A female student plays the piano with two students beside her, while another male student stands on a platform in the background during "Next to Normal" performance.

The Arts – Theatre

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The multiple performance spaces available at Yale-NUS—such as the Black Box Theatre, Yale-NUS College Hall and Amphitheatre—as well as plentiful rehearsal spaces enabled students to develop their interest in the theatre, whether through acting, writing, directing or working behind the scenes.

The Theatre Programme offered the opportunity to take theatre courses from the Arts and Humanities major, regardless of the student’s major or level of experience.

Support also came from the staff of MICE (Makerspaces, Initiatives, Community, Exhibitions) and the Fabrication Studios, where scenery and props could be designed and built.

And of course, the students themselves took the lead in forming a range of theatre organisations to stage plays, musicals and other performances.

Theatre Programme

A group of students dancing with an instructor in the Black Box Theatre.

The Yale-NUS Theatre Programme made the Acting, Directing and Theatre-Making courses from the Arts and Humanities major available to the whole student body.

The courses were practice-based, including staging one or two productions each year, and encouraged collaboration, close reading, project management and creative thinking, as well as the use of imagination, courage and a sense of play. The programme also organised training workshops and talks by prominent theatre industry professionals.

And beyond the curriculum, every year the programme’s students and faculty worked together, often with members of the wider NUS community and even theatre professionals, to collaborate on staging a play at the Black Box Theatre.

A male student dressed in a traditional Japanese yukata during the "Hanjo" performance.
An acting class in the Black Box Theatre, where students stand in a circle, each touching their face as part of an exercise.

For the courses Acting I, Acting II, and Theatre Directing the students studied Western and non-Western plays.

The Theatre-Making Laboratory course introduced a wide range of creative processes for developing original theatre. Lecturer of Humanities (Theatre) Jonathan Vandenberg tasked students to work together to conceptualise, write and perform their own original performances.

A female student singing in the Black Box Theatre.

What I find really special about this kind of course at Yale-NUS, is that everyone brings a different perspective to the table; different levels of experience, skill-sets and majors, all coming together to contribute to the diversity of the pieces that we create.

Kyle Foo (Class of 2022) on the Theatre-Making Laboratory class.

An acting class in the Black Box Theatre, where students stand in a circle, each touching their face as part of an exercise.A female student singing in the Black Box Theatre.
A scene from the "Hanjo" performance in the Black Box Theatre, featuring a girl in a white dress standing on top of a sofa, while a woman in red sits on a chair to the right.

The Theatre Programme team’s 2022 play was Hanjo by the acclaimed Japanese playwright Yukio Mishima. It tells the story of an artist’s obsession with a woman driven mad by the grief of lost love.

Three students performing on stage in the Black Box Theatre, with a red carpet on the floor.

The 2023 production, The Exile from Ayodhya, explored ideas of duty, family, honour and justice through the dramatisation of an episode from the Ramayana, the Hindu epic studied by all Yale-NUS students in the Common Curriculum.

The Fifth Wall

The Fifth Wall was the College’s first official drama organisation, with initial discussions dating back to the Class of 2017’s trip to Yale University in July 2013, before they even arrived in Singapore.

The Fifth Wall group posing together in the Black Box Theatre.

The group aimed to give a platform to the many voices in the Yale-NUS community, and enable students to share their stories though the medium of theatre.

They staged their first production in March 2014. Consisting of three ten-minute plays, Unweave was performed at locations around the College’s original home in RC4.

A group of students backstage under green lighting, with some wearing white masks.

Staged on 15 November 2014, Confessions was an interactive play based on the controversial Following house style - to display show title in ‘Yale-NUS Confessions’ website, where anecdotes, jokes, trolls, insane characters, issues and disputes were compiled.

A poster featuring a black silhouette of a clock with the text "24:00, PL:AY" in green.

In 2015, The Fifth Wall organised 24:00 PL:AY, a project where students wrote, produced and rehearsed a new play within one 24 hour period. This gave students a quick insight into many aspects of theatre production. The ’24 Hour Play’ concept was repeated in later years by the Green Room Theatre.

The Fifth Wall group posing together in the Black Box Theatre.A group of students backstage under green lighting, with some wearing white masks.A poster featuring a black silhouette of a clock with the text "24:00, PL:AY" in green.

Green Room Theatre

The Fifth Wall later became known as Green Room Theatre, while continuing to produce original plays by the College’s students.

A poster for Green Room Theatre's "Radio Plays On Air" event. Features bold red and black graphics, with a vintage radio and microphone.
A performance scene from Rule of Threes showing two actors on stage in dramatic lighting, both engaging with each other in a tense moment.
A minimalist poster for Green Room Theatre's production of "Mirage". Features a serene, faded purple-toned landscape with train tracks vanishing into the distance.
A colorful poster for Green Room Theatre's "I Heard It Said". The design features overlapping speech bubbles in shades of green, yellow, and orange with short quotes.

