EMCC | PANIK ROOM 4D

Sypnosis

Improvper Conduct presents… PANIK ROOM 4D 

8 characters wake up and find themselves trapped in an inescapable room. In order to survive, they must play games delivered to them by a mysterious distorted voice. Despite complying with the rules, the characters slowly meet their end as the games progress, leading to a grand finale where the truth is finally revealed.  

None of the scenes are written before the show. Everything you see is fully improvised. 

Cast Biographies

Christopher Chee fell in love with Improvisation when he first caught Whose Line Is It Anyway. Since 19, he had attended improv workshops and his love to match wit for wit and spontaneity only grew from there. He was fortunate to find a group of individuals who also love improv and to grow and deepen the skills required with them. When not saying “yes and” on stage, he is a playwright. Some of his produced plays includes, The Good Farmer (T:>Works, 2018), The Clouds are what we make of them (Lit Up Festival, 2018), and Shells (NUS Stage, 2022). 

Michelle Simon Hariff is a theatre-maker who relishes in diverse artistic methodologies. A NUS Theatre Studies graduate, she is interested in exploring ecology and culture through art. She performed in Ode to a Famished Existence – Phase 1 (Sourcing Within Ensemble). A lover of comedy, she performed and co-conceived PANIK MODE TV (EMCC, 2021) and Gossip GRLs (Centre 42’s The Vault series for The Night Festival, 2019). She collaborated with foreign worker artists to create a movement-based short, Girl of the Mud (NUS CFA’s Build-a-bridge project, 2020). Michelle was a community theatre workshop facilitator under The Healing Playground. 

Nathaniel Aaron Tan is a design instructor at NUS, the President of the NUS Stage Alumni group (check out our Instagram and sign up there!), and is loved by his parents very much despite his “negative” cuteness. So please sign up for the NUS Stage Alumni group even if you are not cute – all NUS Alumni are welcome ☺️ 

Like a well-tuned Toyota Corolla, Tan Shao Yun plans and runs the Improvper Conduct’s sessions. He is also the Vice President of NUS Stage Alumni and leads the Improv Wing like a Ford Mustang. Shao has developed techy artworks for exhibitions such as OTHERWORLDS and the Arts@RP Residency, and created multimedia for productions like Screen. Shot. (Bound Theatre, 2022) and teasers for NUS Stage’s shows. He is passionate about editing videos, marvelling about “the boundless potential of one’s self if you put your mind to it” and brainstorming car metaphors despite not having a driver’s licence. 

Ong Bing Jue is someone whom you think would study PCME and enjoy partaking in chess club as his extra co-curricular activities. Contrary to people’s expectations, he is a hybrid arts science student who graduated from NUS computing, while actively partaking in NUS Stage’s production. He has performed in Shook directed by Sean Tobin, A Disappearing Number and The Golden Record 2.0 directed by Edith Podesta. On weekdays, he takes up a full time job in a software company where the only spotlight he ever gets is in a zoom meeting or a karaoke company retreat. With PANIK ROOM 4D, he hopes his daily morning standups is no longer the only standup he would ever be in. 

Ong Xue Min creates art by devising and improvising. Her beloved mediums are theatre and film. She co-founded the collective, But Not Boring, which concluded a community arts residency and an exhibition entitled, Flow (Singapore Art Week 2022). Besides performing, she is also learning to manage productions, such as Screen. Shot. (Bound Theatre, M1 Fringe Festival 2022). She graduated from Young and Wild under the tutelage of Edith Podesta in 2019. She believes art can save the world. 

Wee Jia Yi (Ping) is one of the founding members of Bound Theatre which prides itself in the creation of devised works such as The Taste of Water (2018) and To Begin Again (2015). He loves all things to do with Comedy, Philosophy and Psychology. Prompts that throw him off in an improv show include “chicken noodle”, “toilet paper” and “two left feet”.  

Joshua Gareth Seow graduated from being Improvper Conduct’s friendly Janitor to being a full time part of their last show, PANIK MODE TV. He served as president of NUS Stage in 2021-22, and has been in a variety of productions such as Into the Woods and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), as well as shows produced by NUS Stage and directed by directors such as Chong Tze Chien and Sean Tobin. In PANIK ROOM 4D, he hopes to find audience members whom he can impress with his southern accent (the only accent he is capable of).