臺灣民間職業歌仔戲無論在「內臺」的商業劇場或「外臺」的廟會劇場，主要都採用「做活戲」的方式運作它的表演。新、馬地區的職業歌仔戲傳承自臺灣，自然也不例外。「講戲」是歌仔戲「做活戲」運作的開始，大部分的講戲人在傳遞劇目的同時，都或多或少帶有編劇和導戲的實質，但只有極少數的講戲人能夠以「臺數」編創新劇目。
陳美英是新加坡在地歌仔戲班「新鳳珠」和「四季春」的苦旦演員兼講戲人，她出身新加坡名班「新賽鳳」，又曾擔任馬來西亞名班「麒麟」的當家苦旦，演出經歷跨越新、馬兩地。她常應班主要求編創新劇目，編劇甚多，目前保留有情節概要的「臺數」（幕表）劇本有 19齣之多。
本文從陳美英女士幕表編劇的養成過程、題材關注與動機、手法與技巧、編劇風格等入手，探析陳美英如何結合自身生命經驗和在地文化滋養，像許多民間編劇一樣，一步一腳印的充實歌仔戲的內涵，並檢視其做為新加坡女性編劇和演員，有別於臺灣歌仔戲幕表編劇的特色。

The professional gezixi troupes in Taiwan, regardless of in-door theatre or outdoor temple fair performances, employ the ua.h-hi ex-temporaneous performance as the primary mode of acting. The troupes in Singapore and Malaysia, having their roots in Taiwan, are no excep-tions. “Play narration” is the preliminary stage of the ua.h-hi mechanism. Most Play narrators, when orally delivering the content of the play, tend to more or less assume the function of a playwright and/or director. However, only very few are capable of writing up new plays using the scenario outline called tai-soo.
Chen Meiying is a female lead specializing in tragic roles, who also doubles as a play narrator of gezixi troupes, Xinfengzhu and Sijichun in Singapore. Originally from the famous troupe Xinsaifeng in Singapore, she once served as the leading female role of the famous Malaysian troupe Qilin. Her performance credentials stride over both Singapore and Malaysia. Often, at the request of the troupe owners, she would compose new plays. Currently, the existing number of scenario outlines attributed to her amount to 19 plays.
In this study, I start with the development of Ms. Chen Meiying’s expertise in composing scenario outlines, her motivation, preference of subjects, and her approaches and techniques. I analyze how, just like many folk playwrights, Chen Meiying integrated her own life experi-ence with the nourishment she assimilated from local culture to en-hance the content of gezixi theatre one step at a time. I also examine how, as a female playwright and actress in Singapore, she used scenario out-lines which exhibit characteristics that are different from those of the gezixi theatre in Taiwan.