Claire Wong

Claire Wong is a Singapore-Malaysian actor, director, producer, and filmmaker. She is the co-founder and Joint Artistic Director and Producer of Checkpoint Theatre. Wong writes, directs, produces, and acts for the stage and for the camera. She has received training in both Asian and Western performing arts and obtained her post-graduate degree, a Master of Fine Arts (MFA), from Columbia University. Wong's recent producing and directing credits include: Huzir Sulaiman's The Last Bull: A Life in Flamenco (Singapore Arts Festival, now Singapore Festival of Arts (SIFA) Commission, 2016), Occupation (2012) and The Weight of Silk on Skin (2011); Faith Ng's Normal (2017, 2015), For Better or for Worse (2013) and wo(men) (2010); Joel Tan's The Way We Go (2014). Her play Recalling Mother which was co-written and co-directed with Noorlinah Mohamed, recently played at Esplanade's The Studios (Singapore, 2016) and at the Brisbane and OzAsia Festivals (Australia, 2016 and 2017).

Claire Wong
Born	Malaysia
Alma mater	National University of Singapore Columbia University
Occupation	Joint Artistic Director, Actor, Producer, Director, Filmmaker
Spouse(s)	Huzir Sulaiman ​ (m. 2004)​

Wong holds a law degree from the National University of Singapore, and practised litigation and corporate law. She is also the co-founder and Senior Consultant of Studio Wong Huzir, a creative consultancy.

Early life

Born in Malaysia, she is a resident of Singapore. In high school, she represented Selangor state in badminton competitions and was appointed the president of the literary, drama and debate society. Upon her graduation, she attended National Junior College and studied the sciences, and took part in school plays to further her interest in drama.[1]

A lawyer, she graduated from the National University of Singapore and obtained her Master of Fine Arts in theatre at Columbia University in New York. She practised law first as a litigation associate and later as a corporate partner. Her corporate practice covered both Singapore and the region. She worked at the law firms Allen & Gledhill and Helen Yeo & Partners in Singapore and Freehills in Sydney.

Professional background

During the 1990s she performed in leading roles in Ong Keng Sen's post-modern Flowers of Destiny, Madame Mao's Memories, and Desdemona.[2][3] More recently, she has acted in Huzir Sulaiman's Atomic Jaya, Cogito,[4] and Occupation. Her performance Atomic Jaya garnered her nominations for Best Actress and Best Ensemble Performance in both the Singapore Life! Theatre Awards and the Malaysian Cameronian Arts Awards respectively. She was also nominated for the Best Actress award for Occupation. Wong is a co-founder of creative consultancy Studio Wong Huzir and serves as its Senior Consultant. She was also the Head of Corporate Communications for Rodyk & Davidson, Singapore's first and oldest law firm, where she also oversees the firm's in-house training programme, and is a Joint Artistic Director of Checkpoint Theatre. She left Rodyk & Davidson at the end of November 2014 to spend more time with her elderly parents and focus on theatre.[5]

As a director, she was nominated for Best Director in the Singapore's Life! Theatre Awards for the landmark production of the trilogy of plays by Eleanor Wong, Invitation To Treat (2003). Wong co-directed the Singapore Arts Festival commission Occupation (2002). She received the Life! Theatre Award nomination for Best Director. Her other theatre directing credits include Up North Down South (2002) and Election Day (2004). For the 2006 International Festival of Women in Contemporary Theatre, she co-created and performed in the piece Recalling Mother.[6]

Her screen directing began in 2005, when she wrote and directed a television film, Project Peter, for Singapore's Arts Central channel. She wrote and directed a short film in Malaysia, Instant Noodles and Hot Chocolate, and was the script consultant and performer in That Historical Feeling, a Malaysian short film, which won a Bronze award at the Malaysian Video Awards. Wong has taught at the National University of Singapore, at both the Faculty of Law and in the Theatre Studies department.[7]

