Troupe performs Bajau hybrid theatre in Sabah schools
KOTA KINABALU (Oct 21): KL Shakespeare Players (KLSP), a theatre-in-education travelling troupe based in the national capital, visited schools in Sabah from October 15 to 17 to perform a Bajau-Sama folktale, Kanang and the Serimpak.
The troupe comprised five actors – Lim Soon Heng, Lim Kien Lee, Tharwa Karina, Zul Zamir and Emily Thomas.
KLSP was established in 2011 by a group of passionate theatre lovers who initially focused on performing Shakespeare’s works before gradually expanding their repertoire to include ethnic tales. In 2021, the team began adapting a Bajau-Sama tale for a hybrid theatre in collaboration with several representatives from the community in Sabah.
Due to the pandemic lockdown, they performed live via Zoom for school students across the country before performing in person through a national tour in schools with Sabah as their final stop.
They visited several primary schools in Kota Kinabalu, Kota Belud and Keningau and entertained the pupils.
One of the schools, Malawa Primary School, Kota Kinabalu, hosted pupils from eight other schools. Their effort drew support from representatives of district education departments, teacher training institutes and state education department who came as spectators.
A Sabah-based teacher organization, HIVE Educators, assisted in organizing several shows and a workshop for Early Childhood Education students at the Keningau Vocational College.
This project has received funding from Yayasan Hasanah ArtsFAS and Yayasan Sime Darby and it has been approved by the Ministry of Education.
Lim Soon Heng, the executive director of KLSP, hopes that their effort will convince more foundations to help fund this project since it has received overwhelmingly positive responses from schools, students, teachers, principals as well as the public.
The theatrical troupe aims to revive local folklore in the country through performing arts while continuing to adapt Shakespeare’s literary pieces and they intend to do more shows in Malaysia and subsequently, Southeast Asia.
-Agency
