By Lee, Xin Ying written on 05-Dec-2011
National Library Board Singapore

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Chong Tze Chien, 张子健 (b. 1974, Singapore - ) is a talented and versatile playwright. One of Singapore’s brightest playwrights, Chong has been compared to heavyweights such as Arthur Miller and Kuo Pao Kun by Casey Lim, former associate artistic director of TheatreWorks. Chong is truly passionate about all things theatre, evidenced by the diverse theatrical roles he has tackled besides playwriting: actor, producer, director, set designer, and as a mentor to upcoming writers.

Early childhood
Raised in a working-class family, Chong attended Saint Andrew’s Junior School, where he developed his stage inclinations through storytelling competitions. He went to Saint Andrew’s Secondary School later. Describing his writing skills as average when he was in school, he used to loathe writing and find school compositions unpleasant. Contrary to what one might expect, in his growing years he explored acting and staging in much greater depth as compared to writing.

12 year-old Chong volunteered as a child actor under his elder sister’s influence, who was the crew member for the play, P.S.S.B (Propagation of Safe Sex Bureau), staged by The Necessary Stage (TNS). Although he only delivered one line, it was his debut stage performance. This marked the start of his involvement in TNS: as a teenager, he acted in TNS productions such as Glass Roots and Lanterns Never Go Out; subsequently, he worked as their stage manager and backstage crew. All these helped Chong forged a tight bond with TNS.

Venturing towards theatre and The Necessary Stage
Much of Chong’s skills and knowledge stemmed from his training at TNS. This was for him a necessary stage indeed that it brought him head over heels with theatre and roused his artistic talents. His forays in theatre continued at Anderson Junior College, where Chong served as vice-president of the drama club. To improve the scripts his club wrote, he researched on award-winning plays in the library. His efforts were not in vain – he bagged the second prize for the student category in the Hewlett-Packard/Action Theatre 10-Minute Play Contest in 1993.

Chong furthered his theatrical passions by majoring in Theatre Studies and English Language in the National University of Singapore (NUS). He rose to fame in 1998 with his first play Pan Island Expressway (PIE), clinching the first prize in the Singapore Dramatist Award. Later, TheatreWorks produced PIE, which proved to be a commercial hit.  Upon graduation in 1999, he joined TNS as an associate playwright, under the wing of veteran playwright Haresh Sharma. Sharma, impressed by Chong’s versatility, provided Chong with formal playwriting lessons and a sound foundation, honing Chong’s writing skills. During this period, Chong came up with many creative and well-liked plays such as Lift My Mind, Is This Our Stop? (staged in a cargo lift and on a moving bus respectively) and SPOILT. However in 2004, he left TNS, which was then short on funds.

Company Director of  The Finger Players
Not long after leaving TNS, Chong found a new niche in puppetry. Tan Beng Tian, the founder of The Finger Players (TFP), felt Chong was well-suited to promote TFP’s puppetry work to an adult audience; extending beyond their typically child-focused plays to more complex social issues. She invited Chong to be the company director of TFP after Chong left TNS. Although Chong’s virgin show with TFP, Furthest North, Deepest South in 2004, made a huge loss, the audience soon warmed up to his stories – his second play with TFP, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea in 2005, enjoyed great commercial success.

Outstanding works
Besides PIE and Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, other exceptional works by Chong include Poop (2009) and Charged (2010). He also collaborated and co-wrote with two of the most acclaimed local playwrights: 100 Years in Waiting with the late Kuo Pao Kun and Haresh Sharma, and Revelations with Haresh Sharma for the 2001 and 2003 Singapore Arts Festival respectively.

Extending his influence beyond the local theatre circles, Chong is internationally recognised. His plays have been read and staged in the UK by Royal Court’s program for Young Writers, Exposure, in 2000. In 2006, Singapore Playhouse London (now Platform 65) adapted Chong’s acclaimed PIE and SPOILT. In August that year, his award-winning play Furthest North, Deepest South was internationally premiered  at the 14th Sziegt Festival in Budapest, Hungary. 

