Joel Tan is a Singapore playwright and performer based in London, where he is pursuing the Masters in Dramatic Writing at Drama Centre London, Central St. Martins. Recent productions of his plays include
Tango (Pangdemonium, 2017),
Cafe (The Twenty-Something Theatre Festival, 2016),
Mosaic (The M1 Fringe Festival, 2015), and
The Way We Go (Checkpoint Theatre, 2014). His plays have received acclaim for their range and complex insight on contemporary Singapore, and several are collected in
Joel Tan:
Plays Volume 1, published by Checkpoint Theatre, where he is an Associate Artist.
Joel also creates performances with artists working in contemporary art, poetry, and dance. This most notably includes
The Nature Museum (Singapore International Festival of the Arts, 2017; Fast Forward Festival, Athens, 2018), a museological performance tour created with visual artist Robert Zhao; and spoken word memoir
You Are Here (2016), created with poet Pooja Nansi. Joel also writes non-fiction, and his essays have been published by
Art Review Asia, POSKOD Singapore,
Esquire Singapore, and
The Substation Singapore.