WRITING LAB 2014
PROGRAMME INFO & APPLICATION
About Writing Lab 2014
Writing Lab 2014 is a seven-week script-writing mentorship programme, running from 13 Feb-27 Mar
2014 facilitated by Huzir Sulaiman of Checkpoint Theatre, and organised by NUS Museum for the NUS
Arts Festival 2014. Under Huzir’s guidance, students will write short plays that draw from, refer to, or
intersect with the collections of NUS Museum. The programme will consist of one mentoring session and
one public talk per week, culminating in a public script reading session on 27 Mar 2014 during the NUS
Arts Festival 2014.
Mobilising the archival materials and anecdotes collected by NUS Museum, Writing Lab 2014 will attempt
to locate history as a site of multiple reflections and refractions. The programme, therefore, takes as its
central premise the potentials of writing with history. It encourages a thinking of history not merely as an
object that one simply authors, but that which writes us as much as we write it: a history that is equally as
ambivalent and contemporaneous as words themselves.
About Huzir Sulaiman
A co-founder and Joint Artistic Director of Checkpoint Theatre, Huzir Sulaiman works across different
media, art forms, and genres, telling stories that allow people to access complex ideas in simple,
personal, human ways. Huzir writes for theatre, film, television and newspapers; directs for the stage and
screen; and acts.
As a playwright, his recent play The Weight Of Silk On Skin opened the Man Singapore Theatre Festival
in August 2011 and won Best Original Script at the 2012 Life! Theatre Awards. Huzir recently directed
Checkpoint Theatre's critically-acclaimed 15th anniversary production of Atomic Jaya. His Collected Plays
1998-2012 was published in 2013 by Checkpoint Theatre. Huzir has taught playwriting at NUS, NTU,
NYU Tisch Asia, and SOTA.
He is also the co-founder and Creative Director of Studio Wong Huzir, a creative consultancy. Studio
Wong Huzir also publishes POSKOD.SG, an online magazine about Singapore. As a creative consultant,
Huzir worked on creating content for the redevelopment of the National Museum of Singapore, and was
the Creative Director for the observation deck on level 124 of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the
world.
Huzir was educated at Princeton University, where he won the Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize. He is a Yale
World Fellow.
For more information on Checkpoint Theatre, visit www.checkpoint-theatre.org
Who Can Apply
Applications for this programme are open to all tertiary students (university, polytechnic, junior college)
aged 18-25.
How to Apply
Application forms must be completed and submitted via email to museum@nus.edu.sg with the subject
header “Writing Lab 2014 Programme” by 2 February 2014. Incomplete applications will not be
considered.
Only successful candidates will be notified.
For enquiries, please contact Michelle Kuek at michellekuek@nus.edu.sg or call 6516-8428.
WRITING LAB 2014
PROGRAMME INFO & APPLICATION
Programme Calendar
Programme
Activity
Mentoring Session
Time
Venue
Week 1
13 Feb
6pm-8pm
NUS Museum
Mentoring Session #1 + Curatorial
Briefs
History and Its Currency:
Archives, Anecdotes, Contemporary
Practice Talk Series
8pm-9.30pm
Public Talk #1
Practitioner & Project TBA
Week 2
20 Feb
Mentoring Session #2
Public Talk #2
Practitioner & Project TBA
Week 3
27 Feb
Week 4
6 Mar
Break
Mentoring Session #3
Public Talk #3
Practitioner & Project TBA
Week 5
13 Mar
Mentoring Session #4
Public Talk #4
Practitioner & Project TBA
Week 6
20 Mar
Mentoring Session #5
Public Talk #5
Practitioner & Project TBA
Week 7
27 Mar
Mentoring Session #6
Script Reading Session
*Participants are required to attend all mentoring sessions and talks organised as part of the Writing Lab
2014 programme.
History and Its Currency: Archives, Anecdotes, Contemporary Practice Talk Series
Every glimpse of history is merely a freeze-frame in transit. History, in other words, is constantly on the
move, always caught in a state of perpetual becoming. What would it mean for us to write history then?
