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In a pioneering theatre career over two decades, Ivan’s theatre productions have been performed in more than 20 cities throughout Europe, Asia, North America, Australia and New Zealand. Ivan’s experiences as director and actor at international theatre festivals have been a source of strength and inspiration for the Singapore Theatre Festival. These include: Melbourne International Arts Festival, New Zealand International Arts Festival, Hong Kong City Festival, ICA International Festival of the Chinese Diaspora (London), Chinese Karakters Festival (Netherlands) and Re:Map Festival (Copenhagen). Recent directing credits include: Generation/s, a Singapore-Russia collaboration for Spotlight Singapore in Moscow, the 20th Anniversary revival of Beauty World, and the first productions of Alfian Sa’at’s Happy Endings: Asian Boys Vol.3 and Eleanor Wong’sThe Campaign to Confer the Public Service Star on JBJ. Ivan has a law degree from the National University of Singapore and trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (Glasgow). He is the Founder and Artistic Director of W!LD RICE.
Born in Liverpool, Tony moved to Singapore from the UK in 1997. Following a successful career in sales and marketing management, he moved into business and management consulting, specialising as a leadership coach and team-development trainer for multinational companies in London and thereafter in Singapore and SE Asia. Tony acted as consultant in the establishment of W!LD RICE and became a Director of the company in 2001. In August 2002, Tony was appointed as Executive Director, responsible for the overall management of the company encompassing finance, administration, marketing, fund-raising and sponsorship. Tony is the Producer for all W!LD RICE main-stage productions. Shows produced include Boeing Boeing, Oi! Sleeping Beauty!!, The Magic Fundoshi, Jack & The Bean-Sprout!, Blithe Spirit and most recently, Happy Endings: Asian Boys Vol. 3 and JBJ. Tony also produced the inaugural Singapore Theatre Festival in August 2006, which he conceptualised together with Artistic Director Ivan Heng.
Born in 1977, Alfian Sa'at is currently the Resident playwright of W!LD RICE. He is the author of two poetry collections: One Fierce Hour and A History of Amnesia. He has also published Corridor, a collection of short stories. Both his poetry collections have been on the Life! Top Ten Books of the Year list, and Corridor has won a Singapore Literature Prize Commendation Award. A History Of Amnesia has also been shortlisted for the Asia-Pacific Kiriyama Book Prize. In addition to poetry and fiction, Alfian has also written plays in English and Malay, most notably with Teater Ekamatra, The Necessary Stage as well as W!LD RICE. He has been nominated five times for the Best Script Award at the Life! Theatre Awards, and won in 2005 for Landmarks: Asian Boys Vol.2. Alfian's works are taught in NUS, NIE as well as courses in Berkeley and Stanford Universities. His plays have been performed and read in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, London, Berlin, Zurich (in German translations) and Stockholm (in Swedish). Alfian won the Golden Point Award for poetry as well as the NAC Young Artist Award in 2001. His most recent plays for W!LD RICE are Homesick (Singapore Theatre Festival 2006) and the final installment of the Asian Boys trilogy, Happy Endings: Asian Boys Vol. 3.
Gamelan Asmaradana is a non-profit arts organisation and Singapore's first professional gamelan ensemble dedicated to promoting the appreciation and awareness of all styles and expressions of gamelan music in Singapore through regular recitals and workshops. Started by Meiyin Chan and Joyce Teo in 2002, the ensemble is made up of musicians trained in various genres of music and had the honour of studying from internationally renowned gamelan experts while collaborating with other arts companies. In 2006, the group performed 2 sold out concerts at the Brave Festival in Wroclaw, Poland, and was awarded the Brave First Award for best international act.
