Kenny Wong (Technical Production, 1997) is a trailblazing NIDA graduate whose career has spanned continents and disciplines, carving a path of innovation and artistry in technical theatre. From playing a pivotal role in shaping Singapore’s performing arts industry to leading groundbreaking projects that have redefined creative possibilities, Kenny has established himself as a visionary in the field. Kenny’s journey is a testament to the transformative power of creativity and teamwork. In this interview, Kenny reflects on the defining moments of his remarkable career, the challenges and triumphs of his most ambitious projects, and the enduring joy of bringing extraordinary visions to life through collaboration.
Was there a particular moment or project early in your career that oriented your professional direction?
The experience that has shaped the way I work and eventually led to many of my proudest projects is my first production with Director Beatrice Chia-Richmond. The ambitious original vision of that first project, fraught with challenges, didn’t quite get realised. Instead, a very much reduced version of the show was presented. Though the end result of this particular project was less than satisfactory, the collaborative relationship that Beatrice and I forged was the beginning of a successful partnership on many successful projects that followed.
Working with Beatrice has shown me that with open and trusted collaborators, the outcome is often much more than any one of us could have ever imagined; and as a bonus, the journey can be enjoyable too.
You’ve worked on extraordinary and groundbreaking projects since returning to Singapore. What are five professional moments that have defined you as an artist?
- Esplanade Theatres on the Bay
After graduating from NIDA, I started work with the Esplanade, which was then just a large hole in the ground. The seven years that I worked there provided me with rare opportunities for both learning and contributing to many things. First was working with world-renowned theatre designers and acousticians; being able to contribute to the final design with a local perspective was satisfying.
Second, being the first of the technical and production staff on board, I was given the chance to shape and form the technical and production team of this new multi-venue performing arts centre. This was not an easy task as Singapore did not have a full-fledged theatre industry then. We had to import expertise (which included hiring my immediate boss). The process of building our team of technicians also meant helping to build the country’s industry. We did this by putting in place training opportunities as well as awareness-raising of the work we will do to attract staff.
Thirdly, while all of this was going on, we were also putting together an opening party consisting of a huge opening ceremony happening in and all around the centre, a 3-week opening festival presenting some of the biggest names in theatre, dance and music, and not forgetting the programme for the year ahead.
Now I am back at Esplanade as Head of Technical Production. I am appreciative of the Esplanade for asking me back in 2020, when the pandemic shut down all the projects I was working on. Returning to the arts centre after 20 years, I had the pleasure of opening Esplanade’s new venue, the Singtel Waterfront Theatre, which is a multi-format space. Currently, we are embarking on a project to replace the original analogue cabling infrastructure with a new digital network infrastructure. - Theatreworks’ Desdemona
Under the direction of Ong Keng Sen, known for his cross-genre and cross-cultural works, Desdemona brought together Myanmar puppetry, Indian Kathakali dance and Kudiyattum theatre, traditional Korean music and percussion, plus visual art from Singapore and Korea. Written by Rio Kishida from Japan, Desdemona sees performers engaging in a unique theatrical dialogue in their own languages and cultural styles. Rehearsed in Singapore, the production premiered at the 2000 Adelaide Festival and then toured to Singapore, Munich, Hamburg and Fukuoka.
This production taught me how to really work internationally. The international team was not limited to the performers, who were from Myanmar, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Korea; our set designer is a Singapore-based Australian, the video artist is an Australia-based Singaporean, our lighting designer is American, the costume maker is from Thailand, the Stage Manager is American and our set was built in Adelaide. On top of that, we had a big team of translators.
On the technical front, the show had a heavy video component with multiple screens for content playback and multiple live cameras on-stage. All of this before we had video servers and programmable switchers. The content was all on VHS which was operated with the camera switching by our Technical Manager. The set needed to be able to tour easily and adaptable also because the venues were all very different – in Adelaide and Singapore we were in a proscenium arch theatre, but in Munich, we were in a large rehearsal studio, in Hamburg we were in a converted old railway yard and, in Fukuoka we were in a museum gallery.
Kenny Wong (Technical Production, 1997) working on Pyjama Game in NIDA’s Parade Theatre, 1996. - Voyage De La Vie
‘La Vie’, as the company affectionately calls the show, is the original resident show at Singapore’s first casino, Resorts World Sentosa. This is a circus theatre spectacle that was created and designed by the late Mark Fisher, who was the set designer of iconic concerts and shows, like Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’, U2’s ‘Pop Mart’, The Rolling Stones’ ‘Voodoo Lounge’, Cirque Du Soleil’s ‘KA’ and the original West End ‘We Will Rock You’, just to name a few. It was a dream come true for me, as Mark Fisher was one of my heroes. This was, again, an international production with a British creator and set designer, a director from the US, a Hong Kong-based British lighting designer, a Hong Kong costume designer, an American video designer and a Singaporean sound designer. The cast was truly international.
It was a steep but great learning experience on how circus works. The other important lesson I learnt was that a creative vision does not need to be confined to existing technology and skills, the vision can drive the development of new technology and skills. An example would be the finale of the show, when the creators envisioned a skating half-pipe truck moving downstage which then connects up with two quarter-pipe trucks that enter from the wings forming a cruciform carousel, which ends by revolving on stage as a whole. All this while with skaters skating on the moving skate ramps, which up to that time has not been done before.
