Joel Tan is a playwright based between London and Singapore. In Singapore, recent productions of his plays include Tartuffe (Wildrice, 2022), Cafe (Wildrice, 2020), and Tango (Pangdemonium, 2017). Recent UK projects include No Particular Order (Theatre503, 2022) which was shortlisted for Theatre 503's 2018 Playwriting Award, Living Archive (Royal Court, 2022), Inside/Outside (Orange Tree Theatre, 2021), and the audio play Ghosts in the Blood (Audible originals for LAMDA, 2021). He is under commission with the Royal Court, Headlong Theatre, and the Almeida Theatre. Joel was part of Theatre 503’s 2019/2020 residency scheme the 503 Five, the Royal Court writers’ programme 2021, and was an associate artist with the London-based Chinese Arts Now Festival and Singapore’s Checkpoint Theatre. He is a Creative Associate with Centre 42's New Writing Development Programme, and leads the programme's Professional Development Residency for playwrights.

Dr Robin Loon is a playwright, academic, dramaturg and general nosey-parker who has been ‘credited’ with bringing together Michele Lim, Chiu Chien Seen & Casey Lim to form the TAFY collective.

Robin’s professional play-writing career began as a member of the first Theatreworks’ Writers’ Laboratory in 1990. As a playwright, Robin Loon’s recent works include contributing text to LIFT [TheatreWorks, 2013]. as writer and dramaturg of CASTING BACK [Esplanade’s 10th Anniversary 2012], as translator & dramaturg for 男男自语 [Singapore Arts Festival 2012], as writer & dramaturg of BLUE PRINCE [The Blue Statemen, 2012], as writer of MATA HATI [Teater Ekamatra, 2011].

Apart from play-writing, Robin Loon also consults on many theatre projects as dramaturgs. He was the co-commissioning dramaturg for FULL FRONTAL (2007-2009), a directors’ incubation platform at the Singapore Arts Festival; and subsequently, he was appointed Commissioning dramaturg for OPEN STUDIO (2010-2012), Singapore Arts Festival Platform for new works. Robin Loon currently teaches the Introduction to Theatre & Performance module & modules in Singapore English Language Theatre & Theatre Criticism at the Theatre Studies Programme, National University of Singapore.

Casey, a graduate with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer and Information Science, is a trained musician and Director of Photography.  He has been acting, directing, designing and creating digital images for more than 20 years.

Casey was the Associate Artistic Director of Theatreworks (1999). He co-founded Checkpoint Theatre and was the Co-Artistic Director from 2003 to 2007. He also served as a panel member in the Singapore Arts Festival’s Programme Advisory Committee from 2003 to 2006. He was the creative director for the Army Museum Object Theatre in 2007, and was the multimedia consultant for Singapore Armed Forces’ NS45 island-wide exhibitions in 2012.

As a theatre director, Casey has always staged plays that were written by local playwrights, including Chong Tze Chien’s PAN ISLAND EXPRESSWAY (1999); Huzir Sulaiman’s ATOMIC JAYA (2003); Michael Chiang’s PRIVATE PARTS (2004); Chay Yew’s A LANGUAGE OF THEIR OWN (2006); and in 2012, he collaborated with Robin Loon to translate A LANGUAGE OF THEIR OWN into 男男自语, staged by the Singapore Arts Festival 2012. He collaborated again with Robin Loon to create CASTING BACK (2012), for Esplanade’s 10th birthday celebration, a postdramatic piece with 2 performers (Nora Samosir and Christina Sergeant) tracing Singapore Theatre for the past 30 years.

As a digital video designer, Casey’s explorations with digital aesthetics have resulted in many collaborations and projects that intersect with text, bodies and spaces. One such collaboration was INSTANT IS A MILLENNIUM, with Maestro Ye Tsung of SCO and Tan Swie Hian. This collaboration was the opening show for Singapore Arts Festival 2003. Later in 2005, it toured to London’s Barbican Centre and Newcastle’s The Sage Gateshead.

