QAHAR Aqilah was obsessed with football as a young boy. He wanted to be a football coach. However, when he turned 16, he had a change of heart. His ambition took a different path.
The teenager wanted to be a theatre performer. He watched his first theatre performance – The King & I – and was totally captivated by the magic he saw on the stage.
“The relationship between the theatre performers and the audience felt like ‘home’ to me,” says 37-year-old Qahar.
To please his parents, Qahar studied for a diploma in IT, but he did not complete the course.
Instead, he put his heart and soul into theatre, performing in productions like Euprasia – The Musical, Pillowman, Every Brilliant Thing, Antigone, and Swordfish + Concubine.
Qahar’s initial efforts were rewarded when he was named Best Actor (Male) in the short and sweet Theatre Malaysia Festival in 2008.
“I love the emotional freedom I get in theatre,” he explains. “You are given the permission to be emotional ... to feel something. It resonated with me.”
He was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in A Man for All Seasons at the 2020 Boh Cameronian Arts Awards, which takes place today.
Aside from performing, Qahar also conducts acting classes and workshops for people who want to learn the craft, teaching them the art of improvisation and how to approach text as an actor.
“My instinct as coach has not left me,” he says. “I still love dealing with people.”
A former member and co-founder of Shakespeare Demystified, he has performed in and co-directed their shows, as well as trained current and new members of the ensemble.
He also enrolled at the Michael Howard Studios in New York to study acting for one year in 2011.
It was an experience that he cherishes even today.
“It was an interesting learning curve,” he says. “I learnt what it was like to be an actor in the huge theatre industry in New York.”
One wonders why he has never dabbled in movies and television, where the so-called ‘real’ money lies.
“Rehearsals in theatre take up a lot of my time, and I do not have time to pursue films and television,” he says.
“When I started my career in theatre, I thought that one day I would venture into films and television. But over the years, I saw that an actor on the stage has more power compared to an actor in television and movies.
“At the end of the day, the writer and the director are in control of the way a movie and a television show shapes out. They decide what to keep or what to edit from the final product.
“On the stage, the actor is in control of how the show will shape out. The audience will have to wait till the actor says the first line.”
He makes a decent living as a theatre artist, and he notes that some people are surprised by this fact.
“It also depends on what kind of life you want to lead,” he says.
“I can live a simple life. I can wear the same shirt for eight years (laughs). The kind of life you want to lead is your choice. You’ve got to be honest with yourself. There is no shame in leaving the arts to pursue the lifestyle you want. You are a human being first, an actor second.”
One change he would love to see in the theatre industry is for theatre practitioners from different language mediums to collaborate together on the same project.
“I do not think the segregation is intentional,” he says. “We are just comfortable working within our own bubble.”
He also spoke about his family. His dad used to run an orchid farm, while his mother was an interior designer, but they have both since retired. He has a brother who is 12 years older than him who is a mechanical engineer.
“My mother has accepted what I am doing, but my father is still learning to accept what I am doing,” he says with a laugh.
When asked where he sees himself in five years time, he says: “Hopefully, still acting and still teaching acting.”
