Everything For You

An award-winning company, Nine Years Theatre (NYT) is currently the only company under NAC’s Major Company Scheme that positions itself as a Singapore Mandarin theatre company. NYT sees Chinese culture as the foundation of its work but not the centre of its practice, and the company believes in the uniqueness of local Chinese culture and aspires to recognise and celebrate the multicultural identity of the Singaporean Chinese through theatre.  

NYT tells stories through live performances that remind us of our humanity. Since the beginning, the company has been invested in training actors, in order to create work that is consistent in quality. The company strives to entertain audiences in ways that are honest and thoughtful. Their work is recognised for being relatable and culturally layered, possessing deep sensibilities that speak to audiences from all backgrounds. Fluid in scale and genre, NYT creates performances ranging from original plays and transcreations, to interdisciplinary and international collaborations.  

Nine Years Theatre Ltd is supported by the National Arts Council under the Major Company Scheme from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025. It is a charity with IPC status. 

Co-founder and Artistic Director, Nine Years Theatre 

Nelson Chia is a director, performer, playwright, acting teacher and theatre lecturer. He has won Best Director four times and Best Actor twice at the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards. In 2012, Chia was the first Singapore artist to be commissioned for three consecutive years by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay to present a major theatre work at the annual Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts.  

In 2017, he transcreated Cultural Medallion writer Yeng Pway Ngon’s seminal novel Art Studio for the stage, which was commissioned by Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) as the opening programme for the festival that year. In 2021, he collaborated with the renowned SITI Company from New York to present a hybrid version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters at SIFA 2020/21. Other commissioning and artistic partners he has worked with include Macau Arts Festival, Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, Singapore Writers’ Festival, The Substation, The Arts House, World Shakespeare Congress, T.H.E. Dance Company and Contemporary Legend Theatre (Taiwan), to name a few. 
  

Chia’s directorial works are marked by detailed and dynamic ensemble work. His original scripts and transcreations are known to be culturally layered, possessing sensibilities that speak to audiences from all backgrounds. In 2012, Nelson, with his wife Mia Chee, co-founded Nine Years Theatre (NYT) – currently the only company under NAC’s “Major Company Scheme” that positions itself as a Singapore Mandarin theatre company. NYT sees Chinese culture as the foundation of its work but not the centre of its practice. The company believes in the uniqueness of local Chinese culture and aspires to recognise and celebrate the multicultural identity of the Singaporean Chinese through theatre.