Writer-In-Residence 2025/2026

From April 2025 to March 2026, playwright Nabilah Said joined us as our Writer in Residence. This 12-month residency spotlit and platformed the Writer in Residence through presentations of her works, and engagements with younger writers and the public.

As part of the residency, Nabilah also participated in the New Scripts Garage, offering dramaturgical support and feedback to scripts from the open call. 

Nabilah's final presentation for this residency was showcased on 28 - 29 March 2026 as part of Spring Collection 2025/26: New Plays from Centre 42. Click below to find out more!

"Whither the mid-career artist?" This was a question that came to mind when I was approached to do this residency with Centre 42. I have been writing plays since 2010, but it was only around 2020 that I started thinking about my work as part of a prolonged practice. Just five years on, I’ve noticed the term "mid-career" being used for myself and my peers - but what does that really mean? 

Eschewing the existential nature of those musings, I decided to think more generatively. What works do I want to create, now that I have room to play? What can I revisit? Who can I play with? A residency, after all, is an opportunity to experiment and do things outside of the norm. Joel Tan offered me the idea of "playwriting as cartography" - how could my practice be as expansive as wayfinding across space and time, but also bring me closer to the places I’d like to return to? In particular, I’m interested to continue to work on my ongoing research project on Christmas Island, but would also like to try other things (old dog, new tricks!). 

My half-joking subtitle for this residency is “old already still want to do things”. That is to say, this will be my way of expanding my skillset, making stronger connections between the people I’ve always wanted to do stuff with, and experimenting outside of the confines of production schedules and project timelines. It’s also a chance for me to better understand my place in this ecosystem.

Lastly, I wanted to acknowledge how apt it is to return to Centre 42. It’s been more than a decade since I was part of its Boiler Room programme, then as an aspiring playwright still finding my footing. I’m less of a fledgling these days, but there’s always room for play, movement, and growth. Maybe this is what I’m in the middle of - a world of possibility, shared with others. As always, I am thankful for Centre 42 for believing in me. 

During this term, Nabilah will be embarking on some projects and participating in some of the Centre's ongoing new writing development programmes. Look forward to her engagements:

• May 2025: 

  Review of SIFA-X edition of script and feedback

• June 2025:

  Research and review of documents about Christmas Island
  Development of an audio drama for the Singapore Night Festival
  Audio-based Jam 1: exploring song, sound, and music 

• July 2025:

  Refinement of script, casting, and recording for Singapore Night Festival audio drama

• August 2025:

  Presentation of new audio drama, The Session, at Singapore Night Festival

• December 2025: 

  Movement-based Jam 2: remix of Inside Voices 

• January - March 2026: 

  Further writing

• March 2026:

  Public conversation: Playwriting as cartography/playing with history 

I started this residency feeling like I need new wind in my sails. One year on, I realised I was too busy learning new things that I never once felt like whatever I thought a "mid-career artist" would feel like! I felt like a newbie, ready to play and experiment once again. 

Some of the highlights involved doing an audio/sound-based jam with audio/sound artists, using existing research material and script excerpts from my work on Christmas Island. This opened up possibilities for me, for example, could a playwright compose a world not through text, but through sound? This was an exciting question, one which I tried to reflect on when I wrote a new audio play, The Session, for the Singapore Night Festival. 

We also did a movement jam involving Malay female artists for an older script of mine, titled Inside Voices. With older plays, one always cringes at what can be somewhat dated writing, or reflect on how the craft could be better, but with collaborators ila, Hasyimah Harith, Syimah Sabtu and nor, I found myself finding moments of joy and new discovery, which I hope I can expand on in the future. 

Undoubtedly, the best part of this residency was the time I had to explore new ways of working, new theatrical vocabularies, new formats, new collaborators, and new ways of seeing my old works. I appreciated the time, effort, and resources from Centre 42 that went into supporting me for this. 

To close the programme, Joel Tan suggested a process sharing of my work-in-progress project, Territori, rather than a traditional reading of a full script. While I was initially unsure if this would work, in the end I found the sharing, while vulnerable and intimate, also really rich and reflexive. It gave me space to reflect on my five-year-long process, which I had been unable to do before. 

I certainly recommend this programme to other writers out there. We don’t often have enough time and space to play, reflect, and write without the pressure of producing some BIG THING. Small moments of encounter, vulnerability, and daring, are magical too, and have their place in our practice.