As proof of concept, we gathered a few champion Brazilian in-line skaters in a wintry warehouse in the UK where we had built a revolving half-pipe. The start of the day saw the skaters being thrown from the half-pipe when the revolution reached a certain speed. To their credit by the end of the day, they were able to stay on and we discovered what was the maximum velocity that we can have the half-pipe move.
Due to the variety of automation movement needed from all the trucks, we couldn’t use conventional stage automation which has one fixed pre-determined path. We needed our trucks to be free roaming. Luckily, we were able to find a stage automation company that was just starting to experiment with robotics, and we managed to convince them to develop what we needed. I would like to think that we contributed to the development of these robotic trucks which are now relatively commonplace. - National Day Parade 2016 (SEA Games Opening Ceremony 2015)
For this, I have to start a few years prior to it. The original National Stadium, which was a regular venue for Singapore’s National Day Parade, was demolished in 2010 to make way for a brand new stadium. The new National Stadium, one of the largest (though not necessarily the strongest) domed structures in the world, was finally opened in 2014. In 2013, the creative team led by my long-time collaborator, Beatrice Chia-Richmond was appointed to create the opening and closing ceremonies of the South-East Asian (SEA) Games 2015. In the wake of the London Summer Olympics in 2012 and the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, we were under great pressure to deliver a show of similar impact, if not scale. Most of our time was spent getting to know the venue and exploring what was possible; in 2015 we did manage to deliver a spectacular ceremony. We even broke the record for the largest projection mapping display when we turned the entire field-of-play into a video screen. Despite the roof not being designed to hold much more than itself up, we also installed an aerial system to fly large props and performers around the stadium.
Even before the actual opening ceremony, Beatrice and I were asked to helm the National Day Parade of the following year, which would be the return of the parade to its old home. We both agreed to take it on because we felt the SEA Games Opening Ceremony was more like a development workshop for what could come after. Knowing what we didn’t before when we started working on SEA Games, we were more confident in pushing the limits and also on how to use an extremely large field-of-play more effectively without needing thousands of performers.
We began with coming up with a compelling story starting with Singapore’s mythology and then propelling forward into what we dream a future Singapore could be. Our team, in close collaboration with our specialist partners, managed to pull off feats that had never been done before. Having learnt about the limitations of the roof, we managed to design a more complex catenary and bridle aerial system to make sure we could fly larger set pieces that were made of lightweight materials. To make the flown set pieces more dynamic, we projection-mapped them. However, being lightweight, the flown pieces also swayed and turned which we solved by having the projected images track the pieces in real-time. With this, we managed to fly large boulders, a Sky City, a flying unicorn (with a 10-year-old boy riding it) and more than 20 aerialists simultaneously.
Flying Unicorn from the National Day Parade, 2016 in Singapore. - Singapore Bicentennial Experience
At the end of 2017, Beatrice Chia-Richmond asked if I would like to join her on a very different project from what we are used to. It was more of an exhibition than a show as we know it. This exhibition was to tell the rich story of Singapore’s early history, which scholars and archaeologists have been unearthing. This was information that had not been taught in schools. In response to the brief, we proposed an immersive experience.
Our concept was to tell the story in 6 Acts, each in a different room and employing different methods of storytelling. In the prologue, visitors discovered that Singapore’s history is very much tied with the weather. We used the illusion of rain reversing to signify that we were going back in time. Then, in Act 1, we conveyed 500 years of early Singapore’s history in seven minutes with three actors playing multiple roles on a moving treadmill which was sandwiched between layers of video projected on gauze and an LED backdrop. In Act 2, through the use of a panoramic screen, visitors arrived in Singapore with Stamford Raffles on board his ship. Act 3, visitors were immersed in a fast-developing colonial Singapore surrounded by a 360-degree screen, while being moved on a revolve. In Act 4, visitors entered an audio-only experience where they experienced the Japanese Occupation through listening to eyewitness account. The experience ended in Act 5, the rain room that recounted Singapore’s modern history.
This project was refreshing because I could apply what I know about performing arts to a different genre of storytelling which engaged the audience in a new and familiar way, like theatre.
Inside the spinning rotunda, at The Bicentennial Experience, Fort Canning Park. Photo by Kelvin Chng. - If I may add a ‘bonus’ moment, it would be starting the BA (Hons) degree programme in Technical Theatre Arts at LASALLE College of the Arts. Even though the programme is no longer offered, I still feel very proud of the many graduates from the programme who are now sought-after technical theatre practitioners in our industry today.
What do you love most about your career?
My favourite part of what I do is the creative collaboration that takes place in the creative process. There is nothing like being able to dream together and then work together to make the dream a reality. This is not limited to just the creative team but also includes the production and technical teams, as well as the vendors we work with closely. Like everyone else involved in our business, it is the audience reaction that provides job satisfaction.
How do you continue to challenge yourself creatively, especially after achieving so many milestones?
Every new project will present new artistic problems that need creative solutions. It is in the searching and learning during this problem-solving process that challenges me and keeps things fresh for me. It is the drive to find new ways to use both old and new technology to tell a compelling story that keeps me going. Also, my collaborators will always keep me on my toes.
Are there any upcoming projects or dream collaborations you’d like to share?
I have a project that involves AI, which is a whole new world to me. Unfortunately, I cannot say more about it at this point in time. As for dream collaborations, I would love the opportunity to work with Canadian director, Robert Lepage and British designer, Es Devlin. I am a huge admirer of their works.
