BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Tan Beng Tian is a disciple of the late renowned traditional hand puppet master Li Bofen. She is a recipient of the JCCI Singapore Foundation Culture Award and also the Straits Times Life! Award.
A co-founder of The Finger Players and a proud member of Singapore Drama Educators Association, major companies she has worked with in her thirty-year career are Drama Box, Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, The Finger Players, The Necessary Stage, The Theatre Practice, Toy Factory Productions, Wild Rice and Zuni Icosahedron (Hong Kong).
As a multifaceted independent theatre practitioner, Beng Tian is passionate about making performing arts accessible for all. Besides ensuring accessibility in shows she produces and directs, she provides her expertise and services to companies that share the same belief in genuine accessibility, the latest being with Equal Dreams.
A former arts manager and current fundraiser, Christine Leong is glad for the opportunity to continue contributing to the arts through serving as a member of the board.
Goh Chin Hou is the current Chief Operating Officer at Kopi Kenangan. Goh has over 15 years of experience in the food and beverage industry, holding key leadership positions and having worked with companies such as Burger King, Starbucks, Cedele, and Nestle.
Under Chin Hou’s leadership, Kopi Kenangan has quickly become one of the most popular coffee brands in Indonesia.
Goh Chin Hou graduated with a BA in Economics and Theatre Studies from the National University of Singapore.
Yeo Whay Nee Janelle serves as the non-executive director of the Company.
Janelle is the Chief Financial Officer of Eastspring Investments Group “Eastspring”, the asset management business of Prudential plc, with the responsibilities over the business fiscal function and performance. In addition, she heads up the Corporate Strategy function, guiding the development and delivery of Eastspring’s strategy in collaboration with management. She holds directorship positions on multiple Boards of Eastspring’s wholly owned subsidiaries and joint ventures across Asia.
Janelle has over 20 years of experience within the financial services industry in Asia. She began her career as a banking supervisor with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and thereafter joined Oliver Wyman as a management consultant.
Janelle holds a MBA from INSEAD and Bachelor of Accountancy (Hons) from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She has also been awarded the CFA charter.
Luke Kwek is a regional in-house lawyer with a love for the theatre. A long-time supporter of local theatrical works, with a short foray as freelance practitioner and artistic director of an amateur-run theatre company, he is thankful for this opportunity to volunteer his services as member of the board.
CORE TEAM MEMBERS
Oliver Chong is a multi-award-winning and published playwright, director, actor, and designer. Some of his memorable works include Every Brilliant Thing, A Fiend’s Diary, Roots, I’m Just A Piano Teacher, Cat, Lost & Found, The Book of Living and Dying, Citizen Pig and Citizen Dog. His numerous nominations at The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards include Production of the Year and Best Director for I’m Just A Piano Teacher, Production of the Year for Off Centre, Best Director and Best Script for Citizen Pig, Best Director and Best Actor for Every Brilliant Thing, Best Actor for Roots, Invisibility/Breathing and Art, Best Supporting Actor for Itsy, the musical, Flare, Best Ensemble for Senang, Shit Hole, First Family, Rashomon, and A Cage Goes in Search of a Bird respectively, and Best Set Design for Twisted, Citizen Dog and A Fiend’s Diary.
In 2011, he won Production of the Year for A Cage Goes in Search of a Bird with A Group of People. In 2013, he won Production of the Year and Best Script for Roots. The production has since toured Hong Kong and Taiwan to critical acclaim. Roots was also read and staged in New Zealand by Proudly Asian Theatre. In 2016, he was invited to perform in a site-specific, 108-hour durational one-man show Time Between Us at the Singapore International Festival of Arts. In 2017, he was selected to perform in the international premiere of Blood and Rose Ensemble in Taipei, directed by Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group’s Director Wang Chia Ming, a co-commission by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay and Taiwan National Performing Arts Centre Innovation Series Theater Festival. In 2020, he won Best Actor for A Fiend’s Diary.
To date, Oliver has performed at international arts festivals with touring productions in Paris, Myanmar, Barcelona, Budapest, Ankara, Bangkok, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan. He has conducted playwriting, directing and acting Masterclasses in Hong Kong and Singapore, and has been committed to helping practitioners fine-tune their crafts since 2014.
Oliver was the Resident Director of THE FINGER PLAYERS (2004 – 2018), currently the Artistic Director of the company. He is also the founding member of A GROUP OF PEOPLE (2008 – 2012) and the founder of ODDCROP Productions (2019 – present). His published works include Roots, The Book of Living and Dying, I’m Just A Piano Teacher and Cat, Lost & Found.
Chong Tze Chien is a core member of The Finger Players and an award winning playwright/director. For his contributions to Singapore Theatre, he was awarded the Young Artist Award by Singapore’s National Arts Council in 2006.
On the national level, Tze Chien was the Creative Director of Singapore Pools’ float and performance in Chingay 2007 and 2008, Co-conceptualist and Writer for NDP 2016, Creative Director of Island Adventures for National Museum of Singapore’s Children’s Season 2012, Artistic Director of The Arts House’s 10th Anniversary in 2014, and the Co-curator of The Studios: Fifty, a festival of 50 iconic Singapore Plays presented by the Esplanade in 2015.