Christina Sergeant’s theatre work in Singapore spans 25 years of performing, directing and training in professional, community and school productions. Recent productions include performing in The Finger Players’ Wong Kar Wai Dreams, with The MadHatters Comedy Company, Mime Unlimited and W!LD RICE’s The Visit of The Tai-Tai as well as directing young & W!LD’s The Hypochondriac, Five Foot Broadway’s Mini Musical Festival, Faithwork’s Just Late, Four Seconds, a finalist in the inaugural SHORT AND SWEET and Furthest North, Deepest South (a winner of Best Production in LIFE! Theatre Awards). Currently she is an Artist-In-Residence at Raffles Girls’ School under the NAC’s Arts Education Programme. She is a founder member of the Singapore Drama Educators Association.
Samantha returned home to Singapore in 2002 after obtaining a First Class Honours Degree from Flinders University South Australia, majoring in Drama and Directing. Directing credits since her return include Quills, The Physicists, The Lover & The Dumb Waiter (Luna-id Theatre), Dead Certain, 2003/2005 production Modern Dance For Beginners and Death and the Maiden (Escape Theatre), I Think I Can (Singapore Repertory Theatre), Asian-Premiere production Doubt, Hitting (on) Women and Real Men, Fake Orgasms (Action Theatre). The end of last year saw Samantha producing and directing Lord of The Flies, her first play under her own name at the Esplanade Theatre Studio. At the Life! Theatre Awards 2005 Samantha was awarded Best Director for The Physicists, and Best Production of the Year Life! Theatre Awards 2006 for Quills. Samantha made her first film debut last year with the short film Turning Ten, written and directed by her and produced by Salt Films.
Aidli €˜Alin’ Mosbit graduated with a degree in Drama from Queensland University of Technology (Brisbane, Australia). Aidli has worked extensively with many local theatre companies like The Necessary Stage, Teater Kami, Act 3, W!LD RICE, Cake Theatre, Toy Factory, The Theatre Practice, Teater Ekamatra and Drama Box. She is an experienced practitioner in Forum Theatre. In 2005, she led a team of practitioners, with the help of World Bank and The Necessary Stage to Banda Aceh in Sumatra, Indonesia. She has toured to Scotland, Australia, Malaysia, Romania, Hong Kong and Hungary, performing Singapore-brand theatre. She is the Founder & Director of panggung (ARTS).
One of few effectively bilingual theatre practitioners, Heng Leun has extensive years of experience in both English and Mandarin productions, directing close to 40 plays. He has been named by theatre critics to be the promising director "to power Singapore Theatre in the years to come" and the one to "convince ordinary folks that theatre is not intimidating". Under his helm, Drama Box has become known for its exciting theatrical works that are staged at major theatre venues and community housing estates. These works often address social issues that are relevant to Singapore society. To date, he has directed Drift (2007 & 2008), A Stranger at Home (2006), HAPPY (2005), Liao Zhai (2004), Freedom From Toil (Bangalore, India 2003), Cloud Nine, Fugitives, White Songs (2002 & 2001), Have You Beaten?, Have You Eaten?, News Theatre, Mr Beng (2000 & 1999), Sang Nila (International Puppet Festival, Vienna 1999), Sour Relationship, Leng-Geh-Mng, Hazy Love '97, Invisibility (The Necessary Stage, Taipei 1997 & Singapore 1996), and Galileo -I Feel the Earth Move (The Necessary Stage). Apart from his earlier works, Heng Leun has also collaborated with other playwrights to co-write Drift, Trick or Threat, Soil and Tomorrow. Plays he has adapted include: A Stranger at Home, HAPPY, Liao Zhai, MoMo. He has also translated MoMo and Cloud Nine. Heng Leun was the recipient of the Young Artist Award 2000 from the National Arts Council (NAC), Culture Award 2003 from the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Outstanding Young Person of Singapore Award 2006.
Wu Xi graduated from the Central Academy of Drama, Beijing, with a major in Directing, and was subsequently involved in directing and teaching drama for several years. In 2002, he joined The Theatre Practice, and is currently its Resident Director. As a prolific director and playwright, he has been involved in over ten touring productions in the region, including performances in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Taipei and Macau. His main theatrical credits in China include: Director of The Irony of Fate or Enjoy Your Bath, The Peach Blossom Land. Playwright of Casting a Sword, Exiting the Boundary, Going to the Moon, Searching for a Fish, Looking for the Bird, The Hole, etc. His main directorial credits in Singapore: The Island, Animal Farm, The Waterloo Murders, Moving Gods, Strange Fruit: Forbidden Access, Ménage à 13, Thunderstorm etc.