The flow of ink on paper, the flickering of words on screen; both suggest the myriad ways in which history
moves us. But perhaps the inverse is just as valid: it is us who continue to animate, perform and simulate
history as such.
Presented as part of the Writing Lab 2014 programme, the talk series History and its Currency: Archives,
Anecdotes, Contemporary Practice will gather together practitioners whose projects often entail a thinking
of history as contested, imagined, and always open to a future still to come.
WRITING LAB 2014
PROGRAMME INFO & APPLICATION
1. Personal Particulars
Name
Date of Birth
NRIC/Passport No.
Nationality
Contact Number
Mailing Address
Email Address
2. Course Information
Institution
Faculty
Department
Major
Year of Study
3a. Interest in Art and/or History
What areas of visual art, art history, history, historiography or museology are of most interest to you?
(Maximum 150 words)
3b. Theatre Experience
Describe your previous theatre experience. (Maximum 150 words)
WRITING LAB 2014
PROGRAMME INFO & APPLICATION
3c. Creative Writing Experience
Tell us what types of creative writing you have done before. (Maximum 150 words)
3d. Statement of Intent
Please write a brief statement of intent detailing your reasons for wanting to participate in this programme
and how it would benefit you. (Maximum 300 words)
3e. Writing Samples
Please attach no more than 10 pages of excerpts of your previous creative writing, whether plays,
screenplays, short stories, poems, songs, or graphic novels.
WRITING LAB 2014
PROGRAMME INFO & APPLICATION
4. TERMS & CONDITIONS
4.1 I certify that the information contained on this application form is accurate and true and that the
accompanying portfolio for this application consists of original pieces of work written by myself. I give
my consent to NUS Museum, NUS Centre For the Arts to disclose the information submitted by me in
this application form to the relevant parties involved in the selection process.
4.2 I am able to fulfil the following programme requirements:


To be present for all Writing Lab 2014 workshops, lectures and readings held at NUS
Museum from 13 Feb – 27 Mar 2014, and shall not be absent for any session or day during
which activities are conducted, unless written approval has been obtained from the
programme facilitator and the organisers.
To submit an original script based on concepts selected by the programme facilitator and the
organisers by the end of the programme.
4.3 I shall retain the copyright to the script created and developed on during the course of the Writing Lab
2014 programme, however NUS Museum, NUS Centre For the Arts shall have the right of first refusal
to produce any scripts written or developed by me within the Writing Lab 2014 programme.
4.4 I warrant that any script created by me will not infringe upon the rights of any third party and I will
obtain all necessary rights, licenses, or authorisation to incorporate any third party materials into the
script for the use of NUS Museum, NUS Centre For the Arts and/or NUS.
4.5 I shall indemnify NUS Museum, NUS Centre For the Arts and/or NUS against all damages, costs,
charges and expenses arising from or incurred by reason of any infringement of third party copyright,
trade secret or other proprietary or intellectual property right of any kind.
4.6 NUS Museum, NUS Centre For the Arts shall not be liable for any loss, damage, costs and/or
expense (whether direct or indirect), suffered by me caused by any default, negligence and/or breach
of these terms and conditions.
4.7 I shall be liable for and hereby agree to fully indemnify and hold harmless NUS Museum from any
actions, claims, demands, obligations, damages, penalties, costs, expenses and liabilities of any kind
or nature arising directly or indirectly out of my actions, omission and/or default, or of any breach of
these Terms and Conditions.
4.8 I shall not have any recourse against NUS Museum for the cancellation of the Writing Lab 2014
programme, and shall not be entitled to any losses, damages, expenses and/or costs (whether direct
or indirect) suffered and/or incurred by me in connection with the cancellation.
Name:
Date:
Application forms must be completed and submitted via email to museum@nus.edu.sg with the subject
header “Writing Lab 2014 Programme” by 2 February 2014. Incomplete applications will not be
considered. Only successful candidates will be notified.
For enquiries, please contact Michelle Kuek at michellekuek@nus.edu.sg or call 6516-8428.