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GRACE LEE-KHOO
邱子睿
Independent Applied Theatre Practitioner
Performer
Producer
Director
Dramaturg
Workshop Facilitator
Researcher
Disability Arts & Access Adviser
BIO
Grace completed her Masters in Applied Theatre at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2016.
An Honours graduate from the National University of Singapore’s Theatre Studies Program (2009), she also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Education from the National Institute of Education (Singapore) and taught Language Arts at St Margaret’s Secondary School between 2010-2013.
In 2017, Grace was International Artist in Residence at Graeae Theatre Company (London); UK’s flagship disability led inclusive theatre company.
In 2018, Grace founded Access Path Productions, a social enterprise that champions equal access to the arts. Visit www.accesspathproductions.com for more info.
TRAINING AND EDUCATION
2017 - 2019
WOLF TRAP INSTITUTE OF EARLY EDUCATION (WASHINGTON, USA) - May 2019
Professional Performing Artist Training in Early Childhood Education and Curriculum
ACCESS 2 ARTS (ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA) - Nov 2018
Professional Audio Description for Live Theatre
GRAEAE THEATRE COMPANY (LONDON, UK) - Jan to Nov 2017
International Artist in Residence and Access Worker
PHILLIP ZARRILLI (WALES, UK) - July 2017
Pre-performative Psychophysical Training at Tyn y parc CVN Kalari/Studio
KAITE O’REILLY/ TY NEWYDD (WALES, UK) - June 2017
Residential Playwriting Masterclass
SHAPE ARTS UK (LONDON, UK) - April 2017
Disability Training with Tony Heaton OBE
1999 - 2015
DAVID GLASS ENSEMBLE (OXFORD, UK) – Sept 2015
The Lost Child Project (Inclusive Arts Practice) with Founder and Director David Glass
FRANTIC ASSEMBLY Movement and Devising (Intermediate Level) (London, UK) - Jul to Aug 2015
Physical Theatre Practice and Training with Neil Bettles
TRINITY LABAN (LONDON, UK) Musical Theatre Summer Intensive - May to Jun 2015
Musical theatre training with Head of Musical Theatre and Programme Leader Vicky Stretton
ROYAL CENTRAL SCHOOL OF SPEECH AND DRAMA (LONDON, UK) - May to Jun 2015
Voice in Performance (Summer Term) Training with Carol Noakes and Debra Leigh
COMPLICITE (OXFORD, UK) - April 2015
Clown Training with Joyce Henderson
SITI COMPANY (NEW YORK CITY, USA) - November 2014
Viewpoints Training with SITI member and actor Stephen Webber
ECOLE PHILLIPPE GAULIER - August 2014
Shakespeare Acting Master Class with Philippe Gaulier
NINE YEARS THEATRE - Feb 2014
Suzuki Method of Actor Training with Director and Founder Nelson Chia
THE THEATRE PRACTICE - Jan to Dec 2014
The Theatre Practice's Actors Lab Member with Artistic Director: Liu Xiao Yi
ECOLE PHILLIPPE GAULIER - August 2013
Bouffons Acting Master Class with Philippe Gaulier
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION (PGDE) - Jun 2010 to Jun 2011
Core Subject 1: English
Core Subject 2: English Literature
NIE Drama Program coursework: Acting and Voice Studies with Michael Corbridge, Devising Theatre with Jane Gilmer (Special Concession Status)
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE (FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES) - Aug 2005 to June 2009
Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Theatre Studies Major
CATHOLIC JUNIOR COLLEGE – 2003 to 2004
A Levels Subjects: English Literature, Geography and Economics
CHIJ ST NICHOLAS GIRLS SCHOOL – 1999 to 2002
O Levels Subjects: Art, English, Higher Mother Tongue (Chinese), English Literature, Geography, Social Studies, E Mathematics, Combined Sciences (Biology and Chemistry)
BODY OF WORK
Recent Projects (2015-2019)
In 2019, Grace was invited by the Chinese University of Hong Kong to conduct a full day Applied Theatre workshop with Hong Kong artists, social workers, students and Sham Shui Po residents for Along The Edge Festival 2019.
In 2018, Grace attended Audio Description Training by Jody Holdback and Kari Seeley from Acces 2 Arts (Adeleide, Australia).
