Front Row

Our guests--the founders of Miracle on Wheels--share on how to reshape our (mis)conceptions of abilities and disabilities. They explain how and why their performers, who move and dance with the aid of wheelchairs, challenge long-held perceptions. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Celebrating Universal Children’s Day with Clap & Tap Children Orchestra. Hear the very young present a taster. The orchestra itself will be in a concert at the end of the year, collaborating with the Penang Wind Orchestra under the baton of Dato’ Woon Wen Kin. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guests tell about the “complex interplay between gender and Islam,” and how that interplay is explore and questioned through the visual works in the exhibition. They inform on the artists involved, their artistic history and how the works for this exhibition titled ‘Hell, Heaven’ were curated. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guests tell about two performances--two monologues--under the umbrella ‘Wayang Dari Sinkeh’, an expression which marries Bahasa Malaysia with Hokkien. They also paint for us the need to tell our local stories and underscore the importance of vernacular theatre. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guests explain the nature of this musical--DiZang--which is based on the teachings of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva. They explain why they think this production is not didactic and the dancer-choreographer shares on finding the dance vocabulary that forms the basis of the contemporary dances in this musical set in the 21st century. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The artist tells why he has chosen collages as his medium of expression and how it offers him the form to articulate both his aesthetics and his perspective of life. The conversation steals into Choy Chun Wei’s creative process which is driven by the need to make meaning and fueled by “collage thinking.” And he, led by what he sees in his mind’s eye, squirrels away what he...

Our guests tell why--besides celebrating the Belgian King’s Birthday and the 60th anniversary of bilateral relations between the Kingdom of Belgium and Malaysia-- a world renowned conductor is here and what he hopes to achieve with the young musicians performing under his baton. The conductor tells also about his part in “Star Wars in Concert World Tour.” He informs why Belgium w...

Our producer Lim Soon Heng goes to the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas to talk to the puppeteers and one of their puppets to find out what they will be doing this weekend in The Great Chipmunk Picnic’. The Talking Tree and Leopold the Leopard will be storytelling and entertaining with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of the resident conductor Naohisa Furusawa. See omnystudio.c...

Flamenco seems to be in the air--the traditional music, the music infused with jazz, the dance in a recital, the dance in a story. The Embassy of Spain brings to Kuala Lumpur an artist who is described as one that enables the audience to see “those little things that touch our soul and move us.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a rare treat, Malaysians will get to attend a performance by Tinariwen Live in KL. This Tuareg group of musicians are from the Sahara, in an area that encompasses parts of Libya, Algeria, Niger, Mali and Bukina Faso. Grammy award winners. As a people, Tuaregs are nomadic. The Tinariwen is a Grammy award-winning group of musicians. Our guests tell us about this group and the culture it belongs t...

Another Japanese arts production comes to town and this time a performance based on Shichiro Fukazawa’s a novel ‘The Ballad of Narayama’ which was published in 1956. Two films have been made and now a live performance by Theatre Moments. The artistic director and co-founder tells of his organization: its birth, theatre approach and philosophy of performance. See omnystudio.com/li...

There has been no bigger influence on contemporary poetry than hip hop. It’s difficult to see where hip hop begins and spoken word poetry ends. But despite all their similarities, academics still argue whether rap is poetry. This month on Speak Easy, Elaine Foster speaks to Malaysian hip hop artist, Jin Hackman, and spoken word poet, Sheena Baharudin, about poetry and hip hop. See omnystudio...

In 1967, early in the history of Malaysia, several artists came together and held a group exhibition appropriately titled 'GRUP'. Ilham Gallery has organized an exhibition titled 'GRUP 1957 - 1973', extending the scope of the works covered and to situate these artists in the context of modern art in our country. The co-curators tells not only about the artists and their works but also the kind of...

After a play on damaging corporate HR policies, Theatre Sauce takes on clinical depression in” 4.48 Psychosis” a work by British playwright, Sarah Kane. It was her last work. Our guests tell how to present a play that has “has no explicit characters or stage directions.” Kane herself suffered from clinical depression. She died at her own hands. See omnystudio.com/listener f...

The guests share on a family-friendly play--based on a “wittily written”book by Anna Kemp and “cheerily illustrated”by Sara Ogilvie--about a dog, a ballerina. Or more precisely, a dog that thinks he’s one for ballet. Biff like “moonlight and music and walking on his tiptoes.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Taking the host of phonetic and linguistic slippages provided by M (Malaysia, Merdeka, Malaya, Malay, and of course, Mama) as entry points, Tan Zi Hao mulls over the delicate relationship between language and nation, between his mother-tongue and mother-nation. The curator, Vincent Leong, points to those slippages and unravels the tensions. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The artistic director of the company and a practitioner of the Japanese art form gives us a look into the upcoming Butoh festival, which will not only involved dancers but also photographers and painters. He also informs of the presence of a Butoh master, Koichi Tamano who will be here with Hiroko Tamano to run workshops and performances. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The young musician plays a concert to raise funds for UNICEF and for Bentley Music Academy’s education and outreach programmes. She tells about her journey to become a musician and about the music she has chosen, classical and with some jazz crossover. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The playwright tells about the evolution of his work, written in 2004, which was first staged in the island-nation south in 2008. Then again in 2011. After more than ten years after the writing, the play comes to Kuala Lumpur in English. In 2016, the play was performed in Mandarin. The actors weigh in on a discussion of performance in English language by tropical bodies. See omnystudio.com/listene...

The newly formed Cendana has announced that it will start its first arts funding programme in November. The founding CEO Izan Satrina lays bare for the arts and the community, answering questions which will becoming from the community. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guest makes her annual pilgrimage to KL to collaborate with Malaysian contemporary dancers. She tells what she has choreographed on the impulses of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and how the dance is about people without seasons. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Vocal Fest (“VoxFest”) is a music community service project in its 4th year running. Our guests tell about this three-day programme which provides a platform for vocalists to come together and learn from practitioners in the industry. They peel the skin back on this event to show how it works and how it builds a community. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A play that takes us back to the Renaissance and about the relationship between the ‘virgin’ Elizabeth I and the oft-married Mary Queen of Scots. Two veteran actors, playing two queens, tell about their own friendship and how that seeps into the performance. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From an affinity for nature to the production of images of nature while questioning the role of nature in art. The gallery owner and one of the exhibiting artist talk about intricate geometries and about beauty. The young artist was here last talking about his beastly works--artistic depictions of animals in the wild. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What happens when supposedly staid traditions clash with the need to innovate? Our guests tell about the melding of styles and how they determine if hybrid works or not. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.