TWENTY children from five underpriviledged home will star in a children’s theatre performance being staged from Friday to Sunday at Auditorium DBP, Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka, Kuala Lumpur.
The children are participants of an arts programme run by non-profit arts academy Teach for the Needs (TFTN).
They will be showcasing their talents by putting on the play, Mona Ke Daerah M, which tells the story of 12-year-old Mona, who must travel to the land of Daerah M to rescue her younger sister who has been kidnapped by Mega, a popular cartoon character.
Award-winning actor Amerul Affendi (One, Two, Jaga; Paskal) will be appearing as Mega.
The 105-minute performance is based on a script by Amar Amir, and is directed by Fazleena Hishamuddin.
This is not the first time Fazleena is putting up a children’s theatre performance.
In 2015, she was invited by TFTN to direct 10 children from underprivileged homes in the play, Kota Kelip-Kelip. The play was restaged in Penang in 2016, earning her a nomination for best director at the Boh Cameronian Awards that year.
“There are so few children’s theatre performances being staged in our country today,” laments the 39-year-old director in a recent interview.
“And I do not know why theatre production companies are reluctant to stage children’s theatre.
“Perhaps there is a lack of professionals to train children to act on stage. Perhaps, children’s theatre [productions have more difficulty pulling] in the crowd.”
However, Fazleena sees children’s theatre as vital to ensuring the younger generation keep watching stage plays.
“We are always complaining the audiences [who come] for local theatre [performances] are the same faces,” Fazleena explains. “It is about time we create a new set of audience.”
She says by exposing children to theatre at a young age, they will grow into adults who will be able to appreciate theatre.
She adds: “The best way to attract children as your audience is to have children’s theatre. Child actors will attract younger audiences.”
Fazleena points out that, unlike film companies which can add animation to attract children and their parents to the cinemas, “we cannot do the same for theatre”.
For Mona Ke Daerah M, the director visited the five homes involved and held a one-day theatre workshop in each of them. From there, she selected 20 children, aged from 10 to 17 years, to act in this production.
She admits that her choices depended a lot on her gut feelings about who had shown a strong passion for the arts.
She explains that the 20 children had to undergo an intensive theatre workshop in order to “get under the skin of their characters”.
Fazleena says during the workshop, the children also learnt about being disciplined in their work. “I find the workshop has instilled a new sense of confidence within them.”
The director is speaking from personal experience.
She explains that as a child, she herself was very shy and always hid from guests who came to visit her parents.
But after joining a drama club in school, she slowly learnt to become less shy, and adopted a more confident outlook in life.
“I really believe that all schools should have theatre [or performing arts] as part of their syllabus, because it can do wonders for the children’s self-esteem,” she adds.
Besides directing, Fazleena is also an award-winning theatre actress. She started her career in 2003, and has appeared in several popular stage plays such as Teater Juta-Juta, Satu Plastik Hitam, Kawan-Kawan Kita Suka, and Neo-Romantik.
She has also acted in a handful of short films, which have been shown in local and international film festivals.
Fazleena is also a prolific scriptwriter and author of several books of fiction.
For more, visit the play’s official website.
