The Participants

The award-winning RAJA MALEK works extensively as a sought after art director in advertising world in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. He has lent his signature style to the theatre scene with his set designs for Puteri Gunung Ledang, P.Ramlee the Musical, Emily of Emerald Hill and many others. Not limited to working in theatre, in 2010 Raja Malek designed the set for the first ever Youth Olympic games in Singapore. He has also designed set for concerts, notably in 2013 for Ella and Awie’s show at Istana Budaya. Raja Malek remains actively learning about style and design and is currently developing his skills in painting.

MARK TEH is a performance maker, researcher, and curator based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His diverse, collaborative projects take on documentary, speculative and generative forms, and address the entanglements of history, memory and counter-mapping. His practice is situated primarily in performance, but also operates via exhibitions, education, social interventions, curating and writing. Mark graduated with an MA in Art and Politics from Goldsmiths, University of London. He is a member of Five Arts Centre, a collective of interdisciplinary artists, producers and activists in Malaysia.

RIDHWAN SAIDI is a Malaysian independent filmmaker, writer and theatre practitioner. His first full length feature film, TIADA CINTA SELAMA MUDA (2020) was an amalgamation of his present-day practices in filmmaking, literature and theatre. With a background in architecture he finds the utility of structure and form contributes to developing his artworks.

FAIRUZ SULAIMAN’s interdisciplinary practice covers digital and analogue visual formats that have been used as music videos, animation for short films, moving visuals for stage and immersive visual installations. His methods include puppetry, 2D/3D animation and live video mixing. He presented Laksamana Doremix (National Visual Arts Gallery, 2013), a hybrid wayang kulit and multimedia performance based on the famous P. Ramlee film - a continuation of his earlier performance at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM) in 2012, where he presented a color tracking shadow puppetry performance. His visual work for various notable theatre directors include Zahim Albakri’s Tarap Man (2007), and Loh Kok Man’s Arus Gangsa (2014) and The Swordfish Then Concubine (2016). His visuals for Kwang Tung Dance Company’s Bisikan Monsoon (2018) landed him the Best Multimedia Design at the 16th BOH Cameronian Awards.

Wong Tay Sy has been actively involved in the fields of contemporary art, theatre, and film production since 1999. Working with different arts collectives, organisations, and production houses, she has extensive experience as an award-winning production designer, curator, producer, and facilitator. In her work and projects, Tay Sy believes in the process of collective creativity and interdisciplinary collaboration, and she is particularly interested in the intersections between the arts and our social environments. She is a visual arts graduate from Central St. Martins, London.

AKMA SURIATI has 20 years of working experience as Fashion Consultant and Costume Designer. She graduated from University Technology Mara (UiTM) with a Bachelor Degree in Art and Design (Fashion Design). She has since been involved in the arena designing ranging from boutique, corporate attire, artist costume for film ,drama, TV commercials, special events like Independent Day (31 Ogos), Citrawarna, KL Fest, Flora Fest, and to theaters of national scale. In recent years, Akma was privileged to doing costumes for international movies under 20th Century Fox Limited such, Entrapment, Anna & The King and worked with Lion King Theatre in the costum Department of the "Hafen Theatre", Hamburg, Germany 2005 (Der Konig Der Lowen).

BRYAN CHANG is a designer—a generalist, his work centers around graphic design, scenography and video/photography. He has worked with The Bangkung Row Restaurants, Japan Foundation KL, British Council Malaysia, KLPAC, Theatresauce, TerryandTheCuz, The Cooler Lumpur Festival and PopTeeVee. Recent highlights include Dari Pinggiran vol.1: SK Danau Perdana, Langkawi Walk the Doc 2022, Kaleidoscope Japan: Every Thought I’ve Ever Had, Hubs For Good Toolkit, May We Exhibition: Belas Masa, Unity (1918), Matahari Jangan Tidur, Nanti Hilang Belang, and The Misinterpreted Futures of George Town: 2068. He is also a member of sans, an interdisciplinary art and design collective.

