Going with the grain – New Home for Singapore’s Wild Rice Theatre

Having championed home-grown theatre for over 20 years, theatre company Wild Rice finally laid down roots in Funan in 2019. Located in the heart of Singapore’s civic and cultural district, Wild Rice’s performing arts complex has been two years in the making.

The company’s founding artistic director, Ivan Heng, commented that it took more than 20 years for Wild Rice to secure its own venue. Seven attempts at finding a home later, the company managed to complete construction on its 1,883m² complex at last – thanks to the generous support of property developer CapitaLand and the Ngee Ann Kongsi charitable foundation. Spanning three floors of the new Funan mall, the performing arts complex comprises the main 358-seat Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre as well as a 60-seat performance studio, rehearsal rooms and offices.

The task of realising the vision that Heng and executive director Tony Trickett harboured for Wild Rice @ Funan fell to Singaporean architecture studio Zarch Collaboratives, international theatre design consultancy Charcoalblue and acoustic design firm Radian Acoustics, taking inspiration from the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

“In designing this theatre, we had two main considerations,” explains Heng. “Firstly, to create the optimum condition for audiences to experience a theatre performance. Secondly, to enable Singapore’s theatre practitioners to achieve the fullest expression of their craft. We want all these elements to create an electrifying live experience.”

From the start, constructing the theatre was a mammoth undertaking. “A theatre like this can often take 5–10 years to plan, design and build, but rarely two years,” explains Charcoalblue’s James Nowell, whose main task was to oversee the technical specifications of the venue. “Every element of the theatre, from fixings to light fixtures and sprinklers, needed to be of a precise measurement to create the perfect playground for Wild Rice to hold its productions. It was a major challenge for us, and one of the reasons why this theatre is very special.”

Electro-Acoustics Systems fulfilled the lighting contract to install a flexible infrastructure above the stage, including cabling, data, power, patching and panelling. An inventory of predominantly ETC Lighting fixtures, including portable Source Four LED profiles and PARs, can be fixed to the lighting grid. “Setting up a production quickly was a major factor in this user-friendly design, so rolling beams can be chain-hoisted into position above from trolleys below and onto the manual flying system with counterweights,” explains Nowell. Facility panels are integrated into all areas of the stage and auditorium to provide maximum flexibility and assist cable management. 

Followspot positions are created, when required, with floor boxes and removable seats at the second gallery level. The design and shape of the overhead catwalks allow the creative team to use the space to its full potential, and also provide an attractive technical ceiling that fits with the interior design. Throughout the theatre, 196 channels of dimmers are managed by an ETC Sensor3 networked power controller in the rack room, while the theatre’s lighting technician manages the production from a compact ETC Gio console.

House lighting and work lighting is controlled by ETC’s Paradigm system, providing mode-based support to the venue’s operators. Button stations and master panels are included in key locations with the ability to plug in portable controllers when required. 

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Source: https://www.proavl-asia.com/details/65611-going-with-the-grain