In terms of incubation work, Casey was the artistic director of GTG: Got To Go – an all-night festival of new writing for the Singapore stage organized by TheatreWorks in 1998.  Casey curated a series of new writings from up-and-coming playwrights and established writers for a 12-hour round the clock staging on various sites on Fort Canning.

He is one-fourth of collective TAFY (Two-And-Fifty-Years) which founded the Centre in 2014. Casey’s decision to head the centre as its Executive Director is a testimony of his commitment to the arts in Singapore. He is looking forward to working with, talking and listening to artists and practitioners in Singapore and beyond. Casey is deeply committed to the collaborative processes involving writers, actors, dramaturgs and directors in the creation of new works and the reviving of canonical classical pieces.

Nelson is an award-winning director and performer, writer and educator. He is a four-time Best Director winner and two-time Best Actor winner at the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards. He is an active player on the Singapore stage for more than three decades, taking on numerous major and leading roles in English and Mandarin productions. A graduate of Goldsmiths College, London (MA in Directing) and National University of Singapore (BA, Hons, Theatre Studies), Nelson was Head of Department for Theatre at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, adjunct lecturer at LASALLE College of the Arts and full-time lecturer of Theatre Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore. He was the Associate Artistic Director of Toy Factory Productions (2003 - 2013), a Resident Artist with The Theatre Practice (2000 - 2002), an Associate Artist with The Substation (2007 - 2009), and a founding member of the ensemble collective A GROUP OF PEOPLE (2008 - 2012).

Nelson is the co-founder and artistic director of Nine Years Theatre (NYT). Within a few years, NYT has grown to become one of the key players in the scene. Through his artistic direction, NYT has managed to not only rejuvenate the Singapore Mandarin theatre scene with their work, but raised awareness of actor training among the artistic community. Nelson has been training regularly in the “Suzuki Method of Actor Training” and “Viewpoints” since 2008. He had studied these methods with the SITI Company in New York and the Suzuki Company of Toga in Japan, and had performed at the Toga Summer Festival.

Oniatta Effendi is the Founder of Baju by Oniatta and owner of Galeri Tokokita.
A Singaporean by birth, Oniatta has always had a love for artistry. Trained as an educator, she taught for over 21 years in various institutions, including Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore Polytechnic, LASALLE College of the Arts, and secondary schools. She is also an applied drama practitioner and works with youth offenders at rehabilitative spaces, youths with special needs, children in welfare homes as well as ex-inmates with addiction issues at a halfway house.

Oniatta found herself drawn to batik on her many travels to different parts of Indonesia. Her personal journeys resulted in excessive purchases of batik fabric but also spurred her to share her passion for the craft and her desire to support the traditional ecosystem of this heritage textile through her clothing line Baju By Oniatta and the space Galeri Tokokita.

Serene Chen is an actress, host, voice artist and lecturer. In the late nineties, she spent the first 3 years of her professional career as an Producer-Presenter in Singapore’s first arts radio station, Passion 99.5FM. Fast forward to 2023, she is an award-winning bilingual actress. For The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards, she won Best Supporting Actress in 2004 for “Landmarks: Asian Boys Volume 2” (Wild Rice), 2014’s “8 Women” (S’ing Theatre), and 2016’s “Public Enemy” (Wild Rice). Serene continues to act on stage and screen. In 2022, she was a co-host on the podcast series, "Backlogues", and she is delighted to be working with Centre 42 again for SIFA 2023.

Tan Kheng Hua is an award-winning actor and producer from Singapore. On film, she was most recently seen playing Kerry Chu in Crazy Rich Asians (Warner Brothers) and as Emily Gemmill in The Garden of Evening Mists (Astro Shaw/HBO Asia). Her television credits include Marco Polo and Medical Police (Netflix Originals), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), Magnum PI (CBS), Chimerica (Channel 4), The Philanthropist (NBC), The Patriarch (UFA), and Serangoon Road and Foodlore (HBO Asia).

