Executive Producer and founder member of Five Arts Centre

Why was Five Arts Centre initially started?

The brain behind Five Arts was not me la, I was kind of a young punk [smiles]. No, not so young. Basically, it was Chin San Sooi and Krishen Jit, and I was a good 14 years younger than them. So I was just lucky to be hanging out with these luminary types, who were already luminaries. And I had come back from the US and was interested in contemporary dance, Malaysian identity. So it was kinda a synergy of like-minded souls, like-minded artists. Krishen in the ‘70s had been heavily involved in Malay theatre, which in the ‘70s was very exciting especially in terms of the question of the Malaysian voice, the Malaysian story, Malaysian images on stage. And Krishen had been doing plays with Usman Awang, Syed Alwi, Rahim Razali, Faridah Merican, K. Das… that was the generation which began that vision of this question of identity. A lot of that in the ‘70s was coming from the post-69. So we who were the next generation were also caught up in that questioning, and in that consciousness of identity, Malay culture, who belongs to what and what belongs to whom.

So Krishen and San Sooi were the ones who thought ‘Okay, we need form a company to present these Malaysian voices in a professional way’, in terms of having a group which was a permanent group, and would do a number of projects per year, so that you wave a team that is working constantly.

There is often a confusion out there of founding members and founders, so the founders in terms of the thinking were Krishen and San Sooi, but in terms of who founded Five Arts Centre was the three of us; San Sooi, Krishen Jit and myself, plus two more members; Redza Piyadasa and K. S. Maniam. And Five Arts because, in that first scheme of things, we were looking at theatre, creative writing - because K.S. Maniam was a playwright, visual arts - because Piyadasa was a visual artist, who was already involved in doing sets for Malay theatre, dance - because I was involved and then the fifth one was like, it could be anything, whatever happened or whatever the need was. The fifth one was a wild card and (gestures with hands) Five Arts Centre.

At that time, English language theatre was largely concentrated on Western plays. There was a little bit of local English language plays, but they were mostly in universities. But there was no public presentation of local playwrighting and Five Arts was committed to the Malaysian voice, whether it was in writing, in dance, in music or in visual arts. It was about presenting Malaysian stories and images; and people like Krishen, San Sooi and myself were interested in deconstructing or drawing ideas from tradition. Now of course, 25 years later, in fact, Malaysian stories and Malaysian writing are what people are more interested in.’

That was the first generation, and through the last 25 years we have had people move in and out of the company. And the only one remaining [laughs] is me. Krishen of course is floating around so is Piyadasa. Chin San Sooi left a few years ago, and is still doing theatre, but kinda his own thing. K.S. Maniam also left a few years ago, and is still around also doing his own thing. And through the years, people have been involved in Five Arts’ work. And they have either asked to join or we have invited them in. Which brings us to now, where there are 14 members and four generations; 20-somethings, 30-somethings, 40-somethings and 50-somethings.

It’s Five Arts Centre’s 25th anniversary this year. What have those 25 years meant for Five Arts Centre and how has the scene changed in that time?

It has meant creating work, a wide variety of work. Ranging from work in the community, big international or regional festivals like the Asian Youth Arts Mall and The Emergency Festival, and really small things as well. Basically it has meant getting the work out there in all these varied manners, fashions and styles.

There are more funding opportunities, although funding remains the most difficult thing; funding and sustainability. But there is more interest, there is a larger audience, there are more spaces (although we are constantly lamenting that there are no spaces, actually there are more spaces), there are more opportunities for funding for sure. There is support from the Ministry for sure, we have had support from the Ministry over the last 25 years, and quite a lot in the last 10 years. But I think the Ministry needs to play a bigger role in having some really focused systems and programmes that you know you can tap into; arts housing, grant schemes. I think the one big thing that has changed is that if you are pretty smart and versatile, you can actually survive in the arts. When we started out, we had to go and work outside the arts. I was teaching English 1119, but now I teach the arts. But whether it is corporate shows or teaching, it is still art. Now you can survive through your art.

How has Five Arts Centre changed over the years?

Up to last year, the working of the company was still very collective. For example, the fourteen would come together for a big meeting to plan for next year, and we would say ‘what are the ideas?’ ‘who wants to do what’? Then people would present their different things and we would schedule, and see what we could handle. Then we would decide who is producing what and who is directing what. Sometimes the producer would come from Five Arts and sometimes not. The producers have the responsibility for finding the money for that production. Five Arts as a company also collates all the programming and tries to get funding.

