Our History

Dancer/ Choreographer Goh Lay Kuan and Playwright/ Director Kuo Pao Kun founded the Singapore Performing Arts School aiming to integrate creative performance with arts education through dance, theatre and music. 

Over the years, the classes offered grew to include Ballet (Goh Lay Kuan), Ethnic Dance (Gan Beng Lee), Piano, Accordion and Composition (Chew Seok Kwee and Ng Lay Hoon), Theatre (Kuo Pao Kun) and Stage Design (Kuo Pao Kun and Chew Swee Fa).

The school's income came largely from ballet classes as paid theatre classes were considered unusual during this time. However, many theatre students developed a strong passion and continued to be heavily involved in the company's productions post-graduation.

Providing a counterpoint to traditional realism seen in Chinese theatre during this time, Practice introduced the works of Bertolt Brecht to Singapore audiences. The performers were primarily graduates from the first drama course, with more than 100 people involved in its staging.

Translated into Mandarin, Caucasian Chalk Circle became the first Brecht play ever performed in Singapore. Its staging featured a then-novel combination of realistic and impressionistic stage sets and lighting design.

Written and directed by Kuo Pao Kun. Centred around worker's rights, The Struggle was banned just two weeks before opening night and replaced with an evening of plays and poetry. A response to the work, The Struggle: Years Later debuted in 2015 as part of Practice's 50th anniversary.

Created as a division to create Mandarin theatre and variety show works, the Art Ensemble was the performance arm of the school. A year later, the group would go independent as the Southern Arts Ensemble. 

Believing "art came from life", students spent weeks living and working alongside farmers, fishermen and construction workers to gain a thorough understanding of their lives, hopes and aspirations. These experiences would subsequently inspire dances and plays created by the students.

Singapore Performing Arts School was renamed as Practice Theatre School. It would then be renamed to Practice Performing Arts School (1984), Practice Performing Arts Centre (1988) and later registered as The Theatre Practice in 2010.

The name "Practice" points to the company's desire to explore new artistic frontiers through mutual learning, hands-on application and bold experimentation, an ethos that is a core part of the company's identity today.

Placing an emphasis on both training and practice, the annual student productions were a valuable platform for the students to showcase their learnings during an era where most of the arts were not yet professionalised in Singapore. Each production featured a mix of musical performances, dances, plays and cross-talk sketches.

This tradition continues today as the The Little Windmills Take The Stage! showcase by our long-running Children Course students.

Goh Lay Kuan and Kuo Pao Kun were detained under the Internal Security Act for alleged communist activities. Goh was released shortly after while Kuo spent the next four years and seven months in detention. Goh continued to run the school in his absence.

Written and Directed by Kuo Pao Kun, presented at the Singapore Festival of Arts. Kuo's first original production post-release, The White Sailing Boat was a collaboration between 14 Chinese Theatre groups.

Directing workshops led by Kuo Pao Kun commenced, offering formalised theatre training. Scenography continued to be an important aspect, with Kuo demanding that directors be equipped with production skills and design knowledge. Workshop graduates include many of today's artistic directors including Ong Keng Sen (T:>Works), Ivan Heng (Wild Rice), Alvin Tan (The Necessary Stage) and Lin Jen Erh, who also became Practice's first full-time resident director.

Practice organised two editions of Drama Camp, which invited theatre practitioners from across the region. Attendees included Krishen Jit (Five Arts Centre, Malaysia), Gao Xingjian (Nobel Prize Winner for Literature, China), Danny Yung Ning Tsun (Zuni Icosahedron, Hong Kong), Yu Qiuyu (China) and Stan Lai (Performance Workshop, Taiwan). 

This meeting blossomed into frequent artistic collaborations between the group in the following years, while cementing Practice's role as a bridge between Singapore and the rest of the world.

In 1983, Goh went to New York to study under the legendary dancer and choreographer Martha Graham at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. Upon her return, she started contemporary dance classes, marking the transition from classical dance like ballet and ethnic dance to more contemporary forms. Goh's students include Low Mei Yoke (Frontier Danceland), Liang Bin (Xinyi Dance Company) and Ang Lay Hoon.

The following year, Goh choreographed Singapore's first modern dance piece, Myth Of The Sun. It was first presented at Myth Of The Sun: An Evening of Ballet, Contemporary and Ethnic Dance, and later at the Singapore Dance Festival. 

Written and directed by Kuo Pao Kun. Kuo's first English work pitted man against establishment in a satirical monologue about government bureaucracy. Practice was also the first theatre company to organise community performances, with the monologue staged at various community centres and libraries around Singapore.

The semi-professional-theatre troupe allowed former students and amateur artists to further develop their skills. Their first production, a Mandarin version of Max Frisch's Fire Raisers, premiered the following year. 

