APPLIED PUPPETRY COMMISSION

A puppet theatre producer and puppetry educator since 2012, Terence Tan began his journey in UNIMA with the support of former EC member Simon Wong in 2016. Terence was recognised for his work in disaster relief, education, and health care through puppetry. This includes work supporting children and youth survivors of the Philippines’ super typhoon disaster of 2014, his intercultural Southeast Asian puppetry festival of 2012, and improving education opportunities with puppetry in Laos PDR among other experiences. He was elected independent councillor at the Congress of 2016. There, he helped propose for the Youth Commission and continued to be a volunteer member. He also became an active member of the Cooperation Commission. With the latter’s Kanguru programme, he brought puppet workshops to refugee Rohingya children in Malaysia and used this project to provide opportunities for practitioners in the lost style of Wayang Kulit Siam as well. Later, he assisted the Cooperation commission with fundraising and distribution initiatives for members impoverished by the COVID-19 pandemic and victims of war. His efforts in 2022 helped a number of UNIMA members and their families find refuge and safety in time. Presently, he continues to oversee sending aid to several puppeteers in conflict zones so they may continue practising and providing puppetry in their communities. Terence also helped develop UNIMA Singapore and is one of its core team members.

He co-initiated UNIMA’s Southeast Asian Working Group, and they aim to help develop UNIMA membership in a region recovering from colonisation while maintaining their diversities and identities in puppetry. Terence has the experience of leading a series of community-led and intercultural projects in Southeast Asia from 2014 to 2019, having proposed and secured grants from departments of the governments of Japan and the Republic of (South) Korea to do so. Hence he has the experience of coordinating dialogue sessions among puppetry, folk, and community artists, and played a significant role in the coordination of the hybrid Council meeting of Bali in 2023. He continues to be based in Singapore and holds a Bachelors and Masters degree conferred by the National University of Singapore in the study of Theatre, and has 6 years of experience in stage and television acting, stage producing for comedy and puppet theatre, and drama education in Singapore. From 2009-2012, he also researched and advocated for the rights of Singapore’s freelance artists. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he advocated for a national financial assistance scheme for artists. He is also a mural artist and painter who uses his art to advocate for the sustaining of a local rural village beside the cosmopolitan city-nation of Singapore.