Playwright Chong An Ong and director Timothy Koh investigate the meaning of home in Singapore, Michigan

Vogue Singapore

3 days ago

In a faraway corner of Michigan, United States, situated at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River, is the little town of Singapore—or at least, it was, until the town met its demise in the 1870s when fires swept through the state, leading to surrounding areas being completely deforested to supply lumber for rebuilding, and thus causing the winds and sands to erode the town into ruins due to the lack of protective tree cover. Today, its remnants lie buried under the sand dunes of Lake Michigan, its only legacy found in its reputation now as the state's most famous ghost town—and, more recently, as the opening anecdote used in Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's first National Day Rally in 2024.
It is this fabled town that sets the scene for Pangdemonium's latest production. Written by Chong An Ong and directed by Timothy Koh, Singapore, Michigan follows three college friends—two Singaporeans and one American—on a mission to find the abandoned town. But when they find themselves trapped in a blizzard, they are forced to confront questions of belonging, passion versus practicality, and what home really means. Developed as part of Pangdemonium's New Works Lab, the play is Ong's first, written during his own time spent studying in the States. Last year, an early version of it was also staged at the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA).
In the lead-up to the show, Ong and Koh chat about the inspiration behind the play, the parts they've been looking forward to explore in the rehearsal room, and what they're most excited for audiences to see. Singapore, Michigan stars Ching Shu Yi, Shrey Bhargava and Zane Haney. Courtesy of Pangdemonium
How are you guys doing in the lead-up to the show?
Timothy: We're in the midst of rehearsals right now, and that's been surprising in the best ways. We're making a lot of discoveries in the room that I wouldn't have thought of had I just read it on the page. I think that's just the magic of what happens when actors come into the space with us. That's always when I'm at my most excited, and when I have the most fun.
Chong An, this is your first play. What has it been like getting to stage it?
Chong An: It's like a pinch myself moment in a dream. It's really surreal and full-circle, as one of the first experiences that got me interested in theatre was Pangdemonium's Next to Normal production in 2013. I'm aware that they've done new original works before, but it's always been with really established writers and theatre professionals. To be in that company now is daunting, but also really exciting. I'm honoured to be a part of the New Works Lab program in particular, and I look forward to seeing more works come from other Singaporean writers as part of it.
What inspired you to write Singapore, Michigan?
C: I started writing this play in the winter of 2020, as part of an undergraduate writing workshop at the University of Chicago. I was in a similar place as the characters—a college senior about to graduate and come back home to serve my government scholarship. And I was thinking a lot about the same questions. What do I want to do with my future? How has four years of college in a foreign country shaped me, as opposed to the person I was before that? I think, in Singapore, oftentimes, there's this almost ritualistic invocation of the idea of home. After four years of talking to both my Singaporean and non-Singaporean friends, I was having these epiphanies about the concept of home that I wouldn't otherwise have had if I'd stayed in Singapore. It was a transitional period of my life where a lot of these questions were boiling, and it honestly almost felt like I had no choice but to write it, to process a lot of the emotions that I was going through. The play follows three friends who get snowed in whilst on a mission to find the ghost town of Singapore, Michigan. Courtesy of Pangdemonium
Has the play evolved since you first started writing it in 2020?
C: For sure. Writers will often say that playwriting itself is a very lonely endeavour, but the exciting part of the experience is when the play meets other people. Having conversations with the Pangdemonium team, receiving feedback from a wider audience at the developmental platform at SIFA, and now having the actors in the room—I get to learn new things about the play and expand it beyond what was a very personal piece that I had written for myself. Incorporating all these different experiences and perspectives of home really enriches the dramatic potential of the piece. So a lot has evolved, not just from when the play first met Pangdemonium, but from when I first wrote it five years ago by myself in a college basement classroom in Chicago.
Has writing this play helped you to find some of the answers to the questions you were asking?
C: For me, rather than answers, it's more about finding other people who feel similar, and discovering community and companionship through the power of art. That was a conversation I had with Tim as well—about having a more open-ended exploration of the play, and being okay to sit in the ambiguity of it.
