Our Team

Artistic Team

Youth and Education

EZZAT ALKAFF Head, Youth & Education
THOMAS LIM Programme Director, Singapore Youth Theatre
SHALYN YONG Manager, Children & Young Audiences
NELLIE QISTINA Youth & Education Executive
ZAILINA ZAINAL ABIDIN Youth & Education Executive, Audience Development
BENJAMIN LYE Administrator, Young & Wild

Production

KOH BEE BEE Producer
MELISSA TEOH Head, Production
JOYCE TAY Production Manager
ANGELA EE Production Co-ordinator
NURARINA NASIR Production Co-ordinator
SHAMIRUL AIZAN Production Co-ordinator

Marketing Communications

LINDA TAN Marketing Manager
SHAWNE WANG Communications Manager
CHOO YING TONG Marketing Executive
RACHEL NG Digital Content Executive

Development

ANDREA EE Development Manager
DEBBIE NG Development Executive
SHARON POO Development Executive

Administration

KATHERINE KHOO Head, Administration
JASMINE LIM Accounts Manager
ROSS TOH Senior Administrative Executive
IVY HENG Administrative Executive

Venue

MUHAMMAD FADLY Venue Manager (Operations)
KOH WEE GIAP
Venue Manager
TAN YONG JIE Venue Executive
PETER CHI Technical Manager
ROY TEE LACNO Technician
JAYANT DANIEL SINGH Technician
MUHAMMAD SYAHIN BIN ABDUL SAMAD Technician

Ivan Heng

Ivan Heng is one of Singapore’s most prominent and dynamic creative personalities. In a pioneering career spanning close to four decades, Ivan has directed, acted and designed many landmark Singapore theatre productions, which have been performed in more than 20 cities around the world.

Ivan founded Wild Rice in 2000. Under his leadership, the company has reached out to an audience of more than a million people, and is today at the vanguard of creating theatre with a distinctive Singaporean voice. Together with Executive Director Tony Trickett, Ivan envisioned the company’s ground-breaking theatre complex which opened on 8 August 2019. 

In 2013, Ivan was awarded the Cultural Medallion, Singapore’s highest cultural honour. In 2024, he received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French Government. He has a law degree from the National University of Singapore.

Tony Trickett

Born in Liverpool, Tony moved to Singapore in 1997. Prior to joining Wild Rice, he worked as a management consultant, specialising in leadership coaching and team development for multi-national companies. 

Tony acted as a consultant in the establishment of Wild Rice and became a director of the company in 2001. In August 2002, he was appointed Executive Director, responsible for the overall management of the company. 

Tony is the producer for all Wild Rice shows, both in Singapore and abroad. This includes all editions of the acclaimed Singapore Theatre Festival, which he conceived together with Founding Artistic Director Ivan Heng.

Glen Goei

Glen’s substantial body of work encompasses a wide range of the performing arts, including theatre, film, parades and world expos. Highlights include his Olivier Award-nominated performance in the title role of M. Butterfly opposite Anthony Hopkins in London’s West End; and his critically acclaimed feature films, Forever Fever and The Blue Mansion. 

Glen has also made significant contributions to Singapore’s theatre scene. Since 2002, Glen has served as the Co-Artistic Director of Wild Rice, for which he has directed hits such as La Cage Aux Folles, HOTEL, Public Enemy, The Importance of Being Earnest, The House of Bernarda Alba, Cook a Pot of Curry, Emily of Emerald Hill, Family Outing, Blithe Spirit, The Magic Fundoshi, Aladdin and Boeing Boeing.

Alfian Sa'at

Alfian is the Resident Playwright of Wild Rice. He has been nominated at the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards for Best Original Script 12 times, and has received the award four times. 

His plays with Wild Rice include HOTEL (with Marcia Vanderstraaten), The Asian Boys Trilogy, Cooling-Off Day, The Optic Trilogy and Homesick. 

He was the winner of the Golden Point Award for Poetry and the National Arts Council Young Artist Award for Literature in 2001. His publications include Collected Plays One, Two and Three; poetry collections One Fierce Hour, A History of Amnesia and The Invisible Manuscript; and short story collections Corridor and Malay Sketches.

Edith Podesta

Edith Podesta is an award winning theatre-maker, actor and performance lecturer. She studied acting and movement studies at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), and holds a Master of Fine Arts from LASALLE College of the Arts. 

In 2014, she was named Best Actress at the 14th Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards for her role in Cake Theatrical Productions’ Illogic, directed by Natalie Hennedige; and her production of BITCH: The Origin of the Female Species won Production of the Year and Best Original Script in 2017. 

Edith has lectured at LASALLE College of the Arts, School of the Arts, Theatre Training and Research Programme, NIDA, Conservatorium of Music and University of Technology Sydney.

Joel Tan

Joel is a playwright, performer, and inter-disciplinary artist. He is an Artist-in-Residence at Wild Rice, and serves as the company’s Literary Manager.

His playwriting practice is divided between Singapore and London, and he has written plays for leading companies in both cities including Wild Rice, Pangdemonium, Checkpoint Theatre, The Royal Court, The Almeida Theatre, Headlong Theatre, Theatre 503, and the Orange Tree Theatre. Joel also writes for screen and audio, and collaborates inter-disciplinarily to create installation and contemporary performance.

Joel is a passionate advocate for new writing development for the theatre, and is a Creative Associate with Centre 42’s New Writing Development Programme.

Thomas Lim

Thomas is an award-winning writer, director and arts educator based in Singapore. His works span across genres and languages, including plays, musicals and short films that have been performed in Teochew, Mandarin, Malay, Bahasa Indonesia, English and Pig Latin.

He made his professional debut as a playwright and director with Grandmother Tongue, a semi-autobiographical tribute to his Teochew-speaking grandmother. Subsequent writing credits include Supervision and Straight Acting, the former of which was nominated for Production of the Year and won Best Original Script at the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards. He has also written musical pantomimes like Peter Pan in Serangoon Gardens and Pinocchio.

Besides his work on the main stage, Thomas is an established arts educator who has over a decade of experience in sharing his love for theatre with students, young people and aspiring artists across Singapore. He is currently the Associate Artistic Director for Youth & Education at Wild Rice, as well as the Co-Programme Director of Singapore Youth Theatre, a year-long theatre-making programme for young people aged 13 to 17.