GAURAV KRIPALANI

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, SINGAPORE REPERTORY THEATRE THEATRE VETERAN AND CHAMPION FOR THE ARTS IN SINGAPORE

Gaurav Kripalani is artistic director of the Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT) and director of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (Sifa)—a role he held for four years from 2018. The Calcuttaborn creative is an instantly recognisable face on the local arts stage, having presented and produced over 150 productions.

Kripalani has been involved with a diverse range of theatrical works from original Singaporean productions to stage classics. These include popular local musicals such as A Twist of Fate and Forbidden City: Portrait of an

Empress as well as various Shakespeare in the Park productions, including The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The SRT also put on The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), a theatrical mash-up involving 37 plays acted by three thespians in 97 minutes, in the fourth quarter of 2021.

As director of Sifa, Kripalani oversaw nine festival commissions in 2021, including a contemporary retelling of Anton Chekhov’s

Three Sisters by local group Nine Years Theatre and Siti Company from New York. The festival also circumnavigated the Covid-19 outbreak by launching online performances and filming productions to screen later as part of a video-on-demand service.

DID YOU KNOW?

Kripalani acted in his first play when he was just five.