A $30-million waterfront theatre is slated to open at the Esplanade – Theatres On The Bay by 2021.

The 550-seat venue will give arts groups much-needed space and attract more audiences.

The new mid-sized theatre was announced yesterday by Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu during the annual theatre awards organised by The Straits Times Life section.

At the M1 – The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards ceremony at the Esplanade Recital Studio, Ms Fu said the Government would contribute at least $10 million to the new waterfront theatre.

The Esplanade will raise the rest.

In her speech, Ms Fu mentioned that local troupe Checkpoint Theatre’s ongoing run of school drama Normal was sold out but could not pay for itself.

The play needed a 300-seat venue to break even but is shown in the 120-seat Drama Centre Black Box.

Artists here have long felt the lack of theatres with 500 to 1,000 seats. Most new works of dance and theatre created in Singapore or overseas are meant for such mid-sized spaces but the existing Esplanade Theatre and Esplanade Concert Hall seat almost 2,000. The Esplanade also has two 200-seat studio spaces.

Ms Yvonne Tham, Esplanade’s assistant chief executive officer, said that last year, due to the lack of a suitable theatre, viewers had to be seated on the stage of the Esplanade Theatre to better appreciate a new work by Thai troupe Pichet Klunchun Dance Company.

Community, school and professional arts groups now battle it out for the 600-seat Drama Centre Theatre and similar-sized Victoria Theatre, managed by the Esplanade.

The spaces are 80 per cent in use and heavily in demand during school holidays.

Victoria Theatre is booked till 2019, said Ms Tham.

Construction will begin in 2019, and to raise $20 million, the Esplanade will offer naming rights for a fixed term of more than 10 years – for the new building, specific facilities, or even programmes.

akshitan@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on April 11, 2017.
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From October 2020, commuters will be able to ride on one of two autonomous public buses here.

A new consortium led by ST Kinetics, which is building the autonomous battery-powered buses, expects to unveil a prototype by early next year.

The Singapore Autonomous Vehicles Consortium will also launch four driverless on-demand minibuses on Sentosa next year.

Some other countries, such as Japan and Switzerland, have started autonomous bus trials, but none with full-sized buses.

The buses will have Level 4 autonomy initially – they can drive by themselves but will still be manned.

They will be engineered to navigate in rainfall of up to 30mm an hour, which means they might not be able to operate in a torrential storm.

The buses are best suited for trunk services with minimum turning and with bus lanes to enable better right of way.

FOR MORE, READ THE STRAITS TIMES TODAY

This article was first published on April 11, 2017.
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When Mr Haryudi Darsono gets home to the People’s Park Complex from school every day, all he wants is to fall into bed for a nap.

The last thing he needs – and what he often, frustratingly, gets – is a long wait for the lift to take him up to his apartment.

The 20-year-old private school student said: “I come home during peak hours, so I am queuing for the MRT. It becomes tedious when I have to queue for the lift as well.

“You expect no barrier to be between you and your bed, but on some days, there is only one lift working.”

Like him, frustrated residents of the 31-storey strata-titled complex sometimes wait up to an hour for the lift with snaking queues forming on some evenings.

The cause?

Frequent lift breakdowns.

Of the three residential lifts, one has been suspended by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) for repair since Dec 19 last year.

The remaining two lifts, serving 25 floors, malfunction three to five times a month, according to residents.

OUT OF OPERATION

Mr Ong Hock Leng, 62, said: “The lifts have been breaking down for years, but the situation has really been aggravated in the past few months since one lift went out of operation.”

The technical executive had written to The Straits Times Forum on March 28 about the lift breakdowns and other issues.

Mrs Wendy Lan, 53, who has lived at the People’s Park Complex since it opened in 1973, is used to the breakdowns and has not considered moving elsewhere.

“I am not sure what I will do if this problem persists when I am older. I have neighbours who are over 70 years old and wheelchair-bound. They are utterly helpless since they cannot climb the stairs,” the housewife said in Mandarin.

Complex manager Wilson Goh said steps have been taken to minimise the downtime during lift breakdowns, with stand-by technicians in the building during peak hours since March.

Concurrently, maintenance works have doubled from monthly to fortnightly.

In a reply to queries from ST, lift contractor Schindler said the suspended lift will be back in operation by the end of this month and the company will subsequently fix the other two lifts in succession.

