Draft:Lucas Ho

Lucas Ho grew up in Singapore. He attended Hwa Chong Institution and St Andrews Junior College. His twin brother Joses Ho is a poet and a pro-wrestler. They have been jointly featured at the Singapore Writers' Festival.{{Cite web |title=Speed Hating |url=https://singaporewritersfestival.com/archives/programmes-2021/programme-details/experiential-participatory/speed-hating |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=singaporewritersfestival.com |language=en-gb}}{{Cite web |date=2020-04-20 |title=What I Love About You is Your Attitude Problem - Checkpoint Theatre |url=https://checkpoint-theatre.org/event/what-i-love-about-you-is-your-attitude-problem/ |access-date=2025-03-22 |language=en-GB}}

Lucas Ho studied English Literature at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He spent one semester abroad at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and completed a summer session at Yale University. He is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Writing for the Stage and Broadcast Media at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.{{Cite web |date=2024-03-06 |title=Tender Submission - Lucas Ho |url=https://www.cssd.ac.uk/blog/tender-submission-lucas-ho |access-date=2024-12-03 |website=The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama |language=en}}

During his time at NUS, he was mentored by Huzir Sulaiman. He joined Checkpoint Theatre as an Associate Artist in 2013.{{Cite web |date=2018-12-20 |title=Associate Artists - Checkpoint Theatre |url=https://checkpoint-theatre.org/about/associate-artists/ |access-date=2024-12-03 |language=en-GB}}

His debut full-length play FRAGO, about army reservists in Singapore, was presented by Checkpoint Theatre in 2017. In a review in the Business Times, Helmi Yusof noted that “[Lucas] manages to achieve a new kind of NS (National Service) play - a cool, existential and inescapably real depiction of the army experience … FRAGO is plain, honest, gently humorous … it's possibly the most realistic portrait of the NS experience to ever take to the stage.”{{Cite web |last=Yusof |first=Helmi |date=2017-07-20 |title=Unvarnished portrait of National Service |url=https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/lifestyle/unvarnished-portrait-national-service |access-date=2024-12-03 |website=The Business Times |language=en}} Naeem Kapadia, writing for ArtsEquator, praised how Lucas' writing was "both rich and immersive. Its authentic, lived-in dialogue – from earthy banter to existential musings – vividly conjures up the world of ICT (in-camp training) … FRAGO is at its most searing in excavating the unique nature of male friendship.” {{Cite web |last=Kapadia |first=Naeem |date=2017-07-18 |title=FRAGO: A tender meditation on our brothers in arms |url=https://artsequator.com/frago-checkpoint-review/ |access-date=2024-12-03 |website=ArtsEquator |language=en-US}}

In 2020, his stage play The Heart Comes to Mind was to have premiered in April as a co-production by Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay and Checkpoint Theatre, for the 2020 season of The Studios. It explored the private struggles of an ageing writer and his scientist daughter as they each wrestle with the loss of their wife and mother respectively. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic{{Cite web |last=Weiliang |first=Ke |date=2020-06-29 |title=Emotional asymptotes in Checkpoint Theatre's The Heart Comes to Mind |url=https://artsequator.com/checkpoint-the-heart-comes-to-mind/ |access-date=2024-12-03 |website=ArtsEquator |language=en-US}}, it was instead released as an audio experience online. Ong Sor Fern, reviewing the audio version for the Straits Times, praised Lucas' writing as "imagistic and larded with poetic turns of phrases"{{Cite news |last=Ong |first=Sor Fern |date=June 8, 2020 |title=Review: Audio soundscape steals the show in Checkpoint Theatre's The Heart Comes To Mind |url=https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/review-audio-soundscape-steals-the-show-in-checkpoint-theatres-the-heart-comes-to |access-date=2024-12-03 |work=The Straits Times}}. It has not yet been staged since.{{Cite web |title=The Heart Comes to Mind |url=https://www.xinwei-c.com/the-heart-comes-to-mind |access-date=2024-12-03 |website=Xinwei Che |language=en-US}}

His third play, Tender Submission, premiered in 2023. The show was a two-hander set entirely in a church cry room. It was nominated for Best Original Script at The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards 2024.{{Cite news |last=Yong |first=Clement |date=Feb 22, 2024 |title=ST Life Theatre Awards 2024 nominees: Shakespeare, Doubt, Brown Boys and G*d Is A Woman |url=https://www.straitstimes.com/life/arts/st-life-theatre-awards-2024-nominees-shakespeare-doubt-brown-and-gd-is-a-woman |access-date=2024-12-03 |work=The Straits Times}} Charmaine Tan, in a review for Men's Folio, wrote that "is set to stand the test of time in its brilliantly complex depiction of a marriage weathered by it … this is an important work for Singapore.”{{Cite web |last=Tan |first=Charmaine |date=2023-08-28 |title=In Praise of Growing Through Checkpoint Theatre's Tender Submission: A Review |url=https://www.mens-folio.com/lifestyle/in-praise-of-growing-through-checkpoint-theatres-tender-submission-a-review/ |access-date=2024-12-03 |website=Men's Folio |language=en-US}}

For the 2023 edition of the Singapore Writers' Festival, Lucas wrote an essay on Goh Poh Seng, the Literary Pioneer for that year's Festival.{{Cite web |last=Sor Fern |first=Ong |date=2023-09-25 |title=Singapore Writers Festival celebrates hip-hop, guests include Viet Thanh Nguyen, Lat and Spivak |url=https://www.straitstimes.com/life/arts/singapore-writers-festival-celebrates-hip-hop-guests-include-viet-thanh-nguyen-lat-and-spivak |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=The Straits Times}} The essay was exhibited at various locations in Singapore, and was released on Spotify.{{Cite web |title=Tell Bowie He's Only A Rock Star. I, However, Am A Poet. Goh Poh Seng Literary Pioneer Exhibition |url=https://singaporewritersfestival.com/archives/programmes-2023/programme-details-2023/exhibitions/literary-pioneer-2023 |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=www.singaporewritersfestival.com |language=en-gb}}

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| 2024

| Tender Submission

| Best Original Script, Life! Theatre Awards

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