ART IS WHERE THE HEART IS
President of Kakiseni Low Ngai Yuen shares with Aina Izzah on the impact of the organisation within the local as well as inter national scene
“The arts is one of the few fields that transcend language”
Theatre is such a small industry which is still growing in Malaysia, how do you think it has fared as a developing art? The performing arts industry is by no means small. From theatre to dance and musicals, we have seen the number of performances, quality of shows as well as export of talent grow over the years. True, that we may be presented with more options than ever in terms of entertainment but the thirst and the quest to put on a good show continues. Kakiseni is an organisation that is constantly promoting the art scene. What are your plans for it? Kakiseni has been around since the year 2000 and we have innovated the way we operate to stay ahead of the curve. We started as an after-show critique-and-review discussion board which soon became a listing site-cum-audition call before moving into a ticketing and listing site. But Kakiseni does a lot more. Recently, we were involved in driving the Kakiseni Experience via Airbnb to showcase Malaysia’s best works, plus we were heavily promoting the relevance of traditional arts like dance at schools, through specially written books such as The Girl Who Loves To Dance. In its years of operation, what changes to the art scene, specifically in theatre, has Kakiseni impacted? In addition to the amazing impact from the BOH Cameronian awards? Well, there are programmes like the Kakiseni Arts Exchange which enables an international and local skills exchange, audience development and new content creation among 12 countries including UK, Canada and Australia. Over two years, the exchange provided a close network for 43 artists with a direct impact to a recorded 9,800 audiences across nine states in Malaysia, plus it gave rise to Malaysian artists enjoying international exposure with their collaboration— 2012’s RUINS further developed and performed in Manchester; and 2013’s The Mythical Month performed at the 20th Iran Children’s Theatre Festival. In 2016, Kakiseni also successfully lobbied for the increase in tax benefits for corporate sponsorship and worked on a joint publication of children’s books to help the younger generation appreciate traditional art forms. Most recently in 2017 and 2018, a series of books were released to again impart knowledge on traditional art forms such as Mak Yong. The performing arts is perceived as an entertaining medium that welcomes all. Do you agree? One hopes that there is never any reason to discriminate. More importantly, the arts is one of the few fields that transcend language and is motivated to be better. What are your top three favourite theatre shows of all time? I am biased of course; I love Stories For Amah, written by Mark Beau de Silva and presented by The Actors Studio because I acted in it, and I loved the process. A lot of the experience from that show made me who I am today. Then there’s Gadis X, elegantly directed by Ayam Fared and Japanese director, Suguru Yamamoto—this is a rework of a piece that I saw in Yamaguchi. And yes, another biased favourite is The Girl From Ipoh played by Carmen Soo. This was my directorial debut back in 2005—we were the first show at the newly constructed KLPAC and we played to full houses. Well, perhaps one day we’ll do a restaging, when I’m old (haha).