The Actor's Toolkit - Voice, Body & Mind

Facilitated by Tia Guttensohn

Tia is a multicultural actor, educator, and entrepreneur. Being Singaporean and Austrian, and having grown up in Singapore, Switzerland, and Hong Kong, she now finds a piece of home wherever she goes. Tia trained at LASALLE College of the Arts, graduating with a BA(Hons) in Acting in 2017. Following this, she co-founded The Assembly Point, a local theatre collective, and built a career in both performance and education. Her theatre credits include The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (Singapore Repertory Theatre), Muswell Hill (Pangdemonium), and Animal Farm (Wild Rice).

In 2022, Tia moved to the United Kingdom to pursue an MA in Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths, University of London. Following this, she led an open-access youth club in Southeast London, launched Mulch Workshops: a social enterprise affirming multicultural identity in young people, and honed her skills as a professional quiz master. Having recently returned to Singapore, Tia looks forward to making meaningful connections at the intersection of theatre, education, and identity.

So You Want to Be A Director?

Facilitated by Chong Tze Chien

Tze Chien is the Artistic Director of NUS Stage, a core member of The Finger Players and an award-winning playwright/director. Some of the awards he has won include the Singapore Dramatist Award, and The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards. His plays have been staged in Singapore, UK, Budapest, Taiwan and Japan. He has three collections of plays containing critically acclaimed plays such as Charged (The Business Times’ top ten Singapore play of all time), PIE, and Turn by Turn we Turn, just to name a few. For his contributions to Singapore Theatre, he was awarded the Young Artist Award 2006 by Singapore’s National Arts Council. Tze Chien has been appointed as festival director for Singapore International Festival of Arts 2024 - 2026.

Theatre & Mental Well-Being

Facilitated by Ambre Lee

Ambre is a pioneering Dramatherapist in Singapore, Creative Facilitator and Multidisciplinary Artist. She is passionate about empowering individuals to connect with their language of expression and inner power. With a particular interest around trauma-informed care, inclusive practices and artist wellbeing, her practice weaves together the transformative power of the arts, embodied connection and the wisdom of nature. At its core, her work stems from a desire to support gentle ripples of change through connection, curiosity and creativity.

Ambre is accredited and registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (United Kingdom), the Australian, New Zealand, and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association (ANZACATA), as well as the British Association of Dramatherapists (BADth). She brings experience supporting children, youth and adults across a variety of settings including performing artists, mental healthcare, diverse learning needs settings, and different community groups.

Page to Stage: Bring Your Text to Life

Facilitated by Feroz J Malik

Feroz is a strange figure who bears an ache for the sublime and moving. Lately he has been involved with The Winter Players (TWP), SRT’s Company-in-Residence. Since its inception in LASALLE, he has been embarking with them on performing feats of theatrical and literary necromancy, as Leontes in The Winter’s Tale (2023), Judge Brack in Hedda Gabbler (2025) and making his directorial debut with Doctor Faustus (2024). He was recently in SRT’s Shakespeare in the Park production of Macbeth.

The Improv Playground - Say Yes, Think Fast!

Facilitated by Jon Cancio

Jon has over a decade of experience in the performing arts, as an actor, director, writer, and improvisor. He believes that with a little bit of creativity, a sense of play, and good teamwork anything is possible. It is a philosophy he has passed on to thousands of students, who have learned to be more spontaneous, better listeners, and more supportive partners. Jon has conducted workshops for corporate clients including Grab, Singtel, Singapore Theatre Company, and Health Promotion Board Singapore. Selected theatre credits: Twelth Night (Singapore Repertory Theatre), Watching (Toy Factory), Understanding Shakespeare: the Merchant of Venice (Sightlines), and Trouble Came (Brango). Selected screen credits: Girl Band Called Girl Band, The Benzi Project, and Uncanny Valley. He's been featured in ads for companies such as: Pizza Hut, Chope, and Guinness.

Storytelling for Self Expression

Facilitated by Dwayne Tan

Dwayne Tan built his career over twenty years in theatre performance after graduating from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York before making the transition to teaching and voiceovers. He started at Jitterbugs Swingapore as the singing and acting coach for LAMDA exams, competitions and the school's annual concert in both solo and group settings. With the Singapore Repertory Theatre, Dwayne has conducted and designed workshops under various programs, for students and teachers, from pre-schools to tertiary systems. He also conceptualises and writes for experiences including outdoor performances at the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, musicals and curating learning and engaging experiences for young audiences in art galleries. Dwayne currently hosts a weekly show on Mediacorp's radio station, Class 95.

