Bookends

Theatre practitioner Tan Kheng Hua is working on an event to showcase young Singaporeans with talents.
Theatre practitioner Tan Kheng Hua is working on an event to showcase young Singaporeans with talents. PHOTO: SUNG LINGUN
Key Poses Of Yoga: Your Guide To Functional Anatomy In Yoga: 2 by Ray Long PHOTO: SUNG LINGUN

Who: Tan Kheng Hua, theatre practitioner, 52

The established actress is known for her role as Margaret Phua in the local TV sitcom Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd (1997 - 2007), among others.

Tan, who is married to actor Lim Yu Beng, 49 - they have a 16-year-old daughter, Shi An Lim - has also produced shows such as the Dim Sum Dollies revues and TV series 9 Lives and Do Not Disturb.

She spent time in the last two years with various people in their 20s at events such as the SIN-PEN Colony, a mini Singapore festival that was part of the George Town Festival in Penang, as well as Singapore: Inside Out, a travelling showcase of local creative and artistic talent helmed by The Singapore Tourism Board.

She is working on organising a new event, The Twenty Something Theatre Festival.

100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write by Sarah Ruhl

Slated for June next year, it aims to showcase 20something Singaporeans who have talents in different fields such as producing, music, visual arts, mixology, acting, writing and designing.

To find out more, go to facebook.com/twentysomethingtheatrefestivalSG

What are you reading right now?

I am organised but easily distracted. I always have at least five things occupying me at any one time and my reading habits are no different. I read a few books at one time and flit from one to another in an organised but easily distracted way.

I am reading and re-reading the two plays I am in with Pangdemonium for its 2016 Season Of Love- Lucy Prebble's The Effect and Deanna Jent's Falling.

I am also reading 100 Essays I Don't Have Time To Write by Sarah Ruhl, given to me by one of my best friends, actress Janice Koh.

She always knows what I need before even I know it and getting me this book to read for all the travelling I have been doing hits the right spot.

It is funny. The subject matter is theatre, which I love, and it is intelligent and entertaining, so I don't feel stupid reading it but am thoroughly entertained.

I am also reading Key Poses Of Yoga: Your Guide To Functional Anatomy In Yoga: 2 by Ray Long. It is intriguing because I can now see which muscles are used in which yoga poses I do and it also comes with great diagrams that come in colour.

What books would you save from a burning house?

I have a chest filled with notebooks of stuff I have written when pen and paper were the only means of archiving feelings and thoughts. I would save that chest and its contents in a heart-beat. They are on paper so there aren't any copies. I would also save all the stuff my daughter has drawn and written in her notebooks. She's an old-fashioned kind of girl when it comes to notation. She is not as organised as me, so her notebooks are all over the place. That makes it harder to save from a burning house. It's time I bought her a chest.

  • 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write by Sarah Ruhl (S$34.56, 2014, Faber and Faber) and Key Poses Of Yoga: Your Guide To Functional Anatomy In Yoga: 2 by Ray Long (S$43.36, 2009, BandhaYoga) are available at amazon.com.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on November 15, 2015, with the headline Bookends. Subscribe