Promoting Singapore’s theatrical scene
When Chong just started out in 1999, he harboured ideals about developing the local theatre scene into a full-scale industry. Keeping true to his aspirations, Chong has been enthusiastically promoting Singapore’s arts education by providing writing and directing seminars in various educational settings. In addition, his creative juices have inspired many local institutions such as Nanyang Technological University (NTU), NUS and Temasek Junior College, to make multiple re-stages of his works.

Grateful to the guidance he has received from Sharma and inspired by his collaboration with Kuo Pao Kun, Chong is keen to pay it forward – he is now the one nurturing fresh talents. Currently, he is involved in two such projects, the National Arts Council’s Mentor Access Project and Mandarin theatre company Drama Box’s Blanc Space. In September 2011, he began to teach at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts Asia, where he will continue to inspire a new generation of playwrights.

Awards and Achievements
1998 : Received first prize in the Singapore Dramatist Awards (amateur category) for PIE.
2001 : Co-wrote 100 Years in Waiting with Haresh Sharma and the late Kuo Pao Kun for the 2001 Singapore Arts Festival.
2004 : Appointed as Company Director and part of the Board of Directors for The Finger Players.
2005 : Furthest North, Deepest South won Best Production Of The Year at the 5th Life! Theatre Awards. It was his first play with The Finger Players.
2006 : Received his first directing nomination; won Best Director for Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea at the 6th Life! Theatre Awards and received Singapore National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award for theatre.
2010 : Represented Singapore and penned To Whom It May Concern at the La Ma Ma-Playwright’s Symposium in Italy
2011 : Clinched Best Original Script for Charged at the 11th Life! Theatre Awards

Family
Chong is single. He has a father who is retired, a mother who is a factory worker, an older sister who works in a consultancy firm and a two-year-old nephew. They live together in a five-room flat in Punggol.



Author
Lee Xin Ying



References
Loh, H. Y. (2002, November 2) No PIE in the sky. The Straits Times, p. 17. Retrieved September 18 from NewspaperSG.

Media Development Authority. (2010, March 3). New Feature Film Fund supports four new local films [Press release]. Retrieved September 12, 2011, from http://www.smf.sg/TopLinks/Documents/Press%20Release%20PDF/New%20Feature%20Film%20Fund%20supports%20four%20new%20local%20films.pdf

National Arts Council (NAC). (2006). Chong Tze Chien. Retrieved September 14, 2011, from www.nac.gov.sg/static/doc/AWA2006/Chong%20Tze%20Chien.doc

Oon, C. (1999, July 12). Playwright gets a leg up on stage. The Straits Times, p. 7. Retrieved September 18 from NewspaperSG.

Singapore Writers Festival. (2011). Chong Tze Chien. Retrieved September 20, 2011, from http://www.singaporewritersfestival.com/index.php?option=com_php&Itemid=70&id=87

Tan, C. (2006, March 8). Necessary 'awakening'. The Straits Times, p. 2. Retrieved September 18 from NewspaperSG.

Tan, C. (2011, August 29). Story whirl: Director Chong Tze Chien does not start writing his plays until they are all fleshed out in his mind. The Straits Times, Life!.
Retrieved September 18, 2011, from ProQuest newspapers complete database.
http://proquest.umi.com.libproxy.nlb.gov.sg/pqdweb?did=2437537731&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=13402&RQT=309&VName=PQD

The Necessary Stage. (2003). Revelations. [Press release]. Retrieved November 1, 2011, from www.thesingaporean.com/Images/Events/Documents/Revelations.doc

The Quiet Scribe (2006, February 14). The Straits Times, p. 3. Retrieved September 18 from NewspaperSG.

Wild Rice. (2011). Man Singapore Theatre Festival 2011: The Festival Playwrights. Retrieved September 20, 2011, from http://www.mansingaporetheatrefestival.com/the-festival/playwrights/



The information in this article is valid as at 2011 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.