Synopsis

The play looks at the stressors and strains of the lives of teachers and students who find themselves marginalized by an education system that was supposed to support and develop them. For most LGBTQIA+ teachers whose entire careers are spent in school, having to mask their identities while having to teach their students to discover, accept and love their true selves is ironic and potentially counterproductive to their goals in education. What can they do, or what has to be done to ensure that they get the most out of an education that doesn’t support their best interests?

Ahmad Musta’ain – Playwright

Synopsis

A young woman revisits her childhood home and realises she has lost all emotional connection with her hometown. As she struggles to rebuild connections with an old friend, a surreal encounter with a ghostly young girl takes her on a trip down memory lane, where she finds herself faced with confronting her past and redefining what “home” means to her.

Artist’s Statement/Inquiry

coming back follows a young woman’s search for belonging and seeks to explore our relationship with spaces and memory. This work-in-progress aims to:

• Explore memory through a non-linear storytelling form, as an attempt to reflect on our hazy relationship with nostalgia and trauma, and the ways in which they colour our experiences and perception.
• Examine the complex relationships between characters through the writing and workshop process, to find the nuances in friendships that have been influenced by time, distance, and perceived notions of trust and abandonment.
• Externalise a character’s psyche, their intangible conflicts and motivations, by utilising the stage as a liminal space for processing and charting internal journeys.

Chuah Weiqi – Playwright

Synopsis

Lovers Text Lovers is an experimental play about the movement of love and desire within the entanglements of identity, pop culture and language. Taking the relationship of two lovers—a Singaporean Chinese postdoctoral researcher and a white British Tsinghua University professor of Comparative Literature—as a point of departure, Lovers Text Lovers asks: How much of our desires and relationships are predetermined? How can we transcend or re-interpret these narratives? Who else can we be(come) to ourselves and one another?

Ang Kia Yee – Playwright

Ang Kia Yee is a transdisciplinary artist, writer and slow dream machine. Their work performs and speaks within the realms of desire, futurity and ecology, with an emphasis on love and deep time. Their writing has occurred in Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Stand Magazine, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, so-far, as well as within a few anthologies and exhibitions; their performances have occurred in the Substation Theatre, Camden People’s Theatre, COW Birmingham, and the Esplanade. https://kyatos.com/

Synopsis

Young police investigator Kim has been assigned to her first station. She thought that criminals and suspects were her biggest concerns but soon realizes there are other things she has to protect herself against.

Artist’s Statement/Inquiry

At this stage, the work is ready for the following:

• Collaboration with actors and director so that Latch can be experienced and viewed by an audience, allowing further development through feedback.
• An invitation to designers, producers and other investors to help Latch reach its full presentation. In light of recent climate, I believe there is potential and merit in the work to explore unconventional styles of staging, be it digital, multimedia, movement or mixed reality.

Samantha Chia – Playwright

Samantha loves a good story.

And as a Stage Manager, it gives her great joy to bring people’s stories to life.

She is also equally passionate in telling her own stories. That is, if she ever found the time to sit down and write. In 2019, Samantha wrote and produced a dramatized reading performance, A Piece of Cake under the C42 Basement Workshop Residency. Latch would be her sophomore attempt in creating, what she hope would be an entertaining play.

Henrik Cheng – Director

Henrik is a “theatre generalist” from New York based in Singapore. They had the fortunate experience to take on the role of: a venue coordinator with New Orleans Fringe, a facilitator & deviser in Speakcryptic’s The Tribe at SIFA OPEN, performer & deviser in Attempts: SG for the M1 Fringe, graduate from the Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI) in 2017, and devised a site specific online experience under Substation’s Novel Ways of Being 2021, entitled part\wh.  Abroad/online Henrik directed a zoom piece in Mexico City. Henrik personally gravitates towards works aiming to provide hope, healing, and to encourage positive and proactive change.

Zaaki Nasir – Cast
Zaaki is an actor, scriptwriter, voiceover actor, educator, as well as a certified Medical Clown. Would love to voice a cartoon someday.

Tysha Khan – Cast
TyshaKhan is an artistic force, known for her versatile acting and powerful writing. Her practice centres around extracting truth, and finding simple ways to present it, in order to facilitate understanding. She is a graduate of the intercultural theatre institute, and can currently be seen on mewatch and Suria as Sarah on the sci-fi thriller “Dualiti”

Al-Matin – Cast
A graduate from Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI) with a Professional Diploma In Intercultural Theatre (Acting), class of 2015. He has been working professionally in the theatre and television since 2010, but mainly as stage actor. He has worked with many notable local companies like The Necessary Stage, Cake Theatrical Productions, The Theatre Practice, DramaBox, TheatreWorks and many more. He has also performed internationally in cities like Brisbane, Braunschweigh and Edinburgh. His background in Dikir Barat in his early days and ITI has enabled him to interweave his craft across multi-dimensional performance, from traditional to contemporary , physical and animation/digital.

Julius Foo – Cast
A theatre practitioner
Started as an administrator and actor with The Necessary Stage
Trained and worked at the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards (Italy) between
1999 and 2002, as a member of Theatre OX

Enjoys working in the community
Continues to enjoy the process of discovery and creation
Working Online is a work in progress

Nicholas Bloodworth – Cast
Nicholas Bloodworth is a performer based in Singapore with over 15 years of experience. With a BA (Hons) in acting, his work encompasses theatre, television, film and voiceovers. Nicholas has worked with Theatre companies like TheatreWorks, TNS and Generasia. He is also a core member of Howdrama’s comedic Ensemble group “Fat Kids Are Harder To Kidnap”.

Rilla – Stage Manager
Rilla is a recent diploma graduate from LaSalle, her versatility as a theatre and events professional is evident of her production credits during her time in the Diploma in technical and production management. She took up different roles as she believes that it is useful to go through different roles to understand different departments better and to be able to take up different jobs. Although her main interest is in props making and sewing. She likes to craft things with her hands and the end product gives her a satisfaction of completion. The crafts can be seen from the recent jobs she has done recently in “Dualiti” on Mewatch and “The Time Machine” with Toy Factory.