Ivan Heng
Founding Artistic Director

A theatre director, actor, playwright and designer, Ivan Heng’s productions are concerned with identity, migration and gender and sexual politics within intercultural contexts. They have played festivals and theatres in more than 20 cities around the world including Melbourne International Arts Festival, New Zealand International Arts Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, ICA International Festival of the Chinese Diaspora (London), Hong Kong City Festival, Royal Tropical Institute (Netherlands), SIETAR Congress (Munich), WOTM Conference (Belgium) and Re:Map Festival (Copenhagen).

Heng’s background is in both Asian and Western theatre traditions: training as a director with Kuo Pao Kun of Practice Performing Arts in Singapore; Ballet, Jazz and Contemporary Dance as a scholar with Dance Arts Singapore; and training with the Peking Opera in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Tang’s Opera Troupe) and Singapore (Leling Peking Opera Troupe, Chinese Theatre Circle). He also spent a summer at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford where he studied with Earl Gister. His mentor, colleague and closest collaborator was the late Krishen Jit with whom he collaborated on M. Butterfly, The Coffin is too Big for the Hole, No Parking on Odd Days, Emily of Emerald Hill and The Visit of the Tai Tai. He has a law degree from the National University of Singapore.

In 1990, he became the first recipient of the BAT Arts Scholarship to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (Glasgow). He graduated with top honours including the Royal Lyceum Theatre Award for Best Shakespearean Performance (Richard III), the Margaret Gordon Award for Best Final Year Performance, and the Dorothy Innes Prize for Best Studentship. In 1993, he moved to London where he worked in film, television and radio, and founded the award winning Tripitaka Theatre Company. In 1998, he returned to Singapore to make theatre that was closer to his heart and home.

In 2000,Heng founded W!LD RICE. His projects for the company include directing The Visit of the Tai Tai, Landmarks – Asian Boys Vol.2, Cinderel-LAH!, Animal Farm, Ang Tau Mui, The Woman in A Tree on the Hill, An Occasional Orchid; set designing Boeing Boeing, Landmarks, Ang Tau Mui, Animal Farm, An Occasional Orchid, and Kuo Pao Kun’s The Coffin is too Big for the Hole and No Parking on Odd Days; and acting in The Visit of the Tai Tai, For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, Emily of Emerald Hill and Animal Farm.

Other highlights of his career include acting in Army Daze, Beauty World (both original casts) and M. Butterfly (India, Canada, Singapore); directing Steaming!, the debut of the Dim Sum Dollies, conceiving and directing Ah Kong’s Birthday Party (Singapore longest-running play), and directing Phua Chu Kang, the Musical for the President of Singapore’s Star Charity.

His recent projects include directing Puccini’s Madam Butterfly for the Singapore Lyric Opera at the Esplanade, and co-directing and performing in Hotel Grand Asia, a three-year intercultural collaboration involving 16 theatre artists from 7 cities at the Setagaya Public Theatre in Tokyo. Next, he will direct the Dim Sum Dollies “Singapore’s Most Wanted” at the Esplanade and W!LD RICE’s Sleeping Beauty - the Musical Pantomime at the New Drama Centre.

Heng’s awards for excellence in theatre include the Edinburgh Fringe First, Scottish Daily Express New Names of ‘93 Award, Singapore Young Artist Award 1996, the Singapore Youth Award 1998, and the Straits Times Life! Theatre Award for Best Director 2002.

He shares his practice by giving workshops internationally, and has taught at the Central School of Speech and Drama (London), Tramway (Glasgow), Intercult (Stockholm), Kannonhallen (Denmark), Dramalab (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), and La Salle-SIA College of the Arts in Singapore. He was also a participant at London’s Royal Court Theatre 10th International Summer Residency.

Glen Goei
Associate Artistic Director

Glen Goei began his professional theatre career starring opposite Sir Anthony Hopkins in the Tony award-winning play M. Butterfly, which ran for a year in London’s West End. For his performance, Glen was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in 1990. On leaving the production, he set up Mu-Lan Arts, the first Asian theatre company in the United Kingdom. Productions in the first 7 years of his artistic directorship include Madame Mao’s Memories, Porcelain (London Fringe Awards – Best Play, Best Production), The Magic Fundoshi (Best Comedy) and Three Japanese Women.

His work in Singapore includes Into the Woods (1994), Kampong Amber (Singapore Arts Festival headline event 1994) and Land of a Thousand Dreams (1995). Most recently, Glen directed the hit production The Revenge of the Dim Sum Dollies at the Esplanade Theatre, Blithe Spirit and Boeing Boeing. He also directed Godspell, a charity fundraiser for his alma mater Anglo Chinese School.

Glen was awarded the National Youth Council Award (Excellence) for his achievements in the arts from Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in 1994. Glen then went on to write, direct and produce his first feature Forever Fever which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1999, and had been shown in over 30 countries worldwide.

Glen has been the creative director for The National Day Parade for 2003 and 2004. He is currently working on the Singapore Pavilion for the World Expo 2005 in Japan.