What formal training have you had?
I hold a Master's Degree in Theatre Arts, so I have gone through the mill of theory and practice in acting and directing. Then, I attended several summer courses at NIDA over a period of three or four years, doing script writing, acting and directing musicals courses.

Over the last few years, I have been to Odin Teatret for workshops and performances, and have also worked as Assistant Director to Roberta Carreri and now this collaboration with Tage Larsen for ‘Lady Swettenham’.

Could you tell us more about the performance?
I wrote ‘Lady Swettenham’ as a one woman piece, it is the story of her life, a 55 minute performance that spans her life from a youthful 19-year-old to a bitter 83-year-old asylum dweller.

As for ‘Rumor’, it has been staged before but as you know a performance gets better and better if it is performed often. It not only changes but subtle nuances get added and the actress settles into a rhythm that becomes a vital part of the play. These two plays are directed by two actors/directors from Odin but their outlook to directing is different. The audience will be able to see the different techniques of telling a powerful story.

How do you hope the audience will receive the performance?
‘Lady Swettenham’ was very well received in London when I performed there in September this year. This is also part of our history so the audience may take what they will of the performance which is very physical and visually exciting. I do not think audiences here have seen anything like it here.

What other projects are you involved in at the moment?
I am currently traversing the country as head of a panel of judges judging drama pieces that will be part of the national drama competition next year. If this is anything to go by, then we are in deep trouble; our country is 52 years old and we have had a theatre tradition of more than 100 years with the influence of Persian theatre in Penang and English theatre in Perak, not to mention Mok Yong and Wayang Kulit in the East coast, but what have we got to show for it?
The standard of acting and directing is dismal; very few actors train or even want to train, so how can you have a good production when a director has to wait for actors to come up with something during rehearsals when they should already be ready to show him what they have.

We do not have a tradition of sending people overseas to workshops or to theatre festivals. How can anyone improve without such exposure? The government views theatre as a non-essential. No wonder our kids are the way they are – lackluster children who are bent on passing exams and computer kids.

What are Masakini's plans for the future?
I am trying to invite the living legend and theatre icon Eugenio Barba next year to Malaysia to deliver lectures and for another Odin actor, Julia Varley to conduct more work demonstrations for our actors and aspiring actors. Last year Masakini and the Jabatan Kesenian brought in Roberta Carreri and Torgeir Wethal to do workshops and work demos.

What do you hope for the performing arts scene in Malaysia?
My goal is to at least improve the theatre scene in KL and if the Ministry will accept our recommendations, I would like to help in instilling again the need to train and to train actors on a long term basis. In the meantime, Masakini and Stagesense has a group of diligent actors who train every Wednesday and Saurdays. Anyone can join.