Arifwaran

Born in 1978, Arifwaran began his carier professionally at a very young age with some of Malaysia´s leading directors, choreaographers and artists. Arif studied performing arts at the Malaysia´s performing art institution, National Arts Academy Akademi Seni Kebangsaan, Kuala Lumpur. At the age of 18 he is one of the founding member of Shakti Dance Company, a company which aim on the development of feminist activities in Malaysia. Mohammad Arifwaran Bin Shaharuddin´s knowledge and interest on the forms of theatre and dance ranges mainly in the development of traditional and contemporary arts idiom. A director, playwright, actor, vocalist and a choreographer, he is now an artistic director and choreographer for his company.

Mohammad Arifwaran Bin Shaharuddin´s knowledge and interest on the forms of theatre and dance ranges mainly in the development of traditional and contemporary arts idiom. He has been involved with some of the major traditional arts masters, e.g. the late Khatijah Awang and Awang Hamzah, who are the biggest influence in understanding the need to interpretation and the accommodation of traditional form in the new representational world of urban contemporary life in Malaysia. His interest of devalued muscle work and the interpretative invisible body has moved him to a more directive approach to question the extensive influences that exist in the traditional art forms through the studies of the backbone and speech. 

Arifwaran is now residing and working as a full-time artist in Germany. Recently, he has been chosen as one of the Rolex's Arts Awards 2008 finalists.

Perihal Fringe Festival

Fringe theatre is a term used to describe alternative theatre, or entertainment not of the mainstream. In London, United Kingdom, the Fringe is the term given to small scale theatres, many of them located above pubs, and the equivalent to New York's off-Broadway or Off-Off-Broadway theatres. There are also many unjuried theatre festivals which are often called fringe festivals. These festivals, such as Edinburgh Fringe and Adelaide Fringe Festival, permit artists to produce a wide variety of interesting works.

 History of fringe theatre festivals

Other long running fringe festivals are the Windsor Fringe (founded 1969) and Malvern Fringe (founded 1977) which have provided platforms for showcasing up and coming talent. The oldest and largest fringe festival in England is the Brighton Festival Fringe, which has provided Fringe activity alongside the main Brighton Festival since its creation in 1967.

The second-largest fringe festival in the world is the Adelaide Fringe Festival. The Adelaide Fringe evolved in the early 1970s as a reaction against the establishment and the then 'mainstream' Adelaide Festival of Arts. Today, although two events are now inextricably linked, the Fringe Festival has overtaken the main Festival of Arts in terms of attendance. The Adelaide Fringe is renowned for its innovation, spontaneity and carnival atmosphere, and is widely regarded as one of the best events of its kind in the world.

The largest fringe festival in North America is the Edmonton International Fringe Festival, followed closely by the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival. Founded in 1982 and 1988 respectively, Edmonton and Winnipeg are the premier stops on the Canadian fringe tour, a semi-official series of fringe theatre festivals that permit performers to travel east to west, from June to September. Canada now has more Fringe Festivals than any other country in the world and each Canadian Fringe festival strongly adheres to the philosophy that a "Fringe Festival" be unjuried, return 100% of box office proceeds back to the participating artists and remain affordable and accessible to all. The oldest and largest Fringe Festival in the United States is the Orlando Fringe.

Fringe festivals are becoming more common, with many major cities throughout the world now conducting their own Fringe Festivals of sorts.

 Fringe theatre festival organisation

The mechanics of a Fringe festival are fairly simple. The most important element in the administration that creates a Fringe festival as opposed to a "normal" arts festival is the unjuried nature of the performances. Some festivals, notably the New York International Fringe Festival, stray from the original concept in that they pick their participants using a jury-based application process.

All performers are welcome to apply, regardless of their professional or amateur status. No restrictions are made as to the nature, style or theme of the performance. (Some festivals have children's areas, with an appropriate content limitation.) Many festivals find too many applicants for the number of available spaces; in this case, applicants are chosen based on an unrelated criteria, such as order of application or a random draw. The one common limitation of a Fringe festival is a geographic one; applicants may be divided into groups to ensure a mix of local, national and international talent.

Fringe festivals typically have a common organising group that handles ticketing, scheduling and some overall promotion (such as a program including all performers). Each production pays a set fee to this group, which usually includes their stage time as well as the organizational elements. Performers sometimes billet in the homes of local residents, further reducing their costs.

 Elements of a typical fringe theatre production

The limitations and opportunities that the Fringe festival format presents lead to some common features.

