Front Row

Beyond the sneak peek at the coming weekend's performance by T4YP (klpac's Theatre for Young People), hear what the two co-directors have to say about getting these young performers ready. Joe Hasham reveals the space that T4YP plays the performing arts ecosystem. Three of the 16 participants in the 2018 cohort share what performing means to them.

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For the last three years, a poetry open mic event called “If Walls Could Talk” has been providing a platform for poets to perform their work. The event has welcomed over 350 poets since it began, and celebrates its third anniversary this month, in June 2018. Poet and spoken word artist Melizarani T. Selva talks to us about the founding of the event, and how it has evolved over the years.

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Hariraam and Abbirami learnt the Indian classical style of playing the violin from a very young age, having been trained in the style of Indian Carnatic violin maestro Lalgudi G Jayaraman. The two violinists will be performing together in “Two Violins”, a recital that aims to encourage a deeper appreciation of Carnatic music.

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As Malaysians, there are few things we enjoy quite as much as poking fun at the Singaporeans. One Singaporean dance troupe, however, has taken this a step further by bringing a dance production to Kuala Lumpur that takes a lighthearted look at its own Singaporean culture. From “chupping” a table at a food court to queuing up to buy the latest smartphone, “We, the Singaporeans” by The Royal Dance Off company talks to us about using contemporary dance to explore “kiasuism”.

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Our producer attended the 3rd Biennial Conference of the Asian Shakespeare Association to interview Professor Peter Holland about Shakespeare in performance. Professor Holland was the keynote speaker at the Conference, sharing with attendees his research into trailers of Shakespeare or based-on Shakespeare films. This presentation on trailers points to the "uncomfortable" relationship between Hollywood and the Bard. Our producer picks up the discussion from there.

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Theatre can often be a powerful way to provide a voice for disempowered communities. Parastoo Theatre is a troupe that is built on this idea, and is founded and made up of Afghan refugees who currently reside in Malaysia. The group’s upcoming show, “Screaming in Silence”, will focus on the issue of child marriage in Afghanistan. The play’s director and Parastoo Theatre founder Saleh Sepas, who is himself a refugee, talks to us about the production.

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Datuk Ramli Ibrahim, one of Malaysia’s foremost dancers and choreographers of Indian classical dance, received the Padma Shri award - one of India’s top civilian honours - last month. Meanwhile, he is also the subject of a photography exhibition here in Kuala Lumpur called “Cave of the Heart” by Indian photographer A. Prathap. We sit down with Ramli and Prathap to talk about the award, and what it was like to shoot Ramli at this significant point in his life.

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War is examined through theatre and music in “Between the Lines”, a performance that follows the narrative of a soldier reaching the end of his days. Songs from beloved musicals such as Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, Pippin, and Hamilton, performed by local musical theatre performers, are used to illustrate the story further.

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Surveillance is an increasingly common presence in contemporary society as our engagement with technology continues to blur the lines between the public and private. “Seen”, a contemporary art exhibition at Wei-Ling Contemporary, examines these issues through the works of 10 internationally acclaimed and local artists. Ahmet Ogut, a conceptual artist from Turkey who currently works in Berlin and Amsterdam, is one of the artists whose works are being shown. He talks to us about his career and how he interprets the notion of surveillance in the works he is showing.

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First there was speed-dating; now, there’s speed-songwriting. “...And the Curtain Rises” is a music event where 12 singer-songwriters will be paired up to write a song each in 12 hours, culminating in a performance. The event is a run-up to the Yayasan Sime Darby Arts Festival. The show’s co-producer and two participating singer-songwriters talk to us about the process of writing songs on the fly.

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