Last year, when we got together, early in the year, we were looking at the gaps in the industry, what are the gaps in Five Arts, what are the systems that work and don’t work and so on and so forth. So it was a lot of brainstorming. We decided to try and (at least for a few years) find more focused themes by looking at, possibly, gaps in the industry. That means that every time we do something it has to somehow or other be connected to the theme. So then we would present a year, which has an overarching theme [beginning from next year] and also it would push the individual artists in Five Arts, out of our little comfort zones and boxes.

So then we set up committees. So now there is an office management team, a publicity, PR and marketing team, there is a finance committee and there is an artistic team. So this is year one. The Artistic team [Anne James, Chee Sek Thim, Mark Teh, Fahmi Fadzil, June Tan and Mac Chan] first of all collects the ideas and brainstorms and decides what is the direction for next year. It’s like having an Artistic Director but it’s not just one person.

I think the basic vision hasn’t changed. Which is Malaysian stories, interest in form and content, experimental work; that hasn’t changed. What has changed is the systems, the idea of focusing on ideas for a particular year, the actual products have changed because the artists have changed. Sek Thim is developing a very interesting form of musical theatre that is not ‘High School Musical’ type of musical, it is a very different kind of musical theatre. Mark is on his excavation of history, whether it is national history and now with ‘Gostan Forward’, personal history. Fahmi and his wayang.

But the forms have not changed in terms of the philosophy of the company, because the philosophy has always been to support the journey of the artist. So it depends on the journey of the artist lah… Unless it is so outside the scheme of Five Arts. So, say if I wanted to do ‘Swan Lake’ in classical ballet and no taking the mickey. Then Five Arts would probably go ‘okay Marion, why? We don’t think that Five Arts would want to support this.’ Because in 25 years, we have never done a completely non-Asian play. The furthest we have gone outside that is an adaptation of the Jungle Book, done in Malay. Not the Disney version, but Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’. We have done an adaptation of ‘Rama and Sita’. We’ve done a number of Singaporean plays. So it has been a heavy concentration on Malaysia, then Singapore, and then these few adaptations. But they have been very identifiably Asian.

So I think what has changed is some of the systems we have put into play. And I think one of the best things about Five Arts is the new blood, because the work will go on. We are very lucky to have attracted really fine minds and they are lucky that they have the support of the company. But it’s not just us, Actors Studio is nurturing someone like Mark Beau De Silva and Instant Café Theatre with Zalfian Fuzi. So that has also changed, putting the younger generation in the forefront.

Can you explain the concept behind this year’s projects?

The Artistic Team presented the idea for this year, that instead of a theme, we would invite five people (outside of Five Arts) who are interesting and whom we feel are in the forefront of their own disciplines. And invite these people to create their own project which will advance their own artistic journey, but at the same time reflecting on one or more of the Five Arts five principles of practice. And Five Arts would be involved either as observers, or participants or in some cases produce; and in doing that, reflect and learn.

So we invited five, and then one pulled out. And we gave them seed money for that project, if they could do it within that amount then fine. If not, they would have to look for more money. The four invited artists were Natalie Hennidige [Cuckoo Birds], Hardesh Singh [how-to create your own channel, content and communication], Fahmi Reza [lecture performance on the radical student movement in Malaysia] and Liew Seng Tat [social installation in the form of a Malay kampung house].

Has the name change of the Ministry to the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture had an effect the arts?

I'm not speaking for Five Arts here, this is how I feel. It was the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports; which was a very important ministry because it was youth and sports, but culture was the least important as the three. Then we were Culture, Arts and Tourism; which was a tragedy because we were linked to tourism and arts was seen as servicing tourism. Then we were Arts, Culture and Heritage, Woohoo, finally we are our own body. Now we have no more arts, no more heritage, just culture. The rationale is that everything is culture. Yes, on the other hand everything is culture, corruption is culture in this country. It is the culture of this country to bribe a policeman. It is the culture of the country to throw rubbish. So cannot lah, for me cannot lah. The Arts is different. I feel it is a regressive move if we are trying to look at the arts as an industry.

Read the performance feature on Five Arts Centre and their 25th Anniversary, published in the August 2009 issue of Time Out KL. Get it now at all major newsstands.