Benjamin Ho Kah Wai

MA Arts Pedagogy and Practice

2025

Benji’s passion and mastery of puppetry are evident through his work with leading local theatre companies such as TheatreWorks, The Finger Players, Toy Factory Theatre Ensemble, The Necessary Stage and W!ld Rice.

He is the artistic director of Paper Monkey Theatre and curates the annual 'No Strings Attached' Mini International Puppet Festival. Notable works he has directed include Mount Fiery (2024), Romance of Mistakes (2019), and international projects in Malaysia, the UK and Thailand. His production The Magic Lantern (2016) won Best Production for the Young at the 2017 M1–The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards. Benji has also participated in the La MaMa International Symposium for directors in Italy (2009).

Beyond performing, Benji coaches students and teachers in theatre-in-education. Notably, his collaboration with Shanghai No. 3 Girls High on Mama Looking for Her Cat (2016) won the Best Achievement Award at the Inter-Shanghai School Drama Competition. He was a former production manager for the Singapore Arts Festival (2005–2007, 2009–2011) and lecturer at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and LASALLE College of the Arts.

https://www.papermonkey.com.sg

benjamin@papermonkey.com.sg

Thesis abstract

Rethinking interactive: A practice-led reflection on 'interactive' in children's theatre

Despite not having proper training in puppetry or theatre, I have been working as a theatremaker for children’s theatre for nearly three decades. Recently, I have noticed that many public institutions, such as the National Heritage Board of Singapore and production houses like the Esplanade, tend to approach me to create interactive children’s performances.

This trend of wanting to do interactive children’s theatre raises some critical questions. What does interactive mean in children’s theatre? Are all interactions interactive? How can we determine if the interaction is interactive?

This thesis explores the meaning of interactive in children’s theatre through practice-led research using Paper Monkey Theatre’s production The Man Who Planted Trees, as a case study. From here, we will observe if all interactions are interactive.

The thesis would show that having pedagogical theories from Dewey (1938), Freire (1970), Greene (1995), and Vygotsky (1978), as well as theories inspired by theatre-makers like David Wood (1990) and Tim Webb (2022), helped me in designing the interactions and understanding the reasons behind these designs.

School of Creative
Industries

Benjamin Ho Kah Wai

Work

Thesis abstract

Work experience