Artistic Directors
Chelsea Crothers is a theatre practitioner and performance teacher. Her qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Theatre and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education from Griffith University. She has her Master of Arts (Performing Arts) by practice-as-research at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). She currently teaches at the School Of The Arts (SOTA), Singapore. She has deeply studied the Suzuki Method of Actor Training and the Nobbs Suzuki Praxis and allows her understanding of these pre-expressive trainings to inform her performing, teaching, and devising work. She regularly works with OzFrank Theatre Film (Australia), and Autopoetics (Singapore) of which she is a founding member. She has performed and devised Theatre for Young Audiences, is committed to personal and professional development, and believes in inculcating embodied knowledge practices in her classrooms. She is enthusiastic about performer training, education, working with young people, practice as research, theatre and theatre devising techniques.
Laura Hayes is a British theatre-maker living and working in Singapore, where she is Associate Dean, Practice Research at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). Before moving to Singapore, she worked as an actor, casting assistant, and educator. She received an Entente Cordiale Scholarship and the Daebliz Award to study at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq (2005-2007). She was also awarded the Percival Steeds Prize on her graduation with a degree in Acting from the Royal Conservatoire Scotland (RCS). She holds an MA from Birmingham University (2019) and is studying for a PhD with Royal Holloway, University of London. Laura’s acting experience began at the National Youth Theatre and the Manchester Youth Theatre. Her performing experience includes work at the Tron Theatre, the Arts Theatre in London’s West End, the Polka Theatre, Southwold Rep, Eye Theatre, and for Rumpus, and Dreamthinkspeak. She has taught extensively for companies which include the Royal Shakespeare Company, Touchstone Shakespeare Theatre, Polka Theatre, Dundee College and Oxbridge Programs. Laura was a founder member of 3 short 1 tall and is a co-founder of Autopoetics. As a playwright, her play You/I was selected by W!ld Rice for the Singapore Theatre Festival in 2019. Hide and Seek was produced by Centre 42 for the Singapore Night Festival in 2023, and she wrote the (play)box (an expanded playtext) for Provenance.
Maiya Murphy is a performer, deviser, teacher, and researcher. She began as both an actor and dancer, and found a common meeting point for her passions in movement–based training and creation approaches. She interweaves her practice with both writing and teaching. Credits outside of her work with Autopoetics include: directing and developing UC San Diego’s undergraduate main stage show, Doctored and Devised based on the work of Dr. Seuss; directing Something From Nothing, a UC San Diego undergraduate cabaret; co-creating and performing in mugwumpin’s Your Nightgown is Jealous When You Dream (San Francisco) a theatrical adaptation of a 17th century Pu Songling story; and collaborating as the theatrical director for hip-hop dance company Elements of Motion’s Inkspot, a hip-hop physical theater show (Boulder). Acting credits include guest artist in the Yale-NUS production of Hanjo (Singapore), Lincoln Center Director’s Festival at HERE (New York), Theatre Studio, Inc., (New York), The Colorado Shakespeare Festival New Works Series (Boulder) and the Yale Repertory Theatre (New Haven). She received her BA in Theatre Studies with a concentration in Performance from Yale University, a PhD in Theatre and Drama from the University of California, San Diego, and trained in the Lecoq approach at the London International School of Performing Arts. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Theatre Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore and a co-founder of Autopoetics. She is also the author of Enacting Lecoq: Movement in Theatre, Cognition, and Life (Palgrave Macmillan 2019), and Practice, Research, and Cognition in Devised Performance (Bloomsbury Methuen 2025).
Associate Artists Performing in no there there
Natalie Linn Titus is a graduate of NAFA/UAL’s Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Performance Making. She is a performer, performance maker and drama educator who looks forward to creating work for young audiences.
Selected work includes Re:Assembly (Drama Box), We’ll weather the weather whatever the weather, until we cannot (Sweet Tooth/CAKE Theatre), Stranger Things The Encounter (Netflix/Lucid Experiences), 0.01 (M1 Singapore Fringe Festival/NAFA).
Nora Samosir has been active in the theatre since 1979 and has also worked in television and film. She has acted with Cake Theatricals, TheatreWorks, Wild Rice, The Necessary Stage, GenerAsia, The Theatre Practice, Teater Ekamatra, Singapore Lyric Opera, Singapore Repertory Theatre and other theatre companies. She has also appeared in films such Passion Flower (1986) and Desire (2014) and on television, most notably in Masters of the Sea (1994-5) and Ah Girl (2001-2). As a voice coach, she has worked with actors and has conducted voice workshops for students, teachers and the general public.
Currently, Nora teaches Voice in the BA Acting and BA Musical Theatre programmes at Lasalle College of the Arts. Prior to Lasalle, Nora taught at the National Institute of Education and the National University of Singapore.
AK Kumarran is a Singapore grown lighting designer who has taken to making performers look colourful and outstanding on stage wherever possible. A picture is worth a thousand words, and this is true be it on stage or through a lens. Both are mediums which this techie enjoys. AK currently teaches Performance Production at ITE College Central and hopes to groom more technicians and fellow lampies that seek to make the most of an everyday light source.
Chim Sin Yee graduated from NAFA (Diploma in Arts Management) and LASALLE College of the Arts (Bachelor of Arts, Technical Theatre), and was awarded the Arts & Cultural Scholarship by Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan in 2009.
From 2005 to 2012, she served as the Stage Manager for Singapore Dance Theatre (now known as Singapore Ballet). Her key involvements are Ballet Under The Stars (2005 – 2011), Coppelia, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Romeo & Juliet and touring performances in South Korea, China, Philippines and Malaysia. Her freelance stage management credits also include production & stage management works for dance schools, dance companies, ballet competitions, as well as Siong Leng Musical Association. Apart from local works, Sin Yee’s stage management involvement also includes DRAGONE (based in Macau SAR), helmed by acclaimed Artistic Director Franco Dragone.
Her arts administrative credits include Ding Yi Music Company, Paper Monkey Theatre and Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. She has also served as a Brand Business Manager for Chacott & Freed of London (Singapore), two of the most esteemed brands known for dancewear, dancesport and Rhythmic Gymnastics.
Autopoetics 