LAU BEH CHIN spent a year in Master of Choreography at Fontys Hogeshcool Voor de Kunsten, Tilburg in 2011 before she was awarded the Stepping Stone scholarship. She moved to Ireland and graduated from the University of Limerick the following year in Master’s degree in Contemporary dance performance. Jinn had her works performed at ABUNDANCE ’13, Sweden; Dancewoods Workshop Festival, Bologna Italy, West Sumatera Dance Festival 2022 etc. She was invited to perform at FAKI’19, Croatia, World Dance Alliance-Asia Pacific 2016 in Korea and M1 Contact Festival 2017, Singapore. She is also one of selected choreographers for International Young Choreographer 2019 in Taiwan International Young Choreographer 2019 in Taiwan.

BILQIS HIJJAS works as a creative producer and critic in contemporary dance, and manages the arts residency at Rimbun Dahan, her family's 14-acre home outside Sungai Buloh. For ten years, as president of the organisation MyDance Alliance until 2020, she helped organise festivals to showcase the diversity of Malaysian dance. She believes in the importance of encouraging women to take on leadership roles in the arts, in bringing dance to audiences outside the theatre, and in creating performance platforms accessible to both emerging choreographers and general audiences. She is also the editor of online Malaysian performance criticism platform Critics Republic.

DHINESHA KARTHIGESU is a multi-disciplinary storyteller, theatre maker and coach. He is deeply invested in telling queer and Malaysian stories while holding space for conversations on identity and creativity. As an artist, his work has been viewed by audiences from all over the world. Dhinesha is Malaysia's first and to date only National Poetry Slam Champion. His work has been featured at festivals and on platforms like HowlRound Theatre Commons, Vice India and Vice Asia. In 2021, his theatre play RAVAYANA beat a thousand other global entries to be selected as part of a play development programme run by the New York theatre collective The Playwrights Realm. He is one of the co-founders of the Tulis Group, a playwright focused Malaysian theatre collective and also one of the co-founders of 100DP, a writing workshop series focused on generative feedback structures. Dhinesha is also an alumni of Theatresauce's Emerging Directors Lab of 2020-2022.

JUNE TAN, member of the arts collective Five Arts Centre studied Biology at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. Since 1997 while working in the corporate world, June has stage-managed, tour-managed, produced and programmed numerous local and international productions. From 2018-2020 June was TPAM Director for TPAM in Yokohama, a platform reflecting contemporary thinking in Asia and the world. June is also active in ReformARTsi, a coalition advocating for policy change in the arts and also in environmental activism with Pertahankan Hutan Simpan Kuala Langat Utara and Gabungan Darurat Iklim Malaysia. June also writes for film (Interchange, Spilt Gravy) and TV (Seribu Nina, Ombak Rindu The Series, The Bridge Asia).

HAMZAH MOHAMED TAHIR Born in Muar, Johor, Hamzah graduated from Universiti Sains Malaysia with a Bachelor of Arts in Performing Arts. Later, he went on to pursue his Master of Arts in Scenography at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, UK and gain his Production Design education at University of Industrial Arts Helsinki (UIAH). He is active in the local performing arts and has worked as a scenographer, director, actor and dancer. He also been appointed as artistic director and production designer in video and film productions. He successfully won Best Set Design in 2013 and 2015 at the Boh Cameronian Arts Awards and Best Group Performance in 2020.

Trained in architecture, SUZY SULAIMAN is an installation artist and curator based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She was selected to participate in an artist-in-residency organized by Bellas Artes Project (2018) in Manila, Philippines. Her sound installation Jungle of Nusa (2020) received the General Prize award at the Youfab Global Creative 2019. Suzy’s artwork was exhibited at Media Ambition Tokyo in February 2020. She has curated for Balai Seni Visual Negara, Maybank Foundation, Japan Foundation and Tourism Selangor. Suzy currently teaches the Media Arts programme at Multimedia University.