Kheng is at the forefront of Singapore’s art scene and was one of the 20 Singaporean artists representing Singapore in Singapore Inside Out, a showcase celebrating the nation’s 50th Year of Independence touring NYC, London, Beijing and Singapore. When not acting, Kheng is also a prolific theatre, television and festival producer in Singapore and Malaysia. Her original series, Do Not Disturb for MediaCorp Singapore, was the first English-language television programme to receive the maximum 5-star rating from the nation’s main newspaper, The Straits Times.

She just wrapped filming season 3 of Kung Fu for The CW, Warner Media and Berlanti Productions in Vancouver for which she is part of the main cast.

Shi-An is a 25 year old aspiring actress. Her notable screen credits include Serangoon Road (HBO ASIA) and Third Rail (Channel 5). She has also been featured in music videos for Gentle Bones, Gareth Fernandez and The Sam Willows. She is also no stranger to the stage, and originated the role of Marianne in Checkpoint Theatre’s Normal, which was nominated for Life Theatre Awards. She has also had professional experience as a graphic designer and also has a passion for singing.

Ahmad Musta’ain is an educator and playwright. He enjoys teaching Language Arts and is always seeking for opportunities to lead, devise and participate in applied theatre projects with young people and those in sensitive communities. He’s part of Main Tulis Group and had previously served on the Arts Consultative Panel (ACP) of IMDA and on executive committee of the Singapore Drama Educators Association.

Danial Matin (he/him) has written plays about family, identity, love, grief, and suicidality and occasionally dabbles in poetry and short prose. He is particularly interested in unearthing the instability of the interstitial, especially in relation to the personal, the historical, and the structural in/of Singapore. His recent accolades include i can’t, stop for Bored Whale Theatre’s fourplay (2022), radio play Rolling with the Times for The Second Breakfast Company’s Geylang Serai Trails (2021), Before You Go (dir. Chong Gua Khee) as part of Playwrights Commune’s Open Studio (2021), and an adaptation of selected short stories from Alfian Sa’at’s Corridor for re:VERSE 4.0 as part of #BuySingLit 2020 presented by Matter.Less. He is grateful to have been under the tutelage of Lucas Ho (Singapore), Tony Perez (Philippines), Howard Craft (USA), and Gabrielle Calvocoressi (USA) and has attended workshops with established playwrights such as Haresh Sharma (Singapore), Joel Tan (Singapore/ UK) and Paula Vogel (USA), amongst others. Imaginative narratives about intimacy and the interpersonal are close to his heart, right next to bubble tea.

A Yagnya is a collaborative theatre maker and Japanese translator. A Yagnya’s playwrighting credits include Between 5 Cows and the Deep Blue Sea...(Previously read at Esplanade’s Raga 2020), The Oven Storyஅவன் கதை (3Pumpkins, 2020), Hi, Can You Hear Me? (Playwrights’ Cove 2020), and subTITLED 1.0 (Bridging the Gap Collective, 2021). She has also co-written for GroundZ_0’s Prism of Truth (Huayi 2020), interpreted for ITI’s Noh Theatre Module, acted in Goddesses of Words: Angry Indian Women (Textures 2020), and dramaturged for (un)becoming (Festival of Women N.O.W. 2021). She was also a participant in a Devising for Actors and Playwrights 2021 programme by The Necessary Stage (TNS) and was engaged in a Lab with TNS on using AI in performance making. A Yagnya enjoys creating socially conscious works that challenge her audience into breaking out of their echo chambers. @iggyeggieggyagnya

Rachel Chin is a Malaysian-born actor-playwright based in Singapore. Her writing credits include Adulting (Mewatch, Mediacorp); Galatea: A Musical Fable (MoreLife Theatre); Galatea (Theatre of Others Audio New Play Festival); Expats Anonymous (Produced and Developed with the Yale Cabaret - Cab 53); the Sony Playeverything Show (Playstation Asia - online); Yeye (LASALLE College of the Arts); and Mama Says Don’t Talk Back (LASALLE Solo Festival). She is also co-founder, writer, and performer for the Otters United Funny Club (stage and online). Rachel is a graduate of the BA (Hons) Acting programme at LASALLE College of the Arts, and has been mentored by Aubrey Mellor OAM, Haresh Sharma, and Chong Tze Chien among others.

