THEATRE performances are usually performed in front of a live audience. With the threat of Covid-19 still hanging in the air, people are encouraged to keep their social distance.
This will definitely affect the Malaysian theatre scene tremendously. theSun asked a few theatre personalities on how they are coping with the situation.
Fasyali Fadzly
Dean of theatre section in Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan (Aswara)
“At the moment I am very pessimistic about the Malaysian theatre scene. Companies will think twice to sponsor a theatre show because they know even after the lockdown is over, the audience will still be afraid to catch a play. I really believe the audience will only come back to theatres confidently, only by the middle of next year.
“I need to re-strategise the way I work. Should I include digital into what I am doing? But theatre is all about feeding off the emotions from a live audience. I need to ask many questions about how the face of theatre would look like in the future.
“If we go back into history, many centuries ago, theatre was the only form of entertainment. Then movies came into our lives. More people were going to cinemas than theatre venues. Everyone predicted that performing arts would die a natural death.
“But it did not happen. Performing arts survived. People are still watching performing arts. Every century, performing arts will face some kind of hurdle, and we always find ways to survive.”
Khairi Anwar
Playwright and theatre director of Anormalis Production
“Our theatre company is small. My partner Azmi Hud and I do not have our own venue. Therefore, we do not pay any rent. We have day jobs as video producers. We do theatre on a part-time basis.
“But this year we were supposed to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the theatre company. We had five productions lined up to celebrate the anniversary. Unfortunately, we were only able to stage one production, and the other four productions had to be cancelled. We were extremely disappointed about that.
“I am also using this time to write new work. I am watching more movies and reading more books to get inspiration. I have done some live sessions on social media talking about my experience in writing and directing plays.”
Imran Syafiq
Managing director of ASK Dance company
“We have ten staff members. We are lucky that we are funded by the Sime Darby Foundation. We had to postpone several productions. We expect that we will have no income till October. We cannot do any rehearsals, because we are supposed to be practising social distancing.
“Our only source of income is the online classes we have with our students. Doing the class online is not easy. It consumes more time. Sometimes you get disconnected, and it takes time to get connected again with the students.
“We have started a programme where we are encouraging art lovers to sponsor a dance class or a dancer, with a minimum donation of RM100. The art lovers will get a free ticket to our future performances.”
