Young playwright Nassim Soleimanpour (Iran) dissects the experience of his generation in his original play that requires no director, no set and no rehearsals, which brings an actor’s skill to the test.
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About the Artist
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Nassim Soleimanpour
Playwright
Nassim Soleimanpour is an independent multidisciplinary theatre maker from Tehran, Iran. Best known for his play White Rabbit Red Rabbit, written to travel the world when he couldn’t, his work has been awarded the Dublin Fringe Festival Best New Performance, Summerworks Outstanding New Performance Text Award and The Arches Brick Award (Edinburgh Fringe) as well as picking up nominations for a Total Theatre and Brighton Fringe Pick of Edinburgh Award.
Nassim is an experienced public speaker, most recently as a panellist for the World Theatre Festival, Brisbane’s In Conversation series. Currently developing a new play, Nassim lives happily in Tehran with his wife and new puppy.
About the Actors
Oliver Chong
Actor
Oliver Chong is one of Singapore’s most versatile and multitalented director/playwright/actors to emerge in recent years. Some of his memorable works include Roots, I’m Just A Piano Teacher, Cat, Lost and Found, The Book of Living and Dying and Citizen Pig. He has been nominated several times for his acting and directorial efforts at the Life! Theatre Awards. In 2011, he won the Best Production of the Year with his actors’ collective, A Group of People. In 2013, he won the Best Production of the Year and Best Script for Roots, which will make its international premier in Hong Kong in 2014. He is currently the Resident Director of The Finger Players.
Shiv Tandan
Actor
Shiv Tandan studied the Industrial and Systems Engineering at NUS, but was always productively distracted by other things – like music, theatre and film. At NUS Stage, Shiv directed, choreographed and arranged music for Mind Games(2010), was served two terms as President, and wrote and acted in The Good the Bad and the Sholay (2011), a play that was produced by Checkpoint Theatre and NUS Stage as part of the NUS Arts Festival 2011. The play received 4 nominations in the Singapore Life! Theatre Awards, including Production of the Year and Best Original Script, and was published in Voices Clear and True: Singapore Plays Volume 1. He starred in Channel 5’s sitcom, Payday (2011). His short film The Guide (2009) won Faith Shorts 2010, an international short film competition on inter-faith harmony, and was screened at BAFTA. Shiv also dabbles in short stories, journalism and song writing, and is an avid singer with a background in Hindustani classical.
Shiv is Co-Founder and Creative Director at The Film Guys, a budding film company that produces heartfelt, honest content sometimes with a healthy dose of humour.
Nora Samosir
Actor
Nora Samosir has more than 29 years of professional theatre experience in more than 80 stage productions including LIFT: Love is Flower The (2013), Casting Back (2012), The Art of Living in the in-Between (2010), Temple (2008), Doubt (2006), Asian Boys Vol. 2: Landmarks (2004), Proof (2002), Asian Boys Vol.1 (2000), Ah Kong’s Birthday Party (1998), Lao Jiu (1994, 1997), Beauty World (1992, 1998), and Trojan Women (1991). She has appeared on television in programmes such as Guru Paarvai, Ah Girl and Stories of Love. Nora has a Postgraduate Diploma in Voice Studies from the Central School of Speech and Drama, London. Aside from her voice work in the theatre, she has conducted voice workshops for Singapore Drama Educators Association (SDEA) members, National History Museum volunteers and also to the general public through various training companies.
Paula Sim
Actor
Paula Sim is a fresh graduate from the Theatre Studies programme at NUS who hopes pursue a career in acting. She has been involved in numerous student and professional productions, with recent credits that include Loudmouth Loving by The Common Folk and Unseen by NUS Society of Social Work Students (SSWS). She will next be involved in Cake Theatrical Productions’ Decimal Points: 180 Minutes. She would like to thank her family and friends for their support, and NUS CFA for letting her be part of the NUS Arts Festival 2014.
Li Xie
Actor
A freelance theatre practitioner and mask-maker, Li Xie performs, writes, directs and has taught acting and movement in LASALLE College of the Arts. She is also the associate artist of Drama Box.
The actor-creator has undergone training from Odin Teatret, "Biomechanics" by Bodganov Gennadi (Russia), "Alexander Technique" by Niamh Dowling (UK), "Commedia Dell'arte" by Antonio Fava (Italy) and "Theatre of the Oppressed" workshops by Headlines Theatre (Canada) and has learnt mask making from Donato Sartori (Italy).
Formerly the Associate Artistic Director of Drama Box for its community theatre, Li Xie has directed and facilitated forum theatre pieces, working with youth and inmates from Singapore Selarang Drug Rehabilitation Centre.
Her recent directorial works include the restaging of the late Kuo Pao Kun's The Coffin is Too Big for the Hole, during Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts 2010; House of Sins (2008) which won her Best Director award in the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards; touring the communities with newspaper theatre News Busters! since 2007 and the critically acclaimed one woman performance The vaginaLOGUE, which was voted the Best Play of the Year (2000) and it has participated as a visual installation in 2013 Singapore Biennale.
Li Xie was awarded the Young Artist Award by National Arts Council (Singapore) in 2005.