This is some of the work I do.
Please get in touch for a CV or tearsheets. I also have a Google Scholar profile.
Ongoing Projects & Creative Practice
ArtsEquator Fellowship (July - December 2024)
A professional development programme for mid-career arts critics and journalists creating critical content about the arts in Southeast Asia. This programme aims to build and support a community of arts writers in the region, develop professional practice, encourage regional networking, connect arts writers from different backgrounds and fields, and promote the sharing of resources.
Continental Drift: connecting Asia-Europe dramaturgies (June - December 2024)
What are the consonances between dramaturgical thinking and doing in Europe and Asia? How might these produce collaborations that span the social, political, environmental and cultural urgencies of two dramatically differing continents and contexts? What might a resulting community of practice look like? This programme invites practitioners from both regions to embark on a collaborative journey together, culminating in a week-long gathering in the cities of Prague and Olomouc in the Czech Republic in December 2024. Participants will collectively reflect on personal praxes, share and exchange knowledge, and build a community of practice through a series of online and in-person encounters.
Jointly organized and presented by the Czech Association of Independent Theatres (Asociace nezávislých divadel ČR; AND ČR) and the Asian Dramaturgs’ Network (ADN), with funding support from the Czech Ministry of Culture, the National Recovery Plan and the European Union.
ACTive Encounter (September 2024)
A series of programmes featuring: a roundtable on dramaturgy in China, a panel on the dramaturg as archive featuring case studies from Southeast Asia, a workshop for emerging artists, and a conversation on the dramaturgies of expanded festival-making.
Presented by ACT Shanghai Contemporary Theatre Festival in collaboration with the Asian Dramaturgs’ Network and Centre 42, with support from the National Arts Council Singapore.
Something-Something Working Group (2021-ongoing)
with Shawn Chua, Chong Gua Khee and Deanna Dzulkifli
currently supported by the Co-Lab Residency platform at Centre 42, previously by ELEMENT at Dance Nucleus
Selected Press & Interviews
“What’s Next, ADN?” | Asian Dramaturgs’ Network book launch and dialogue with Dr Charlene Rajendran and team, August 2023
“Roundtable Dialogue: Body Language” | Esplanade’s da:ns focus, with Jonathon Young, Renée Sigouin & Pawit Mahasarinand, May 2023
“Critiquing with Kindness” | Dark Day Convos, July 2022
“CITRUS practices & Library of Care” | ArtsEquator, March 2022
“Expansive Criticism with Corrie and Katrina” | Bangkok Offstage, November 2021
Selected Criticism & Embedded Writing
A National Day baby reviews “National Day Charade” | Jom
The death of the critic, or why it’s really hard to write a bad review in Singapore today | Jom
Wild Rice’s “Hotel”: how do we host our histories? | Jom
What is the grammar of our relationships? — “The Vault: Past Perfect” at Centre 42 | Jom
The Intimate Critic | my ongoing newsletter on performance, criticism, intimacy and care
Citizen X by The Finger Players | ArtsEquator
Mapping ‘What If’ | M1 Peer Pleasure youth theatre festival
Coronalogues, pandemic spectatorship (and the critic) | ArtsEquator
Blunt Knife by Eng Kai Er | ArtsEquator
Southernmost 2018 | Emergency Stairs
Tiger of Malaya by Teater Ekamatra | ArtsEquator
Press Gang at the Singapore Theatre Festival | ArtsEquator
Einstein in the Carpark by Emergency Stairs | ArtsEquator
In Event of Moone Disaster at Theatre 503 | The Guardian
Bad Roads at the Royal Court Theatre | Exeunt Magazine
Pride and Prejudice at Nottingham Playhouse | The Guardian
Philip Ridley’s Killer at Shoreditch Town Hall | The Guardian
In the Depths of Dead Love at the Print Room | Exeunt Magazine
The Children at the Royal Court Theatre | Exeunt Magazine
Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral at The Studios: fifty | The Straits Times
It Won’t Be Too Long by Drama Box | The Straits Times
Selected Conference Presentations
Foresight Conference, keynote speaker with Dr Joshua Comaroff
Centre for Strategic Futures, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore (August 2024)