Shows are typically technically sparse; they are commonly presented in shared venues, often with shared technicians and limited technical time, so sets and other technical theatre elements are kept simple. Venues themselves are often adapted from other uses.

Casts tend to be smaller than mainstream theatre; since many of the performing groups are traveling, and venues (and thus potential income) tend to be fairly small, expenses must usually be kept to a minimum. One-person shows are therefore quite common at Fringe festivals.

Fringe festival productions often showcase new scripts, especially ones on more obscure, edgy or unusual material. The lack of artistic vetting combined with relatively easy entry make risk-taking more feasible.

While most mainstream theatre shows are two or three acts long, taking two to three hours with intermissions, fringe shows tend to be closer to one hour, single-act productions. The typically lowered ticket prices of a fringe theatre show permit audiences to attend multiple shows in a single evening.

 List of Fringe Festivals

1.Adelaide Fringe Festival

2.Amsterdam Fringe Festival[1]

3.Berkshire Fringe

4.Brighton Festival Fringe

5.Budapest Fringe Festival

6.Calgary Fringe Festival

7.Capital Fringe (Washington, DC)

8.Dublin Fringe Festival

9.Edinburgh Fringe

10.Edmonton International Fringe Festival

11.Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival

12.Llangollen Fringe Festival

13.London Fringe Theatre Festival (Ontario)

14.Malvern Fringe Festival

15.Melbourne Fringe Festival

16.Minnesota Fringe Festival

17.Montreal Festival Fringe

18.New Orleans Fringe Festival

19.Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival

20.Ottawa Fringe Festival

21.Prague Fringe

22.Rogue Performance Festival

23.Saskatoon fringe theatre festival

24.San Francisco Fringe Festival

25.Woodstock Fringe Festival

26.M1 Singapore Fringe Festival

27.Toronto Fringe Festival

28.Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival

29.Vancouver Fringe Festival

30.Victoria Fringe Festival

31.New York International Fringe Festival

 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MYTH (Mencari Yang telah Hilang)

Hamzah Mohamed Tahir

Pensyarah di Program Teater, Fakulti Teknologi Kreatif dan Artistik (TEKA), Universiti Teknologi Mara, Shah Alam. telah mendapat pendidikan formal dalam bidang Seni Lakon di Pusat Seni,  Universiti Sains Malaysia. Seterusnya ke peringkat Sarjana dalam bidang Sinografi di Central Saint Martins London Institute UK, beliau juga telah terdidik dalam bidang Artistik untuk Filem dan Televisyen di  Universiti of Industrial Arts , Helsinki pada tahun 1996. Pernah menyandang sebagai Pelakon Lelaki Terbaik melalui teater Tanah Bernanah di Pekan Teater Kebangsaan 1991. Sewaktu di UK, beliau terlibat dalam produksi teater Dreams (Cochrane Theatre, London 1996) Macbeth (Tricycle Theatre 1995), Henry IV  (English Touring Theatre 1996) dan Out of LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre 1996). Turut terbabit dalam 5^th Cairo International Experimental Theatre Fest 1993 ,  PQ 95 Prague Quadrennial (International Exhibition and Competition of Stage Design and Theatre Architecture) dan WOMAD 1999 di Reading UK. Di Kuala Lumpur beliau terlibat untuk produksi teater diantaranya The Cord, Tanah Bernanah, Muzikal Puteri hang Li Po, Muzikal Puteri Gunung Ledang , Raja Lear, Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!, Sireh Bertepuk Pinang Menari dan Monodrama Angin Mengambang.

Menjadi Pengarah Artistik untuk Tengku Anum, Alang Rentak Seribu, Muzikal Lantai T. Pinkie. Mengarah beberapa produksi teater termasuklah Pintu, Pertemuan, Petaka, Ayam Jantan Ayam Betina dan Muzikal Jati.  Dalam bidang tarian beliau mendapat pendedahan awal dalam tarian tradisional dan pernah mengikuti Bengkel Tarian Tradisional di bawah koreografer yang disanjungi iaitu Allahyarham Ahmad Omar. Selepas itu beliau berpeluang berkerja dengan koreografer seperti Professor Dr Ghouse Nassuruddin, Dr Chandrabhanu dari Bharatam Dance Company, Aida Redza, Lena Patel (London Contemporary) dan Pat Ibrahim (The Kit Kat Klub). Pengalaman yang amat berharga bagi dirinya adalah sewaktu menjadi penari dibawah koreografer dramatari klasik melayu tersohor tanahair iaitu Datin Azanin Ahmad dalam dramatari Kunang Kunang Gunung Ledang, Tun Fatimah dan Keris. Hasil kerja beliau sebagai koreografer termasuklah Muzikal Selendang Jiwa,Muzikal Pi Mai Pi Mai Tang Tu Tanah Serendah Sekebun Bunga, teater Salina, Bukan Lalang Ditiup Angin  Medea, RAM, Pentas