Audio Description credits in 2019:
T.H.E Dance Company's Silence (Dance at Dusk 2019, M1 Contact Contemporary Dance Festival)
Gretel and Hansel (Singapore Repertory Theatre)
Fantastic Mr Fox in Mandarin (Singapore Repertory Theatre)
In 2018, Grace founded Access Path Productions and currently serves as Creative Development Director, overseeing all creative drama programs with Disabled artists, schools, charities and Voluntary Work Organizations (VWOs) in Singapore and beyond.
Grace was Associate Producer and Performer in Kaite O’Reilly’s AND SUDDENLY I DISAPPEAR… the Singapore ‘d’ Monologues, an Unlimited International commission that made its Singaporean/world premiere in May 2018. The production embarked on its UK tour in Autumn 2018.
Directing Credits in 2018-2019:
Silence Bubble (Singapore Repetory Theatre x Shan You Centre)
3 Words, Repeat (Access Path Productions x Enabling Festival 2019)
Dramaturgy Credits in 2018-2019:
Are You Game, Sau(dara)? (bhumi collective, Centre 42 and Five Arts Centre KL)
Devised Performance/Scripted Performing Credits in 2018-2019:
Theatre in Hotel: A Grinder's Diary (Pitapat Theatre x Access Path, Seremban)
Offstage 2.0: Value of Theatre (Emergency Shelter under Emergency Stairs)
Kaite O’Reilly’s AND SUDDENLY I DISAPPEAR… the Singapore ‘d’ Monologues (SG premiere and UK tour)
In 2017, Grace served as International Artist in Residence at Graeae Theatre Company; UK’s flagship disability led inclusive theatre company.
Graeae production and Access Support credits in 2017:
The Rolettes’ Flying Christmas (an aerial show)
Graeae Ensemble Train Week
Reasons To Be Cheerful UK tour (Ian Drury and the Blockheads musical)
Dramaturgy Credits in 2016-2017:
bhumi (the bhumi collective) at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Marie Yagami’s Little Girl Inside Me (Central St Martins) at Platform Theatre.
Librettist Credits in 2016:
Two Sisters (Composer: Algirdas Kirnautis, Lithuania. Opera Premiere at Royal College of Music, UK)
Assistant Directing Credits in 2016:
These Four Walls (Access All Areas/Central Diploma in Performance-Making, London)
The V&A Peter Brook Project (The Albany/Sedgehill Hub, London)
Frankenstein (Watford Palace Theatre, London).
2016 Summer Research Program:
Grace co-produced, facilitated and performed on Broadway in The Crossing Bridges Project, alongside homeless youth from Covenant House and Broadway stars (Helen Mills Theatre, New York City).
Performing credits in 2015-2017:
Mermaid at the Oxford Playhouse in 2015 (Shared Experience, UK)
After Hiroshima (London Bubble, UK)
Trench Brothers the Musical (HMDT Ltd, UK)
Eulogy (a two-hander by b.a.e collective at the Ex-Theatre Asia Festival, Taiwan)
And Suddenly I Disappear…The Singapore ‘d’ Monologues – 2017 R&D (Centre 42, SG)
As workshop facilitator, Grace has led and devised performances with:
Clean Break (London)
Pegasus Theatre (Oxford)
Creation Theatre (Oxford)
Stage Management in 2015:
The Husband at the 2015 Suspense Festival (Little Angel Theatre, UK)
Publicity Management:
Opaque Prism’s Sinking Flesh Thinking Flesh (Lion and Unicorn Theatre, UK).
AND SUDDENLY I DISAPPEAR... The Singapore 'd' Monologues (KAITE O'REILLY)
Research & Development (Sept 2017), Full Staging and UK Tour (May-September 2018)
The Singapore ‘d’ Monologues is an international theatrical dialogue of difference, disability, and what it is to be human, from opposite sides of the world. Inspired by previously unrecorded disabled experience, fictionalised monologues will be precedented across multiple languages (spoken/projected/visual), incorporating aesthetics of access. This performance will set an important precedent: the first multilingual, intercultural, disability-led theatre project created between the UK and Singapore.
Award-winning playwright Kaite O’Reilly, and internationally respected director/actor-trainer Phillip Zarrilli will lead the team, joined by veteran disability arts practitioner Sara Beer and Deaf UK-based Singapore-born Ramesh Meyyappan with his innovative visual performance skills. Together with Singaporeans Lee-Lee Lim, Grace Khoo and principle collaborator, Peter Sau, the performance will open up a much-needed discourse of disability in quality, accessible disability-led work, never experienced before in a home-grown Singaporean project.