Archipelagic Assemblages: Pulau Ubin and the multispecies collaborations of Drama Box
with Dr Cheng Nien Yuan (SUTD), Performance Studies international #29: Assemble, London (June 2024)
Critical ecologies: parasitism, symbiosis, and the uses of the critic
TaPRA 2022, Documenting Performance Working Group, University of Essex (September 2022)
Pedagogies of Care for Revolutionary Times
Arrhythmia: Performance Pedagogy and Practice, LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore (June 2021)
Performance criticism in Southeast Asia: conversations, communities, collaborations
Doing Theory in Southeast Asia, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (May 2021)
Staging the historical record in Asia and Australia
Roundtable organised by Asia TOPA & University of Melbourne, Australia (March 2020)
Truth, facticity & interpretation – ‘fake news’ & collaborative critique in Singapore
Young Curators Academy, Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin (Oct 2019)
Critical collaborations: correspondences between critic and practitioner
IFTR 2019 New Scholars’ Forum, Shanghai (July 2019)
Embedding/Dwelling: writing intimately about the labour of performance
Platform Symposium: “On Criticism”, Royal Holloway (November 2018)
Selected Journal Articles & Book Chapters
Criticism as a relational act: contemporary performing arts criticism in Singapore
(2024) “Critique in the Front Line”, International Association of Theatre Critics (Hong Kong)
‘The Lesson: Critical Dialogue in the Public Sphere’
(2022) Changing Places: Drama Box and the Politics of Space, edited by Charlene Rajendran and Richard Gough (Wales: Performance Research Books)
(forthcoming) Element #10: Ill-Disciplined Research-Creation-Something
By the Something-Something Working Group. Published in FUSE#6 by Dance Nucleus (Singapore).
This artefact may be perceived as an archive, a manifesto, a score, a refusal, a wish.
‘Public Space 公共空间’
(2022) Drama Box: 30 Keywords 戏剧盒: 30关键词, edited by Quah Sy Ren (Singapore: Drama Box)
Performing care on the borders of the self in Tactility Studies: Pandemic Distances
(2022) Performance Research 26(3), pp. 125-127
One Small Voice: the monodrama in Singapore theatre
(2016) BiblioAsia 12(1), pp. 32-37 (Singapore: National Library Board)
Politics for the apolitical: 50 years of socio-political theatre in Singapore
(2015) Draft, Vol. 4, pp. 10-33 (Singapore: Drama Box)
The Next Station: cultural memory and Singapore’s first collective arts space
(2015) 25 Years of The Substation: Reflections on Singapore's First Arts Centre, edited by Audrey Wong (Singapore: Ethos Books)
Selected Feature Articles
This is what succession looks like: The Finger Players | ArtsEquator
When your privates become public: from Synge to M1 Fringe | ArtsEquator
Yukio Ninagawa, the architect of cultural crossroads | Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay
Nelson Chia: cultural translator, ensemble builder | Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay
Liu Xiaoyi: bending space and time in the theatre | Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay
The arts as new global ambassador | The Straits Times
Art of censorship in Singapore | The Straits Times
Classic Singapore Plays | The Straits Times
Forum theatre in Singapore | The Straits Times
Cross Talk with Adrian Pang & Lim Kay Tong | The Straits Times
Cross Talk with Benson Puah & Kok Heng Leun | The Straits Times
Dragon lady of the toy piano; a profile of Margaret Leng Tan | The Straits Times
A vertical Yangon in Singapore’s CBD | POSKOD
Translation
The Mountain Road by Wu I-Wei in the anthology BooksActually Gold Standard 2016 edited by Julie Koh for Math Paper Press
The Nine-Nine Divine Skill by Wong Koi Tet in #NewWriting
Other Publications
Page2Primer: your guide to good English and greater knowledge | Straits Times Press
“Birth of a Nation (in memoriam: Khin Kyi)” in SingPoWriMo 2018: The Anthology | Math Paper Press & Sing Lit Station
Languages
English (native fluency)
Mandarin Chinese (full professional proficiency)
Bahasa Indonesia (professional working proficiency)
Russian (limited working proficiency)
Myanmar/Burmese (elementary proficiency)
I have also completed Speech-to-Text Interpretation training (in English) to provide access services for D/deaf and Hard of Hearing communities.