To open a new theatre season with a musical is an ambitious feat. But then again, Huzir Sulaiman and Claire Wong have been dreaming big since the very beginning of Checkpoint Theatre, the company they co-founded more than two decades ago.
The joint artistic directors have been overseeing the development of each year’s line-up of plays, productions and print publications. This year is no different. Checkpoint Theatre’s 2024 season brings a line-up of three promising productions: Secondary: The Musical, a grand musical about overworked teachers and their students; Playing With Fire, a thoughtful, intimate play about the intricacies of the oil and gas industry; and Hard Mode, a delightful exploration of teenage culture in Singapore.
As joint artistic director, Huzir guides the development of each piece of work that comes his way, be it a play, a print publication, a podcast, or “any other kind of original Singapore story”. The company is nurturing multiple projects at any given time, each one at its own unique stage of development. “We probably have eight, 10, or even 12 projects being developed at different stages. Our process takes