THE CROSSING BRIDGES PROJECT (COVENANT HOUSE, NEW YORK CITY)
May to July 2016
The New York based project, designed and led by Cathy Englade, kicked off in summer 2016, when Covenant House youth attended master classes facilitated by some of the theatre industry’s most accomplished artists including Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winners and nominees. After four weeks of learning the fundamentals in writing, directing and acting for stage, the young people and guest artists collaboratively devised and then performed to a full house at the Crossing Bridges Play Festival in The Helen Mills Theatre.
AFTER HIROSHIMA (LONDON BUBBLE)
March 2016
70 years after the world’s first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, After Hiroshima was a community oral history and performance project which was rooted in interviews with people about their reactions to this harrowing event in 1945 and their memories of the subsequent period during which the nuclear disarmament peace movement was formed. The information that our team uncovered was creatively interpreted, turned into a script and performed in at Dilston Grove (CGP Gallery) in March 2016 as a means to commemorate the traumatic event.
THEATRE IN HOTEL: A GRINDER'S DIARY
JUNE 2019
A Grinder's Diary, devised by Seng, Grace Lee Khoo and Tung Ka Wai, both from Singapore. This devised theatre piece is a response to the Chinese short story A Madman's Diary by Lu Xun. A man thought the people around him are planning to eat him and his story criticises feudalism and traditional values that has ruined humanity and civilisation. The diary ends with a powerful phrase as a strong message for the world — Save the children! A contemplate of a classic and its message, an exploration of what is “eating” us little by little. In the time where the feudalism is long gone and traditional values could be easily replaced by a post from Facebook.
Silence Bubble
October 2018 - September 2019
A blown-up transparent bubble housing two figures at separate times, in their separate solitudes and struggles with serious mental health conditions. The audience is privy to a temporary glimpse into an orb of privacy; the arts serve as a vehicle of access in the Toa Payoh heartland and the Aliwal Arts Centre. A Singapore Repertory Theatre and Shan You Centre commission, Silence Bubble depicts the lived struggles of those living with depression and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The performance is directed by Grace Lee-Khoo and performed by Henrik Cheng and Chong Woon Yong.
EX-ASIA THEATRE WEEKEND FESTIVAL: EULOGY
《追思文 》(BILINGUAL THEATRE)
bae Collectives are group of diverse artists who seek to challenge and cultivate themselves in the forms of explorations and questioning what is art and what is real life.
bae is short for Before Anyone Else.
節目介紹
追思文選集將會是一簡單但發人深省的社會性作品：一群樂觀主義者在台上碰上一悲觀主義者，並針對主題分享彼此的體會和省思。
本作品將從 『書寫自己的追思文』為切入點出發，廣招作家、藝術工作者、思想家、政治人物、父／母親、兒子／女兒；貧窮／富有階級，以及行動不便者。 請他們用書寫、相片、影片、繪畫……等各種形式詮釋自己的追思文，以期了解人們還在世時就起始書寫自身追思文的可能性和困難。該如何動筆……該如何結束….其中又有多少的苦思、掙扎？
BHUMI (DANCE THEATRE)
Home. Singapore. Departure. Arrival. London. Home.
bhumi takes a traditional dance form and works with contemporary dancers – what happens when a form that is strict and rigid collides with one that is abstract and fluid?
Defying traditional Malay dance performative norms, bhumi does not use typical exotic costumes or follow a cultural exhibition format.
bhumi (Sanskrit for earth or soil) is a multi-disciplinary theatrical performance by a collective of Singaporean and British artists based in London at the crossroads of their artistic identity, wrangling with questions about traditions, race, culture and identity while living a contemporaneous lifestyle in a home away from home.
TWO SISTERS (OPERA)
The Britten Theatre at the Royal College of Music in London (Prince Consort Road, SW7 2BS) will host the premiere of The Two Sisters, a new opera by Lithuanian composer Algirdas Kraunaitis. The piece is loosely based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment.
Based on the theme of crime and punishment, marking 150 years since the publication of Dostoyevsky’s famous novel,
Kraunaitis chose an old scottish ballad about the complex relationship between two sisters as the leitmotif for his new opera. Kraunaitis collaborated with actress and writer Grace Lee-Khoo, who wrote the libretto for The Two Sisters. The opera is performed in collaboration with Bill Bankes-Jones, founder of Tête à Tête, and Lionel Friend, conductor and Musical Director of British Youth Opera.