Nelson Chia is a director, performer, playwright, acting teacher and theatre lecturer. He has won Best Director four times and Best Actor twice at the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards. He studied under local theatre doyen, the late Kuo Pao Kun, learning and working directly under his guidance in the early 2000s. In 2012, Nelson was the first Singapore artist to be commissioned for three consecutive years by the Singapore’s main arts centre, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay to present a major theatre work at the annual Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts. In 2017, he transcreated Cultural Medallion writer Yeng Pway Ngon’s seminal novel Art Studio for the stage, which was commissioned by Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) as the opening programme for the festival that year. In 2021, he collaborated with the renowned SITI Company from New York to present a hybrid version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters at SIFA 2020/21. Other commissioning and artistic partners he has worked with include Macau Arts Festival, Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, Singapore Writers’ Festival, The Substation, The Arts House, World Shakespeare Congress, T.H.E. Dance Company and Contemporary Legend Theatre (Taiwan), to name a few. A graduate of Goldsmiths College, London (MA in Directing) and National University of Singapore (BA, Hons, Theatre Studies), Nelson was Head of Department for Theatre at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, adjunct lecturer at Lasalle College of the Arts and full-time lecturer of Theatre Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore. He was the Associate Artistic Director of Toy Factory Productions (2003 - 2013), a Resident Artist with The Theatre Practice (2000 - 2002), an Associate Artist with The Substation (2007 - 2009), and a founding member of the ensemble collective A GROUP OF PEOPLE (2008 - 2012). In 2017, he was awarded a 3-year Fellowship with the International Society for the Performing Arts in New York, and went on to serve on its Programme Committee from 2021. He was a Singapore Youth Festival Arts Presentation (Drama) Adjudicator for many years, and also a founding member of Singapore Chinese Language Theatre Alliance. He currently sits on the Examination Board of Intercultural Theatre Institute, the Industry Advisory Group of Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore, and the Advisory Panel of Singapore International Festival of Arts. Nelson’s directorial works are marked by detailed and dynamic ensemble work. His original writings and transcreations are known to be culturally layered and possessing sensibilities that speaks to audiences from all backgrounds. In 2012, Nelson co-founded Nine Years Theatre (NYT) with his wife Mia Chee. In a few years, NYT has grown to become one of the key players in the local theatre scene. Under his artistic direction, NYT has managed to not only rejuvenate the Singapore Mandarin theatre scene with its work, but also raised the awareness of actor training among the artistic community. Currently, it is the only company under the National Arts Council’s Major Company Scheme that positions itself as a Singapore Mandarin theatre company. NYT sees Chinese culture as the foundation of its work but not the centre of its practice. It believes in the uniqueness of local Chinese culture and aspires to recognise and celebrate the multicultural identity of the Singaporean Chinese through theatre. For many years, Nelson has invested energy in the research of actor training methods, making him an important figure in this field in Singapore. Since 2008, he has been training regularly in the Suzuki Method of Actor Training and Viewpoints. He studied both methods with SITI Company in New York, and trained specifically in the Suzuki Method with Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT) in Japan, which led to him being invited to perform at the Toga Festival. He is currently an Alumni Network Ambassador of the SITI Company. From 2014 to 2021, Chia created and led the NYT Ensemble (NYTE) – a company of actors who train regularly in a systematic way and create work together over an extended period of time. As it developed, the NYT Ensemble demonstrated the strength of an ensemble model with the numerous productions it offered to the local theatre scene, and was the only ensemble of this nature in Singapore during that period.
Mia Chee is an actor, theatre producer, and educator, and the Co-founder and Company Director of Nine Years Theatre (NYT). Her performance journey began at the age of nine when she joined Rediffusion’s children and youth radio drama group, where she was first trained to perform in Mandarin. She continued performing throughout her school years and later graduated in Theatre Studies and Chinese Language from the National University of Singapore. In 2012, Mia co-founded Nine Years Theatre with Nelson Chia, with the shared vision of building a professional Mandarin theatre company in Singapore — one rooted in rigorous actor training, ensemble practice, and a creative philosophy that is culturally layered, globally minded, and reflective of Singapore’s multicultural identity. To deepen her understanding of the actor’s craft, Mia studied the Viewpoints approach with the SITI Company (New York) and the Suzuki Method of Actor Training with both the SITI Company and the Suzuki Company of Toga (Japan). She has practised both methods for over a decade, and regularly leads NYT’s actor training programmes, including ensemble jams, classes, and educational workshops on these methodologies. She’s currently an Alumni Network Ambassador of the SITI Company. Mia also worked as a part-time DJ at Y.E.S. FM93.3 from 1997 to 2014, an extension of her early background in radio performance. Since 2015, she has taught NYT’s Mandarin Enunciation classes (formerly Diction of Standard Mandarin), and in 2024 began teaching Mandarin Speech Work for Performance, continuing her dedication to voice and speech training for actors. From 2014 to 2021, she was a founding and core member of the NYT Ensemble, where she led vocal and speech work. As a performer, Mia has collaborated with many of Singapore’s leading theatre companies, including Toy Factory Productions, Drama Box, The Theatre Practice, The Necessary Stage, and TheatreWorks (now T:>Works). Her notable performance credits include Waiting For Audience, Everything For You, See You, Anniversary, Windward Side of the Mountain, Between You And Me, Three Sisters, Dear Elena, First Fleet, FAUST/US, Cut Kafka!, Art Studio, Red Demon, Tartuffe, An Enemy of the People, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
