WHY?
The journey of a theatre director can be a lonely and difficult one. There are no auditions you can go to for directing jobs, and most theatre groups already function with an artistic director who directs their shows
RETHINKING
This inadvertently doubles the work they put into a project, which may give them less room for risk taking, experimentation, exploration and venturing outside their areas of expertise. Further, there is a limited number of training courses and spaces for theatre directors in Singapore. There is no local degree or Masters programme in directing, and workshops or masterclasses only surface once in a while for very small intakes.
This network and its accompanying programmes is meant to hold space for these emerging directors to take a pause and make time for themselves to gain new knowledge and gain exposure to various disciplines in performance making. All this without the pressures of mounting and selling full-scale productions.
KNOWLEDGE
FOUNDERS & EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
ISAIAH CHRISTOPHER LEE / PRODUCER & PROGRAMMER
Isaiah Christopher Lee is an educator and multilingual Singaporean playwright, poet, and theatre practitioner. Isaiah's repertoire of works include When The Bough Breaks (2017), The Old Woman and the Ox (2018), Yatim (2021). Most recently, he was the playwright for the interdisciplinary performance《空》 Reflections for Esplanade’s HuaYi 2021. His poems have been published in The Kindling Journal, and SingPoWriMo 2018: The Anthology, and he was shortlisted for the 2018 Editorial Consultations by Arts House, Singapore for poetry.
Apart from writing, he is active in performance and is particularly interested in movement and physical theatre. His latest solo performance, The Concubine, debuted on the Singapore stage in July 2021 at the Drama Centre Black Box. As part of his directorial work, Isaiah directed Single Mothers (2019) at the Playden at the Arts House, Singapore and Anamnesis (2021) at Aliwal Arts Centre. As a theatre practitioner, he has worked with New Opera Singapore and MUSA: The Collective. He has worked on various arts projects supported by the National Arts Council Singapore (NAC), the Arts Fund, and the National Youth Council (NYC), Young ChangeMakers (YCM).
Isaiah was an MOE Humanities Scholar, and the Artist-in-Residence and a Drama Educator at inwardBOUND – Transformation through Drama (2019), during which time he worked on Forum Theatre focusing on theatre for intervention in Singapore schools. He continues to work as a theatre practitioner and drama educator in Singapore. He is also the Founder and Managing Director of the independent art, design and theatre company, The CreativeWerkz.
Isaiah is a guest lecturer at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore (NAFA) and teaches Southeast Asian Theatre for MU4631: Music & Sound Design for Theatre under the School of Music. Isaiah was an Artist-in-Residence with Centre 42 under the The Vault: Lite 2021 with a research specialisation on reimagining Singapore theatre classics, in particular Chong Tze Chien’s Poop!. He has also worked with pioneer Singapore artist Tang Da Wu on 'The Big Rehearsal: What Question' at The Substation, Singapore (2021) and ‘Walk Darkness Walk’ at the National Gallery Singapore (2021).
He is currently reading a BA(Hons) Double Major in English Literature and Art History at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore with a specialisation in the Arts and Literature of Southeast Asia. In parallel with theoretical research within and beyond the disciplines of Art History and English Literature, he explores performance and storytelling through theatre and education.
ADEEB FAZAH / PRODUCER & PROGRAMMER
Adeeb is the Artistic Director of The Second Breakfast Company, having directed works from the Singapore theatre canon like Family, The Moon is Less Bright and The Singapore Trilogy as well as full stagings of new work by emerging theatre makers such as The Old Woman and the Ox and Performing Malay Sketches.
Adeeb has worked with Bhumi Collective and Adeeb & Shai on dead was the body till i taught it how to move and Last of Their Generation, which was presented at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017. As artist-in-residence of Gateway Theatre, Adeeb directed Heather, which featured Karen Tan, Andy Tear and designers Petrina Dawn Tan and Ng Sze Min. Adeeb is also a founding member of Impromptu Meetings, whose digital performance of The Late Night Show with Xiao Ming was commissioned for a live staging in the Esplanade Concourse as part of Foreword.
Most recently, Adeeb was part of the organising committee of STRIKE! Digital Festival, which saw seven independent theatre groups come together and put up digital performances on various platforms such as Telegram, Instagram and Tiktok.
He also works with young people as a freelance educator for drama-in-curriculum and CCA programmes in various secondary schools and polytechnics. He is currently involved with two drama clubs, where he is guiding students in devising their own digital performance.