Alvin is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Necessary Stage since 1987. He is also the co-Artistic Director of the annual international M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. One of the leading proponents of devising theatre in Singapore, Alvin has directed more than 60 plays which have been staged locally and at international festivals. He has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and served as a member of the curatorial panel for TransLab, an initiative created by the Australian Council for the Arts to promote intercultural theatre and performance. In 2010, Alvin was conferred the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture, in recognition of his significant contribution to the arts. Alvin was most recently awarded Best Director at the 2011 Life! Theatre Awards for Model Citizens by The Necessary Stage.Alvin has also been actively involved in civil society and public intiatives, amongst which include Bird People in Tanglin Halt, an intradisciplinary project on the dilemmas of urban heritage and biodiversity., for which he is the Artistic Director of the theatre component. In 2012, Alvin was also commissioned by the National Library Board as Artistic Director of a time-travelling exhibition on the life and works of Singapore poet Edwin Thumboo.