Claire Wong
Claire Wong is a Singapore-based stage and film actress, director and filmmaker.
Born in Malaysia, she is a resident of Singapore. A qualified 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.
During the 1990s she performed in leading roles in Ong Keng Sen's post-modern Flowers of Destiny, Madame Mao's Memories, and Desdemona.[1][2] More recently, she has acted in her husband Huzir Sulaiman's Atomic Jaya, Cogito,[3] 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. Claire 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.[4]
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). Claire 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.[5]
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. Claire has taught at the National University of Singapore, at both the Faculty of Law and in the Theatre Studies department.[6]
Selected filmography
Actor
| 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 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 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 2009, 2015 and 2016 | |
| 2013 | Atomic Jaya | Multiple characters | Directed by Huzir Sulaiman |
| 2014 | The House Of Bernarda Alba | Bernarda Alba | Directed by Glen Goei |
Director
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Up North, Down South | |
| 2004 | Election Day | Written by Huzir Sulaiman |
| 2004 | Invitation To Treat trilogy | Written by Eleanor Wong, Nominated for Best Director at the The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards |
| 2008 | wo(men) | Written by Faith Ng |
| 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 |
| 2013 | Occupation | Written by Huzir Sulaiman |
| 2014 | The Way We Go | Written by Joel Tan |
| 2015 | Normal | Written by Faith Ng |
References
- ↑ Curtis, Nick (1992) "Edinburgh Festival Days 6 & 7: Madame Mao's Memories", The Independent, 22 August 1992, retrieved 11 July 2011
- ↑ Kennedy, Dennis & Yong, Li Lan (2010) Shakespeare in Asia: Contemporary Performance, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-51552-8, p. 262
- ↑ Koay, Allan (2007) "Huzir’s reflections", Malaysia Star, 22 June 2007, retrieved 11 July 2011
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ "Tutor's Bio". NUS.
- ↑ "People Studio Wong Huzir". Studio Wong Huzir. Retrieved 15 September 2014.