2. Lighting Designs
3. Stage designs
4. Bigger audience capacity
5. Seamless way to code switch between languages to encourage the use of the Malay language.
On the whole, Kawan is by far the production in which I was able to experiment the most and come up with many conclusive ideas of what to do in the next production. To help put the discourse in context, I will be comparing some statistics and incidences that also came up in the last production I produced, Kata Orang Tua-Tua.
Last year, in my post production report for Kata Orang Tua-Tua, I have indicated that the budget was always an issue as it wasn’t even enough for me to pay a proper producer director. I had to double up as a writer, producer, director and an actor to make the budget to the production of Kata Orang Tua-Tua work. Even then, I ended up not having any budget to pay myself for the work done last year. This year, I am thankful for the extra budget that I have received. However, instead of using the extra budget to pay myself for the writing and directing work, I had decided to use it to hire a proper music composer, Tini Ismail, and book a bigger venue for the production—Blackbox, Gateway Theatre.
For Kawan, we have a theme song called Tempat Berbahagia. Thanks to Tini, I was able to use the song to pay homage to local songs written and composed by Zubir Said such as Semoga Bahagia and Neng Neng Pong. With the collaboration, I was also able to dabble into song writing, which I will be exploring further in other future productions, because music plays such a big role in Theatre for the Young Audiences (TYA). This has helped to also sharpen my way of directing a TYA work and the way I envisioned a production.
As a producer, I know going into Gateway Theatre is going to be a costly move. The space is bigger but so is the rental of the space—it costs twice as much as renting the Playden in Arts House or the Blackbox in Drama Centre. However, this year, I wanted to challenge myself in lighting designs and I needed a space that is equipped with sufficient lighting options and crews that are proficient in handling of the systems that controlled the lights. The decision to stage this at Blackbox, Gateway Theatre definitely paid off. I had the opportunities to experiment with shadows, silhouettes and I definitely appreciated the use of Gobos and topography more.
This has expanded my knowledge on the different options of lightings I can use/request for, as a director in subsequent productions.
With the bigger performance space, I was able to explore a lot more theatrical forms and blockings and have the performers interact with the audience in a safer and efficient way. I remember last year’s production of Kata Orang Tua-Tua, whereby a lot of the time, the interaction was a little limited due to the space that we have between the performers and the audience. The Blackbox in Gateway Theatre also allows me to explore with hanging things on the grids—the retractable grids made it more convenient for the process. As such, my team was able to hang things like vines to create that jungle settings the production required.
Bigger audience capacity means, as a director, I would have to come up with strategies, just in case, if the audience were to get overly loud with their interactions with the performers. During rehearsals, we took a little bit more time to explore the different strategies, and I am glad that it paid off, as observed during the performances. Audience members were able to interact and the performers can still be heard through the interactions.
One of the main area of explorations this year is to figure a way to encourage students to pick up the Malay language, and to be able to code-switch efficiently. Being an educator who has been very active in the educational field and in classes, I do note that it has been increasingly challenging to get students to pick up the Malay language. One of the questions that are asked on multiple occasions usually revolve around the significance of the language—why do we need to learn it when our lingua franca is English? Students also find it challenging to use the language as they are being disparaged for the wrong usage of words in the language. As such, to encourage the students to continue using the language, I have incorporated a foreign character who struggles in learning the language but is determined to learn it to form up her sense of identity. The use of partial bilingualism [80% Malay and 20% English) for the foreign character became a hit among the audience who came to watch the performance, who told me that the use of bilingualism, not only make the usage of the Malay language less daunting and more accessible; it has also made the language relevant to today’s context. Audience members also mentioned that the idea of linking up language to heritage, tradition and identity makes the notion of learning a language more wholesome. On top of that, the play also discusses on the importance of compassion and putting differences aside in order to achieve a common goal.
Kawan has definitely been a success. More importantly, it has allowed me to explore new areas in theatrical production and I look forward to using this new found knowledge in my next production, Si Penjaga Memori, that is planned to be staged in 2025.
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