Cheryl is set to take the stage later this year as the young imperial concubine, Yehenara, in the restaging of the most successful original musical ever to be produced in Singapore – Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress. Watch her wow audiences when it comes out.

This is Podesta’s year. The Australia-born actress wrote, starred in and directed B*tch: The Origin Of The Female Species, which pick up an award for Production Of The Year.

Singer-songwriter cum actress Ethel Yap is no stranger to the musical stage. The 25-year-old actress appeared as Juliet in the Toy Factory musical adaptation (after originally being casted as Lady Montague).

For her professional debut, Frances starred in The Last Bull, a play about the colourful life story of flamenco master Antonio Vargas, by Checkpoint Theatre for the Singapore International Festival of Arts.

Healing family ties was the heart of Jalyn Han’s role in Grandmother Tongue, staged by Wild Rice. She moved audiences to tears as an aged Teochew speaker who has to rely on her English-speaking grandson to navigate Singapore today.

Comedy can be harder to pull off than tragedy but not so for Judee Tan, who made audiences laugh till they cried. Her multiple comic turns in Meenah And Cheenah by Dream Academy sent up racial stereotypes and celebrated female friendship.

In Cake Theatrical Productions’ retelling of Electra, the classic Greek play about a woman who wants to avenge her father’s murder, Sharda plays an old servant and confidante to Electra; her murdered father, Agamemnon; and an embodiment of the three furies – female figures who embody vengeance.

Malaysian-born veteran actress Sukania Venugopal secured a nomination for her role in Ghost Writer by The Necessary Stage. In it, she plays a bharatanatyam teacher who undergoes a spiritual awakening.

Pangdemonium’s staging of Falling was the tear-jerker to watch. Significant credit for this goes to Tan Kheng Hua’s portrayal of a parent stretched to her limits while caring for an autistic man-child, for which she got the Best Actress nod.

Falling also won director Tracie Pang her first Best Director award. In total, 15 awards were given out at the M1-The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards at the Esplanade Recital Studio. The annual awards highlight the best of Singapore theatre in the previous year and were started by The Straits Times Life in 2001.

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