Heng Leun is the Artistic Director of Drama Box. One of few effectively bilingual theatre
practitioners, Heng Leun has extensive years of experience both in English and Mandarin
productions, directing close to 40 plays.
He has been named by theatre critics to be the promising director "to power Singapore
Theatre in the years to come" and the one to "convince ordinary folks that theatre is not
intimidating". Under his helm, Drama Box has become known for its exciting theatrical works
that are staged at major theatre venues and community housing estates. These works often
address social issues that are relevant to Singapore society.
To date, he has directed HAPPY (May, 2005); Freedom From Toil (Bangalore,
India 2003); Cloud Nine; Fugitives; White Songs (2002 & 2001);
Have You Beaten?; Have You Eaten?; News Theatre; Mr Beng (2000
& 1999); Sang Nila (International Puppet Festival, Vienna 1999); Sour Relationship;
Leng-Geh-Mng; Hazy Love '97; Invisibility (The Necessary Stage, Taipei 1997 &
Singapore 1996); and Galileo - I Feel the Earth Move (The Necessary Stage).
Heng Leun also wrote Hazy Love '97; Top of the World; A New Journey; and Episode of Twelve
Dames for Drama Box.
He was Artistic Director of The Necessary Stage's Theatre For Youth Branch from 1994-1998
which reached out to over 180,000 students each year. This made the company the most
important theatre group in Singapore in the area of audience development. He was also in
charge of M1 Youth Connection 1998, a theatre festival for youth, and has organised massive
community cultural events such as Tampines Cultural Day.
As a set and lighting designer, his creations have been seen in Vienna, Taiwan, Australia,
London and Glasgow. In 1997, The Arts Magazine recognised him as one of the promising
designers in Singapore.
Heng Leun is also currently a panel member/artistic advisor of a few arts organisations -
NAC's Panel of Advisors for Theatre, one of the evaluators and mentors for Practice
Performing Arts School's Theatre Training and Research Programme (TTRP), and the artistic
consultant for The Finger Players. He is also a member of the Resource Panel for the GPC of
the Ministry for Information, Communication and the Arts, as well as a part-time
lecturer/tutor at National Institute of Education.
Heng Leun was the recipient of the Young Artist Award 2000 from the National Arts Council
(NAC), and Culture Award 2003 from the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
↑ back to top
Hui Ling is Associate Artistic Director of NeNeMas (Never Neglect Mankind), the education
arm of Drama Box. She has been a Speech and Drama teacher since 1999, working in schools and
educational institutions. Hui Ling strongly believes in the humanistic value of education
and aspires to touch people with her work. Besides doing programme and curriculum
development and planning, she also conducts workshops and is currently looking into
Drama-In-Education.
Hui Ling has been trained at the Singapore Hokien Huay Kuan Arts & Cultural Troupe in Speech
& Drama since 1988, venturing into professional theatre in 2001. The productions she has
worked on include Nezha and Pigs Can Fly (The Finger Players), 100 years in Waiting
(Singapore Arts Festival 2001), the lead cast in Miss Fit (2001), as well as other
productions by the ETCeteras, namely Madam What's Next & Sh:u:sh. She was also involved in
Dragon Dance (2001), a puppet show by The Finger Players & has toured with the company to
Macau Fringe & Yunlin International Puppet Festival (2001). Besides main season productions,
Hui Ling has performed in school productions with D'rama for the past 4 years.
In 2002, Hui Ling had her first contact with Drama Box, in the community play, Spider &
Tiger. Since then, other collaborations include community plays: Private Room, SARS;
Theatre-In-Education programme S21 - the Garden for schools; and main season production Liao
Zhai - Of Man, Ghost & Others, part of the Hua Yi Festival 2004 at the Esplanade. Her most
recent involvements include HAPPY (2005), ShitHole (2004), and devised News Theatre play,
News Busters!.
↑ back to top
A multi-faced artist, Shyh Jih has assumed the roles of actor, director, playwright and
sound designer in his involvement in theatre that began more than ten years ago in 1991. In
that year, he acted in a Mandarin production, Yi Xin, with Drama Box. Since then, he has
been involved in various capacities in more than 15 productions.
Shyh Jih's most recent directorial credit is Constant Constipation in March 2004. Other
productions he co-directed include Fugitives (co-directed with Kok Heng Leun) Hazy Love 97
and Have You Eaten?, a piece of forum theatre which toured community venues. The Rape, a
production that he co-directed in 2000 and which portrayed the lifestyle of youth and pub
culture earned positive comments from the media.
His capability as a playwright has received recognition and affirmation. Banana Blues, a
play that was staged by Drama Box in 1999 at its studio theatre, was praised by The Flying
Inkpot, a web-zine dedicated to the arts.
Beautiful Day, another of his creations that was staged in 2002, was described by The Arts
Magazine as "a good play dealing with the issues of friendship, second chances, personal
history and memories".
↑ back to top
Currently a freelance theatre practitioner and mask maker, Li Xie performs, writes and
teaches acting/movement in both local arts institutes - LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts and
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.
She has undergone training from Odin Teatret, Biomechanics by Bodganov Gennadi (Russia) ,
Alexander Technique by Niamh Dowling (UK), Commedia Dell'arte by Antonio Fava ( Italy ) and
Theatre of the Oppressed workshops by Headlines Theatre (Canada), and has learnt mask making
from Donato Sartori (Italy).
Formerly Associate Artistic Director of Drama Box (Singapore) for community theatre,
Li Xie has directed and facilitated forum theatre pieces, working with youth and prisoners
from Singapore Selarang Drug Rehabilitation Centre.
Her most recent works include ShitHole (written and directed), an anti-war solo performance,
Ah Hua's Paradise in conjunction with the International Lysistrata Project, and the
re-staging of the critically acclaimed one woman performance The vaginaLOGUE which was
voted the best play of the year (2000).
In 2003, Li Xie was invited to the Hong Kong International Sars Festival to perform an original
solo mask work, Hell, which was also included as a guest performance by the International
Magdalene Project 2003 (Singapore).
↑ back to top
Pern Yiau is an Associate Artist with Drama Box. He has worked extensively with professional theatre companies since
1996. He started out with The Necessary Stage (TNS) and was involved in several of the company's Theatre-In-Education
(TIE) programmes and assembly plays for schools as actor/facilitator and director, as well as directing and acting in
the company's main season productions. With Drama Box, Pern Yiau directed Banana
Blues and Invisibility, and co-directed Family of Cross.
He is also a teacher and researcher of Taiji Gong. Besides conducting Taiji Gong classes for
small groups of students, he also teaches Taiji Quan at the Theatre Training and Research
Programme (TTRP).
Pern Yiau graduated from the National University of Singapore's Theatre Studies Programme in
1997. He was also in the pioneer graduating batch of TTRP in 2003.
His upcoming collaboration with Drama Box in 2005 will be furnitur, of which he is
co-devising and directing.
↑ back to top
