Despite having won numerous accolades in writing competitions, this will be the first time 22-year-old Ms Gina Chew will see her script come to life on a professional stage.

Come Jul 22, the aspiring playwright will be presenting her original work, Permanence, under the mentorship of The Wright Stuff, a Toy Factory Productions’ incubation program that supports and nurtures budding writers.

Gina Chew
Ms Gina Chew hopes that there will be more platforms for young artists like herself to share and develop their work. Photo by: Muhammad Azri

Alongside 3 other writers, Al Hafiz Sanusi, Samantha Chia and Tan Jia Yee, Ms Chew went through an intensive series of workshops and received personal guidance from Toy Factory Productions’ Chief Artistic Director, Mr Goh Boon Teck.

Grateful for the opportunity to explore playwriting in greater depth, she said: “It has been an eye-opening experience. I’m fairly new to this industry and I’m just trying to get out there and learn as much as I can.”

She added that the increased platforms and opportunities for young artists like herself have allowed them to penetrate the otherwise exclusive theatre scene.

First introduced to playwriting during a class assignment 6 years ago, Ms Chew decided to venture properly into playwriting when small school productions started picking up her script.

While she finds it rewarding to be able to share her stories with others, Ms Chew feels that the writing process can be challenging and emotionally taxing at times, especially in cases where her stories are inspired from personal experiences.

However, these difficulties are all worth it to her.

“I will be very happy if there’s even 1 person who can relate to the play in some way. I feel that my play would have achieved its purpose. The point of theatre is to start conversations about things that we don’t really want to talk about on the surface. These are conversations that people need to have, and theatre can help facilitate these conversations and open up new perspectives.”

Moving forward, Ms Chew hopes that she can continue to pursue her passion for writing. She said: “The only thing that scares me is not being able to do this full-time or getting so caught up in life that I put playwriting on hold because it’s not as feasible. I just hope that whatever job I’m doing in future, I will still be writing on the side.”

 

The UrbanWire has 2x pairs of tickets to give away.

Stand a chance to win a pair of tickets to the play Permanence and Sejarah-ku!

Permanence

Date: 22nd July 2017

Time: 3 pm

Venue: nowplaying@17, 17A Smith Street

 

Sejarah-ku 

Date: 1st August 2017

Time: 8 pm

Venue: nowplaying@17, 17A Smith Street

 

Simply follow these steps:

  1. Like The UrbanWire Facebook page
  2. Like and share this post
  3. Like Toy Factory Productions Facebook page
  4. Share with us which play you would like to catch and why in the comments section below!

This contest will end on 21 July 2017, 2pm.