Ben Crawford in
The Phantom of the Opera Matthew Murphy
[This article was published in 2017, before Eric Woodall was named the Artistic Director of NC Theatre, and has been updated to reflect the production s recent history.]
When Eric Woodall was a college student, training to be an actor at Carnegie Mellon University, he hung ceramic half-masks in his dorm room: an homage to
The Phantom of the Opera. âI was in awe of its spectacle and its beauty,â he recalls, after seeing the show in New York in the early â90s. These days, Woodall doesnât act much, but the mask still looms large in his life as he is now in charge of casting the Broadway production. âIt is a joy to be able to work on such a loved piece, and a timeless piece as
SINGAPORE - Yeng Pway Ngon, one of Singapore’s most eminent Chinese-language writers, died on Sunday (Jan 10) after a long battle with cancer.
The Cultural Medallion recipient and three-time Singapore Literature Prize winner was 16 days shy of his 74th birthday.
He wrote more than 20 works, including acclaimed novels such as Unrest (2002), Trivialities About Me And Myself (2006) and Art Studio (2011).
The latter two were selected by the journal Asia Weekly for its prestigious annual list of the 10 Best Chinese Novels in the World, alongside works by Nobel laureate Mo Yan and Yan Geling.
Yeng had been battling prostate cancer since 2007 and was later also diagnosed with colon cancer. In May last year, doctors discovered cancer in his pancreas. He underwent surgery to remove it, but later fell sick from unstable blood sugar levels. By last month, the cancer had spread to his entire body.