This also marked the start of the company's transition from Practice Performing Arts School to Practice Performing Arts Centre, with its two distinct arms: a performing arts school and a theatre company.

The Theatre Practice was the first theatre company in Singapore to present community performances, and Actors and Singers was the first work created as a touring school show. It marked Practice's expansion into advocacy and community engagement beyond offering arts classes, and laid the foundations for the creation of the Student Theatre Exposure Project (STEP), now known as the Practice Education Project.

Choreographed by Goh Lay Kuan, commissioned by Singapore Festival of Arts. The production was Singapore's first full-length modern dance piece. It was described as Singapore's "most significant modern dance ever presented" at its debut, and included an orchestral and choral cast. 

Under the National Arts Council's Arts Housing Scheme, Practice was one of the first tenants in Stamford Arts Centre, a multi-tenanted arts centre which housed many of Singapore's pioneer arts companies. Practice would remain there for the next 28 years.

Written and directed by Kuo Pao Kun. Reflecting Singapore's reality as a multicultural society, the play featured Mandarin, English, Malay, Tamil, Hokkien and Cantonese. It was Singapore's first multilingual play, and paved the way for other such works.

Written by Kuo Pao Kun. Inspired by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince, Day I Met The Prince has been staged nearly twenty times, both as a black box production and as a touring school show. The production includes an early example of audience interaction, where students would be tasked with folding a paper flower, which would be incorporated into one of the dramatic moments. 

Many of Singapore's top designers and performers have worked on this show, and it has been staged Cario, Mumbai, Macau, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Taipei, Miaoli, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

Created by Goh Lay Kuan. The arts education programme harnessed the power of play and the arts to teach children character development. The programme continues, renamed as Practice Children's Courses.

The Substation – A Home For The Arts was founded by Kuo Pao Kun, who became its artistic director. Promoting the experimentation of all art forms, it became an important resource for many emerging artists and companies.

Practice was the first theatre company to bring arts education directly into Singapore schools with touring productions, workshops and classes. This initiative lives on today as the Practice Education Project (PEP).

Written and directed by Kuo Pao Kun. Following the journey of Ming dynasty eunuch Zheng He, it discusses themes of cultural erosion and social castration. The work remains an iconic piece of contemporary Singapore theatre and has been restaged by theatre companies internationally.

Formed as a division to promote traditional puppetry to youths, the division experimented with different puppetry forms while performing school and community shows. The group would go independent three years later.

Written by Kuo Pao Kun, directed by Stan Lai and presented at the Singapore Festival of the Arts. A meditation on war and suffering, the work was one of Kuo's final plays. It is considered a piece of classic Singapore text, and has been restaged by theatre companies internationally.

Founded by Kuo Pao Kun and T. Sasitharan, the 3-year actor training programme featured a mix of traditional Asian art forms and western theatrical methodologies. The school would go independent 10 years later, renamed as the Intercultural Theatre Institute.

While Practice has brought its works internationally since the mid 1980s, 2000 was a particularly prolific year. Kuo Pao Kun’s Sunset Rise was presented as part of The 3rd Chinese Drama Festival in Taiwan, and Day I Met The Prince performed shows in Macau and Shen Zhen.

It marks an expanded capability for international touring and Practice's commitment to presenting a Singapore voice on the global stage, a tradition which continues to this day.

Kuo Pao Kun passed away at 63 after a battle with kidney cancer. Wu Xi and Kuo Jian Hong became Co-Artistic Directors of the theatre company. 

Works for Pao Kun – Legend Alive was organised by Professor Vivien Ku, with collaborators and close friends invited to take inspiration from Kuo's works. A second edition was presented in 2004, and featured original works from Practice, and theatre companies from Japan, India and China.

An international celebration of Kuo's legacy, beliefs and contributions, the festival invited artists to examine Kuo's works through different lenses, cultural contexts and art forms. A second edition was presented in 2012, marking the 10th anniversary of Kuo's passing. 

Directed by Kuo Jian Hong, and inspired by Kuo Pao Kun's original play Lao Jiu. The musical marked Practice's first foray into Original Chinese Language Musical Theatre, a genre the company would go on to pioneer.

The inaugural Chinese Theatre Festival was envisioned as a platform to promote Chinese language theatre by showcasing a selection of black box theatre works from Singapore and the region. The festival would run from 2011 to 2017.

The Lab offered training to directors, actors, reviewers and playwrights in experimentation, creation and training. The programme was later replaced by the Associate Artist Programme and Artist Farm, a week-long creative bootcamp for international artists.

Directed by Kuo Jian Hong. The first edition was awarded Life Theatre Awards' inaugural Best Production for the Young and cemented Practice's approach to Theatre For Young Audiences works with its light touch, interactivity and willingness to tackle difficult topics.

