The Necessary Stage founder Alvin Tan hands reins to Haresh Sharma after 39 years

SINGAPORE – After 39 years, Singapore theatre company The Necessary Stage’s (TNS) founding artistic director Alvin Tan has passed the baton to playwright Haresh Sharma.

Sharma, 61, became TNS’ second artistic director on Aug 1, succeeding the 63-year-old Tan. He has been involved in the management of the company since its founding in 1987 and was its first full-time staff member as administrator and resident playwright in 1990.

With the handover, Sharma, a Cultural Medallion recipient in 2015, will work closely with general manager Melissa Lim, 49, to oversee the artistic direction of the company. Tan will continue to work on projects with TNS on an ad-hoc basis, a TNS statement on Aug 3 said.

The move is partly driven by Tan’s recent focus on Peranakan arts, a more specific niche than TNS’ more generally intercultural work.

Tan currently leads TNS’ Peranakan Devising Lab, but has also advocated for Peranakan plays through collectives like Tapestry, where he is the creative director.

Tan, a Cultural Medallion recipient in 2014, said: “Haresh is the natural and organic person to take over, not just carrying the history of the company but having significantly contributed to its creative vision. I wouldn’t have been able to leave TNS to pursue my late career vision if I had to search outside TNS.”

Speaking about TNS’ founding in 1987, Tan added: “I was inspired by the intercultural sensibilities of my own Peranakan culture to design its artistic vision and direction to discover the Singaporean voice. Since then, the intercultural vision has developed to regional and international collaborations.”

Sharma, the playwright of socially conscious plays, including Off Centre (1993) and Underclass (2018), pledged that TNS would remain at the forefront of pushing boundaries for this sort of theatre, with works such as 3 Queens, starring Siti Khalijah Zainal, Munah Bagharib and Siti Hajar Gani, which premieres in September.

“We have also been more invested in accessibility, both for audiences and disability arts,” Sharma said. “As a senior theatre company, we focus on doing the work with vigour and responsibility, sometimes quietly, creating ripples of change.”

In recent years, TNS has partnered non-profit organisation ART:DIS on works such as Invisible (2026), which starred actress Jaspreet Kaur Sekhon, who has Down syndrome, and featured embedded narration.

This is a way of storytelling that ensures that those who are unable to see are still able to imagine what is happening onstage through clues in the text or through sounds.

On TNS’ annual Singapore Fringe Festival, which was fully crowdfunded with no corporate sponsors for the first time in 2026, Sharma said: “We are committed to sustaining the Fringe as long as there is support from the audience and the artists. We have been fortunate to have had successful fund-raising drives in the past.

“But with rising costs, we need consistent commitment from the public and donors.” Those who wish to donate can do so at bit.ly/fringe27ally

TNS’ works occupy a less mainstream space in the Singapore theatre scene, with its plays often devised or created collaboratively. It also has a reputation for mentoring younger artists, with such luminaries as former Singapore International Festival of Arts director Natalie Hennedige and current festival director Chong Tze Chien getting their start with the company.

Its associate artists programme from 2022 to 2025 nurtured theatremakers such as Deonn Yang, Sindhura Kalidas, Lim Shien Hian, A Yagnya, Safuan Johari and Liu Yong Huay, all recognisable names on the scene today.