Theatre Dance Visual Arts Music Young People's Theatre
Five Arts Centre is a collective of artists and producers dedicated to generating alternative art forms and images in the Malaysian creative environment. Formed in 1984 by Chin San Sooi, Krishen Jit, and Marion D'Cruz, the company has since grown to include 13 members from 5 generations of arts activists and practitioners - Anne James, Chee Sek Thim, Chew Kin Wah, Ivy N. Josiah, Janet Pillai, Jerrica Lai, Krishen Jit, Lew Chee Seong, Marion D'Cruz, Ravi Navaratnam, Suhaila Merican, Sunetra Fernando, and youth theatre collective, Akshen (Adrian Kisai, Fahmi Fadzil, Gabrielle Low, Joannou Ng, Yoke Kit Lee, Kitrhona Ramday, Kubhaer T. Jethwani, and Mark Teh).
Contemporary social and cultural issues impinging on Malaysian life are precipitated by the company by way of exhibitions, performances, training, and creative and research workshops. The company's activities include drama, dance, music (including the Rhythm In Bronze Gamelan Ensemble), young people's theatre (including Teater Muda, Youth Theatre, and Theatre-in-Education), and the visual arts.
Five Arts Centre has been instrumental in the growth of a Malaysian identity in the arts. When the company began doing Malaysian plays in 1984, very few other companies were committed to local playwriting. In its commitment to local creativity, Five Arts Centre pioneered much of the kind of work seen in contemporary theatre, music, and dance in Malaysia today. Five Arts Centre has also done much interdisciplinary and multimedia work, combining theatre, movement, music, and the visual arts.
The company has been in the forefront of experimental work and alternative creativity and continues to nurture young arts practitioners and present work that is created by Malaysians. Performances have taken place in theatres, shopping complexes, art galleries, schools, offices, squatter areas, parks, on the street, in an old mansion, in a dance club, and at low cost flats.
Over the past 20 years Five Arts Centre has produced over 80 plays, 10 children's theatre productions, 11 dance productions, 6 music concerts, 6 visual art events, several interdisciplinary events, an album of contemporary gamelan music, and over 60 workshops and training programmes. The company has also performed internationally in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Cairo, Berlin, and Manchester.
In the 2002 Cameronian Arts Awards, Five Arts Centre received: