The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards
2024
Best Supporting Actress
Rebekah Sangeetha Dorai
BA (Hons) Acting, Class of 2016
Entry: Dear Evan Hansen (Pangdemonium)
The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards
The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards is organised by Life!, the arts and entertainment section of the newspaper The Straits Times, to acknowledge the contributions of theatre productions in Singapore.
The awards honour the best stage productions, actors, actresses, directors and playwrights from Singapore.
The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards
2020
Best Ensemble
Urinetown: The Musical (Pangdemonium)
Featuring:
Mina Ellen Kaye, BA(Hons) Musical Theatre, Class of 2012
Benjamin Chow, BA(Hons) Acting, Class of 2014
Kimberly Chan, BA(Hons) Musical Theatre, Class of 2014
Erwin Shah Ismail, BA(Hons) Acting, Class of 2011
Vanessa Kee, BA(Hons) Musical Theatre, Class of 2019
Seong Hui Xuan, BA(Hons) Musical Theatre, Class of 2010
Muhammad Shafiq Haziq, BA(Hons) Musical Theatre, Class of 2019
Joash Tang, BA(Hons) Musical Theatre, Class of 2019
Image credit: Pangdemonium
The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards
2018
Best Actor
Thomas Pang
BA(Hons) Acting, Class of 2015
Thomas has been nominated in the Best Actor category since 2016, when he became eligible after his professional debut here. The Malaysian actor won this year for his performance in Hand To God, staged by the Singapore Repertory Theatre. He played a puppeteer whose puppet takes on a mischievous life of its own. "I would play this role again. It was so much fun and such a snappy show," he said.
He was also nominated Best Actor at the Life! Theatre Awards 2015 for his portrayal of the deaf protagonist in Tribes, and was named “Best Up-and-coming Actor” by Time Out Singapore in the same year.
Thomas is a Malaysian actor, theatre-maker, and teacher from San Francisco. He holds a First Class BA(Hons) Acting from LASALLE and is an alumnus of the San Francisco School of the Arts. His productions include his own work Cold Bones No More, The Last Bull with Flamenco Maestro Antonio Vargas for SIFA 2016 (Checkpoint Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (SRT), Ophelia (Cake Theatre), The Shape of a Bird (Saga Seed), The Good, The Bad, and The Sholay (Checkpoint), Versus for SIFA 2015 (Cake) and Tribes (Pangdemonium).
Best Supporting Actor
Benjamin Chow
BA(Hons) Acting, Class of 2014
Benjamin Chow won Best Supporting Actor again for his role in Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress, where he blew audiences away with a stand-out performance as the eponymous Empress’s brother-in-law and political foil, Prince Tun.
At the 2016 edition of the awards, then a fresh graduate from LASALLE, Benjamin also picked up a Best Supporting Actor nod for his widely acclaimed performance as opposition leader Lim Chin Siong in The LKY Musical, where he held his own opposite veteran actor Adrian Pang. The LKY Musical was an original musical produced in commemoration of Singapore’s 50th year of independence, highlighting the late Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s college life leading up to independent Singapore.
The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards
2017
Production of the Year
Best Original Script
Edith Podesta
MA Fine Arts, Class of 2010
Programme Leader BA(Hons) Acting programme (January 2007 - August 2015)
Entry: B*tch: The Origin Of The Female Species
Best Supporting Actor
Lian Sutton
BA(Hons) Acting, Class of 2014
BA(Hons) Acting alumnus, Lian Sutton, took home an award at the M1-The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards 2017. For his dual roles as Clytemnestra and Orestes in Electra (Cake Theatrical Productions), he was named Best Supporting Actor.
A trained martial artist from an early age, Lian constantly seeks to merge his talents to tell stories in new and engaging ways. Roles at LASALLE include Anton Schill in The Visit (directed by Natalie Hennedige), Leontes in The Winter’s Tale (directed by Adam Marple), and various characters in All in the Timing (directed by Edith Podesta), among others.
M1-The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards
2015
Best Actress
Mina Kaye
BA(Hons) Musical Theatre, Class of 2012
Within two years of graduating from LASALLE, Mina Kaye wowed Singaporean audiences with her star turn as LV in Pangdemonium’s The Rise and Fall of Little Voice to win Best Actress at The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards 2015. The Musical Theatre alumna’s versatility was on full display in the musical, where she impersonated eight iconic divas from Edith Piaf to Teresa Teng.
Mina is an award-winning actress, currently based in Boston. After an extensive career in Singapore as a musical theatre performer, as well as performing internationally, including Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and London, Mina was offered a scholarship to be a candidate for the elite Boston Conservatory’s MFA in Musical Theatre programme. During that time, she starred in Michael John LaChiusa’s The Wild Party as the leading role of Queenie, directed by Neil Donohoe. She was also part of the ensemble of an original new musical, Coolsville, directed by Doug Lockwood, which earned a nomination for Best Ensemble at the 2015 ArtsImpulse Theatre Award.
Graduating in 2012 with a BA (Hons) Musical Theatre from LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore, Mina Kaye has worked non-stop post graduation, performing in over 16 professional productions in the Singapore theatre scene.
In 2011, Mina clinched the role of Rapunzel in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods by Dream Academy Productions during her second year at LASALLE, and made her professional stage debut at the Esplanade Theatre. Her first post-graduation production was yet another Sondheim musical, Company, also by Dream Academy Productions. Her powerful vocals and saucy portrayal of Marta in Company earned her great reviews. Mina was also praised for her performance in Pasek and Paul’s Edges by Sight Lines Productions as well as Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World by Theatre Lab Productions respectively; both productions premiered in Singapore in early 2013.
In addition, Mina has been very privileged to work alongside award-winning composer and lyricist from the West End, George Stiles and Anthony Drewe on the premiere of Goldilocks and the Three Bears produced by The Singapore Repertory Theatre. She has also been privileged with the invitation to perform alongside accomplished Broadway performers, Brad Little and Shoshana Bean in The Phantom Unmasked Concert at the Marina Bay Sands Theatre.
With two Sondheim musicals already under her belt, Mina added a second Jason Robert Brown musical to her resume with The Last Five Years in early 2014, which garnered commendable reviews from critics for her performance as Cathy.
M1-The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards
2013
Best Supporting Actress
Seong Hui Xuan
BA(Hons) Musical Theatre, Class of 2010
Hui Xuan has many years of experience teaching dance, piano and drama, and choreographing for dance and theatre shows. Some of her notable theatre roles include Fanny in 2 Houses (George Town Festival 2014); Ruby Lee in Rising Son (Singapore Repertory Theatre); Kayleen in Gruesome Playground Injuries (Pangdemonium); Izzy in Rabbit Hole (Pangdemonium); Olivia in Twelfth Night (Singapore Repertory Theatre); and April in Company (Dream Academy), for which she won Best Supporting Actress at The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards.
Other theatre credits include Crazy Christmas (Dream Academy, 2012 and 2013); Kim in Machine (Orangedot/Esplanade); Woman 1 in Songs For A New World (Theatre Lab Productions); Anne in La Cage aux Folles (W!ld Rice); Thea in Spring Awakening (Pangdemonium); and Lucinda in Into The Woods (Dream Academy).