MYTH – mencari yang telah hilang

Sebuah aksi dramatik yang menyulamkan kata dan gerak

 

Bila jiwa terpisah dengan jasad dan juga sebaliknya, terjadilah satu kejadian yang menyayat hati. Peristiwa dunia yang bergetar menyebabkan manusia hilang tujuan, hilang tumpuan, segala peristiwa membawa kepada satu tindakan yang diluar dugaan. Apa yang hilang? Dari sehari ke hari yang lain kita sentiasa merasa kehilangan, sedikit demi sedikit ianya memberi pengertian yang mendalam pada kehidupan manusia. Bila manusia hilang akal, hilang rasa hilang jiwa, apa apa pun boleh terjadi….namun biar hilang di mata di hati jangan. 

 

 

 

Susahnya Menguatkan Diri dan Keyakinan Diri

Sememangnya aku gila kerana ingin mengadakan persembahan 6 karya drama yang baru, apalagi aku sendiri menulis dan mengarah salah satu dari enamnya, dan apalagi bila aku menjadikan persembahan 11-13 Julai ini sebahagian daripada KL Fringe Festival, yang sememangnya tidak bermodal dan berpenaja, apalagi apabila aku sendiri pergi mengemis mencari tempat daripada Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka dan akhirnya bersetuju. Tapi itu tak cukup untuk sebuah festival, kerana banyak yang diperlukan di sini, bukan hanya bahan promosi-banner, poster, leaflet, tetapi juga makan minum para sukarelawan, melatih sukarelawan, mencari masa yang sesuai atau sukarelawan yang benar2 kentak semangatnya untuk memperjuangkan teater tanah air. Aku telah menhantar beberapa proposal kepada KekkWa, Balai Seni Lukis Negara, Tenaga Nasional, HSBC dan JKKN Wilayah Persekutuan, dan sampai kini, satupun belum ada. Aku tahu juga yang aku sudah agak terlambat mengemukakan bantuan ini. Agaknya apa yang akan berlaku jika tidak mendapat sebarang penajaan. KL juga tiba-tiba menjadi sibuk dengan pelbagai acara, KL Festival yang dianjurkan oleh KeKKWa, Urbanscape yang dianjurkan oleh KLUE dan KLPAC serta Visit KL oleh Telekom, Celcom dan Menara KL. Yang pastinya semuanya alah gergasi-gergasi yang mempunyai kuasa tahan dan kuasa wang! Apa yang ada hanyalah semangat ingin melakukan sesuatu yang berbeza dari selalunya, sesuatu yang unik dan mempunyai jiwa yang kental dan tinggi, semangat untuk membela karyawan-karyawan muda dan baru ingin mengorak langkah, keran kalau tidak kita akan selamanya akan dipijak dan berada dibawah tapak kasuk para seniman yang jauh lebih besar dari kita yang mempunyai rangkaian-rangkaian penaja serta pemerintah. Ada seniman besar mengeluh ada seniman negara mengeluh yang dia kurang atau tidak mendapat peluang, tapi kalau difikirkan, peluang apa lagi, kalau sudah mendapatkan datuk dan gelaran dan wang, apa lagi yang diinginkan. Agaknya kalau kita yang dibawah ini berpendirian begitu, apalah yang akan terjadi kepada kita, apakah kita masih ada suatu hari nanti atau akan hilang ditekah zaman, kita sendiri masih belum punyai buku untuk dipegang sebagai bukti, apalagi apabila dunia siber ini lenyap atau mengalami kehancuran, lenyaplah kita kaum muda yang tak punya apa-apa, tidak juga wang ringgit untuk membubuh minyak dimotorsikal buruk kita. Jadi apalah yang akan tinggal agaknya?