(aside)

Although The Fifth Wall and Green Room Theatre had successfully staged short plays, often written by students, (aside) was the first theatre group to stage full-length productions of plays by established writers.

(aside)

Although The Fifth Wall and Green Room Theatre had successfully staged short plays, often written by students, (aside) was the first theatre group to stage full-length productions of plays by established writers.

A black poster with white and red font titled “Little Shop of Horrors”, decorated with blood dripping from the left top corner.
A group of male students standing on a grass field, each holding a stick, engaged in an outdoor activity.
Poster titled "HOME" in bold white text on a red background, showcasing three theatre productions for the 2016/2017 season.
Poster for “Private Parts” by Michael Chiang. The title is in glowing pink script, with performance details. Features a group of cast members in diverse outfits against a dark red background.
A poster for "Boom" featuring a photo of several students gathered around a scaffold.

Playdough!

Playdough! was a student organisation that aimed to help students learn about theatre, with each event featuring short plays written, directed and performed by the College’s students.

Five students wearing face masks in the Black Box Theatre, gathered around two black boxes.
A blue and yellow poster titled "Playdough," with each letter in a different rainbow colour.

Plays

Poster for "My Body Told Me" featuring an abstract illustration of a human figure with colourful, flowing lines that evoke movement and emotion.
Poster for "Hamlet" featuring a dark background with a distressed skull illustration.
A dark, underwater-themed poster for "SCH/SM: An investigation of faith & sexuality." It features a person curled up in a dimly lit pool.
Poster for It's Hard to Tell, featuring a minimalist design with an illustration of cucumber on a green background.
Poster for "4.48 Psychosis" by Sarah Kane. It features a black-and-white close-up of a somber woman’s face in shadows.
A poster for "An Iliad", a play by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare. The design features a dark background with a golden, circular shield at the center, marked with an intricate star pattern.
Poster for "Mergers & Accusation" featuring a stylised illustration of a person in a suit holding a briefcase.
A minimalist poster for "Oleanna" by David Mamet. It features two dark silhouette profiles, facing each other on a light gray background.
Poster for "Flamingos". The design features an illustration of two outlined hands reaching for each other, set against a soft gradient pink background with white, cloud-like accents.
A stylized poster with the text "MASTER RACE" arranged in a grid of bold, uppercase white letters against a black background. The letter "R" is highlighted in red, standing out in the center of the design.
A performance scene from "Babies!" with performers on stage with colourful costumes, striking playful poses and exaggerated expressions under bright lighting.
A performance scene of "Normal" featuring three actresses on stage: one seated at a desk, the other two standing, with focused expressions under dramatic lighting.

Musicals

A blue poster for "Next to Normal" featuring a house and a street lamp.

Originally a successful Broadway production, the College’s students staged their version of Next to Normal
in March 2020 at the Black Box Theatre. Directed by Ashley Sim, Bernard Boey (both Class of 2022) and Keryna Chandra (Class of 2023), the rock musical tells the story of a mother’s struggle with bipolar disorder.

A female student singing and playing the piano in the Black Box Theatre.A female and a male student talking in the front, while three students stand behind them on a platform.A male student raising his right fist on the stage.A male student and a female student dancing together, holding hands.
An orchestra performing on stage in the Black Box Theatre under purple lighting.

A song showcase was held in November 2019, before the staging of the full Next to Normal musical.

A female student singing under the spotlight.
A stitched photo showing two scenes. On the left, several students are in an office environment, taking calls. On the right, three students are looking upset, with a male student in the middle combining both images.

Written and directed by Myle Yan Tay (Class of 2019), with songs by Nathaniel Mah (Class of 2020), Overtime tells the story of two friends as they set out on their new careers after graduation. Staged in November 2017 at the Black Box Theatre, it was the College’s first original musical.

A group photo of the "Overtime" team, with several students sitting or standing around a table, while a female student is lying on top.

Without this funding, we would not have been able to stage the College’s first original musical. It pushed us to work hard so that we could give back to the school community.

Creators Myle Yan and Nathaniel on the financial support Overtime—and other Yale-NUS music and theatre productions—received from the Tolani Performing Arts Fund, in particular for the set and lighting design.

A stitched photo showing two scenes. On the left, several students are in an office environment, taking calls. On the right, three students are looking upset, with a male student in the middle combining both images.A group photo of the "Overtime" team, with several students sitting or standing around a table, while a female student is lying on top.

Performances

Moving beyond conventional theatre, groups of students occasionally staged some more experimental performance pieces or multimedia productions around the campus.

One of these groups was Artslab, a student organisation dedicated to creating experimental, interdisciplinary and intercultural work. They used theatre, performance and other artistic media to focus on current issues and social and political environments.

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