Conceived by Artistic Director Ivan Heng and presented by W!LD RICE, the SINGAPORE THEATRE FESTIVAL is a biennial Festival committed to the development and presentation of new Singapore writing. The festival takes place in August, the month when Singapore celebrates National Day and it is in this context that theatre artists and the public will be encouraged to engage in a conversation about theatre, Singapore and the world.

Challenging, bold, innovative, exciting and new, these plays explore questions of identity, nationality, politics and home. These are stories about how we came to be and what it means to be living in Singapore here and now. Collectively, they present complex and interesting ideas of our national psyche and identity.

The first two editions of the SINGAPORE THEATRE FESTIVAL presented 19 world premieres by living local playwrights. They also involved a total of 13 Directors, 84 performers and as many people in the design and production teams. The festivals also brought together 7 theatre companies including, Drama Box, panggung Arts, TheatreWorks, The Theatre Practice, Spell #7, The Substation and W!LD RICE.

A total of 23,020 audience members from all ages, races and walks of life attended the festival. In addition to the plays, audiences also participated in various forums, discussing and debating the pressing issues of the day in the Art and Life Sessions. Feedback Fridays, theatre workshops and a forum theatre event created by members of the public also enabled a deeper understanding and engagement of the plays and the creative process.

PRAISE FOR THE FESTIVAL

A supportive media, consisting of the press, radio and television provided extensive coverage through interviews, listings and reviews. Significantly, there were also many articles with in-depth analyses and debate, delving not only into the dramatic potential of each play, but also about the festival’s impact on the social and political fabric of society.

It was a year in which ambitious, heart-felt local productions outshone lacklustre, lumbering art imports... the main event in the world of the arts this year was arguably Wild Rice's inaugural Singapore Theatre Festival in August.”
SPH The Straits Times Life!
Statistics compact the inaugural Singapore Theatre Festival to three weeks, nine plays and 11,500 sold tickets. But the expanded version is more interesting: as many as 200 people showing up for the various forums held to discuss topics raised by the plays; ...the issues being debated island-wide; and the demonstration that the arts are an integral part of an urban society, not to be relegated to suburbia.”
The Business Times
The fact that the Singapore Theatre Festival could premiere five new works to intense audience response is testament not only to the wealth of writing talent here but also the audience's hunger for substantive theatre offerings... Let's hope that this return to form after the wilderness years is no temporary aberration, but the next big leap in the everchanging face of Singapore drama.”
SPH The Straits Times Life!