Sarimanok Travels by Francis Tanglao Aguas

Francis Tanglao-Aguas  is the author of "when the purple settles," winner of the 2002 Don Carlos Palanca Award, the Philippines National Prize in Literature.  He also wrote "where the carabao sleeps," and "Abuja Woman," both winners of the Audrey Skirball Kenis Playwriting Award. In April 2007, he performed his original solo play, "The Sarimanok Travels" at the University of Hawaii where he was awarded a Freeman Foundation Artist in Residence.  His newest work "Ramayana La'ar," a theatrical adaptation of the sacred Hindu epic "Ramayana," received wide acclaim from the Williamsburg community and the Virginia Gazette garnering Best Play, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress awards.  He is also the co-editor of "Tibuk-Tibok Festival Anthology of Young Filipino Writers." Educated at the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television with a B.A. in Theater Magna Cum Laude, and M.F.A. in Playwriting, Professor Tanglao-Aguas is founding Artistic Director of the Ateneo de Manila Fine Arts Festival and Theater Underground at UCLA.  He has also taught at the International Islamic University Malaysia, Ateneo de Manila University, Kenyon College, and Georgetown University. He is a member of Asia Pacific Indigenous Plays Festival, Screen Actor's Guildand the Dramatists Guild of America.  In April 2008, he will be directing the Pulitzer Prize winning "Topdog/Underdog" bySuzan-Lori Parks for William and Mary Theatre's Second Season. In 2007, Professor Tanglao-Aguas was awarded Outstanding Professor from the College of William and Mary Image Awards.  He is proud of his work advancing the celebration of diversity alongside the students groups he advises such as Filipino American Students Association (FASA), Asian Student Council, Muslim Students Association, African American Theatre Club, and the newly founded International Performance Arts Exchange (IPAX). PERFORMANCE:

 

Francis Tanglao-Aguas will be performing excerpts from his one man show THE SARIMANOK TRAVELS, a solo epic inspired by the mythological roots of the Philippines fused with contemporary manifestations of the Filipino global experience.  Francis previously performed SARIMANOK in Malaysia in 2003 at the Asia Pacific Indigenous Plays Festival held at the International Islamic University.

 

Retorika

Retorika

KL Fringe Festival ‘08

July 11-27, 2008.

Rhetoric – Retorika: KL Fringe Festival adalah sebuah ide yang bermain dengan istilah Retorika atau Rhetoric itu sendiri, yang seringkali merujuk kepada slogan-slogan, terutamanya dari pihak kerajaan seperti “Majulah Sukan Untuk Negara”, “Filem Kita Wajah Kita”, “Sedia Berkhidmat”, “Berkhdimat Untuk Negara”, “Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa”, “Seni Untuk Semua”, “Belia Benci Dadah”, “To Love Malaysia is To Know Malaysia”, “Kepimpinan Melalui Tauladan” dan sebagainya. Kemudian lahir pula ide yang menggabungkan antara Retorika dan Kata-kata, tetapi sekaligus bermain dengan ide untuk kembali kepada apa yang telah diucapkan atau dijanjikan sehingga melahirkan Retorika, yang sekaligus adalah merujuk kepada rekaan kata-kata yang akhirnya menjadi sebuah retorika semata-mata. Samada untuk memanggil khalayak atau untuk menjual barangan.

What’s Rhetoric?

Rhetoric (from Greek meaning orator/ teacher) is generally understood to be the art (Latin) or technique (Greek) of persuasion through the use of oral, visual, or written language. A rhetorical question is a question which is asked to have a persuasive effect, rather than to elicit an answer.

The definition of rhetoric has expanded greatly since it emerged as a field of study in universities. In this sense, there is a divide between classical rhetoric (with the aforementioned definition) and contemporary practices of rhetoric which include the analysis of written and visual texts. In contraposition to scientific debates, rhetorical arguments, as in politics or even justice, do not make use of demonstrable or tested truths but resort to fallible opinions, popular perceptions, transient beliefs, chosen evidence or evidence at hand (like statistics), which are all properly called commonplaces as they help establish a commonality of understanding between the orator or rhetor and his/her audience.

Rhetoric is said to flourish in open and democratic societies with rights of free speech, free assembly, and political enfranchisement for some portion of the population. However, celebratory (or epideictic) rhetoric, along side deliberative rhetoric, is just as important an element of tyrannical regimes or dogmatic (religious and otherwise) public entities that are not open to debate on an equal footing.

So while rhetoric has traditionally been thought of being involved in such arenas as politics, law, public relations, lobbying, marketing and advertising, the study of rhetoric has recently entered into diverse fields such as humanities, religion, social sciences, law, science, journalism, history, literature and even cartography and architecture. Every aspect of human life and thought that depends on the articulation and communication of meaning can be said to involve elements of the rhetorical.

