An Associate Artist with The Substation since 2002, Verena Tay has spent the last twenty years acting, directing and writing for local English-language theatre working at various times with The Necessary Stage, Action Theatre, TheatreWorks and Practice Theatre. Since 1997, she has been concentrating on solo performances, most of which have been featured at The Substation with its support, e.g. Cotton & Jade (2000), Medea: One on One (2002) and 3 Women (2005). The Substation also produced three of Verena's monologues (directed by Richard Chua, Sonny Lim and Ferlin Jayatissa) as 3 Men Meet 3 Women in 2004.

A published, award-winning playwright, Verena's first book, In the Company of Women: Selected Plays, published by SNP Editions, was launched on 22 July 2004. On 1 June 2005, Verena's play, The Car, won Action Theatre's Theatre Idols 2005 by being awarded both the Jury Prize and the Audience Choice Award for 'Best New Play'; The Car was fully staged at The Esplanade Theatre Studio by Action Theatre in late July 2006.

With the moral support of The Substation, Verena pursued an MA in Voice Studies (2005) at the Central School of Speech and Drama, London during 2003-04. She now earns her living teaching voice, speech and/or presentation skills at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University and other local institutions.

In addition, Verena uses all her theatrical background to bring stories vocally and physically alive in her unique fashion. Together with Kamini Ramachandran with whom she founded MoonShadow Stories in November 2004, Verena has been telling stories at The Substation, the Armenian Church, local museums and within the community, much to the delight and enjoyment of adults and children. In particular, MoonShadow Stories has done much to push the boundaries of storytelling for adults in Singapore. An active storyteller with Talespin and the Storyteller's Circle, Verena is also a founding member of the Storytelling Association (Singapore).

As the President and a founding member of Magdalena (Singapore), a society that seeks to promote networking and sharing amongst women arts practitioners, Verena was heavily involved in organising Crossroads 2006, an international women's theatre festival (9-15 Jul 2006).

For more information about Verena, please visit http://verenatay.com