Tan Tarn How ()) is a

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and senior research fellow at the

Institute of Policy Studies (Singapore) The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) is a think-tank that studies and generates public policy ideas in Singapore. Established in 1988, IPS became an autonomous research centre of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National Universi ...

. His plays have been staged in Singapore and Hong Kong, and have won numerous awards. In 2011, Epigram Books published a collection of six of his plays.

Education and career

Tan Tarn How graduated from

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

in 1982 with Bachelor of Arts Honours, Natural Sciences Tripos. He then obtained a Diploma in Education from the Institute of Education, Singapore, in 1984. Tan was also a recipient of a three-month Fulbright Scholarship to Boston University in 1993. Tan Tarn How is currently working for Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore. Prior to this, he worked at ''

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was establish ...

'', Singapore's main local newspaper, from 1987–1996 and 1999 to 2005. Posts he held at ''The Straits Times'' include Science and Technology editor, Sunday Review editor, Life! deputy editor, senior political correspondent and also a foreign correspondent based in Beijing and Hong Kong. From 1997 to 1999, Tan was Head Scriptwriter for Drama, Productions Five at the Singapore Television Corporation (now known as

Mediacorp Mediacorp Pte. Ltd., doing business as Mediacorp and stylised as mediacorp, is a media conglomerate in Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the holding company of the Government of Singapore—it owns television, radio, and digital media prope ...

). Tan Tarn How has also been a teacher and television scriptwriter. He is also the part-time Associate Artistic Director of the drama company TheatreWorks, where he has been leading workshops for budding playwrights. He is also a Board Member of the Intercultural Theatre Institute.

Personal

He is married to a dentist and has two daughters.

Others

* 1997 Attended the Shenandoah International Playwrights Retreat in Virginia, sponsored by the Singapore National Arts Council and Shenanarts * 1989-93 Member of the Theatreworks Writers' Laboratory * 1989 and 1990 Dramaturge to young playwrights of the Gifted Programme Arts Enrichment Programme

Plays

In Praise of the Dentist (1993)

This short play was staged by ST*RS.

The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate 'S' Machine (1993)

Written as part of TheatreWorks' pioneering Writers' Lab, ''The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate 'S' Machine'' enjoyed a first reading in January 1992, directed by

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, whom Tan credits for bringing out the "comic possibilities" of the play. Actor Gerald Chew acted in this reading, and in 2001 directed it for TheatreWorks' theatre retrospective, ''Charging Up Memory Lane''. After the reading, ''The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate 'S' Machine'' was submitted to the police's Public Entertainment Licensing Unit for vetting. The script came back from the police - then the body responsible for arts licensing, a task that now falls on the

Media Development Authority The Media Development Authority ( abbreviation: MDA) was a statutory board of the Singapore Government, under the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI). History MDA was formed on 1 January 2003 by the merger of Singapore Broadcasti ...

- with objections to material in 36 of its 67 pages, including: that Singapore is a nation without soul; that the play promotes sex and communism; that the play ridicules past committees as inefficient; that politicians were more interested in winning votes than delivering on promises. In October 1992, Tan sent in a letter of appeal to the licensing unit and the play was passed clean, a beneficiary of the revised guidelines proposed by the Censorship Review Committee. First staged by TheatreWorks from January to February 1993, directed by

Ong Keng Sen Ong Keng Sen (born 20 November 1963; ) is a Singaporean director of the theatre group TheatreWorks, which was founded in 1985. Early life Ong Keng Sen was youngest of six children born to immigrants from Putian, China. Ong joined the drama cl ...

and starring actors Lut Ali,

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and Jacintha Abisheganaden. Reviewing the play for ''

'', theatre critic Hannah Pandian called it "a watershed in Singapore theatre: it is arguably the first English play to present the country critically and artistically, without hiding behind coy allegory". ''The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate 'S' Machine'' will be restaged in 2015 as part of the

Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay (also known as the Esplanade Theatres (''Malay'': Teater di Persisiran) or simply The Esplanade) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) and a performing arts centre lo ...

' celebrations of Singapore's Golden Jubilee.

Home (1993)

Staged by Theatreworks in 1990. Re-staged by Nanyang Technological University Playhouse.

Undercover (1994)

Tan Tarn How was joint winner of the National Book Development Council Drama Award in 1996 for this play.

Six of the Best (1996)

Staged by Theatreworks.

The First Emperor's Last Days (1998)

This play was staged for the Singapore Arts Festival by TheatreWorks. Later, it was staged for the Asian Performing Arts Festival in Hong Kong by Chung Ying Theatre. The play won the Hong Kong Best Ten Productions of The Year Award.

Machine (2002)

Machine
was staged in Singapore at The Black Box, Fort Canning by Theatreworks. Tan won Best Script in Singapore’s premier theatre award, The 3rd DBS Life! Theatre Awards, for Machine in 2003.

Confessions of 300 Unmarried Men (2006)

Fear of Writing (2011)

Staged by Theatreworks, with Ong Keng Sen as Director and an all-female cast. In 2015, ''Fear of Writing'' was selected by '' The Business Times'' as one of the "finest plays in 50 years" alongside productions by

Goh Poh Seng Goh Poh Seng (; July 1936 – 10 January 2010) was a Singaporean dramatist, novelist, doctor and poet, was born in Kuala Lumpur, British Malaya in 1936. He was educated at Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur, received his medical degree from Uni ...

Michael Chiang Michael Chiang (born 27 October 1955 in Muar, Malaysia) is a prolific playwright and screenwriter in Singapore. He is known as "Singapore's most famous and successful playwright". From 1990 to 2009, Chiang was the editorial director of Mediacorp ...

and

Alfian Sa'at Alfian bin Sa'at (born 18 July 1977), best known as Alfian Sa'at, is a prolific Singaporean playwright, poet, and writer. He is known for penning a body of plays, poems, and prose that often tackle issues considered taboo in the island-state, ...

and others.

Publications

''Fear of Writing''
( Epigram Books, 2012)
''Six Plays''
( Epigram Books, 2011) *''Personality + Power = Changes Unlikely'' (Tan Tarn How, Arun Mahizhnan, eds., Singapore Perspectives 2004: At the Dawn of a New Era, Marshall Cavendish Academic for IPS, 2004) *''The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate 'S' Machine'' (Sirius Books, 1993)

Articles

Some articles Tan Tarn How wrote for ''

'': * July 28, 2002 Kampung Boys Across Causeway All Grown U

* July 25, 2002 Competition Spurs Malaysia And Singapor

* July 22, 2002 Government Cuts Apron Strings With Home-Loan Policy Shift http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,1870,133286,00.html * July 8, 2002 12 Bills Passed, But So Many Missed Chances * July 6, 2002 Probe Into Web Articles Spooks Net Community https://web.archive.org/web/20020711182951/http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,1870,130265,00.html * July 6, 2002 Public Money, But Who Does Public TV Serve? http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,1870,130219,00.html

Notes

References

First Emperor’s Last Days
Theatreworks Archive

Theatreworks Archive

Theatreworks Archive

Theatreworks Archive *Seet, K. K "Performance Review: Six of the Best" *Theatre Journal - Volume 49, Number 2, May 1997, pp. 214–216

External links

* http://tantarnhow.blogspot.com/ * http://tantarnhow.wordpress.com/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20070626142337/http://www.inkpot.com/theatre/02reviews/02revmach.html (Flying Inkpot review of 'Machine') {{DEFAULTSORT:Tan, Tarn How 1960 births Living people Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Singaporean writers Singaporean dramatists and playwrights Singaporean journalists