Rhetoric is not only a method for training effective communicators (rhetors); as a discipline for advanced study, it is a method for understanding on a theoretical as well as a practical level how humans use language ("discourse") to alter or shape our understanding of reality. Every text -- be it advertisement, lecture, speech, letter, blog, or chat -- inhabits a given discourse environment, hence the term discourse analysis. Rather than providing a particular method, discourse analysis is a way of approaching and thinking about a problem; neither a qualitative nor a quantitative research method, but rather a questioning of the basic assumptions of quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Despite the fact that the populations of China and India make up over one quarter of the population of the Earth, and that "60% of humanity lives in the Pacific Basin," and that both countries have a history that in some cases predates that of Greece and the ancient Near-East there is not a voluminous body of work on the rhetoric of Asia. The Rhetoric Society Quarterly in its almost twenty years of publication has devoted one article to Asian rhetoric and has published one bibliography devoted to the subject of Asian Rhetoric. Most of the references to be found in this bibliography are to speeches and the current writings of figures such as Mao Tse-Tung and other recent figures that have played a prominent part in the Asian political scene. The Bhagavad Gita is an extended rhetorical piece which forms part of a larger epic, the Mahabharata and the larger unit of which it is a part has sometimes been compared to the Iliad both in terms of length (the Mahabharata is longer) and in terms of its centrality to Indian culture, however, because of the Gita's extensive length it is not suitable for a detailed analysis and there seems to be no other primary example from India that could serve as a paradigm for that country's rhetorical use of ethos.

The situation with respect to devising a paradigmatic oration for the rhetoric of China is even worse in that the central works of the Confucian tradition are not primarily concerned with rhetoric but with ritual, poetry, and ethical customs. Popular works that provide paradigms might include the six classic novels (San Kuo Yen Yi ( Romance of the Three Kingdoms); Shui Hu Chuan ( The Story of the Water Margin); Hsi Yu Chi ( Pilgrimage to the Western Regions); Chin P'ing Mei ( Golden Vase of Plum Flowers); Ju-lin Wai Shih ( Unofficial History of Officialdom); and Hung Lou Meng ( Dream of the Red Chamber)), however, these all come during the post-Classical period and the earliest.

KL Fringe Festival 2008

 

“Retorika”

 

KL Fringe Festival 2008

11-27 July 2008

DBP(Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka, Old Building), Jln.DBP, KL.

Week 1  

11-13 July 2008     

Text Performances(Persembahan Teks)

Mono & poly drama at Stor Teater DBP. Works by:

 

-       Hamzah Tahir, MYTH (Mencari Yang telah Hilang)

-       Shahrul Fitri, Gugurnya Kupiah Putih

-       Dr.Zulkifli Mohamad, Gebu Gembira

-       Francis Tanglao, Sari Manok Travels

-       Marlenny Deen Erwan, YB JEE

-       Arif Waran, TST

Activities:     Pameran Buku Penerbitan Persendirian (S.Sol-Jah)

Membaca Karya, Curator – Sinaganaga (Saturday 12 July)

Arts Bloggers’ Forum (Sunday 13 July).

Curator – Fadli Al Akiti

Week 2  

18-20 July    

 

Art Mart and Film Screening (Pasar Seni & Tayangan Filem)

Balai Budaya Syed Nasir, Old DBP Bldg. Jl. DBP KL

 

Screening Curator, Norman Yusuf  has chosen

 

1. Opera Jawa by Garin Nugroho

2. Denias, Senandung Di Atas Awan by John de Rantau

3. Perempuan Punya Cerita by Avianto, Dinata, Rony & Susatyo

4. Kala Bulan Mengambang by Mamat Khalid (Malaysia)

 

The curating committee is now finalising the selection of shortfilms for the screening.

 

Art Mart (18-27 July)

Organisers - Dr.Zulkifli Mohamad & They (Arts Studio, Annex)

Opening of Art Mart on 19 July 2008 at 11 A.M

 

Artists: They Art Studio Artists, Awie Bukan Penyanyi, Nuriman, Meme, Shahroniza, Fathullah Lokman etc.

 

Children Theatre: The Day I Met The Prince

Stor Teater DBP. 8.30 PM (Friday-Sunday)

 

Week 3 

25-28 July 

 

Body & Tune Performance (Persembahan Fizikal dan Bunyi)

 

Guest Curator(Singapore) Tang Fukuen, will feature Singapore Artists and other collaborator.

 

KL Fringe Festival 2008 will also feature Arif Waran (Rolex Finalist, Malaysian Artist living in Germany) working with few local artists.

 

Kamal Saberan will be collaborating with few artist at the Dewan Bahasa Mural.

 

The Curator of Band Gigs@KL Fringe Festival, Fathullah Lokman, has selected 4 groups to perform on 26 July 2008, as one of the closing performance!

 

1. Radiostar

2. Lurks

3. Azmyl Yunor

4. Fathullistiwa Soundscapes