Front Row

In an increasingly connected and globalised worlds, discussions on boundaries and borders are more relevant than ever. Artist Phuan Thai Meng examines these issues within a Malaysian context in his exhibition “Imagined Homeland”, asking questions like: what does the notion of “home” mean? Thai Meng talks to us about the inspirations behind his works. See omnystudio.com/list...

Malaysian singer-songwriter Mia Palencia has settled in Tasmania, Australia, for eight years, and has been bringing her unique approach to singing and songwriting to the music community there. Mia returns to Malaysia with the Derwent Valley Concert Band to present a series of concerts that feature both Australian and Malaysian flavours, including some of her own compositions. We speak to Mia and t...

Kumar Nagalingam is a trainer, author, and former law lecturer - but since the age of 13, he’s also been an artist. After nearly four decades of painting, Kumar has decided to show his works for the first time in an exhibition called “Beyond the Canvas”, which traces his artistic journey from the 1980s to present day. We speak to Kumar about his art and his aspirations.  See...

Our guests explain why they think that it is significant that emerging talent remain unnoticed in our current visual art landscape. They tell about their upcoming exhibition, titled ‘In Defense of Poetry’, in which the collective asserts it brings a “renewed form of artistic action.” A peek into the opening gambit which will be held on “a rooftop of a furniture wareho...

Over the years, Five Arts Centre has presented a number of theatrical works that engaged with contemporary and political issues. Now, with Malaysia under a new government for the first time since Independence, political changes and upheavals seem to be happening rapidly - from the release and pardon of former Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to former PM Datuk Seri Najib Razak facing tri...

Most of us have heard the story of how Hansel and Gretel get lost in the woods and entrapped by a witch who lives in a gingerbread house. The Kuala Lumpur City Opera is revisiting the fairy tale in opera form, by staging Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel - A Fairy Tale Opera”. We follow the trail of breadcrumbs with the folks behind the staging, to talk about bringing th...

A.R. Rahman is one of India’s best-known music composers, winning multiple Academy Awards and putting Indian film music on the international stage. For his longtime fans, though, Rahman’s early songs from the 90s and 2000s still hold a special place. An upcoming concert called “Retro Rahman” wants to recapture some of that magic by bringing together singers from India who s...

Our guests are here participating in the Damansara International Arts Festival 2018 (DIAF’18). They tell about their research into the performing arts and their focus on ‘spatial dramaturgy’. They also share on their devised performance created in collaboration with local performers like Jo Kukathas, Ling Tang, Kathyn Tan and several others. And from the Malaysians, the stories m...

The results of the 14th General Elections have sparked many new artistic creations. An exhibition called “Harapan” brings together a diverse array of visual art that respond to this historic shift in Malaysian politics, from anger at the past administration and hope for the new one to caution against repeating past mistakes. Curator Alan Teh and some of the contributing artists talk to...

The Damansara Performing Arts Centre is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, and in conjunction with that, renaming its annual festival the Damansara International Arts Festival 2018. Themed “Convergence”, the festival aims to provide a meeting point between local and international performers through works that run across theatre, dance, music, and even puppetry. See omnystudio...

Most of us have heard the fairy tale of The Frog Prince, but local theatre company Kudos Productions is presenting a radically reinterpreted version of the story. The play, which is called “After Earl: Before the Fall”, is set to be a rollicking fantasy adventure - and yes, it is still about a frog. The play’s producers and actors talk to us about hopping onto stage with this une...

One Mic Stand, a local comedy open mic show, is celebrating its 6th anniversary in June 2018. To celebrate this, they’re having a special anniversary showcase called Mega OMS 6. Stand-up comics Prakash Daniel and Brian Tan, the current boys behind the laughs, talk to us about running the longest running comedy open mic show in Malaysia.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inf...

