ALFIAN SA’AT – PLAYWRIGHT (COOLING OFF DAY & NADIRAH)
Born in 1977, Alfian Bin Sa’at is currently a Resident Playwright with W!LD RICE. His plays with the company include Homesick, Landmarks: Asian Boys Vol. 2, Happy Endings: Asian Boys Vol. 3, Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs and Beauty & the Beast. He is also an Artistic Artist with Teater Ekamatra, a Malay-language theatre company. His published works include two collections of poetry, One Fierce Hour and A History of Amnesia, as well as a collection of short stories, Corridor.
Alfian has been nominated six times for Best Script at the Life! Theatre Awards, eventually winning in 2005 for his play, Landmarks, and later in 2010 for his play, Nadirah. He has also been nominated for the Kirayama Asia-Pacific Book Prize and the Singapore Literature Prize for A History of Amnesia.
In 2001, Alfian won the Golden Point Award for Poetry as well as the National Arts Council Young Artist Award for Literature. His plays have been translated into German, Swedish and Danish and have been read and performed in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, London, Zürich, Hamburg, Munich, Berlin, Copenhagen and Stockholm.
CHONG TZE CHIEN – PLAYWRIGHT (CHARGED)
Multiple award-winning playwright Chong Tze Chien has been the Company Director of The Finger Players since 2004. Some of his prize-winning scripts include Pan Island Expressway (Singapore Dramatist Award 1998), Furthest North, Deepest South (Best Production of the Year 2005) and Charged (Best Script 2011) at The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards. Upon graduating from NUS with a degree in Theatre Studies, he joined The Necessary Stage as a full time Playwright/Director from 2000 to 2004. He was awarded the Young Artist Award for theatre in 2006 by the National Arts Council for his contribution to the arts scene. In 2010, Chong Tze Chien represented Singapore at La Ma Ma-Playwright’s Symposium in Italy, where he wrote To Whom It May Concern. It will premiere on 1st September 2011 at Esplanade Theatre Studio as part of Esplanade Theatre Studio Series.
HUZIR SULAIMAN – PLAYWRIGHT (THE WEIGHT OF SILK ON SKIN)
Huzir Sulaiman works across different media, art forms, and genres, telling stories that allow people to access complex ideas in simple, personal, human ways. Huzir writes for theatre, film, television and newspapers; directs for the stage and screen; and acts.
A co-founder and Joint Artistic Director of Checkpoint Theatre, he last directed The Good, The Bad, and The Sholay in March 2011 to critical acclaim. He teaches playwriting at the National University of Singapore. As a playwright, his works include the satire Atomic Jaya (1998), as well as Singapore Arts Festival commissions Occupation (2002) and Cogito (2007). A collection of his work, Eight Plays, is published by Silverfish Books.
Huzir is also the co-founder and Creative Director of Studio Wong Huzir, a brand communications consultancy that specialises in designing experiences. As a consultant, he has worked as the Creative Director of the observation deck on the 124th floor of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, and completed a book last year for Temasek Holdings on the history of the investment firm. Studio Wong Huzir also publishes POSKOD.SG, an online magazine about Singapore.
Huzir was educated at Princeton University, where he won the Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize. He was a 2007 Yale World Fellow.
JOEL TAN – PLAYWRIGHT (FAMILY OUTING)
Born in 1987, Joel Tan currently reads English Literature at the National University of Singapore. Between 2010 and 2011, he studied playwriting with Huzir Sulaiman, under whose guidance he wrote Family Outing.
A number of his plays have been performed by theatre groups in NUS. Dogs Go Hump Hump in the Night, and Lovers’ Pier, a musical, were performed by NUS Stage as part of “Mind Games” (2011); and Walking In, was staged by the NUS University Scholars Club, as part of “Behind The Yellow Line” (2010).
Walking In won first prize in the drama category at the NUS Literary Society Creative Writing Competition, where, both in 2009 and 2010, he also received prizes for his poetry and fiction.
He is also an active musician, and plays the trombone with various orchestras.
