The Necessary Stage’s (TNS) Devising Platform launched a brand new training programme for 2025!
Led by Resident Artistic Director and Cultural Medallion recipient Alvin Tan, and assisted by Associate Artist A Yagnya, From Forum Theatre to Devising Theatre saw 14 emerging theatre-makers undergo an intensive training programme that journeys from the creative techniques of forum theatre to TNS’ unique devising methodology.
Participants had the opportunity to learn from other established theatre practitioners—from directors to playwrights, dramaturgs to designers—through guest lectures and clinics, and applied their understanding and individual practices in groups to devise new work.
Sessions are running for an eight-month period from April to December 2025 and will culminate in public showcases for the participants’ works-in-progress.
The selected participants are as follows:
Chrisdale Allison Tay
Elizabeth Samosir
Eugene Chow Wen Kai
Fanny Khee Hwee Kheng
Kaelen Ong Sin Ru
Nah Jie Ying
Lim Ci Xuan
Lum Wing Chee
Mohamad Suffiyan Bin Mohamad
Muhd Nur Aliff Bin Kamaruddin
Tejas V Hirah
Timothy Yeo
Xie Huilin
Yane Tan
Showcase
Join us for an exciting showcase of fresh, innovative performances from the talented artists of the From Forum Theatre to Devising Theatre workshop!
Earlier this year, 14 artists from a range of backgrounds dove into an intensive training programme, focussing on forum theatre techniques and TNS's unique devising methodology. Combined with lectures and clinics led by a diverse range of established theatre practitioners, the creatives channelled their newfound skills and interests in social issues into these dynamic works-in-progress.
Each performance features a dynamic work-in-progress devised around a specific theme chosen by the artists, followed by an engaging dialogue with the audience led by Alvin Tan and A Yagnya. Your valuable feedback will help shape these pieces as the artists continue to develop these works.
The schedule of presentations are as follows:
Saturday 6 December 2025, 3pm
You Made Me Feel Like This Would Last Forever
by Eugene Chow, Kaelen Ong, Lim Ci Xuan, Muhd Nur Aliff Bin Kamaruddin and Nah Jieying
A father is unable to move on from the sudden death of his daughter, suspended in a purgatorial space of frustration and regret. The delightfully quirky therapy Cyborg is assigned to help Father grieve and heal. Despite the Cyborg’s quiet and persistent care, Father is stuck in an abyss of grief, trapped in never-ending cycles of implosion. Father takes us on a surreal journey marked by his grief and the loss of his parental identity, of love that is both ephemeral and enduring, but not eternal. What happens when fragments of the past begin to surface, as the uneasy relationship between Father and Cyborg start to unravel?
Saturday 6 December 2025, 8pm
And Then, Love
by Chrisdale Allison Tay, Elizabeth Samosir, Lum Wing Chee, and Tejas Hirah
What does it mean to love yourself? What does it take to love someone else?
We posed these universal questions to our families, friends, colleagues, and strangers. Through laughter and tears, their tales of love and loss were crafted into a work of verbatim theatre that seeks to uncover responses from myriad perspectives
In a world of growing conflict and dissonance, we hope to create a work that brings some clarity and hope, a safe space for all of us to reflect on what it means to love, wherever we may be in our own personal journeys.
Sunday 7 December 2025, 3pm
A Life Well Led
by Fanny Kee, Jasmine Xie, Suffiyan Mohamad, Timothy Yeo, and Yane Tan
Four pastel-clad committee members have gathered in a town hall. Their agenda: To assess whether Singaporeans have a life well led.
You, the audience, will be invited to vote on how a series of fictional “case studies” drawn from everyday Singaporean lives perform against the new Living Index for Fulfilment and Efficiency (L.I.F.E.) metric. This index will guide future governmental policies based on what the audience agrees is “a life well led".
Will we be able to agree on what defines success and failure?