Renee Kraal is a Kuala Lumpur born-and-bred artist who has been painting for at least the last four decades. She was an early member of the Wednesday Art Group, an pioneering arts collective in the 1960s and 1970s that counted among its members illustrious Malaysian artists like Sivam Selvaratnam, Patrick Ng, and Mustapha Mahmud. An exhibition called “A Ha Moments” is displaying Renee&...

The classical music festival in Johor Bahru is in its fourth year. The artistic curator tells why it is growing and points out that indeed classical music is not declining in the country but on the ascend. He also tells about the festival’s offerings of small chamber-sized music groups in pointing to what “small” can offer which large orchestras can’t. Hear also samples of...

The annual Refugee Festival, now in its third edition, aims to provide a different view of refugees. The cultures, tradition and art of the various refugee communities in Malaysia are highlighted in the festival, with the aim of building bridges and celebrating the diversity that they can bring to our country. We speak to festival director Mahi Ramakrishnan, and two performers who are Syrian refug...

The 15th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards are being presented on June 24, 2018, with awards being presented for the best Malaysian productions staged last year across four performing arts categories: music, dance, theatre, and musical theatre. We speak to executive judges Sandra Sodhy and Foo Chi Wei on the judging process, and their thoughts on the Malaysian performing arts over the past year. See omny...

Our producer was in Manila when this adaptation of Shakespeare’s play ‘Richard III’ was performed in a mix of the Bard’s language, contemporary English and Filipino. In the small black box the experience of the violence was made more immediate when lived experiences on the streets of killings documented on video were woven into the live performance about murdering to be a k...

Our guests describe the genre of performance that will be held under the banyan tree at klpac and under the cover of night. Theatre performers-and-writers will perform their own poems, freed from the strictures of a microphone. This isn’t slam poetry, not performance poetry. It is poetry performed. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ampannee Satoh is from the Pattani region in Thailand, and she is also one of very few female photographers to focus on the social and cultural aspects of this region. Her latest series, “Lost Motherland”, focuses on questions of the homeland, the diaspora, and migrants. Ampannee talks to us about being a female, Muslim photographer from Thailand, and the importance of sharing diverse...

Souls Impact Percussion returns for their third production with a drum-dance theatre performance that draws inspiration from The Heart Sutra, one of the scriptures of Buddhism. The show’s artistic director Cross Chin and choreographer Joyce Chan talk to us about how they use drum, dance, and theatre to bring the show, “Wuwuming”, to life. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy i...

Brian Lowdermilk is one half of Kerrigan-Lowdermilk, the musical theatre duo who has made a name in the US as the ones to watch in Broadway. Their works include musicals like Henry & Mudge, and most recently, The Mad Ones. Brian, who was in Kuala Lumpur for a musical theatre masterclass and a performance, talks to us about musical theatre, his work, and why there’s no business like show...

Beyond the sneak peek at the coming weekend's performance by T4YP (klpac's Theatre for Young People), hear what the two co-directors have to say about getting these young performers ready. Joe Hasham reveals the space that T4YP plays the performing arts ecosystem. Three of the 16 participants in the 2018 cohort share what performing means to them.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inf...

For the last three years, a poetry open mic event called “If Walls Could Talk” has been providing a platform for poets to perform their work. The event has welcomed over 350 poets since it began, and celebrates its third anniversary this month, in June 2018. Poet and spoken word artist Melizarani T. Selva talks to us about the founding of the event, and how it has evolved over the year...

Hariraam and Abbirami learnt the Indian classical style of playing the violin from a very young age, having been trained in the style of Indian Carnatic violin maestro Lalgudi G Jayaraman. The two violinists will be performing together in “Two Violins”, a recital that aims to encourage a deeper appreciation of Carnatic music. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Malaysians, there are few things we enjoy quite as much as poking fun at the Singaporeans. One Singaporean dance troupe, however, has taken this a step further by bringing a dance production to Kuala Lumpur that takes a lighthearted look at its own Singaporean culture. From “chupping” a table at a food court to queuing up to buy the latest smartphone, “We, the Singaporeans&rdq...