Reflections and research
A project to document contemporary Malaysian Chinese theatre.
LITERATURE on Malaysian Chinese theatre education and practices, arguably, are a rare commodity. This is something Deric Gan, co-founder/artistic director of Kuala Lumpurbased arts collective Muka Space, wants to change.
Last year, Muka Literature Series was initiated by Deric and his brother Easee Gan to coincide with the celebration of Malaysian Chinese theatre’s 100th anniversary.
Muka Literature Series has mapped out a five-year plan to fill the gap in academic research in Malaysian Chinese theatre and to make it accessible to the mainstream with English-translated publications.
“The Chinese theatre scene in Malaysia is more than 100 years old, but what does it look like now? There is a lack of local (Chinese) arts literature and documentation. Except for a few books, essays and collections of historical materials, we have very few books about directing, acting and stage design,” says Deric, 42, who lectures acting and directing at the China National Centre For The Performing Arts in Beijing.
“When the talents here need to refer to professional (stage and script) materials in Chinese, they can only buy books from Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China,” he adds, who has been based in the Chinese capital since 2003. The Melaka-born Deric, who’s currently back home in Kajang, Selangor due to the pandemic outbreak, recalls discussing this book series last year with Easee, co-founder of Muka Space.
The project kicked off in January this year with The Lone Ranger On Stage: The Secret Code of Monodrama and Everyone Is A Great Actor. Within a month, a total of 1,000 books (500 for each title) were sold out.
The Lone Ranger On Stage presents Deric’s research on monologues. The book also records the monodramas performed in mainland China between 1987 and 2019.
Everyone Is A Great Actor documents a new course that he created called Life Performance Studies, which promotes self-recognition and self-affirmation. Deric says he formulated it based on his 15 years of working with non-professional actors (since 2005). In this process of learning, his students managed to enhance their skills, including sensibility, control, attention, observation, imitation, reaction, expression, imagination and creativity.
He points out that the first two books are in fact his graduation thesis works when he was studying for his master’s degree (directing) and then a doctoral degree (theatre and Chinese traditional opera) at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing nearly 10 years ago.
At the moment, there are no plans to reprint both books. The next two books are expected to be published in late August.
The third book is called When Oedipus Smiles: A Study Of The Aesthetic Value Of Deric Gan written by his Beijing-based student Eva Wang. The fourth book, called The Show Must Go On: From Dear Elena Sergeevna To Rasa Melaka, is co-authored by actors and designers of Malaysian Chinese theatre, documenting Deric’s journey in Malaysia for the past eight years.
Deric believes that this is a step in the right direction to build up the knowledge base of Chinese theatre practitioners here.
With Muka Space’s productions, the Gan brothers have also created Chinese versions of Western works. Since it was founded in 2013, Deric has directed Chinese adaptations of well-known classics such as Shakespeare’s Richard III (2016), Chinese playwright Cao Yu’s Peking Man (2017), and Richard Wagner’s The Ring Of The Nibelung (2018).
“The purpose is to expose these classic works to local audiences, and to add diversity to theatre works here,” says Deric, a multiple Boh Cameronian Arts Awards and ADA Drama Award-winning director.
Muka Space’s award-winning adaptation of Richard III was recently streamed on Klpac’s Youtube channel as part of the arts venue’s virtual programme during the pandemic.
According to Deric, the Muka Literature Series is also meant to expand the idea of theatre here, with more crossover works.
During the lockdown period, Deric also managed to finish writing the remaining six books. He also mentions that Muka Space is not ruling out an English version of this series in the future.
But translation fees (counted by words) done by a publishing company can amount to more than RM30,000. Since the Muka Literature Series is self-funded, the plan now is roll out the Chinese versions first, and then look at the remainder funds to initiate the English-translated series.
Muka Space also has two shows planned for this year, now that theatres are allowed to reopen from July 1. These shows are Yesterday Once More KLPAC Fundraising Concert (September) and Don’t Let Hantu Know (December).