RAGE Talks Dreams and Falling Things

Staging Dreams
by Nasa Maria Entaban

Wednesday, 4 MAY 2011 – A SMALL group of youths has the same dream: One which involves each one’s name in bold letters, bright spotlights, intense physical and mental training, unbarred creativity and an audience hanging on their every word, watching their every move.

Two of these such dreamers are on the right track to making a name for themselves in the world of performing arts.

Devyani Gupta, 16, and Amir Mohd Yunos, 20, along with three of their peers, were selected for their year’s Theatre For Young People (T4YP) programme, an initiative by the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac).

KLPac’s co-associate artistic director Christopher Ling, who was also the person who spearheaded the T4YP programme, takes the lead once again in this year’s season.

This is the fourth year the six-month programme is running.

The youths selected for the programme will go through workshops on acting skills, writing, technical aspects of theatre, and much more. In these few months, they will also stage several productions.

Through T4YP, which has emerged a leading platform for young theatre enthusiasts, numerous talents have been discovered.

Still, theatre is not a common option for young people, with much emphasis being put on schoolwork, sports and picking up more traditional art forms such as mastering a musical instrument and ballet.

However, Christopher feels that theatre is slowly becoming more accessible to young people of late.

“When I was interested in theatre as a youth, the closest I could get was front of house (ushering),” recalls Christopher. “T4YP was created to be a gateway. There’s nowhere else that provides you the training you’d get at this workshop.”

Devyani, Amir and the rest of the ensemble made up of Amanda Tan, Kamini Senthilathiban, and Umesh Logandran have signed on to the project, which will require their full commitment several hours a day, four-to-five days a week.

This season, which runs all the way to September, the T4YP ensemble will take on several projects; the T4YP Sweatshop (a series of short plays), an interactive theatre festival, and productions such as A History Of Falling Things, The Real Inspector Hound, Food, Sex & Death and Much Ado About Nothing.

For someone like Amir, whose involvement in theatre has been more as a spectator than anything else, he saw T4YP as a great kickstart into the world of theatre.

“I’ve been hearing about the programme from friends and alumni of T4YP for the past few years and this year I thought I’d try and audition,” says the mass communications student.

Amir was recently involved in Indicinelive 3 at KLPac as an actor and writer, and hopes to get more involved in theatre in the years to come.

“T4YP is a great place to both improve on the skills you have, and also for those who have zero experience, you discover your talents very quickly,” says Amir.

Devyani, a secondary school student, is sacrificing her school holidays and other activities to attend the T4YP workshop full-time.

“I have been involved in theatre for six years now, drama and theatre are a huge passion of mine,” says Devyani, who was recently involved in After Juliet and the Short And Sweet Festival.

“I know the performing arts scene is where I belong.”

“In the past month that I’ve been in the workshop, I’ve learned a lot about the different aspects of theatre,”adds Devyani. “I like being given direction and being advised on what to do in a role.

For example, in our upcoming production I’ve had to learn to over act a little.”

In the upcoming T4YP ensemble’s first production, A History Of Falling Things, a modern-day love story, Devyani plays a mother.

“My character is a little psychotic, neurotic person who is determined to get what she wants,” explains Devyani.

The play, according to Christopher, is not one he would normally select, but felt the “21st century love story” theme was only fitting to be taken on by young people, and would appeal to a young audience.

“The show will appeal to young people, it’s a very sweet piece of theatre,” says Christopher. “The theme for this piece is pretty universal because everyone falls in love regardless whether they are young or old.”

Written by British playwright James Graham, the play is themed around the fear of falling satellites, a phobia known as keraunothnetophobia, where phobic cyberspace love birds – Jacqui and Robin, communicate solely via webcam.

“The story itself does appeal to today’s youth where internet relationships are interpersonal relationships between people who have met online, and in many cases know each other only via the internet,” adds Christopher.

Amir, on the other hand, feels that people of all ages will head over to watch the production, as the story is very ‘now’ and whether you like it or not, technology and the Internet will impact our lives in some way, shape or form.

With so many bright young hopefuls coming out of theatre initiatives like T4YP, Christopher hopes it will continue to pave the way for youths all over the country interested in getting involved in the performing arts.

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A History Of Falling Things, directed by Christopher Ling, will be staged May 19-22 at KLPac, Jalan Strachan, off Jalan Ipoh, Sentul, Kuala Lumpur. For more information, visit www.t4yp.wordpress.com or www.klpac.com.

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