MONSTRESS

ART:DIS (Arts & Disability) Singapore is a leading non-profit organisation working at the intersection of arts and disability. Founded in 1993, with 3 art centres presently, it champions arts access for persons with disabilities through a comprehensive range of community programmes and professional development pathways, including accredited training, industry mentorships, and artist residencies.

The organisation is committed to creating equity in arts education and professional practice, empowering artists with disabilities to pursue sustainable and meaningful careers in the creative sector. Through its role as a catalyst for inclusive artistic creation, ART:DIS develops and presents art experiences that foster dialogue, invite reflection, and open up new ways of seeing and connecting with one another.

Playwright and Cast

Claire Teo is a Singaporean actor, singer, director, writer, and artist-educator. Working across theatre, film, installation art, music, and text, she is committed to creating bold, interdisciplinary work that is imaginative, socially engaged, and boundary-pushing.

Her performance credits include Welcome To My World 2023: Cha Cham Bo! Taking Flight, Singapore’s first inclusively-written and performed musical. Recent projects include Scenes from A Climate Era (Esplanade Studios), MONSTRESS: The Reclaiming of Medea and Medusa, Through The Looking Glass as part of Light to Night Festival, Singapore International Festival of Arts' The Sea and The Neighbourhood, and The Finger Players’ NAC-AEP programme See, Hear, Touch.

Claire was also the opening act for The Best of Kitaro world tour, a guest performer at Super 24, and represented Singapore at World Expo Osaka. 

Director

Yvan Karlsson is an award-winning director, movement director, puppetry director and performer from Boorloo/Perth, Western Australia, currently based in Singapore.

His recent work includes: 

As director — Scaredy Kat Presents (Gateway Arts), LEVEL UP! (Spare Parts Puppet Theatre), See, Hear, Touch (The Finger Players), Hell Is Other People (Monkey Brain & The Blue Room Theatre), Dreams of a Lonely Planet (Flying Bicycle Collective & Awesome Festival), and The Lucky Cat (Monkey Brain & FringeWorld Perth).

As puppetry or movement director — Scenes from the Climate Era (Esplanade Singapore), Wizard of Oz (Wild Rice), Confirmation (X+CO and Dublin & Edinburgh Fringe), and EAST (Atticist & The Kings Head Theatre London).

As performer — Sven in Disney’s FROZEN - The Musical (Australia, Singapore, and Germany), Leviathan (Circa & Perth Festival), and CATCH! (Maxima Circus & Awesome Festival).

Yvan’s work Hell Is Other People received 7 nominations at the 2023 Performing Arts WA awards, winning for Best New Theatre Work and “Best Independent Theatre Production.

He is a 2022 Minderoo Artist Fund recipient, a 2019 Perth Festival Lab participant, and a 2017 graduate of The Curious School of Puppetry London.

Cast

Oon Shu An is an actor who has been spreading her natural warmth and energy across theatre, TV and film. She is an Associate Artist with Checkpoint Theatre and a Board Member of socially-engaged theatre company Drama Box. Her sell-out one woman show with Checkpoint Theatre, the cross-media production #UnicornMoment, was nominated for Best Original Script at the Life! Theatre Awards. She has also had Best Actress nominations for her roles in Pangdemonium's Chinglish, This is What Happens to Pretty Girls, Esplanade's Mergers and Accusations,and SRT’s Lungs,

On TV, her other notable roles were in Netflix cult favourite Marco Polo, Mediacorp’s Code of Law, and HOOQ's How to be a Good Girl, for which she won the National Award for Best Actress, and represented Singapore at the inaugural Asian Academy Creative Awards. Her feature film credits include James Thoo’s The Sandbox, Han Yew Kwang's Rubbers, Sam Loh's 4Love and Kelvin Tong's Republic of Food.

She was recently in God of Carnage (Nine Years Theatre), The Christians (Wild Rice), Grounded (SRT), The Last Bout with Verite Productions, and was the host of the tenth season of Renovaid and CNA’s On the Red Dot: Museum of U and Me.

Shu An is deeply committed to social justice and advocacy through critical storytelling, and actively supports various causes, including mental health awareness, gender equality, and the rights of marginalized communities.

To dignity, equity and freedom for all.

Cast

Syarifuddin’s performance experience ranges from site-specific works to theatrical productions, dabbling in both choreography and improvisation. Starting out in street dance and subsequently contemporary and Malay folk dance, he has since explored other performative and movement forms, while being exposed to various approaches in artmaking. His exploration transcends genres and labels, and focuses on embodiment and transmission. Over the years, his priority has shifted from the aesthetic body to sincerity of intention, while cultivating his rasa.

Cast

Sindhura is a theatre practitioner and educator. She is an Associate Artist with The Necessary Stage (TNS) and a core team member of The Finger Players (TFP). Selected acting credits include Wild Rice’s Hotel (2025) and Psychobitch (2023), for which she earned a Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards nomination for Best Actress, TFP's Little Mournings (2021), and TNS's Off Centre (2018). Sindhu was a recipient of the NAC Postgraduate Scholarship and holds an MA (Distinction) in Dramaturgy and Writing for Performance from Goldsmiths, University of London. She is thrilled to be part of this incredible creative team for MONSTRESS.