Performing Grief

Tze Chien is a core member of The Finger Players and an award-winning playwright and director. His plays have been staged at the UK, Hungary, Japan and Taiwan. For his contributions to Singapore Theatre, he was awarded the Young Artist Award by Singapore’s National Arts Council in 2006.

At the national level, Tze Chien was the Creative Director of Singapore Pools’ float and performance in Chingay Parade 2007 and 2008, co-conceptualist and writer for NDP 2016, Creative Director of Island Adventures for the National Museum of Singapore’s Children’s Season 2012, Artistic Director of The Arts House’s 10th Anniversary in 2014, and the co-curator of The Studios: Fifty, a festival of 50 iconic Singapore Plays presented by the Esplanade in 2015.

As an arts educator, Tze Chien has been conducting workshops and masterclasses for the public, tertiary institutions and schools in Singapore since 2001. He has taught at National University of Singapore (NUS), LASALLE College of the Arts, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, National Institute of Education and Nanyang Technological University(NIE/NTU). He was also a Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) Arts Presentation (Drama) Adjudicator for five years, and the Creative Director of SYF Concert 2019. He is currently the Chairperson of the Curriculum Development Advisory Committee (Theatre Programme) at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, as well as an adjunct lecturer at NIE/NTU and Artistic Director of NUS stage at NUS/CFA.

Aidli Mosbit graduated from Queensland University of Technology and has worked extensively with local companies like The Necessary Stage, Teater Kami, Wild Rice, Cake Theatre, Toy Factory, The Theatre Practice, Teater Ekamatra and Drama Box. With Noor Effendy Ibrahim and Alfian Sa’at, Aidli published an anthology of Malay plays in the book, Bisik. She has toured Scotland, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Romania, Hong Kong and Hungary, performing Singapore-brand theatre.

A recipient of the National Art Council’s Young Artist Award for Theatre in 2008, she played the leading role of Murni alongside Malaysia’s legendary actor, Datuk Haji Rahim Razali, in Sanif Olek’s film Sayang Disayang (2013), Singapore’s official 2015 Oscar® Entry for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2016, she published her collection of Malay plays entitled Chantek, which was awarded the Hadiah Persuratan (Literary Award) 2017 by the Malay Language Council, Singapore.

Aidli is currently working in Temasek Polytechnic as the Deputy Manager of the Arts Division, in the Student Development & Alumni Affairs department and has a Master of Education from the University of Adelaide.

Jill J. Tan is a Singaporean writer, artist and researcher committed to collaborative practice and multimodal exploration through games, performance and poetics. Her work has appeared in Guernica, City and Society Journal, Brack, Ghost Proposal, Mynah Magazine, Palimpsest, and the edited volume Resistant Hybridities: Tibetan Narratives in Exile (2020). As a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at Yale University, Jill studies death and dying in Singapore and works with the funeral profession. She also writes about dance and social forms of art.

Jolene Chiang (MA AThR) is a registered Art Psychotherapist and specialises in areas of mental health, trauma, loss and grief.

Her psychodynamic art therapy practice integrates Schema Therapy, mindfulness and somatic approaches to support bereaved individuals and groups in meaning-making and restoration. She adopts a compassionate approach, offering deep presence and respecting each person’s unique biopsychosocial and spiritual needs.

As the Project Lead and Creative Director for several community art exhibitions, Jolene conceptualised Tapestries of Grief: Witnessing through Art Therapy, a nation-wide initiative to give voices to bereaved persons and helping professionals through creating symbolic artworks, “remembrance ball”.