With the planned renovations of Stamford Arts Centre, Practice relocated to its new home: a blue and white shophouse along Waterloo Street which also contained a flexible black box theatre. 

Created by Kuo Jian Hong. Consisting of illustrated lyric books, music albums and live performances, the initiative revitalised classic Mandarin nursery rhymes for the next generation.

"Imagining a just and sustainable future through the arts", the cafe and programming space focused on championing multidisciplinary art-making, placemaking and community building, and providing resources for artists. 

Written by Jonathan Lim, directed by Kuo Jian Hong. Inspired by the history of Waterloo Street, the production was staged across three heritage buildings and has been described as Singapore's most ambitious promenade theatre productions to date.

Directed by Kuo Jian Hong. The multidisciplinary work explored the Chinese diaspora and featured an international team of cast and creatives. It was the first original work by a Singapore theatre company commissioned for Esplanade Theatre, for Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts.

Practice Tuckshop's long-running micro performance lecture meets rescued produce lunch party combined storytelling and dining to spotlight food waste. Various "spin-offs" include Recess Time: On Tour (intercultural touring performance lecture), Online Recess Time (Zoom talk show) and Recess Journal (documentation project).

The initiative was created to develop artists with multi-faceted capabilities, creating a community of practitioners that would build upon each other's strengths and develop different possibilities of collaboration.

Patch! was envisioned as a festival which transcended form, genre or language, to curate a selection of art, performances and experiences to celebrate the importance of play. The festival would run from 2018 to 2021.

Written by Wu Xi and directed by Kuo Jian Hong, invited by SAIC·Shanghai Culture Square's Shanghai International Musical Festival. This was the company's first large-scale international production and featured a touring company of over 60 pax. 

After Four Horse Road 2020's premature closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Practice was one of the first in Singapore to experiment with storytelling through a digital medium. Projects include an international festival, online school shows and a 55-hour livestream celebrating Practice's anniversary. 

Written by Jonathan Lim, directed by Kuo Jian Hong. Inspired by the original Practice script, The Bride Always Knocks Twice, the production cemented Practice's approach to Digital Theatre by synthesising live theatre with cinematography, gaming, history, public space activation and UX design.

Created by Practice and Good Work. Providing a seamless digital theatre space for livestream performances, it was play-tested by Digital Theatre creators worldwide. XIMI was subsequently shortlisted for the 2022 Technical Invention Prize (TIP) and exhibited at the 2022 World Stage Design. 

The #PracticeGreen initiative was created to consolidate a company-wide push for sustainable practices. It is a mindset shift that influences all aspects of decision-making, from artmaking practices, creative choices, communication strategies and office operations. It also supports the creation of Eco-Theatre works and championing eco-artists of different disciplines and approaches.

After participating in multiple editions of the OISTAT-organised World Stage Design and Prague Quadrennial, The Theatre Practice was invited to become an associate member of OISTAT (International Organisation of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians). 

With scenography playing a crucial part of Practice's work since its inception, membership highlighted the company's focus on experimentation and innovation as pathways to artistic excellence, while formally connecting Singapore theatre to an international network of artmakers and art centres.

Working with artists of different backgrounds, practices and perspectives, the residency has welcomed artists from visual arts, culinary arts, arts education, natural making and more. The programme was inspired by Practice Tuckshop’s cross-industry collaborations with craftsmen and artists and an earlier incubation programme for emerging practitioners interested in creating works in non-traditional spaces.

An initiative empowering the Singapore theatre community to embrace sustainability, driving positive change and innovation in the industry through symposiums and talks. It blends international perspectives with local experiences to discuss challenges and collaborate on solutions. The gatherings also serve as field-research for the co-creation of a Singapore edition of the Theatre Green Book.

Extending Practice’s decades-long legacy in arts education, the original Chinese Theatre Festival was relaunched as a Theatre For Young Audience festival. Aiming to create opportunities for inter-generational connection, the festival’s programme features a mix of interactive theatrical productions and artful participatory productions.

Written by Jonathan Lim and Ng Mun Poh, directed by Kuo Jian Hong. Celebrating Made-In-Singapore Mandopop, the jukebox musical follows the journey of five friends through three decades of their lives, told through four acts. This is also the final work by Singapore playwright Jonathan Lim before his passing.

Directed by Ang Xiao Ting. A show disguised as a pickling workshop, the multidisciplinary eco-theatre work explores Singapore’s food security using pickling as a metaphor. Incubated over a period of 2 years through an ecologically-conscious creation model, the work was presented under Esplanade’s The Studios in 2025. A lecture-demonstration version of the work was later presented at the World Stage Design 2025 in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.