JO KUKATHAS

Artistic director, The Instant Café Theatre Company, Malaysia

“Plagues and pandemics have been with us since time began. Artists are generally resilient. Some will recover, some won’t. Some will change their practice, others will continue what they have always done. The scene will change because the world has changed and us with it. And we have to prepare for this changed world we are going to inhabit. I think artists will help people understand and negotiate this new world through the art they make. People say, ‘Oh, this pandemic means artists will have to learn to innovate.’ But that’s not true. To be an artist is to be an innovator. To create is to innovate.

What will elevate Malaysian theatre to a global scale is enough fearless, eccentric, literary, talented, imaginative, driven, maverick, visionary, well-read, stubborn, fierce, compassionate, emotionally and intellectually intelligent and creative people taking—and getting—the freedom to create.”