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Tutor's Bio
Huzir Sulaiman
Principal Tutor
One of the most critically acclaimed dramatists in Southeast Asia, Huzir directs for stage and screen; writes for theatre, film, television and newspapers; and is a consultant for the arts and heritage sectors.
Huzir was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1973. He was educated at Princeton University, where he was granted Advanced Standing, and where he won the Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize.
In 1996 he founded Straits Theatre Company in Kuala Lumpur. Since 2003 he has lived in Singapore, where he is a co-founder and Joint Artistic Director of Checkpoint Theatre (www.checkpoint-theatre.org).
His plays are frequently performed in Malaysia and Singapore and have been presented in Tokyo, Berlin, New York, and London. His work is collected in Eight Plays (Silverfish Books) and his plays are studied in universities in the region.
His plays – 14 to date – range from Atomic Jaya (1998), a classic satire on what would happen if Malaysia decided to construct an atomic bomb, to Cogito (a commission of the 2007 Singapore Arts Festival), a lyrical exploration of grief, memory, and what it means to be human.
In 2000 Huzir created and hosted the critically acclaimed Very Moody Show, a weekday evening drivetime radio show for Malaysia's WOWfm, in which he interviewed a wide variety of important, controversial and quirky guests.
His writing for film includes the feature Dukun and the award-winning That Historical Feeling, an exploration of themes of American foreign policy and Islam, which he also directed and which has been shown in festivals in several countries.
His writing for television has appeared on Singapore's Mediacorp Channel 5, Mediaworks Channel i, and Malaysia's RTM 2.
As a consultant in the redevelopment of the National Museum of Singapore, he was part of a four-member team that conceptualized exhibits. Huzir also wrote and directed three documentaries that form part of the permanent collection of the history galleries. He has also worked with institutional partners in Singapore to develop arts and heritage related programs and events for corporations and statutory bodies.
Wide Angle, his fortnightly column in Malaysia's The Star, covers diverse topics in culture, politics, and society. He has also written for The Huffington Post, The Sun, Men's Review, Forum on Contemporary Art and Society, and The Straits Times. He also writes on the contemporary visual arts, including catalogue essays for ARCO and the Asia-Pacific Triennial.
In 2007, Huzir was awarded the prestigious Yale World Fellowship, the international leadership training program that brings together 18 men and women from around the world for a semester of intensive leadership and public policy seminars at Yale University.
He is currently working with Montreal design firm gsmprjct as the Creative Director of the observation deck on the 124th floor of the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world. He is writing two feature films for Monsoon Pictures, a play for Checkpoint Theatre, and a novel. He teaches playwriting at the National University of Singapore.
