Xiao Jian (China) trained in Beijing Opera at the Shanghai Opera School from 1992 to 1999, winning a full scholarship each year. He twice received the Best Student Award from the Hu Chu-Nan Arts Fund and went on to graduate from the Performing Arts College of Shanghai Normal University in 2001. He was employed by the Shanghai Beijing Opera Company and became one of their leading young performers. He played more than 100 roles and performed at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Shanghai convention, and for President SR Nathan of Singapore during his visit to Shanghai. He won a Performer’s Award jn the Chinese Central Television “HaYaoLiuBei” National Young Beijing Opera Actor’s Competition, and also played a part in the movie Shanghai Vice by River Films (England). After graduating from the TTRP, he will next be seen on the Singapore stage in The Theatre Practice’s Lao Jiu the Musical.

Mohamed Kunju Noushad (India) graduated in 1999 from the National School of Drama, India, which handpicks a small number of students each year from all across India for their fully-subsidized training.  He was then employed as a professional actor in the NSD Repertory, and performed in many productions in India, as well as in the Indian-Japanese collaborative production Miwa in Tokyo in 1999.  Before joining the NSD, he had performed in Kerala since 1986 and also trained at the Trichur School of Drama.  After graduating from the TTRP, he will be appearing in the Singapore Arts Festival 2005 in Teater Ekamatra’s Impenjarament and then in Chen Hui Wen’s production of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis, which will be performed in Taiwan, Poland and Germany.

Melissa Leung Hiu Tuen (Hong Kong) has been performing with various companies in Hong Kong since 1996, including a devised theatre piece Fly! Fly! Archaelogoy Bird: Version 2000 with Mok Chiu Yu and Chan Ping Chiu, and with companies like On & On Theatre Workshop. She has also worked as project coordinator, stage manager and workshop facilitator, and organised a Theatre Sports workshop and competition for the Arts with the Disabled Association. She holds a Bachelor of Education degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she specialised in Sports Science and Physical Education. After graduating from the TTRP, she will be performing in DramaBox’s Furnitur with Zelda Tatiana Ng and directed by Sim Pern Yiau, both also graduates of TTRP.

Chris Lee Ban Loong (Singapore) started working in theatre with the Singapore Polytechnic Chinese Language Society in 1995. In 1996, he successfully auditioned for a part in A New Journey by Dramabox. Inspired by the artistic director Mr. Kok Heng Leun, he began directing at the polytechnic and went on to become a freelance actor and stage manager before enrolling in the TTRP. His enthusiasm for theatre has also seen him in production, organisation and compering roles. He has also initiated school and community groups with the aims of promoting and developing theatre.

She has performed in productions like The Yellow Emperor’s Book and the Swine Lake by Zai Kuning (Esplanade, 2003), Together with Tatsumi Hijikata by Tatsumi Hijikata Memorial Butoh Troupe (Esplanade, 2003), and Łatwe umieranie by Lech Raczak (Poland, 2002).  She has worked with noted alternative theatre companies in Poznań: in Rekord by Theatre of Porywaczy Ciał (2003), Kuranty by The Zone of Silence Theatre (2001) and Carmen Funebre by Teatr Biuro Podróży (2000; Singapore Arts Festival, 1998) and with Teatr Ósmego Dnia.

Kamimura Miyuki (Japan) started his career as an actor in 1988, with the Waka Floating Company led by Takeshi Wakamatsu, who was a main actor of Tenjo-sajiki. There he trained in the “Terayama Method” and also had some Butoh training. After acting in several plays, he became a freelance actor. Since then, he has performed in various plays, dance performances, rock concerts, etc. He appeared in Tokyo Globe Company’s production of King Lear in England, and as a member of the acrobat team in the opera La Damnation de Faust (1999) directed by Robert Lepage and conducted by Seiji Ozawa. After graduating from the TTRP, he will perform in Chen Hui Wen’s production of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis, which will be presented in Taiwan, Poland and Germany.

Hung Pei Ching (Taiwan) graduated from the Soochow University in Taipei in 1991 with a degree in Physics.  She has directed and performed in plays in school and participated in workshops by Godot Theatre Company and New Age Theatre Company.  She performed in Chicago produced by Godot Theatre Company.

Felimon Blanco (Philippines) started performing with the university-based MSU-Sining Kambayoka Ensemble in the early 90s. Working with directors Sunnie Noel and Eustess Guia, he toured Mindanao from 1992 to 1994 in productions such Halik sa Kampilan, Kapmadali and Agamaniyog. In August 1995, he co-founded the Kumbingan Ensemble in Pagadian City and served as Cultural Dance Director.

In August 1998, he founded the Tambul Dance and Theater Ensemble, since adopted as Official Performing Group by the Municipality of Tambulig, which popularizes the indigenous Kambayoka theatre form. With the Ensemble, he produced, conceived and directed local productions such as Taas Noo Pilipino, Dans I, Alamat ng Tambulig and Ang Tambul Ni Ilig (which he wrote). With funding from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), he directed Wedding Dance and New Yorker in Tondo, which toured to colleges in the Cities of Ozamis, Iligan and Pagadian. As founding chairman of the Tambulig Arts Council, Felimon helped the Subanen indigenous community revive their cultural traditions by holding local cultural festivals.

Maria Au Mong Chao (Macao) has been acting since 1995 and has performed in Macau, Portugal, Singapore, and Shanghai.  She received the Best Actress award in the Macau Drama Festival 1999.  She was a director of the Hiu Kok Drama Association, and has also undertaken the roles of costume designer, stage manager and assistant director. After graduation, she will begin to serve her bond to the Cultural Institute of Macao, which awarded her a full scholarship for her studies at TTRP.

Bertolt Brecht

German poet, playwright, and theatrical reformer, one of the most prominent figures in the 20th-century theatre. In his works Brecht have been concerned with encouraging audiences to think rather than becoming too involved in the story and to identify with the characters. In this process he used alienation effects. He aimed to take emotion out of the production, persuade the audience to distance themselves from the make believe characters and make the actors to dissociate from their roles. Brecht developed a form of drama called epic theatre in which ideas or didactic lessons are important.

Brecht lived in Bavaria, where he was born, studied medicine (Munich, 1917-21), and served in an army hospital (1918). From this period date his first play, Baal (produced 1923) and his first success, Drums in the Night. The play that put him in the limelight was Three Penny Opera.

In 1933 he went into exile--in Scandinavia (1933-41), mainly in Denmark, and then in the United States (1941-47). He was cut off from the German theatre; but between 1937 and 1941 he wrote most of his great plays, his major theoretical essays and dialogues, and many of the poems collected as Svendborger Gedichte (1939). The plays of these years became famous in the author's own and other productions: notable among them are Mother Courage and Her Children, The Life of Galileo, The Good Woman of Szechwan and The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

In West as well as in East Germany Brecht became the most popular contemporary playwright, after Shakespeare, Schiller, and Ibsen. In 1955 Brecht received the Stalin Peace Prize. Next year he contracted a lung inflammation and died of a coronary thrombosis in East Berlin.