ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes to literatures on Singaporean cultural policy, its history and its influence on theatre more widely. Scotland rarely emerges in these debates, yet was a key touchstone in Singapore's formative years. Singaporean cultural policy is often discussed in relation to the Renaissance City Plan, but Chang and Kong have outlined how ideas around using the arts to promote economic growth have a much longer lineage in the city-state. The chapter focuses on these Scottish-Singaporean Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), analysing the different ways in which the institutions implementing these policy frameworks produced and ordered transnational spaces of collaboration among practitioners. The MOU also reinforced other existing activities, particularly at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RSAMD), where four Singaporean theatre-makers trained from 1990 onwards through the British American Tobacco Scholarships. The chapter also highlights the role of 'institutional hubs' in directly intervening in artistic relationships and organising geographies of transnational performance practice.
