Announcements! Announcements!

hear ye, hear ye!

1. To those in USM and near by there will be a Mak Yong performance in USM by the Istana Budaya Sri Nilam troupe on:

• 7 & 8 November 2008
• place and time will be confirmed (most probably 8.30pm in dewan budaya but i'm not sure for now)
• Performing- "Anak Raja Gondang"

Interesting story of the queen had hatched an egg and the son that looks like a snail and the king thought that the wife had an affair with a snail. ( I cannot imagine that! seriously)

I know that it is during exam week but it is not often that USM gets this kind of opportunity to invite such good performances and I'm sure if they are charging it would not be as high as going to watch in Istana Budaya, I think. For those who haven't heard of Mak Yong, Mak yong is an theater performance that incorporates dance, acting, singing, music and the great thing is it was awarded as an UNESCO world heritage in 2005. Please do not miss this opportunity to go see the performance if you're able.

2. The next is the pre-arts projects from the acting students that will stage 10-15 mins clips fro their plays. The full performance will be held next semester. This is to ensure that the acting and directing students have a clear concept and direction for their performance next semester. The particulars are as follows.

• 20th september 2008 (this saturday)
• 9.30am-they finish
• Panggung Pelenggang Cahaya, Kompleks Graha Seni, School of arts USM ( its opposite of pusat komputer, next to gamelan room which is near Kata sila open air stage)

there will be a total of 6 plays among the plays are:

• Hamlet (indonesian version)
• No Exit (the only play in English)
• Sakoontala
• Nyonya
• Laut lebih indah dari bulan
• (Umm cant remember the last one...hehe)

so this is nice if you can go an support the arts. Last time there were a series of monologues that I went and it took like few days for all the students to perform and some had the same scripts. it was an interesting experience anyway, and i'm exited to go to this one too

3. There is another performance in negotiation which is to invite the Petronas Performing Arts troupe to perform Mek Mulung. Mek Mulung is a theater form in Kedah and what I've learnt that there is only a few people performing it now days. It is mainly in Wang tepus area and sometimes it is used for ritual healing. So if you are a trance healing enthusiast like me, I shall keep you updated on the particulars if the show is on.

In The Name of Love

Alright, been busy with assignments and all but just a short filleriee for you guys. On the 28 of August Masa Kini productions came to perform for the second time in USM on a monologue "In the name of love". I had no idea of this theater so I decided to come for the "in the name of love" talk at school in the morning. Dr. Hardy came to greet me at the entrance and asked to sit in front. Mind you that my voice was very "smokey" that day and I thought that any questions that I wanted to voice out was only possible to be heard If I seat in front.

Nevertheless, I also was worried that I might get others sick too since that fasting month was coming soon and it will be a complete disaster to get sick when you are fasting. So I took my chances bringing a clean cloth if I cough or sneeze. The speakers were sitting quite a distance. So, I thought It was OK.

Opening Credits by Dr. Hardy

So the first person to introduce after Dr. Hardy gave the opening speech was Guna. He teaches classical Indian dance and a well known choreographer for the star in the theater, Sabeera Shaik. For the past, he was the one giving ideas for the dance moves Sabeera is going to do. Besides that, he is also the person behind the costume making. This time the costume was simple for a reason which will be explained later. Guna could not attend that night's performance because he was performing at Dewan Sri Pinang for a night of oddisi.

Sabeera on the Left and Guna beside her

The next is the main actor of "in the name of love" Sabeera Shaik who was previously studied in Universiti Malaya. She had done "In the name of love" with Faridah Merican from The Actors Studio and was performed in Panggung Sasaran in USM. Lately, she brought "In the name of Love" to two places in India can't remember where. That's where keeping all props and costumes simple was been thought of. Sabeera also directs and the interesting part is where the difference of "concepts" come in place.

Christopher on the left, Sabeera and Guna

The Director for this theater is Christopher Jacobs. He had been in the industry for more than 20 years now. Through out the years he had experimented a lot such as getting involved with the Circus, Opera company, Ballet Company, event launching and all sorts of interesting stuff that you can possibly think of. One of the things that I find interesting was the fact that he said theater now is very boring. Why did he said so, is because that the more technology has advanced, the less innovations and creativity is produced. He gave an example of his early times in the UK, he was involved with a production called Ghost Train. At one part he said a group of 20 over people were orchestrated backstage to produce the sound of a train. There were wheelbarrows, tin cans, noise makers, all within a few seconds. Sounds exciting right? Nowadays we just click the mouse on a laptop to make the noise. "How boring". He said. I must admit that the advances of technology has limited the creativity in the arts however It does help smaller productions by cutting cost.

Christopher and Sabeera

The other interesting part was the fact that this time, "In the name of Love" was stripped all of the elaborate costumes and had simple props that can be changed through out the performance. Anyhow, sometimes people like me who have problems imagining have problems digesting the parts that require imagination. It improves through out the performance though. According to Chris too, that the reason is to project the intimacy of the character as if you were in a room that no one could see you doing things that you might be humiliated if people saw what you were doing alone. Is the intimacy and the core of the story was portrayed to show how three characters adept to Loss.

The Happy Audiences.....

The main story starts out with Deena, an Eurasian who lost her husband during the communist. Then there was Mak Su, a Mak Yong singer who feels that people could not appreciate Mak Yong anymore and the last is Sarasa. A mother wishing that her daughter will become a film star but eventually leaves her to be with her love.

I did enjoyed the performance though the performance kinda needs attention listening to really understand it. Hope that there will be more from Masa Kini productions performances here in USM so we don't have to travel far for great performances.

Dr. Mumtaz talking with Guna

According to Dr. Hardy, there will be a Mak Yong performance somewhere in November in USM and another yet to confirm the Petronas Performing Arts coming to perform something too. I'll check the details again and post it soon when I have the full info.