School of Creative
Industries
Indumathi Tamilselvan

Indumathi Tamilselvan

MA Arts Pedagogy and Practice
2022 — 2023

Armed with a BA(Hons) Acting from LASALLE College of the Arts and a Diploma in Applied Drama and Psychology from Singapore Polytechnic, Indumathi is an well-rounded theatre practitioner. She is also the founder and director of Tongue in Cheek Productions, and a fervent believer in the use of theatre to reach out and shape the world we live in.

Indu has adopted a range of roles throughout her career, and is continuing to hone her skills as actor, director, drama educator, applied drama practitioner and entrepreneur. She coaches drama co-curricular activities across junior colleges and secondary schools. Her current works include directing Natalie Hennedige’s A Litany of Broken Prayer and Promise and Amitha Pagolu’s Audition. As an actor, her works on stage include Between 5 Cows and the Deep Blue Sea (Esplanade’s Kalaa Utsavam 2022), Marma Medai (Esplanade’s Kalaa Utsavam 2021), _T0701_ (Singapore International Festival of Arts 2021), SubTITLED 1.0, Vassa, Nimita’s Place, Twelfth Night, Antigone, and Children’s Hour.

Work

Teaching philosophy and research interests

As a practitioner and educator, I believe in the transformative power of theatre to shape and understand the world we live in. As Augusto Boal beautifully expresses, “The theatre itself is not revolutionary, is it a rehearsal for revolution”. As such, I treat my classroom space as a rehearsal space where students are encouraged to make mistakes and push boundaries, in order to become independent learners, capable of directing and articulating their own learning.

My role as an educator is to support my students in their artistic endeavours, encouraging individuality, creativity, and rigour for the arts, guiding them to discover their innate potential. I believe in cultivating independent learners through fostering micro-environments of collaboration, exploration and reflection in class. I am constantly investigating new ways to provide opportunities for meaningful participation while encouraging students’ personal growth and artistic development.

My research interests include the intersections of memory work and role embodiment in characterisation, transdisciplinary learning, and the incorporation of virtual reality in actor training.

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Thesis abstract

OUTSIDE-IN: Constructing character memories in virtual reality to enhance the actor’s process of characterisation

OUTSIDE-IN debates the pedagogical applications of virtual reality (VR) in actor training. The research and argument draw from Declan Donnellan’s methodology of Target Work, and translates its tenets into a sensorial and practical embodiment of characterisation that uses VR as a creative laboratory. Through the use of VR, actors were immersed sensorially in the metaverse, depicting and articulating character memories in the form of photographic images that represent ‘targets’.

The medium of VR in this research study was used as an actor’s 'memory bank' to construct and store their character’s memories. Each constructed memory holds – in photographs – the people involved, the happenings of the event, and the designated location where the memory took place. Through a series of experimentations in the metaverse with monologues and scenes, there were new pedagogical discoveries on the enhancement of character embodiment in actor training.

Work experience

August 2020 – present
Tongue in Cheek Productions PTE. LTD.
Founder and director

 

October 2022 – November 2022
Esplanade's Kalaa Utsavam Festival – Between 5 Cows and the Deep Blue Sea
Actor

July 2022 – August 2022
a.Mirage – Audition by Amitha Pagolu
Director