Irsyad Dawood is a performer/theatre-maker, amongst other things. His practice centers around various forms of performance including, but not limited to, acting, puppetry, and performance art. Irsyad is also the co-founder of NAYA, an art collective that specializes in curating art workshops and experiences for children & young people.

He dedicates every work to his mother and late father whom he loves dearly.

Wisely Chow (they/them) is a nonbinary theatremaker in Singapore dedicated to the development of new, queer works. They are also the founder of Bored Whale Theatre, a theatrical space dedicated to exploring new and diverse stories. Directing credits: Endless Failures (Bored Whale Theatre), An Audience with No One (Bored Whale Theatre). Writing Credit: An Audience with No One (Bored Whale Theatre), Unsolicited Advice from My Ex (Bored Whale Theatre), Knock Knock (Asian Youth Theatre Festival). Wisely is currently developing works on queer desire, gender performance and neurodiversity.

Melizarani T Selva is a Malaysian writer and spoken word poet, with notable performances at ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival and TEDxGateway. Her first book, Taboo is a poetic interrogation of the Malaysian Indian Identity. Beyond poetry, she has written creative non-fiction stories for Penguin Random House and Teesta Review. She co-published an anthology of 100 poems by 61 poets from Malaysia titled When I Say Spoken, You Say Word!. Her debut play Kudumbam was staged as part of the 24-Hour Playwriting Competition 2021 winners showcase by T:>Works Singapore. Presently, she serves as co-editor of The Second Link - A Malaysia-Singapore Literary Anthology. She can be found at melizarani.com.

Isaac Lim is a bilingual writer, actor and inclusive arts advocate. Isaac was last seen on stage in Incarnations of the Beast by Joavien Ng, and on screen in Young & Fabulous. Some writings he has developed include What is Sex? (2020, TNS Playwrights’ Cove), I am Mei (2019, Centre 42), Understudy (2016, Centre 42) and Between Consciousness (2016, T:>Works). You may find Isaac’s written reviews on IG at @zac.rated.

Ivan entered the Singapore performing scene with Dream Academy’s staging of the musical Company (2012) - nominated for The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards, Production of the Year 2013. He has worked professionally as an actor, singer, and new playwright and has been fortunate to have worked with, and learn from industry players across theatre, opera, and film including Singapore Lyric Opera, The Finger Players, The Necessary Stage, Couch Theatre, Toy Factory and The Second Breakfast Company.

Jean Tay graduated with a double-degree in creative writing and economics from Brown University, USA. Plays produced include Chinatown Crossings, The Shape of a Bird, It Won't Be Too Long: The Cemetery - Dusk, Senang, Sisters, Boom, Everything but the Brain, Plunge, The Knot and Water from the Well. She has written over 30 plays and musicals, which have been performed in Singapore, the US, the UK, Italy and Indonesia. In 2000, her play The Knot was awarded 1st prize for Action Theatre's 10-minute Play Competition. She has been nominated four times for Best Original Script for the Life! Theatre Awards, and won for Everything But the Brain in 2006. Her plays Everything but the Brain and Boom have been published by Epigram Books, and have been used as 'O' and 'N' Level literature texts for secondary school students.

Effendy is an interdisciplinary arts practitioner and had been the Artistic Director of Teater Ekamatra (2001-2006) and The Substation (2010-2015). Effendy received the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Singapore Foundation Culture Award in 2007. He sat on the NAC Board (2004-2006) and participated in the NAC Cultural Fellowship programme in 2014. Effendy is currently a senior lecturer at the School of Fine Art, Faculty of Art and Design, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Effendy was Broken Cello, was Katak Kudung, was Akulah Bimbo Sakti. Effendy is now Very Shy Gurl by fendy.