Playwright Haresh Sharma wins SEA Write Award 2014 (Singapore)

SINGAPORE — Playwright Haresh Sharma, 49, has been crowned winner of the prestigious SEA Write Award (Singapore). The resident playwright of Singapore theatre company, The Necessary Stage, was announced as the winner today (Nov 13) by the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS).

In a press release, the NBDCS said that Mr Sharma has written more than 100 plays to date. Several of them were staged internationally and clinched numerous accolades, including the National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award for theatre in 1997 and the award for Best Production at the 4th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards for The Necessary Stage’s Separation 40 as a co-playwright. Another highlight of his career was becoming the first non-American to be awarded the prestigious Goldberg Master Playwright by New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2011.

Back in 2006, Mr Sharma’s play, Off Centre, was selected by the Ministry of Education (MOE) as a literature text for ‘N’ and ‘O’ Levels, and later republished by The Necessary Stage. In 2008, Ethos Books published Interlogue: Studies in Singapore Literature, Vol. 6, which presented an extensive investigation of Mr Sharma’s work over the past 20 years up to 2007.

Mr Sharma has also been invited to teach workshops and attend festivals in cities around the world, including Glasgow, Scotland and Warsaw. Most recently, he was present at the inaugural Singapore Literature Festival in New York last month.

The winners for this award are selected by their own peers in each of the ten Southeast Asian countries and may be presented for a specific work by an author or for his or her lifetime achievement. The categories and types of works include poetry, short stories, novels, plays, folklore and scholarly and religious works.

Mr Sharma will receive a paid trip to Bangkok for the presentation ceremony on Dec 15, where he will be given a commemorative plaque and cash.

Past winners from Singapore include Philip Jeyaretnam (2003), Soon Ai Ling (2004), P Krishnan (2005), Isa Kamari (2006), Rex Shelley (2007), Stella Kon (2008), Chia Hwee Pheng (2009), Johar Bin Buang (2010), Robert Yeo (2011) Suchen Christine Lim (2012), and Yeng Pway Ngon (2013).