Meet The Team
Nora Neo-Crothers
Founder & Director
Nora Neo-Crothers is the founder of inwardBOUND, a uniquely positioned company that uses drama to inspire confidence and empower creative change. Having received First Class Honours in Drama and Performance from the National Technological University of Singapore, she became a prolific writer, trainer and director.
She is a recipient of numerous Outstanding Contribution Awards for her efforts at developing drama in schools. She was the 1st runner-up for Woman of Asia - Rising Star Award (RBS - Coutts and Financial Times) and was nominated for the Outstanding Youth in Education Award.
She believes in the transformative power of drama which has, over the years, evolved into the core of her work with youth at inwardBOUND. In the long term, her vision is to see her drama programs making a difference, especially to people who may not otherwise have the opportunity to be empowered through such a medium.
Dwayne Ng
Manager
Dwayne Ng is a local theatre-maker and drama educator. He believes that theatre, more than a tool for storytelling, has the power to affect and change lives. He has acted in, written for, and directed both professional and independent productions, in various forms—traditional, promenade, playback, forum, digital; in diverse styles—realist, absurdist, physical, immersive; and in different languages—English, Mandarin, and Baba Malay. He was trained at young&W!LD in 2016-2017. Over the years, he worked with various theatre companies such as the Second Breakfast Company, Patch and Punnet, Toy Factory Productions, Peranakan Siblings, Images of Singapore LIVE, Shoes Theatre, and BOUND Theatre.
Isabelle Low
Co-Curriculum Planner
Isabelle Low is a theatre practitioner who loves storytelling through performance and using art to empower children and youths. She graduated from School of the Arts, Singapore (2014) and trained at the Intercultural Theatre Institute (2017).
Since graduation, Isabelle has taught Speech and Drama for ages 6 to 12 and workshops for youths. She has worked with Paper Monkey Theatre for Hold My Hand as part of Esplanade’s Octoburst! (2018), she is part of their cast for their Teochew Rod Puppet Show ‘Web of Deceit’ which toured to Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand (2019). She is currently learning puppetry under Benjamin Ho. She is part of the collective C!puppets creating puppets for a younger audience. Her other works include a musical with the Church of Saint Vincent de Paul entitled ‘A Saint for All Seasons’, an experimental performance “Pretty Little Things’ a collaboration between Ying Qing, Ruyi Wong and OSH.
Isabelle looks for new ways to express thoughts and ideas. She is interested in the interaction between voice and body and enjoys physical theatre. She is an ardent supporter of arts in educations. She hopes that children and youths will be able to find some solace in the arts if nothing else does.
Isaiah Christopher Lee
Associate Artist
Isaiah Christopher Lee is a multilingual Singaporean theatre practitioner, cultural diplomat, art historian, researcher and educator. His repertoire of works include The Old Woman and the Ox (2018), Yatim (2021),《空》 Reflections (2021), The Concubine (2021), and The Visit (2022). Isaiah is also a visiting lecturer at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore (NAFA) and teaches Contemporary Southeast Asian Theatre under the School of Music.
He read a BA(Hons) Double Major in English Literature and Art History at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore with a Minor in Modern Languages (German and Thai), specialising in the Arts and Literatures of Southeast Asia. In parallel with theoretical research within and beyond the disciplines of Art History and English Literature, he explores performance and storytelling through interdisciplinary theatre and education.
Mitchell Fang
Associate Artist
Mitchell Fang is a theatre director, performer and teacher. His previous works include the M1 Fringe's '1000 Millennials Crying', Toy Factory's 'Permanence', and 20-Something Festival's 'Long Weekend'. He has performed for productions such as Toy Factory’s 'GRIND', Red Pill Production’s 'Let’s Get Back Together', One Man Riot's 'Pull Up', and Artivate's 'Bus Stop'. Mitchell has taught in various secondary schools and junior colleges in Singapore over the last 10 years, running drama-in-curriculum programmes, in-house school productions, and directing drama clubs in the bi-annual Singapore Youth Festival.
Sonia Kwek
Associate Artist
Sonia is an artist, performer, and educator/facilitator who works primarily through performance and body expression to create multidisciplinary experiences. Sonia works with children, youths and communities as she believes in using art and drama as a way to empower people and open up conversations.
As an educator, Sonia strives to cultivate the next generation’s imagination, confidence and resilience in creative expression. Sonia trained in acting at the Intercultural Theatre Institute and holds a Bachelor of Creative Industries (Drama) with Distinction from Queensland University of Technology.
Umi Kalthum
Associate Artist
Since Umi graduated from LASALLE, she has acted for theatre and television. Her theatre credits include MERDEKA / 獨立 / சுதந்திரம் and Supervision (W!LDRICE). Internationally, she has toured France with The Reunification of the Two Koreas (T:>Works).
While she profoundly enjoys performing, teaching has always been Umi’s first love – she has spent the last decade educating young theatre-makers in the disciplines of writing, directing and acting.
Nina Chabra
Associate Artist
Storytelling has been an artery of Nina Chabra’s practice for the last 18 years, employing various mediums to communicate her projects, with video being her oft-used tool. Her projects have been in competition and also screened locally and internationally at numerous independent film festivals, including Singapore International Film Festival and Salamindanaw Asian Film Festival.
She is trained in film production and worked as a freelancer in the corporate video sector for close to a decade before pivoting to drama education in recent years. Visual - storytelling has taken on many new forms; as the media landscape shifts and incorporates new elements for stage, she believes the merging of both her loves, brings new perspectives to tired methodologies.
Nina continually pushes her technical creative skills by working with intra-disciplinary art practitioners, in hopes of visually presenting lesser-known truths. True collaborations are a driving force for her to coalesce and present her current works.
Benjin Chua
Associate Artist
Benjin has been teaching for more than 10 years, spanning between the ages of 2 – 18 years old. He has a special interest and passion in education, believing in the power of theatre and the benefits it can give in
nurturing the next generation.
Benjin is someone who focuses more on the growth of the student as compared to the end product that they can bring, because he believes that the life skills they impart can impact and change their life.
Rebecca Louise Burch
Associate Artist
Rebecca Burch has been a drama trainer with Inward Bound since completing her studies at Lasalle in 2007.
Balance is very important to Rebecca. She loves singing and performs regularly at events, weddings as well as on collaborations on music tracks with DJ’s around the world. So the perfect life for Rebecca is to work with students in the day/week, and perform and immerse herself in music during the evenings and weekends. Working with and guiding students keeps her young hearted, energetic and motivated.