Nora Samosir is a Singaporean actress of Indonesian descent who won a 2002 Life Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has been active in the Singapore theatre scene since 1979 and has worked in television and film. Some of her more notable performances include ''The Swallowed Seed'' (2002) and ''Revelations'' (2003)

Early life and education

Samosir is of Indonesian descent and speaks English, Malay and

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

fluently. She studied at the

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...

, London, and graduated from

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

, Toronto, Canada with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours), and has multiple qualifications in vocal training and voice studies.

Career

Her professional training is in acting and voice production, which she also taught at the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

. Samosir lectured in Theatre Studies and teaches voice production. Samosir is currently a lecturer in the School of Dance & Theatre at LASALLE, where she lectures in Acting and Musical Theatre. Samosir has done extensive work in Singapore with such groups as Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT), Action Theatre,

The Necessary Stage The Necessary Stage (TNS, previously known as M1 Theatre Connect and M1 Youth Connection) is a Singaporean non-profit theatre company with charity status. Formed in 1987 by Alvin Tan, TNS was established with its own mission to create challengi ...

(TNS), Cake Theatre, Black Tent Theater,

Music and Movement Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

, and TheatreWorks (TW), as well as performing at venues such as

National Museum of Singapore The National Museum of Singapore is a public museum dedicated to Singaporean art, culture and history. Located within the country's Civic District at the Downtown Core area, it is the oldest museum in the country, with its history dating back to ...

Dublin Fringe Festival The Dublin Fringe Festival is an annual curated arts festival in Dublin, Ireland focusing mainly on theatre. The festival allows artists to submit their work via an application which is subsequently reviewed by the programme manager. The festiva ...

, National Theatre Festival (at the

National School of Drama National School of Drama (NSD) is a drama school situated at New Delhi, India. It is an autonomous organization under Ministry of Culture, Government of India. It was set up in 1959 by the Sangeet Natak Akademi and became an independent school ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

), Asian Theatre Festival at Kyungsung University in

Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

, Lyric Theatre, Festival of Perth, TheatreWorks Retrospective Festival, Kuala Lumpur,

Adelaide Festival of Arts The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

, and

National Institute of Education The National Institute of Education (NIE) is an autonomous institute of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. Ranked 10th in the world and 2nd in Asia by the QS World University Rankings in the subject of Education and Trainin ...

. She is a member of the Association of Singapore Actors, the Singapore Drama Educators Association.

Criticism and praise

In considering her role in ''Doubt'' (2006), Richard Lord of Quarterly Literary Review Singapore wrote that her portrayal of Sister Aloysius was unsympathetic and led to the audience believing in the innocence of Father Brendan as played by Lim Yu Beng. When speaking of her award-winning role of Claire in ''Proof'' (2002), Daniel Teo of Inkpot Reviews praised her performance and her precision, while Richard Lord of QLRS felt she exaggerated her character, but had shown better work in performance earlier that year." The following year in his review of ''Revelations'' (2003), Lord gave a mixed review of the production's "faulty structure", yet approved of Samosir's performance. In 2003, Samosir was involved with ''Pulse'' (2003), an experimental series of 3 interlinked plays loosely based on an urban woman's diary. The series was reviewed by Matthew Lyon of Inkpot Reviews, who felt her performance in the second of the three was "the strongest of the whole series."

Filmography

Selected notable theatre appearances

*''Asian Boys Volume 1'' (2000) with The Necessary Stage *''Destinies of Flowers in the Mirror'' (2009) *''Temple'' (2008) with Cake Theatre *''120'' (2007) with the

*''Doubt'' (2006) *''Queen Ping'' (2006) with Cake Theatre *''

The Vagina Monologues ''The Vagina Monologues'' is an episodic play written in 1996 by Eve Ensler which developed and premiered at HERE Arts Center, Off-Off-Broadway in New York and was followed by an Off-Broadway run at the Westside Theatre. The play explores ...

'' (2004) with The Arts House *''Revelations'' (2003) with TNS *''Pulse Version Theatre'' (2003) with TheatreWorks *''Proof'' (2002) with Action Theatre *''Fruit Plays'' (2002) **''Human Heart Fruit'' by Stella Konand **''The Swallowed Seed'' by Jean Tay

Film

*''Singapore Shorts Vol. 2'' (

Asian Film Archive The Asian Film Archive (AFA) is a non-governmental organisation in Singapore that preserves the film heritage of Asian Cinema. The archive is located at the National Library, Singapore, National Library Building along Victoria Street, a five-minute ...

's) (2008) *''Imelda Goes to Singapore'' (2008) *''Shanghai Lily'' (1999) *''Passionflower'' (1986)

Television

*''Masters of the Sea'' (1994) *''Shiver'' (1997) *''Ah Girl'' (2001–2002) *''Guru Paarvai'' (2004) *''Stories of Love'' (2008)

Awards

*2002 Life Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Claire in Action Theatre's 2002 production of "Proof".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samosir, Nora Singaporean actresses Living people Indonesian emigrants to Singapore People of Batak descent Year of birth missing (living people)