IVAN HENG

Founding Artistic Director

Ivan Heng is the founder of W!LD RICE

where he serves as artistic director. He is also
part of the theatre company’s board of
directors.

As artistic director, Heng is responsible for the

planning and implementation of the
company’s long-term vision. His
responsibilities also include hiring performers
and production talents as well as planning the
repertoire for the year.

As a member of W!LD RICE’s board of

directors, he regularly meets with the other
members of the board in order to set
corporate management and oversight policies.

Aside from artistic director, Heng is also an actor and director at W!LD RICE.

In 2019, he appeared as the titular role of Emily Gan from Emily of Emerald Hill and in 2020,
he will be assuming a role in the play, The Importance of Being Earnest.

As a director, Heng’s work includes the 2018 production, Press Gang, and the 2019
production, Peter Pan in Serangoon Gardens.

Heng founded W!LD RICE in 2000 after leaving his role as associate artistic director at
Singapore Repertory Theatre in December 1998 - a role which he had held since 1997. He
has served as W!LD RICE’s artistic director since the beginning. His vision was to make
theatre arts a staple industry in Singapore like how rice is a staple food in the Asian diet.

Prior to founding W!LD RICE, Heng started the Tripitaka Theatre Company in 1993 in
London. The company performed touring productions which were centred around Asian
perceptions. Their performances include the autobiographical solo performance, Journey to
the West which was staged in 1995.

Heng is also the founder of the Singapore Theatre Festival, the first festival devoted to local
productions.

He has also had the honour of being the creative director for the 2009 edition of the National
Day Parade as well as the creative director for the opening and closing ceremonies of the
2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games.

On 22 October 2013, Heng was presented with the Cultural Medallion as a way of honouring
his artistic achievements and distinctive contributions to Singapore’s cultural scene.

Heng made his acting debut in 1987 with TheatreWorks’ Kantan. He then moved on to act in
Army Daze that same year as well as in Beauty World the following year. During the 1990
Singapore Arts Festival, he played Song Liling in the critically acclaimed M. Butterfly.

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After notable performances in the Kiss of the Spider Woman and Descendants of the
Eunuch Admiral, Heng made a name for himself in 1999 by being the first male actor to
assume the role of Emily Gan in Stella Kon’s Emily of Emerald Hill, a role which he has
played almost 100 times as of 2010.

Heng debuted as a director in 1993 with the play The Woman in a Tree on a Hill which won
the Scotsman Fringe First and Daily Express New Name awards at Scotland’s Edinburgh
Fringe Festival.

He later developed and directed Ah Kong’s Birthday Party in 1998 with Singapore Repertory
Theatre which was the first Singaporean production to have interactions and collaboration
between the diners and the actors.

Heng studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow after
developing an interest in drama during his time at Temasek Junior College. He graduated as
one of the top students and his performance in Richard III by Shakespeare won him the
Royal Lyceum Theatre Award.

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