An award-winning Educator, Actor, Director and Playwright, Mr. Mark Beau de Silva, also the Programme Director of Taylor's Bachelor of Performing Arts (Hons) programme, his first play was staged in 2002 by The Actors Studio. Directed by Mr. Joe Hasham OAM, Artistic Director & Co-Founder of Actors Studio & KL Performing Arts Centre Malaysia, together with the Malaysian Dance Icon Mew Chang Tsing as the Protagonist, the play was an instant hit and was restaged in 2003 and 2019. It received 11 BOH Cameronian Arts Awards nominations and has been cited in journal articles for its exploration of being a Serani in Malaysia.
In May 2023, the play has been revived, this time as part of a lecture performance by SuperGrass Creative’s Technical Workshop for Theatre. The workshop was designed like a guided tour, allowed the Tutors to talk to the audience, through set and light changes of two performance pieces, one of which is Mark Beau de Silva’s 'Stories for Amah' held at the Indicine, The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre, the play now serves as an edutainment piece, enlightening the audiences on the workings of the backstage, while the revel in the emotionally charged words of the play.
The audience got to see how the magic of the play was created. During the lecture portion of the event, the performers and participants discussed how important it was for the audience to understand that for a play like 'Stories for Amah' to work, the technical aspects are just as important as the performance you see on stage.
The Academicians and Researchers who were present at the event commented the revival marked the importance of how artistic work can bridge academia and industry. This is in line with the future trajectory of the Bachelor of Performing Arts programme in Taylor's University. The performance specialization, which was complemented by the essential technical specialization, will soon see two exciting new specializations join the line-up of offerings - Dance and Music. With the Bachelor of Performing Arts programme shaping up to be the region’s most holistic performing arts degree, there will certainly be more newsworthy events soon!
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