SINGAPORE — Mark Rothko comes to life onstage in the Singapore production of Red next month at the Esplanade. Here are other local productions that have been based on works of art.

1. NATIONAL LANGUAGE CLASS. The first of two productions from experimental theatre group spell#7 based on a painting by social realist artist Chua Mia Tee. Staged in 2008 and starring Yeo Yann Yann and Noor Effendy Ibrahim, it presented multiple versions of Chua’s iconic work from the 1950 about a classroom of students as it tackled the issue of language.

2. EPIC POEM OF MALAYA. For their second work based on a Chua Mia Tee painting, spell#7 collaborated with Zai Kuning for a storytelling session of sorts combining the image seen in the 1956 painting of students yearning for a better future and a tale about the Riau Archipelago. It was staged in 2010.

3. THESE CHILDREN ARE DEAD. This Play Den production from 2009 presented a lecture performance by Nora Samosir that delved into the life of unheralded Nanyang artist named Huang Wei and his melancholic paintings of children. It’s a meta-production, however, as the paintings and Huang himself were created by contemporary artist Alan Oei, who continued to pursue the project.

4. GEORGETTE: THE MUSICAL. Poet-playwright Ng Yi-Sheng penned this musical about Singapore’s beloved Georgette Chen, whose self-portrait was hanging onstage throughout the production. The 2007 production starred Seong Hui Xuan as Chen.

5. HOPPER’S WOMEN. In many of American realist painter Edward Hopper’s paintings, you see a woman — his wife, actually — and Jean Tay and Cindy Koh wrote this piece in 2000 for Action Theatre, comprising a series of vignettes.