First Act(s), Part 2

First Act(s) is a 4-part series featuring 8 plays-in-progress from a group of budding playwrights brought together by fate. These plays were born at the ‘Playwriting Workshop with Haresh Sharma’ (organised by the National Library Board, September – October 2018), and have now been taken to their next developmental step of rewrites and readings.

The plays will be publicly read to an invited audience for the first time, over 4 separate Guest Room sessions from March to July 2019:

Part 1, March 2019

• Twin Butterflies by Clara Mok
• We Cannot Bring Money When We Die by Christine Chia

Part 2, April 2019

• Touch Wood by Auderia Tan
• Untitled by XM Lim-Fang

Part 3, June 2019

• A Midsummer White Dream by Ivy Chen
• The House of Golden Chains by Larnce Alahendra

Part 4, July 2019

• If Tomorrow Comes Again by Ivan Choong
• Silence by Alicia Kan

Touch Wood by Auderia Tan

Synopsis – Do we live to fight or fight to live? Is the purpose of life to live or leave?

Playwright – Auderia is a drama practitioner who is exploring how dialogues can inspire audience members to think about the unspoken / taboo topics of our society.

Cast –

Director: A Yagnya
Actors: Catherine Ho, Natasha Lau, Jeremy Leong, Phyllis Serene Tan, Miriam Cheong

Untitled by XM Lim-Fang

Synopsis – Is there any crack in the pragmatism where dreams can flourish? Ensnared by social expectations, Madeline stares down the safe linear path to the Singaporean happy ending and wonders if there can be anything more than this.

Playwright – XM Lim-Fang is an undergraduate with a love for linguistics, writing, and torbie cats. Her work includes the 10-minute short Tragedy of the Commons.

Actors – Rachel Tan Wan Ting, Andrea Ee, Rajkumar Thiagaras, Grace Kanai, Kelly Choo