SINGAPORE – From a dance piece inspired by a 1911 Malay manuscript on sexuality to an examination of South-east Asia’s relationship to South Korea, a bumper crop of Singapore acts are travelling the world in the coming months.

Singaporean performers have been resourceful in leveraging their networks to gain international exposure despite rising costs of touring and the drying up of funding sources amid economic uncertainties.

During theatremaker and producer Shaifulbahri Mohamad’s six-week self-designed and self-financed residency in South Korea in 2025, he wrote the script to Noraebang Diplomacy and presented a showcase for Korean theatre practitioners. The one-man show, which asks difficult questions about South Korea’s appetite for diversity, impressed a producer from the Seoul Marginal Theatre Festival who programmed its world premiere at the experimental festival in September 2026.

“It’s about trying to find my connection to the world, especially in these times when there are very divisive views that aren’t g...