Theatre in our Mother Tongue
Join Nine Years Theatre, Teater Ekamatra and Agam Theatre Lab as they share on their perspective behind creating and producing works in their mother tongue — why that speaks to their audiences and how they are using these languages to reach more people.
Panelist
NINE YEARS THEATRE
An award-winning Mandarin theatre company in multicultural Singapore, Nine Years Theatre l oves to dream up game-changing ways to do things.
Since the beginning, we are invested in actor training in order to create work that is consistent in quality. We believe in entertaining our audience in ways that are honest and thoughtful.
Our work is recognised for being relatable and culturally layered, possessing deep sensibility that speaks to audiences from all backgrounds.
Fluid in scale and genre, we create performances ranging from re-imaginations of classics and adaptations of literary works, to original plays as well as interdisciplinary and international collaborations.
Nelson Chia
Nelson is an actor, director, writer and theatre educator, he has been an active player on the Singapore stage for the last three decades. He graduated from Goldsmiths College in London with an MA in Directing and National University of Singapore with a BA (Hons) in Theatre Studies.
He was the first local artist to be commissioned for a consecutive three years to present works at the Esplanade’s Huayi Festival, and a two-time Best Actor (2011 and 2013) winner and four-time Best Director (2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019) winner at the ST Life! Theatre Awards. He is currently the co-founder and Artistic Director of Nine Years.
TEATER EKAMATRA
Teater Ekamatra is an established and exciting Singaporean arts company that spotlights artists of diverse ethnicities.
Teater Ekamatra has been commissioned by notable international arts festivals and has also won numerous accolades, especially at Singapore’s highest platform for excellence in theatre, the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards, where our trophies have included Best Original Script several times.
Guided by our values of diversity, inclusivity, integrity, accountability, and people-centredness, Teater Ekamatra is committed to our mission of creating engaging art that inspires, as well as incubating emerging talents, and expanding diversity within the industry.
Shaza Ishak
Shaza has been managing Ekamatra since 2011, leading the company in its strategy and vision; programming and producing the company’s artistic works. She believes in effecting social change through the art of storytelling on stage and is committed to forging progress for the ethnic minority arts scene and communities in Singapore and beyond.
In 2019, she graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (UK) with an MA in Creative Producing with the support of the NAC Arts Postgraduate Scholarship, the Goh Chok Tong Youth Promise Award, and the Li Siong Tay Postgraduate Scholarship; as well as the BinjaiTree Foundation and the Trailblazer Foundation. She is also a fellow of the Singapore International Foundation’s Arts for Good Fellowship; the International Society for the Performing Arts (USA); and most recently, the Eisenhower Fellowship (USA), the youngest fellow in its 68-year history. In November 2021, she was conferred the inaugural Tunas Warisan (Special Mention Award) by President Halimah Yaacob on behalf of the Malay Heritage Foundation in acknowledgment of her work in the Arts and Heritage sector. She is also an adjunct lecturer at Lasalle College of the Arts (BA Arts Management).
AGAM THEATER LAB
AGAM Ltd. or AGAM Theatre Lab as it is more commonly known was started on 30th January 2019 by Subramanian Ganesh, a passionate theatre maker in collaboration of a collective of enthusiasts, AGAM, as an institution of public character, intends to create professional plays with highest quality for our audience here and now. Being the newest theatre company of 4G Singapore, it's mission is to Ensure the longevity of Singapore Tamil Language Theatre by cultivating a pipeline of trained theatre practitioners, showcase high quality theatre productions and grow an audience base beyond Tamil speaking public.
Subramanian Ganesh
Ganesh’s body of work spans in the field of performing arts embracing a wide range of roles such as directing, acting and lighting design. He is the founding director of AGAM, a theatre IPC in Singapore, and a committed practitioner with a desire to push artistic boundaries amongst his generation in Singapore.
Ganesh is considered a promising figure at the forefront of Tamil theatre scene in Singapore. He started his theatre journey as an actor 17 years ago. He has since built an impressive portfolio, working with almost all of Tamil theatre companies in Singapore. By working with a multitude of professional groups, he has displayed a ceaseless zest to hone his craft as a director and a collaborator of theatre works.