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Five Times Drama Box Broke New Ground

Five Times Drama Box Broke New Ground

    Established in 1990 by Kok Heng Leun, the founding artistic director, Drama Box is a theatre company that is best known for staging socially-engaging works in both English and Mandarin. Over the last 26 years, it has collected…
Kiran Kumar

Kiran Kumar

Born in Bangalore and based in Singapore, Kiran Kumar is an artist, researcher and writer who specialises in dance-centric projects. He first graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 2006 and began his career as an information technology analyst,…
“Desire Paths” & Other spell#7 Audio Works

“Desire Paths” & Other spell#7 Audio Works

After moving into their new home at 65 Kerbau Road in Little India in 2002, theatre company spell#7 wanted to introduce their audience to their neighbourhood. Their initial plan was for performers to bring groups of up to six people…
A Brief History of spell#7

A Brief History of spell#7

spell#7 was founded in 1997 by husband-and-wife team, Paul Rae and Kaylene Tan. The couple met at the University of Bristol in England when they were studying drama. For the first two years of spell#7, Rae and Tan managed all…
Collaborative Writing

Collaborative Writing

Collaborative writing can be hugely challenging. Without a strategy, writing a play in a group would just be a matter of whoever has the strongest pair of lungs, as was the case with the seven men who collectively wrote the…
Tan Tarn How – Life Events

Tan Tarn How – Life Events

Tan Tarn How (1960-) has, at various points in his life, been a teacher, a journalist, a scriptwriter and a research fellow. However, he is best known as one of Singapore's landmark playwrights with his bold, award-winning works which have…
Undercover (1994)

Undercover (1994)

Tan Tarn How's Undercover is a farce about the Internal Security Department of "an imaginary country". The play revolves around the Head of the department, his Deputy, and their first ever female recruit – a good-looking intelligence officer called Dolly…
Christina Sergeant – Life Events

Christina Sergeant – Life Events

Christina Sergeant (1955-2013) was an actress, director and educator who was both a pioneer and builder of Singapore English-language theatre. The timeline below presents selected events from Sergeant's life. Click on each tab to find out what happened during the…
Chong Tze Chien

Chong Tze Chien

"After my fifth play, people pointed out how my characters always die at one point or another. I wasn’t conscious of the fact. For me, there’s something very serene about death. My attitude towards death-as-a-fact-of-life has always been one that…
Singapore Theatre in the 1990s

Singapore Theatre in the 1990s

Sea was written and staged in the 1990s, an exciting decade for the local theatre scene. Singapore plays were being written and produced by local professional theatre companies. The government found value in the arts for the future of Singapore…
Robin Loon

Robin Loon

"One, to do absolutely nothing, if I can afford such a lifestyle. Two, to be involved in theatre. Three, to travel. If I can't do any one of them, I think I'll teach. Teaching would give me a chance to…
Haresh Sharma

Haresh Sharma

"When I started writing plays, no one could tell me what was right or wrong. Certain rules I made up." - Haresh Sharma
Sea (1997)

Sea (1997)

Haresh Sharma's Sea was first staged in 1997 as part of a double-bill entitled Moving Home Stories. Following on from Land (also written by Sharma), Sea depicted the whimsical conversation between two sisters, the elder Fong Su Fen and her…
Margaret Chan

Margaret Chan

"My mother told me that the neighbours used to like to come and see how I play with my dolls. I would give each doll a name and a complex role." - Margaret Chan
History of The Theatre Practice

History of The Theatre Practice

  Sources: Images at the Margins: A collection of Kuo Pao Kun’s Plays. (2000). Singapore: Times Media. Tribute.sg – Kuo Pao Kun The Theatre Practice – Milestones The Substation – History The Finger Players Intercultural Theatre Institute   By Daniel…
Four Kuo Pao Kun Plays

Four Kuo Pao Kun Plays

These four plays by late theatre doyen Kuo Pao Kun form the primary text for Margaret Chan's investigation into the metaphors of big bird and the cat. Click on each tab to find out about their first stagings and how…
Reflections on The Vault: #3 three

Reflections on The Vault: #3 three

The Vault: #3 three revisits Quah Sy Ren's Invisibility through the eyes of theatre design collective INDEX. We asked the three INDEX designers to reflect on the conceptualisation and development of their works in this design-centred series. A short summary…
SCALE 1:333 333.333… artist: Lim Wei Ling

SCALE 1:333 333.333… artist: Lim Wei Ling

Lim Wei Ling is a full-time spatial designer of stage and installations. As a firm believer of multi-disciplinary, collaborative art-making, Wei Ling often teams up with artists and designers from diverse backgrounds. She is part of the design triumvirate INDEX,…
INVISIBILITY and Language

INVISIBILITY and Language

Quah Sy Ren first wrote Invisibility in Chinese in 1996 and it was translated into English by Sim Pern Yiau in 2000. In the translation to English, some meaning from the original Chinese text is inevitably lost, or becomes invisible…