Introduction to Stage Combat

Facilitated by Lian Sutton

Tan Guo Lian Sutton is a graduate of the BA (Hons) Acting program at LASALLE College of the Arts. He was a recipient of Best Supporting Actor for his role in Electra at the 2017 Life! Theatre Awards, and is currently a core member of theatre collective Dark Matter Theatrics and Co-Artistic Director of Nusantara Theatrics. In 2019, Lian completed his Masters in Arts Pedagogy and Practice where he researched the pre-performance rituals of professional actors in Singapore. As a trained martial artist from an early age, Lian constantly seeks to merge his talents to tell stories in varied and engaging ways. Selected theatre credits include Temple, and Electra directed by Natalie Hennedige, 2 Houses by Lim Yu Beng, Acting Mad directed by Haresh and Sharma, and Those who can’t, Teach directed by Alvin Tan.

Applied Theatre - Theatre for Real Life

Facilitated by Grace Lee-Khoo

Grace Lee Khoo is the Founder of Access Path Productions, Singapore’s first disability-led theatre company. She graduated from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and National University of Singapore’s Theatre Studies program and now works internationally as a director, performer, producer, dramaturg, researcher, drama educator, audio describer for the blind/vision-impaired and creative access consultant. Grace was International Artist-in-residence at Graeae Theatre Company (London) in 2017. Grace currently serves as the Lead Artist of the Inclusive Young Company (iYC). With SRT, Grace has directed Silence Bubble (2018), Kaite O’Reilly’s 9 Fridas (2022) and Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis (2023). Significant works include touring Unlimited UK commission Kaite O'Reilly’s And Suddenly I Disappear (2017-2018), National Gallery Singapore commissions Glimpse (2023), Self Portrait (2019) and Singapore Art Museum commissions desert of the ocean (doldrums) for Singapore Art Week 2024, Patterns of Perception for Singapore Biennale 2023. ​

Sharing Session: You’re an Actor Now. What Next?

Panelists: Rishi Budrani & Bright Ong

Moderated by Charlotte Nors

Rishi Budhrani is a prolific and award-winning comedian, actor and host who is the first Singaporean to win the Hong Kong International Comedy Competition and perform at the Gotham Comedy Club in NYC. His performances, at home and overseas, are highly reviewed with bakchormeeboy.com calling him “a comedian with the Midas touch”, The Straits Times, Life! saying his work is the “perfect blend of comedy and sentiment”, and Time Out Singapore saying that Rishi “left them in stitches from beginning to end”. Rishi’s artistic journey began when he was fired from his father’s tailoring business. He used that experience and his experiences as a Singaporean Indian to shape his work including political satire. Pre-pandemic, Rishi toured comedy festivals like the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in Australia, and the Weirdass Pyjama Fest in India. Some of Rishi's notable works include:

- Host of the Singapore National Day Parade 2022

- Host of Award-winning Travel Mini-series: Unexpected Journey, a mini-series by Singapore Airlines and Singapore Tourism Board

- Passion Ambassador for Singapore Tourism Board (You might have seen him being chased around the cops as he ran around Singapore to explore hidden gems in Singapore Tourism Board’s web series, S.P.I.E.S.)

- Creator of Singapore's only Live news comedy parody show The Rishi Report

- Host of President’s Star Charity 2023

- Writer/Voice Actor on Downstairs, a Singaporean animated series on Netflix (You might have seen heard him in as the voice of roti-prata seller, Sammy)

Rishi is an alumnus of SRT's The Young Company actor training programme.

Sharing Session: You’re an Actor Now. What Next?

Panelists: Rishi Budrani & Bright Ong

Moderated by Charlotte Nors

In his capacities as a director, actor and puppeteer, Bright Ong also greatly believes in the power of theatre for young audiences (TYA), and has worked on numerous TYA productions both locally and internationally. In these capacities as a theatre-maker, he has also attended several international festivals as a delegate, most recently being Imaginate 2019 (Scotland) and ASSITEJ Korea’s K-PAP 2020 (South Korea).

He is also an Associate Director with Five Stones Theatre (UK, Singapore), Associate Artist with Mascots and Puppets Specialists (Singapore), and is a participant member of the Closed Community of Artists under The Paperboats Collective (Australia) as well as a member of the UP Collective (Singapore). Bright has also performed for several festivals around the world, including the Georgetown Festival (Penang, Malaysia), Festival 2018 (Gold Coast, Australia, Commonwealth Games), Pesta Boneka 2018 (Yogyakarta, Indonesia), Light 2 Night (Singapore), Flipside (Singapore) and the 100 and 100 More Festival (Singapore).

Bright’s work as a puppetry creative includes his role as adjunct lecturer on puppetry at Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore. As a puppeteer, he played Latif on ZooMoo, an international children’s cable channel. He was the Resident Director and Puppetry Supervisor for Ninjago: The Realm of Shadows, at Legoland Malaysia (2015-2018). The show was awarded the IAAPA (The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) award for Best Theatrical Production 2016.

His recent theatre credits include My Neighbour Totoro (UK 2023) & Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image The Musical (UK 2023).

An alumni scholar of the Singapore Repertory Theatre’s (SRT) The Young Company, Bright also graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor’s degree in Geography with a Minor in Theatre Studies.