Theatremakers shine with multiple nods

Playwright and composer weish's resonant take on Singaporean schooling life, Secondary: The Musical, and Nine Years Theatre artistic director Nelson Chia's Mandarin family drama, Everything For You, have emerged front runners at The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards 2025.

- Clement Yong Correspondent

Both are in contention for the coveted Production of the Year award, having met with near-universal acclaim when they were staged respectively in March and February 2024. Secondary: The Musical has six votes and Everything For You has five from the panel of judges comprising ST arts editor Ong Sor Fern, arts correspondent Clement Yong and arts journalist Shawn Hoo.

Checkpoint Theatre's Hard Mode, which earnestly explores the world of Gen Zs and Gen Alphas; and Transplant, The Finger Players' (TFP) unsettling reinterpretation of Chinese horror classic Liaozhai, round up the quartet of nominees for Production of the Year.

Malay theatre company Teater Ekamatra's Nusantara fairy tale retold, Bawang Putih Bawang Merah, also has five nominations but without a nod for Production of the Year. It is in the mix for Best Director for Mohd Fared Jainal who once more adroitly commands a cast of Malay theatre A-listers Best Ensemble, as well as the technical categories of Best Costume, Best Set and Best Lighting.

This is the 24th edition of the awards, the longest-running accolade to recognise the best in Singapore theatre, organised every year since 2001, bar the pandemic year of 2021. Winners will be announced on the ST website on March 12.

Weish's musical - an outrageously successful debut featured 15 original songs partially inspired by her six years as a literature teacher, finding its target among educators, students and parents with its gentle satire of the way Singapore's system sorts students and the inordinate pressure heaped on fatigued teachers.