'In Singapore, oftentimes, there's this almost ritualistic invocation of the idea of home'
Timothy, as a director, what draws you to the plays that you choose to work on—and why this play in particular?
T: I've been quite known in the scene for doing classic or classic-adjacent work. That is a big part of my desire to work in theatre, and that will always be there, but what I've also been pushing for in the last couple years is new plays and new young playwrights, because there is nothing more thrilling than being able to create something entirely new. That said, I think that there is a very strong through line in all the plays I choose to do, which is that they all concern intelligent, articulate characters who are faced with very difficult decisions. I like exploring the psychological aspect of characters, and I think this is true both for my classic work and for new plays. But with this piece, I was certainly drawn to it because the characters are so richly drawn and so complex that we learn new things about them every day, and I think that's what makes it fun.
Was there an aspect of the play that you were most excited to tackle in the rehearsal room?
T: It's no secret that there is snow in this play, and that's something I've been quite excited to play with. Obviously, we're not getting real snow on stage, but when you come see the show, you'll see how we tackled it. This show has some fun sets and scenic moments that we employ, so I'm very excited to tech it because I think that would be the final piece to the puzzle that we've been working on.
C: I agree that the snow is very exciting. Winter is my favourite weather, and when I first started writing the script, I always knew this play was going to be set in the winter, because the dissonance of Singapore in the winter is very interesting. But this is such a personal piece for me, so the most exciting thing is really just having these characters and words and emotions that have lived within me for five years at this point come to life on stage. Singapore, Michigan was developed as a part of Pangdemonium's New Works Lab. Courtesy of Pangdemonium
Have there been any challenges along the way?
C: I have a day job—I'm a civil servant—so it's been a bit of a challenge for me to balance the rehearsal and script revision demands, plus my own personal life as well.
T: I'm lucky that this is my day job [laughs]. Every piece presents different kinds of struggles, but weirdly enough, I actually think this has been going quite smoothly. Nothing particular comes to mind.
C: I do think there was a degree of trepidation before coming into the rehearsal room, right? There were moments right before and right after we had the actors come in that I personally felt a bit without a safety net. And then afterwards, it was like, 'Oh, this is good. There's a lot to explore here. We're ready for the actors to attack it'.
What has that been like—seeing the actors bring your words to life?
C: It's really surreal. Words fail to describe that kind of feeling. What I will say is, as a playwright, the ideal is always to be able to create something that is flexible enough to fit different interpretations. That was something that I wanted the text to have. I wanted room for the actors to play and discover, so it's very heartening to see that validated. There is space for other collaborators to come in and offer their own additions, which is the magic thing that you always want in the theatre.
T: And we have such intelligent performers in Ching Shu Yi, Shrey Bhargava and Zane Haney. Sometimes I feel the actors might know the characters in more intimate ways than we do, because they offer up interpretations of texts that we don't think about, and we're like, 'Whoa, okay, yeah, that makes so much sense'. I think that is the most enlightening part about the rehearsal process.
'As a playwright, the ideal is always to be able to create something that is flexible enough to fit different interpretations'
Lastly, what are you most excited for audiences to see with this play?
T: I'm excited for the audience to be challenged. I really like theatre that challenges audiences to think more deeply about situations or people or issues in a way that perhaps they have not thought of before. I would consider this play successful if it raises difficult questions for audiences, while still offering a fun and enjoyable theatrical experience. But I think at the heart of it, I really want the audiences to investigate what home means. What does it mean to belong, and how do you think about home when you're not there?
C: When I wrote this play, I included a lot of twists and turns—kind of like the Alfred Hitchcock theory of drama being such that there is a bomb under the table. The audience knows it's there, but they don't know when it's going to go off. We've really amped up those twists and turns in the rehearsal room. Yes, I think it's important that the play explores important themes and provokes important reflections, but I'm also excited to see the audience react to the roller coaster ride that I hope we're creating for them. I feel like it would be very gratifying to see the different energy that each new audience will bring every night.
Singapore, Michigan runs from 26 June to 11 July 2025.