Selected filmography and theatre

Actor

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	Beauty World	Ivy Chan	Directed by Ong Keng Sen
1988	Three Children		Directed by Ong Keng Sen
1989	To My Heart With Smiles		Directed by Ong Keng Sen
1989	Emily of Emerald Hill	Emily	Excerpts produced by Practice Theatre Ensemble as part of Dramatic Encounters
1991	Mad Forest		Directed by Ong Keng Sen
1991–1992	Madame Mao's Memories	Jiang Qing	Directed by Ong Keng Sen
1992	Three Children		Directed by Ong Keng Sen and Krishen Jit
1999	Lear	Loyal Attendant	Directed by Ong Keng Sen
2000	Desdemona	Desdemona	Directed by Ong Keng Sen
2001	The Woman In A Tree On the Hill		Directed by Ivan Heng
2002	Occupation		Nominated for Best Actress at The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards
2002	The Office		Playlet directed by Krishen Jit
2003	Atomic Jaya	Multiple characters	Directed by Krishen Jit, Nominated for Best Actress at The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards, Nominated for Best Ensemble Performance at the Malaysian Cameronian Arts Awards
2004	Opiume
2004	Cogito	Katherine Lee	Directed by Huzir Sulaiman
2006	Recalling Mother		Co-creator with Noorlinah Mohamed; re-staged in 2006, 2009, 2015, 2016, 2017
2013	Atomic Jaya	Multiple characters	Directed by Huzir Sulaiman
2014	The House Of Bernarda Alba	Bernarda Alba	Directed by Glen Goei

Director

Theatre

Year	Title	Notes
2002	Up North, Down South.
2002	Occupation	Co-directed with and written by Huzir Sulaiman.
2004	Election Day	Written by Huzir Sulaiman.
2004	Invitation To Treat trilogy	Written by Eleanor Wong, Nominated for Best Director at The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards.
2008	wo(men)	Written by Faith Ng.
2009	Recalling Mother	Written by Claire Wong and Noorlinah Mohamed, produced by Checkpoint Theatre.
2011	The Power of Notions / Notions of Power	Written by Christine Chong, Lucas Ho, Dan Koh, Cheryl Lee, Laremy Lee and Alissa Rode.
2011	The Weight of Silk on Skin	Written by Huzir Sulaiman.
2012	Dream Country: a lost monologue	Co-director.
2013	For Better or for Worse	Written by Faith Ng.
2012	Occupation	Written by Huzir Sulaiman.
2014	The Way We Go	Written by Joel Tan.
2015	Normal	Written by Faith Ng, produced by Checkpoint Theatre.
2016	The Last Bull: A Life In Flamenco	Written by Huzir Sulaiman.
2016	Recalling Mother	Written and performed by Claire Wong and Noorlinah Mohamed, presented as part of The Studios 2016 and at Brisbane Festival 2016
2017	Recalling Mother	Written and performed by Claire Wong and Noorlinah Mohamed, presented at OzAsia Festival 2017.
2017	Normal	Written by Faith Ng, produced by Checkpoint Theatre.
2019	Still Life	Written by Dana Lam, produced by Checkpoint Theatre. Claire was also the dramaturg for this production.
2019	Displaced Persons' Welcome Dinner	Written by Huzir Sulaiman, produced by Checkpoint Theatre.
2019	Eat Duck	Written by Zenda Tan, produced by Checkpoint Theatre.

References

1. "Charismatic actress and director Claire Wong shines on stage and behind the scenes". AsiaOne. 26 November 2014. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
2. Curtis, Nick (1992) "Edinburgh Festival Days 6 & 7: Madame Mao's Memories", The Independent, 22 August 1992, retrieved 11 July 2011
3. Kennedy, Dennis & Yong, Li Lan (2010) Shakespeare in Asia: Contemporary Performance, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-51552-8, p. 262
4. Koay, Allan (2007) "Huzir’s reflections Archived 9 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine", Malaysia Star, 22 June 2007, retrieved 11 July 2011
5. Tan, Corrie (26 November 2014). "Charismatic actress and director Claire Wong shines on stage and behind the scenes". Singapore Press Holdings. The Straits Times. Retrieved 8 January 2015.
6. "Tutor's Bio". NUS. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014.
7. "People Studio Wong Huzir". Studio Wong Huzir. Retrieved 15 September 2014.

External links

• Interview at assuntaalumni.com