Choy-Ping Ní Chléirigh-Ng 吳彩萍 (°1997, they / she) is a Hong Kong-Irish theatre maker and designer of set, costume and video. Ping was born and raised in Enniskerry, Wicklow. They won a Linbury Prize and John Elvery Prize after graduating from MA Performance Design at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (2021). They have designed for venues including the Abbey Theatre, Bristol Old Vic and Singapore Repertory Theatre. They were a recipient of the Arts Council of Ireland’s Next Generation Award (2022). Their most recent piece of theatre making / designing, WINDOW A WORLD, was co-produced by Dublin Theatre Festival and BUDA Belgium through the EU’s Be SpectACTive! project (2022). It premiered with a sold out run at Dublin Theatre Festival. Ping was mentored by Susanne Kennedy as part of Pan Pan’s 10th International Mentorship, exploring Cantonese opera. They are currently developing new work kindly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Wicklow County Council's Artist Award Scheme. They are also supported by the three year Propel Programme Award (2023) with Strollers Network, a partnership made up of ten arts centres across Ireland.

As a theatre maker, Ping writes, directs, designs and often performs their own work. Ping is primarily inspired by their heritage and cross-cultural experiences, examining language, colonialism and queerness. They combine this with surrealism, humour and innovative design. Studying Sociology and English Literature at Trinity College Dublin shaped their practice in that they usually begin with in-depth research and informal interviews. Usually their projects involve both professionals and people with little formal theatre experience. Ping was selected for Rough Magic’s inaugural Rough Ideas programme, presenting a work-in-progress of WANDER WANDER WILD WILD 遊遊野野 (2022). It was based on a news story to move 50,000 Hong Kong immigrants to a city in Ireland. WHERE ARE YOU FROM? (2019) was inspired by interviews with their father Chi Wai 子威, staged at the Abbey (Ireland’s National Theatre) and Electric Picnic. MY LITTLE CHINA GIRL (2017) was a nine-hour long piece on the representations of East Asian women in Western media. Ping is also a former member of Dublin Youth Theatre.

Ping sees design as an element that can feel as live as the performers onstage. Ping’s past experience is mostly in theatre, but they are interested in live music, dance, opera and design-led work in general. They have worked as an associate / assistant to designers such as Vicki Mortimer, Sabine Dargent and Nina Dunn. Ping is beginning to incorporate meaningful sustainability into their design process where possible, inspired by the Theatre Green Book.

Ping also enjoys drawing and writing beyond theatre. Their poems have been published by Rookie Magazine.

Choy-Ping Ní Chléirigh-Ng is pronounced: choy ping nee clare-ree ng (like the end of “ring” or “sing”). Credits prior to 2024 were noted with the surname Clarke-Ng.

Photograph: Owen Clarke

Calligraphy (on mobile): Chi Wai Ng 吳子威