Richard Chua

Artistic Director

To put it simply, Richard Chua is a theatremaker. He founded his own theatre society, Little Red Shop, in 2006, which produces small-scale, intimate shows. Before this endeavour, Richard Chua was Artistic Co-Director of The Fun Stage. For a number of years now, Richard Chua has worked closely with The Substation, from staging plays in The Substation theatre to co-founding Project Chiaroscuro with Audrey Wong, Artistic Co-Director, The Substation – a project that develops solo theatre performances. This programme had its beginnings in another theatrical event entitled 3 Men meet 3 Women, with local playwright and actor Verena Tay.

Apart from making theatre, Richard Chua has also worked in the media as editor of Nanyang Arts, a bilingual visual arts magazine published by Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

In the international scene, Richard Chua has participated in different theatre festivals in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. It is through the Chinese Performing Arts Theatre Exchange Network – which he co-founded with a group of writers and artists in the Chinese speaking societies in the region – he has established contacts with other artists. One of his main concerns is the development of Chinese contemporary theatre. His ambition is to bring more Singapore Chinese contemporary theatre to these societies. The Chinese Performing Arts Theatre Exchange Network has been the platform for solo artists to engage in artistic exchanges since 2002.

In 2004, Richard Chua was invited to the prestigious Chinese Drama Festival with a production named Lover’s Words, a project in collaboration with Taiwanese playwright Chiu An Chen. That was the 1st time a Singaporean production has returned to the festival after Kuo Pao Kun’s productions of Spirits Play in 1998 and Sunset Rise in 2000.

In his own work, Richard Chua often explores themes revolving identity and sexuality. Lover’s Words, for instance, is a study on the politics of sexuality, where he explored the conceit of heterosexuals living in a predominantly homosexual society.

Recently, Richard Chua has been actively involved in theatre collaborations with many artists from different practices – visual arts, film, dancers and such. He has just completed his Indian dance theatre project Bophana with Maya Dance Theatre and 2 modern Noh plays by Japanese playwright Yukio Mishima, with World-In-Theatre.

Read more about the Little Red Shop at http://www.littleredshop.org, and Chinese Performing Arts Theatre Exchange Network at http://www.theatrex.org.

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蔡两俊于2006年创办赤店当代剧场（http://www.littleredshop.org)，继续向发展新加坡当代剧场之道前进，极力创作小而锐利的小型剧场作品。他曾是新加坡FUN剧场的联合艺术总监，也与新加坡各个不同的艺术中心合作，如电力站：艺术之家、新加坡旧国会大厦艺术中心等等，培养新锐自行创作剧场艺术工作者。

之前，他也曾是《南洋艺术》－南洋艺术学院（新加坡）专署艺术杂志－总编辑。

在区域华人地区，如北京、上海、香港、澳门、台北、马来西亚和新加坡，蔡两俊除了参与在该地区举办的艺术节之外，也跨界与其他媒介之艺术工作者合作，于2002年，和他们协手创办了区域表演艺术交流网络 (http://www.theatrex.org)。网络宗旨为协调各地艺术工作者之间的交流工作。

2004年，蔡两俊应华文戏剧节之邀，带领FUN剧场的艺术团队，到中国昆明演出《恋人物语》。

近年，蔡两俊也进行了许多跨界制作，2007年，他就与新加坡印度舞蹈团体Maya Dance Theatre及亚洲经典剧团World-In-Theatre合作，分别呈现舞蹈剧场作品Bophana和日本作家三岛由纪夫(Yukio Mishima) 两个小作品；Lady Aoi 和 Hanjo。

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Interviews

Lush 99.5FM, a Singapore radio station - 2007

Yeo Hon Beng

Associate Artistic Director

Hon Beng spent the last decade of his professional career performing varied roles in theatre productions and films. Currently, he is a freelance theatre practitioner.  Beng actively directs, designs light and set and manages productions – both in technical and stage management capacities. Beng has also been an art director in various film productions, including Walt Disney’s Studio Disney.

Besides conducting lessons and workshops in various tertiary institutions and government schools in Singapore, he has also been a lecturer-director in National University of Singapore’s English Department for TS3103 Play Production for Semester I in 2004/2005, directing and designing Twilight Of The Golds. He also conducts theatre and production management workshops in Singapore Polytechnic’s Theatre Compass, St Anthony’s Canossian School, Holy Innocent High School, to name a few.

He has also worked extensively with many arts groups. They are the National Arts Council, Drama Box, Singapore Dance Theatre, Toy Factory Ensemble, Chinese Opera Institute, The Theatre Practice, The Necessary Stage and Singapore Chinese Orchestra, STAGES, Siong Leng Musical Association, Singapore Theatre Arts Troupe, NUS Chinese Dance Ensemble, etc.

Beng remains committed to grooming of new talents through workshops and the active promotion of arts education to both the students and the community. He is striving towards his dream to lead his own theatre company, PLAYINGSPACE and design company Room 69, as an artistic director-cum-designer. He also has a book archiving posters and flyers of Singapore’s theatre performances in the works.

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