Mohamad Shaifulbahri (Shai)

Shai is a creative producer and arts educator. He is the Artistic Director of producing company, Bahri & Co and He an Organising Member of Producers SG. Previously, he was the Joint Artistic Director of Bhumi Collective. and the Founding Artistic Director of community theatre group, Yellow Chair Productions. Shai enjoys working with artists who make art collaboratively across mediums, with a view towards transnational collaborations that break borders and barriers in art-making. He has produced work for the stage in Singapore, Malaysia and the UK and is currently developing new international collaborative projects with and between Singaporean/Southeast Asian artists and artists from Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia and South Korea.

In the last few years, he has been actively involved with organising networking events like the Asian Artists Gathering and a Getting to Know Asia panel at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and with Producers Socials in Singapore with Producers SG. He has been a delegate at various international industry meetings and marketplaces including Australian Performing Arts (APAM), Performing Asia at APAM, Liveworks Festival, Adelaide Fringe Honey Pot Delegate, Tokyo Performing Arts Meeting (TPAM), Asia Discovers Asia Meeting (ADAM), Bangkok International Performing Arts Meeting (BIPAM), Edinburgh Festival Fringe and International Festival Encounters (Edinburgh International Festival). In addition, he is currently an ISPA (International Society for Performing Arts) Singapore Fellow from 2021-2024 and a member of the Asian Producers' Platform (APP) Camp.

Shai is a graduate of the MA in Creative Producing (Distinction) programme at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and a recipient of the Goh Chok Tong Youth Promise Award (Distinction). He believes strongly in arts education and provides mentoring and development opportunities for emerging performing arts producers. He is also a TEDx speaker, having spoken at TEDxRoyalCentralSchool on the topic, “Diversifying, Diversity: Tomorrow’s Theatre Today”.

At LASALLE, Shai currently teaches the following modules on the BA Arts Management Programme:

• Project Management (Level 1)
• Events Management (Level 2)
• Arts Projects (Level 2)
• Interdisciplinary Project (Level 2)

He has also guest lectured and/or provided mentorship on arts management and producing at Singapore Management University (SMU), London Studio Centre, CGO Institute and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. He also conducts a producing workshop called "Where Do I Begin? - Producing for the Stage", versions of which have been presented in Singapore, Malaysia and Edinburgh. He also has a background in early childhood education, student development (arts) at polytechnic level and teaching English, Literature and Drama at the secondary school level.

Shai is currently/will be undergoing the following research projects:

Creative Platform for ASEAN-Korea - researching a new approach and platform to establish the cultural exchange and cooperation system for mutual growth between ASEAN countries and Korea through the development of new collaborations. Hosted by Korea Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE). September 2022 - April 2023.

The Malay World Project: Mapping Research - early stage research process mapping personal, historical and speculative journeys of ancestors and present day Malay artists from Singapore and Malaysia, Maori artist from New Zealand and indigenous artist from Taiwan. Supported by Asia Discovers Asia Meeting (2021): Rehearsing for the Future, Taiwan. December 2021.

Mutiara - a Singapore-Australia Collaboration - researching the 100-year long history of the Malay community's relationship with Broome, Australia through the pearling industry. A collaboration with Australian indigenous dance company, Marrugeku. An initial residency was supported by the National Arts Council, Singapore. Development of research into a dance presentation will take place in 2023. 

Our Space in Time - a research project drawing on Yellow Chair Productions' relationship with different types and forms of space, over the course of its decade-long history. Supported by Centre 42 as part of their newly announced Archival Residency programme. The residency culminated in a digital exhibition launched in August 2021.

Panggung - research residency with sonic artists from Singapore and Malaysia focused on sounds and architecture of the Malay world, in hopes of exploring sound architecture. Supported by Goethe Institute, Singapore as part of Project Week (PW) at 136 Goethe. February 2022 & November 2022.