The BCA has also instructed the building owner to ensure maintenance-related issues are rectified by its lift contractor.

selinaxu@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on April 11, 2017.
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An e-mail sent out by Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) to its final-year students has raised the ire of a number of undergraduates and netizens.

Last Wednesday, Mr Joel Chong, a final-year student at the HSS, uploaded a screen-shot of the e-mail, which asked for inspirational stories from its undergraduates.

Besides stories from prodigies, outstanding undergraduates with multiple job offers awaiting them, and those who have overcome great odds, the school also asked for stories from “graduating VIP students from an important or well-known family, sons or daughters of politicians, professors, celebrities etc”.

That line has angered a number of netizens, and Mr Chong’s post has since garnered more than 400 likes and over 700 shares.

Speaking to The New Paper yesterday, Mr Jonathan Ang, 23, a third-year student at HSS, said: “Why does it even matter what your surname is? That group shouldn’t even be there at all, it’s not about phrasing but the subject matter itself that is wrong.”

DISAPPOINTED

Miss Emi Morihata, 21, a third-year student at NTU’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communications and Information, was also disappointed with the HSS.

“Their view of ‘inspirational stories’ is so superficial.

“The fact that they are setting these narrow-minded measurements as indicators of an eligible candidate already shows that they are just doing it for the sake of publicity to showcase the school.

“Graduation is a celebration of the students who have worked hard through the years. If they really want to highlight these hardworking people who overcame challenges during their academic life, such indicators won’t be on the e-mail in the first place.”

Responding to Mr Chong’s Facebook post last week, a spokesman for NTU felt he had been unfair in singling out the particular line, causing “the spirit and meaning of our open request for nominations” to be “misinterpreted and distorted”.

Responding to queries from TNP yesterday, an NTU spokesman said: “We understand the concerns raised and it was never our intention to focus on only individuals of certain backgrounds.

“The highlighted line could have been better phrased.

“Convocation is a celebration of our students’ achievements and knowledge, and as always, we will be as inclusive as possible and portray this by featuring stories of students from all walks of life.”

Sociologist Tan Ern Ser felt the line in the e-mail suggested elitism.

CORE VALUES

“In a meritocratic society, we celebrate achieved status – that is, achieved through individual merit, ability and diligence – rather than social background, which is not within our control.

“Highlighting a person’s social background is not only elitist but also contrary to our core values.

“Perhaps, the ones who penned those requirements have good reasons for doing so, and I am sure many would like to know what those reasons are,” he said.

Some, though, think the issue is overblown.

Mrs Lee Siew Yeen, 43, who has two children in secondary school, didn’t think the e-mail was out of line.

“They probably wanted to catch some eyeballs…

“Their mistake was not phrasing it in a politically-correct way.”

Miss Lydia Lee, 22, a third-year linguistics student from HSS said: “If you look at the other categories, they are just looking for people with interesting backgrounds to feature.

“I don’t think they are saying these people are more important in any way.”

– WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY ADELINE TAN, ANG HWEE MIN & LEANNE CHUA

This article was first published on April 11, 2017.
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The police have arrested two youths for their suspected involvement in several cases of impersonating a public servant.

In a press release yesterday, they said they had received a report of a group of young men claiming to be police officers and engaging in aggressive tactics while seeking donations from the public last Thursday.

After further investigations, officers from the Ang Mo Kio Division established the identities of the group members, and the two suspects, aged 17 and 18, were arrested on Sunday.

The police are also investigating the company the suspects were working at for possible breach of regulations under the House to House and Street Collections Act.

The New Paper understands that one of the suspects was part of the group of impersonators that TNP had reported on last Saturday.

DEMANDED DONATIONS

A student told TNP that the group of three men had surrounded her outside the entrance to Punggol MRT station, claiming to be from the Criminal Investigation Department and demanding donations.

The police said that anyone found guilty of an offence of impersonating a public servant can be jailed up to two years and fined.

They also reminded the public to be vigilant and wary of people who may impersonate police officers to carry out criminal acts.

When in doubt, the public should ask for the police officer’s warrant card to verify his identity before complying with any instructions.

A genuine warrant card will have identification features such as the police crest, the officer’s name, identity card number and photograph.

The warrant card will also have the holographic word “POLICE” appearing below the officer’s photograph when the card is tilted at an angle.

This article was first published on April 11, 2017.
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