LOH KOK MAN is Artistic Director of PENTAS PROJECT THEATRE PRODUCTION and an established theatre director, actor, lighting designer, set designer and theatre lecturer. He has won The BOH Cameronian Arts Awards for Best Director, for Best Set Design and for Best Lighting Design multiple times. Loh founded Pentas Project Theatre Production in 2005 to produce critical and collaborative contemporary theatre. He is known for his unique way of integrating theatrical elements such as visual imagery, lighting, sound, physical movement and dramatic structures while exploring the concept of space and time.

His directorial credits include <aku>, <The Lost and The Ecliptic>, <A Modern Woman Called Ang Tau Mui>, <Animal Farm>, <Double Punctum>, <Uda dan Dara>, <Red Demon> and <The Swordfish, Then The Concubine>. In 2005, Kok Man was invited to New York under a fellowship awarded by the Asian Cultural Council. He has since been invited to participate in numerous international theatre collaboration projects, allowing him to work in Japan, Korea, India, Thailand, Shanghai, Macau, Germany, Taiwan and Singapore.

ZULHEZAN X HAFIZ HAMZAH is an interdisciplinary unit between analogue sound, music composition and word, and everything between it.

SYAMSUL AZHAR has worked across the fields of theatre, film and contemporary art as a multimedia and lighting designer, often employing technology as a performative element in his works. Over the years he has designed across many places and spaces, and has collaborated on numerous performances with Five Arts Centre, He is also part of the collective. In 2017, Syamsul directed **2080 – a performance consisting of projection, sound, lighting and set, with no human performers – in collaboration with a team of designers and theatre practitioners. He is a part of ‘sans’, a loose interdisciplinary collective of artists creating works for performance and exhibition.

NUR AFIFI BIN MOHAMED TAIB obtained his MFA in Theater Production (Design For Theater) From Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh in 2006. He teaches Costume Design, Make Up and Special Effects and Stagecraft. He has designed costumes and make up for theater and film productions like Matinya Seorang Pahlawan (Dir. Fauziah Nawi, 2021) Titis Sakti I and II (Dir. Dr Norzizi Zulkifli, 2009, 2018) Muzikal Uda dan Dara (Dir. Rahim Razali, 2010) Muzikal Pi Mai Pi Mai Tang Tu (Dir.Prof Dr Hatta Azad Khan, 2006) Wayang (Dir. Prof Dr Hatta Azad Khan, 2008) Badang (2018), Syif Malam Raya (2019), Selamat Hari Tak Jadi (2021), Rumah Maduku Berhantu (2021) (Directed by Dato’ Prof Ts Dr A. Razak Hj Mohaideen). Other creative works include costume design for Kaer Azami’s music video Menjelma and Malay Traditional Costume show at MATRADE and National Museum. His field of interest is in Malay Costumes, particularly in Malay traditional weddings and performances. This passion of his has had him to be guest speaker, panel, presenter and jury of the subject matter at various cultural events and related seminars.

We are group of mographer known as Gerak Tujuh specialise in art direction, animation, and motion graphics design for a variety of platforms and events.

Gerak Tujuh has continued to develop their own aesthetic, which is primarily influenced by science fiction, urban art, and technology. Bright colours and geometric designs are used to portray Malaysian culture in a modern way.

ARIFWARAN began his career professionally at a very young age with some of Malaysia's leading directors and choreographers. Graduated from Akademi Seni Kebangsaan made him directly involved with some of the major traditional arts master namely The late Khatijah Awang and The late Awang Hamzah who are his biggest influence in understanding the need of interpretation and the accommodation of traditionality in the new representational world of urban contemporary life. After performing for the Asia Europe Dance Forum, he then moved to Hamburg, Germany. He has performed and directed extensively around the world namely Germany, Denmark, Austria, Italy, England, Taiwan, Singapore and many more. He directed and choreographed for the Malaysian contingent for the closing of the SEA Games in Singapore and choreographed for Citrawarna in 2015. He is also a writer, videographer and designer for stage productions.