Kuo Pao Kun

Kuo Pao Kun (193910 September 2002) was a playwright, theatre director, and arts activist in Singapore who wrote and directed both Mandarin and English plays. He founded three arts and drama centres in Singapore, conducted and organised a number of drama seminars and workshops, and mentored Singaporean and foreign directors and artists.

Kuo is acknowledged by both locals and foreigners as the pioneer of Singapore theatre, and was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 1990 for his contributions to Singapore theatre. His plays are characterised for their dramatic and social commentary, use of simple metaphors and multiculturalism themes, and have been staged locally and internationally.

Early life Kuo Pao Kun was born in Hebei Province, China in 1939 to Kuo Fung Ting and Zhou Qiao. He moved to Beijing with his mother in 1947,

Kuo lived with his father in High Street, and first attended Catholic High School's primary section. Due to various circumstances, however, Kuo transferred between both Chinese and English-medium schools many times. At one point, when he attended the Chinese High School in 1956, his father transferred him to Kallang West Government Chinese Middle School (now Dunman High School)

In 1955, Kuo joined Rediffusion's Mandarin radio play section at 14 years of age, (Lo) and worked as a broadcaster, in addition to performing and writing radio dramas and Chinese xiangsheng. During this period, public perception of Chinese drama was largely shaped by its historical association with cultural and mass political movements. Consequently, the introduction of tuition fees for drama instruction met with significant public resistance, as the practice was viewed by many as incompatible with the medium's traditional role in social and political mobilization. For many years, the dance wing subsidised classes in the drama wing. Despite the fact that the idea of professional theatre was not widely accepted then, Kuo noted that young people from all walks of life devoted themselves to theatre courses and remained highly involved in PPAS productions even after they had completed the drama course.

In 1972, Kuo and his students and ex-students from PPAS launched the "Go into Life Campaign" to experience life of labouring masses in Singapore and Malay Peninsula. and "a very sobering experience– you get cut down, you know that you don't know enough."

In 2015, Mama Looking For Her Cat was selected by The Business Times as one of the "finest plays in 50 years" alongside productions by Goh Poh Seng, Michael Chiang and Alfian Sa'at and others.

Institutions founded/co-founded

The Practice Performing Arts School (PPAS) (1965) The PPAS was founded by both Kuo and Goh as the Singapore Performing Arts School. It aimed to integrate dance, drama and music training, and create a symbiosis between creative performance and arts education. of the school until 2002. The PPAS has played an instrumental role in grooming local talents, Kuo mentored a number of local talents who worked with the Theatre practice, including Ang Gey Pin of Theatre Ox, Verena Tay and Cindy Sim.

The Substation (1990) Kuo founded The Substation in 1990 from a disused Public Utilities Board power station at Armenian Street, with the aim of nurturing local artists arts centre for workshops, concerts, lectures and exhibitions. He first visited the station in 1985, and, with advice from architect Tay Kheng Soon, submitted a proposal to the Singapore government to set up an arts centre. The proposal was accepted. Kuo himself oversaw the renovation and design of the building's interior.

Under Kuo's direction, The Substation's orientation during the 1990s was as an inter-disciplinary, multicultural and pioneering arts space, particularly for experimental arts. With diversity, The Substation also provided a platform for young talent, who did not have the money or influence to mount their work elsewhere. The Substation was initially criticised for its unsophisticated repertoire of new and young artists. There were also concerns that The Substation promoted "rock culture", and that Kuo was being too lax in embracing any form of work as "art". Kuo's views remained unchanged by the criticisms; his primary concern was that "it is the process that counts. I am not interested in the end product, the finished piece. Where else will these budding talents get space to call their own?"

Kuo remained as the programme's co-director until 2002.

The TTRP was the result of Kuo's effort to create a training programme rooted in different classical Asian performance traditions. The programme covers Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Indonesian and contemporary Western theatre, and implements the ideals and ideas in theatre training that Kuo accumulated and developed over his lifetime career.

International links and influence Kuo met with and invited many distinguished experts in the arts to Singapore to contribute to drama camps, seminars and workshops which he organised in Singapore. Yu Qiuyu and Ren Baoxian were invited in the early 1990s to PPAS as guest lecturers, and Wong May was invited from Hong Kong to join PTE as resident director. He is survived by his wife and two daughters. Goh currently serves as an artistic advisor at TTP, alongside Jian Hong as an artistic director.