An Institution of a Public Character (IPC) under the Charities Act (Cap.37)

Established since 1955, focus on Chinese Children Drama production in 1995

Arts Theatre of Singapore Ltd was started by a group of theatre enthusiasts from Chong Cheng High School in 1955.

It started with a play entitled “Sun Rise” and followed by an average of two to three plays annually.

On 26 January 1995, Arts Theatre of Singapore officially got registered as an unprofitable organization. The company shifted its focus to Children Drama and started to open classes for children.

In recent years, Arts Theatre of Singapore have staged various children theatrical drama such as “Emperor’s Ear”, “White Rabbit”, “Ugly Ducklings”, “Pinocchio”, “Snow White”, etc.

“Learn Chinese Proverbs through Humorous Musical Drama”, ran for many consecutive years with full house audience. It was well liked because the Chinese cultural values were delivered in a humorous way, which entertained both children and adults.

“The Little Mermaid” brought about an interesting visual appearance using UV lights and outstanding costumes as well as locally composed music and songs.

The other children musical play, like the ‘Three little pigs” and “Little Red Riding Hood’, was warmly and well received by both children and adults.

From 1995 to 2010, the company had organized various drama camps and “Theatre Factory” courses for the Primary, Secondary and Junior College students in Singapore. This has helped to increase the students’ proficiency in Chinese Drama.

In 1998, Arts Theatre of Singapore organized a yearly “Creative Drama Workshop” and “School Drama Competition” together with Lian He Zao Bao. This was well received by the Schools in Singapore. In 2007, the company gathered support from the Ministry of Education and the competition was included in the Singapore Youth Festival as a bi-annual event.

In February 2004, the company organized the first Asia Pacific Student Chinese Drama Exchange event. Various schools from Hong Kong, China, Macau and Malaysia and Singapore were invited to take part in the event. This was a very insightful event for the students who participated.

From 2011 till now, the company’s performance has gathered a lot of support from the local schools and is recognized by the National Arts Council for the efforts in promoting Chinese language and culture. The company puts up 3-6 shows per year and the audience was close to 20 000. This was largely made possible by the Ministry of Education’s “Cultural Performance Exposure Scheme”.

The company’s speech and drama courses are also well received by the local schools and have been ongoing for 30 years.

Arts Theatre of Singapore will continue to strive to improve and produce more Children Drama. The focus will be to bring Arts to the Community and to promote Chinese Culture among the younger generation.

The company is now an Institution of a Public Character (IPC) under the Charities Act (Cap.37)