Koh Choon Eiow is an award-winning contemporary theater director, playwright, and actor. He was born in Malaysia and educated in the theater department at the Malaysian Institute of Art, and earned an MFA from Chinese Culture University in Taiwan. Now based in Taipei, Koh usually collaborates with theater troupes in South Korea, Macau, Hong Kong, and southeast Asia.
His works focus mainly on questioning the drift and survival of Asian people throughout history, postcolonial politics, and capitalism and power. In 2011, Koh’s Chronology on Death earned him recognition as one of the leading figures in Taiwan avant-garde theater. With radical comedy, this daring piece navigates the landmines of racial and religious conflict in Malaysia, and has toured Taiwan, Singapore, Mainland China, and Macau. His other recent works, such as A Gambling World, parts one and two, coproduced with Step-Out in Macau, dealt with the controversial theme of casinos. In 2014, he founded Approaching Theatre with his long-term partner, Cheng Yin-chen. They have worked with two Chinese traditional theater mentors, Chen Wei-Chen and Chou Yih-Chang, for many years, searching for contemporary training methods for actors rooted in the Chinese cultural tradition. They offer acting workshops throughout many countries.
