreographing and a lot of practice in order, for example, the visually-impaired actors to move from one position to another, or the Deaf to know when it is their turn to speak when the cue is auditory. For example, playwright Claire also plays visually-impaired lead character Ming Zhu, and has numerous scenes with her nanny Da Tao Jie, who is played by Deaf actor Grace Ng, and boyfriend Ali, who is played by Deaf actor Ammar Nasrulhaq.

With the former, Claire learnt SgSL so Grace is able to react live and deliver her lines (through SgSL) whilst in character. With Ammar, there are many action sequences between him and Claire so with hands preoccupied, SgSL was not a possibility. Consequently, Claire ensured she was always positioned with her mouth facing Ammar so that he is able to lip-read her lines in order to deliver his own. “I’ve practically memorised the entire script,” added Ammar.

“Working with such diverse disabilities has been very invigorating as it pushes every ounce of me to think of different ways to work with each and every one of them. This experience reaffirms by belief that we need a pan-disability ecosystem in order to be called truly inclusive. So even though Chachambo: Taking Flight is fictional, it carries so much truth in what we need to establish in our society,” Peter concluded.

Replete with riveting drama, song and dance, be transported to the heyday swinging 60s in Singapore’s first full-length theatre production that is written and performed by an inclusive and intergenerational cast, and get ready as Chachambo: Taking Flight reminds us to always have hope and that dreams bind us all.

Chachambo plays from 4th to 6th August 2023 at Victoria Theatre. Tickets available from BookMyShow