志异 Draft by Drama box december 2013 (english) | Page 56

phase 1

dr af t vo l 2 is su e 2

m e m o r y x s p ac e

t h ea t r e a -b-c

56

CHATTING – WHERE PERSONAL SPAC
MEETS SOCIAL SPACE

–
the only single
male in the group
was especially
elusive when asked
about his youth. he
answered that he
was having fun in
many places.
–

This is the ?rst phase where the
seniors in the project are gathered
together with the students and me
to chat. Typically, the chat sessions,
held in small groups of four to ?ve,
began with general open-ended
questions. The seniors contributed
what they felt was relevant to the
question. The sharing was then met
with more questions from the group
and the process continued.
Memories which had laid dormant
in the mind were triggered by
listening to the memories of others.
As the memories shift from a
personal to a social space, what
one is willing to share is dependent
on many factors, for example, one’s
perception of the social situation,
his worldview and his perception
of what could happen after the
memory is shared.
There were three different groups
of people in the project: the elderly,
the students and me. Amongst
the seniors, there was also

differentiation in te
and life experience
the ‘leader’ of the
64-year-old male.
married, a grandfa
comfortably retired
physically active a
much to work in th
the Singapore nar
considered the ‘po
citizen. If one adds
seniors to the spac
against the accept
narrative, they wou
different positions.

The students also s
space and the sen
presence of the yo
While the seniors r
interest and curios
students displayed
if they had ever he
because they did n
a sense of authorit
younger crowd. To
equation, I was the
age between the s