The Rice Cooker is an incubation programme that will be kicking off this year with a series of dramatised readings of new plays that are currently in development at Wild Rice. This is part of the company’s New & Now initiative, which is dedicated to developing new and original writing for the Singapore stage in a structured, sustainable way. 

Under this scheme, plays are developed through rigorous dramaturgy and script workshops. They are then presented as dramatised readings, with actors reading early drafts in front of an audience so that playwrights can gather feedback on what works and what needs more work. This is the most effective way for plays to get an early test run, and for audiences to get involved in the otherwise unseen hard work that goes into creating a play: rewriting, rewriting, and rewriting.  

For this inaugural Rice Cooker season of dramatised readings, Wild Rice is delighted to present four powerful new works-in-progress from playwrights both well-known and new to our audiences, as part of their ongoing development with us.