• Creative Producing
• Artistic Directorship
• Arts Project Management
• Capability Development (Artist, Producer)
• Emerging Practitioner Mentorship
• International Networking
• Market Development

Development Initiatives

Producers Lab - 6-month producer lab programme for Singaporean producers to contemplate "What if We Do it This Way?" as participant-agitators reflect, discuss, and explore contemporary issues in the arts, and imagine diverse possibilities for creating and producing in a Covid-19 endemic world. Supported by National Arts Council Self-Employed Person Grant.

gelek - 6-month choreographic lab leading into a work-in-progress presentation for 6 Malay-identifying choreographers exploring a diversity of perspectives regarding bodily explorations, identity and gender inspired by discourse about the contemporary movement practice of Malay bodies, asking, “what does it really mean to gelek?” Supported by the Esplanade and National Arts Council Self-Employed Person Grant.

The Mekar Programme - pilot performance residency programme for emerging artists, co-created between Bhumi Collective and National Library Board artseen team. (2019-2020)

Selected Projects (as Producer)

Failing the Dance: A Double-Bill of Lecture-Performances - 2 dance lecture performances (Pok! by Soultari Amin Farid and the Problematic Danseuse by Nirmala Seshadri) examining gender roles and cultural custodianship in traditional dance. Commissioned by the Esplanade for da:ns festival 2020.

Charlie - 15-minute 1-on-1 interactive experience between audience member and a 12-year old girl who has been confined to a single room her entire life. Presented digitally as part of Melbourne Fringe 2020 and in person at Goodman Arts Centre, Singapore in 2018 and the Edinburgh Student Art Festival 2017.

Rasa Sarang: A Translator's Dilemma - a lecture performance bringing the process of translation alive, with a focus on Dr Nazry Bahrawi's translation of Mohamed Latiff Mohamed's Lost Nostalgia. Commissioned by The Arts House for Textures 2020. 

Mak-Mak Menari - a documentary theatre performance about the role of Malay-Muslim mothers in Singapore today and how dance continues to play a part in their lives. Presented as part of m1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2020.

bhumi - a dance production combining Malay and contemporary dance questioning what it means to be Melayu (Malay) in a cosmopolitan age where race, culture, religion and nationality intersect. Presented as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016. 

Void Deck Festival - a community ground-up initiative involving the activation of void deck spaces in Tampines as a site for a community arts festival. (2014-2016)

Other international projects include:
PIAF (Charing Cross Theatre, UK), everything that rises must dance (Resolution 2016, UK), Last of Their Generation, bhumi (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, UK), In Celebration of Mo (Wandsworth Fringe 2016, UK), Bunker Without Borders (The Bunker Theatre, UK), Sau(dara) (Five Arts Centre, Malaysia)

Other Singapore credits include:
yesterday it rained salt (m1 Fringe Festival 2019), Ethni-City III: Kali Yuga (SAtheCollective), dead was the body till i taught it how to move, Every Brilliant Thing (Bhumi Collective), Ikan Girl (Singapore International Festival of Music 2016), The Last Five Years, Off Centre, Those Who Can't, Teach (Yellow Chair Productions), Lord of the Flies, Everything but the Brain (Sight Lines Productions).

Shai is an Organising Member of Producers SG, a community network for independent producers, arts managers and self-producing artists in Singapore. With the group he has co-organised a series of Producers Socials between 2018-2020 and provided co-representation at at BIPAM 2019 and TPAM 2019. 

He has been a member of the Singapore Drama Educators Association (SDEA) and was a member of Artistic Directors of the Future (ADF) when he was based in the UK. 

Shai has also been invited to talk about his practice and experiences or to moderate conversations. Some of these organisations include: 

• National Arts Council
• The Arts House
• Dance Nucleus
• Singapore Drama Educators Association
• theatrethreesixty, Malaysia
• Fringe Central (Edinburgh Fringe), UK
• Royal Central School of Speech and Drama Alumni Office, UK

I would be interested to supervise Arts Projects, developed in collaboration with the following industry partners:

• Theatre or dance companies with contemporary, multidisciplinary and/or collaborative practices
• Independent artists/collectives with contemporary, multidisciplinary and/or collaborative practices
• Festivals (curation & management)
• Performing Arts Spaces (curation & management)
• Artists, organisations or platforms with a focus on diversity and representation
• Artists, organisations or platforms with an interest in transnational collaboration and international-facing market development

• TEDx Speaker, “Diversifying, Diversity: Tomorrow’s Theatre Today”.TEDxRoyalCentralSchool. 2017.
• Goh Chok Tong Youth Promise Award (Distinction), Mendaki. 2015.