SINGAPORE – The National University of Singapore’s (NUS) last-minute cancellation of a playwriting module has left its instructor Haresh Sharma indignant, while other artists have come forward to say they have been similarly informed that their courses will not proceed as planned. NUS has responded, saying it dropped the courses due to low enrolment numbers.
Sharma, 59, took to Instagram on Aug 12 to say that he was told five days before the start of the course that NUS did not “approve” his appointment. According to Sharma, who has previously taught at NUS, he was told by the university that its decision is “unrelated to issues of qualifications, experience or teaching abilities” and was not given a reason.
“So, you can give me an award but you cannot allow me to teach your students?” he asked on the post. He graduated from NUS’ Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (Fass) in 1990 and was awarded the Fass Distinguished Arts and Social Sciences Alumni Award in 2021.
“What about all the work I’ve done in preparation for my course?” asked Sharma, who has been the resident playwright of The Necessary Stage since 1990. He was awarded the Cultural Medallion, Singapore’s pinnacle cultural accolade, in 2015.
Theatre actress Noorlinah Mohamed, who was the creative producer for the National Day Parade 2024, also took to Instagram stories to share a similar account. She co-founded the Singapore Drama Educators Association in 2002 and was the artistic director of Festival of Women N.O.W., a public project led by women collaborators.
She was slated to teach a module on voice studies and production at NUS, which she had taught since 2021, but “received an e-mail worded in the same manner as that described by (Sharma)” in July 2024 that her appointment was not approved.
“Did the paperwork and blocked out the dates. Worked on the module. And then dropped. No courtesy phone call. No conversation. No thank you for your service. Nothing,” she wrote.
Sharma and Noorlinah declined further comment when ST approached them.
Responding to queries from ST, a NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences spokesperson said on Aug 15: “In running our courses and appointing external instructors to teach selected ones, the faculty considers several factors, including enrolment numbers and the broader curriculum.
“We lacked sizable numbers to conduct the playwriting course meaningfully. Separately, the voice studies and production course is currently being taught by a full-time staff. We have reached out to both Mr Haresh Sharma and Ms Noorlinah Mohamed on this matter.”
A third artist, who spoke to ST on condition of anonymity, was also dropped by the university this semester.
In a follow-up post by Sharma dated Aug 13, he wrote: “Some artists have reached out to say this has happened to them. Two were also supposed to teach this semester and (were) dropped without a clear reason.”
He added: “I hope that educational institutions will treat part-time artists justly and responsibly. Many are freelancers and depend very much on the fees they get from these institutions. Last-minute cancellations deny them the opportunity to find other jobs, resulting in a painful loss of income.”
Affected students The Straits Times (ST) spoke to expressed frustration at the last-minute communication. Enrolled students were told in an e-mail dated Aug 6 that the playwriting module, slated to run from Aug 12, was cancelled due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
Ms Jade Ow, 22, a theatre studies major at the College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS) at NUS, said she felt “blindsided” by this turn of events. The final-year student said that “without this course, I would have been forced to delay graduation”, due to the stated requirements for her course of study.
“I am gutted by the fact that Haresh Sharma is not teaching us playwriting this semester. As someone who loves theatre and creative writing, I think it’s very rare to have the opportunity to really learn from the best of the best in Singapore,” she added.
NUS has since offered her and other affected students replacement modules.
Some said they did not understand the decision to drop the courses based on enrolment numbers. Third-year theatre studies major at CHS, Ms Evangel Wong, 21, told ST that class sizes for theatre studies courses are usually small, averaging fewer than 10 students. The voice studies and production course she is enrolled in, now being taught by full-time NUS faculty Thong Pei Qin, who was asked to replace Noorlinah, has 19 students.
Another final-year CHS student, who wanted to be known as Ms Rose, was “perplexed” by the move as there are few alternative modules available to students like her. She said the department “lacks sufficient modules for English, Linguistics and Theatre Studies majors” and that the change posed problems for students’ timetables.
“Not only is there a lack of alternatives, but it was also the only module that taught playwriting, which is such a fundamental aspect of theatre,” she added.
Another final-year CHS student, who asked to be known as Mr Chong and was affected by the cancellation of both Sharma and Noorlinah’s classes, told ST: “The abruptness and lack of communication surrounding these decisions have left me disappointed.”
Sharma’s Instagram post has garnered an outpouring of support from the theatre community, including from actresses Sharda Harrison and Neo Swee Lin.
Over his career, he has written more than 100 plays and nurtured young playwrights. His landmark play Off Centre, which tackles the stigma around mental illness, was the first Singaporean play to be chosen as a GCE O-level literature text.
His scripts Fundamentally Happy, Good People and Gemuk Girls won for best original script at The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
He was the playwright for The Prose And The Passion – a play which puts Singapore stories in dialogue with English writer E.M. Forster’s closeted identity – which was staged at the Singapore International Festival of Arts 2024.
https://www.straitstimes.com/life/a...tists-including-haresh-sharma-on-short-notice