As an arts educator, Tze Chien has been conducting workshops and masterclasses for tertiary institutions and schools in Singapore since 2001. He has taught in NUS, Lasalle College of the Arts and NTU/NIE to name a few. He was a Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) Arts Presentation (Drama) Adjudicator for five years, and the Creative Director of SYF Concert 2019. He currently sits on the Curriculum Development Assessment Committee in Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.
Ellison Tan Yuyang is a Singaporean-Chinese performer, playwright and educator. She is a Core Team Member of The Finger Players. She is also a Co-Founder of The Wanderlings – the first Singaporean collective to create baby theatre.
Ellison’s background is in puppetry, playwriting, the Suzuki Method of Actor Training and Viewpoints. She was conferred the National Arts Council Arts Scholarship in 2020 to pursue a Masters in Theatre for Young Audience.
Lam Dan Fong recently co-founded The Props Collective and The Backstage Affair with like-minded individuals as she believes in the power and impact of art and is invested in finding solutions to making art more socially and economically sustainable.
She was part of the pioneer batch of ARTivate, the youth wing of Drama Box Ltd and has extensive experience in production management with many local theatre companies. Her education in Accountancy has definitely given her an edge in her career. She is a member of The Finger Players Core Team.
Myra Loke is a puppeteer, actor, educator, designer and theatre-maker. She started her journey in Singapore’s theatre 13 years ago when she co-created and participated in ARTivate (Pioneer Batch), a youth wing of Drama Box Ltd.
Now, Myra is a member of the core team of The Finger Players. She has since directed and led productions such as Little Mournings (as part of The Maker’s Project 2020) and Peepbird.
Myra continues to contribute as a performer and puppet designer and maker. She has performed, designed and made puppets for productions such as OIWA – The Ghost of Yotsuya (Singapore International Festival of Arts 2021), Framed, By Adolf, The Spirits Play, ITSY- The Musical, The Flying Dutchman, Turn by Turn We Turn and several others.
In 2017, Myra co-created “You Can Reach The Sky”, Singapore’s first immersive theatrical experience for babies. In 2018, Myra co-founded an arts collective, The Wanderlings, where she continues her work in engaging young people and people with special needs.
Ong Kian Sin is co-founder of The Finger Players. He often designs and constructs puppets. His puppet creations were seen in Furthest North, Deepest South, First Family, Wong Kar Wai Dreams, Twisted, Flare and suitCASES. In 2007, he staged 0501, a site-specific production that won two technical awards (Set and Sound Design) at the 8th Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards, as well as a President’s Design Award. His subsequent directorial works include Let Dreams Fly, Twisted, Whispers (Huayi Festival) and The Musical Canvas (Ding Yi/Esplanade FYI). Some performing credits include: The Book of Living and Dying, Turn by Turn We Turn, Senang (Drama Box) and One Metre Square: Voices from Sungei Road (Wild Rice).
Sindhura Kalidas is a theatre maker and educator. Over the years, she has diversified her largely performance-based portfolio to include writing, facilitating, directing, and dramaturgy through her training and work with companies such as Teater Ekamatra, The Necessary Stage (TNS), and The Finger Players (TFP). Sindhu was the first recipient of the TFP Fellowship, a year-long leadership development programme for mid-career practitioners to deepen their understanding of puppetry.
In 2021, Sindhu was awarded the NAC Postgraduate Arts Scholarship. She holds an MA (Distinction) in Dramaturgy and Writing for Performance from Goldsmiths, University of London. Sindhu is developing a dramaturgical practice focused on care and empathy, specifically when working with traditionally underrepresented and misrepresented communities.
Tan Xiang Yi’s background in stage management for the past decade has led her to work with different theatre companies, artists, creatives and production team. She was the Associate Stage Manager with Nine Years Theatre between 2018 – 2020.
Currently, she is a full time Project Manager and a member of The Finger Players Core Team.
Loo An Ni is fascinated with the tactility of objects and spaces. This brought her into theatre where possibilities are endless. Having taken on various roles behind the scenes from design and construction of costumes and puppets to wardrobe management, her current interest is exploring how these two fields can meld with or complement each other.
Recent works include Peepbird (Puppets; The Finger Players), nominated for Best Costume (Max Tan) with Puppet Design and Build in The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards 2022, First Fleet (Costume; Nine Years Theatre and Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre), awarded Best Production and Best costume in 2020, and Windward Side of the Mountain (Costume; SAtheCollective, Nine Years Theatre and T.H.E Dance Company).
STAFF
OLIVER CHONG
Artistic Director
MYRA LOKE
General Manager
TAN XIANG YI
Project Manager
TANYA ANG
Outreach Manager
ANG CHENG YAN
Finance and Admin Manager
ONG XUE MIN
Publicity and Partnerships Manager
Tricor Evatthouse Corporate Services
Company Secretary
Daisy Accountants
Accountants
Verity Partners
Auditor