This actor, director and playwright graduated from NUS Theatre Studies and Sydney’s National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). Directing credits include the Sydney premiere of Ovidia Yu’s Woman In A Tree On A Hill, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, the charity extravaganza A Nation In Concert, the mandarin play A Right Ritual, Two Modern Kyogen (Sydney), MURDER D.i.Y , Pontianak -A Love Story, Quiet The Gorilla and Pan Island Expressway for Theatreworks, Dick & Ja: The Early Years and the Singapore Day 2007 concert in New York City’s Central Park. He is also Artistic Director of STAGES and creator of the long-running parody show Chestnuts, which is in its 11th year. For W!LD RICE, he has written Oi! Sleeping Beauty!! and directed Homesick, Jack & The Bean-sprout!, On North Diversion Road and Mad Forest (Best Ensemble, 2008 Life! Theatre Awards). Acting credits include Into the Woods, Kampong Amber, Bent, Aladdin, The Fantasticks, Romeo and Juliet, The Magic Fundoshi, Lao Jiu: The Musical, Tempest and Second Link (Best Ensemble, 2007 Boh Cameronian Awards). He was nominated for Best Actor (2002 Life! Theatre Awards) for his one-man show Emerald Hole (directed by the late Krishen Jit). Film credits include Chicken Rice War (Hugo A-Go-Goh), 881, Invisible Chidren and Royston Tan’s CUT. Other writing credits include the musical Women on Canvas, Flight Fever (the 2004 SIA musical), People Say Got Ghost and Emerald Hole. His poetry and prose also appear in CAPSULE and The Best Of Singapore Erotica. His first book Between Gods And Ghosts is in bookstores now.
Shelly Quick has worked in theatre for most of her life, having started as stage crew for her father’s small theatre company in Ontario, Canada, when she was still a girl. She has worked and trained with numerous theatre groups including SITI Company of New York and Plazo Pozoriste (or Blue Theatre) of Belgrade, Serbia. She is a director, actress and theatre educator. Recent plays she has directed include Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, as well as A Midsummer Dream, Dylan Thomas’ Under Milkwood, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and Show’s Over, a devised piece performed in Bernhard Theatre, Saratoga, New York.
Adrian Tan graduated with honours in Theatre Studies from NUS, and is also an alumnus of the Theatre Studies and Drama program in VJC. His last directorial effort Pulau written by Ng How Wee received critical praise and was nominated for €œBest Original Script € in the Life! Theatre Awards in 2006. Adrian has also been the Producer of the highly popular Chestnuts series for the last 5 years, and serves as Associate Artistic Director of STAGES. Also active in music and film, Adrian founded the New Festival Orchestra and the Chamber Music Society of Singapore. He has also been a regular guest conductor with the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra since 2006 and worked with numerous internationally renowned musicians. His first short film Stranger in collaboration with Boo Junfeng was selected as a finalist for the 18th Singapore International Film Festival Silver Screen Awards (Short Film).
Audrey Wong is a founder-member of Magdalena (Singapore), having co-organised with Verena Tay the very first Magdalena activity in Singapore in 2003: a workshop for performer-writers. She participated in Magdalena festivals in Australia and the USA, and organised the community/outreach programme of Magdalena (Singapore)'s Crossroads 2006 International Festival of Women in Contemporary Theatre. Since her return to Singapore after completing her MA in Arts Management in Goldsmiths College, London in 2000, she's been Artistic Co-director of The Substation, where she has produced/presented both performing arts and visual art projects including theatre shows, exhibitions, art happenings, and cultural exchanges. She also lectures part-time at LaSalle College of the Arts. In 2005, she performed in Magdalena (Singapore) collaboration, Her SPACE. She is continually inspired by the passion, commitment, struggles, and political consciousness of the women in the global Magdalena network.
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