Budiey
Enfiniti Academy is staging our inaugural production this holiday season, the fun and feel-good Broadway musical “Seussical Jr.” The musical to be performed by the talented young people of the academy!
The Enfiniti Academy Of Musical Theatre and Entertainment Arts (ENACT) was founded two years ago by Malaysian Arts Advocate, Datin Sri Tiara Jacquelina, the multiple award winning actor and producer, and an icon of the arts in Malaysia.
Enfiniti Academy’s aim is to be the incubator of icons for Malaysia, and to train the next generation of “torch bearers” for the local performing arts industry.
Tiara Jacquelina, Founder of Enfiniti Academy, Executive Producer of Seussical Jr.:
“We have 450 students between the ages of 2 and 55 to-date, who come to learn the various disciplines from drama, singing, contemporary dance, ballet for adults and hiphop to stage management, technical directing, set design and stage makeup.
Our trainers are highly respected, highly experienced, award-winning luminaries of the Malaysian arts industry, so the students of Enfiniti Academy benefit from hands-on learning from the absolute best.
This year, Joanna Bessey and I decided that our students were ready to put on a full-scale production, and one of our guest trainers from New York, Stephen Rahman-Hughes, suggested Seussical Jr the Musical., as it is a lively, feel-good show for the entire family, perfect for the holiday season.”
Joanna Bessey, Course Director of Enfiniti Academy/Associate Producer of Seussical Jr.:
“We are so enjoying the process of teaching the students and producing this amazing piece of work. This production will see many of our students onstage displaying their craft, and many other students will be working behind the scenes in the technical areas, in stage management, front-of-house and so on. The idea
is that our students will be mentored by professionals in various departments, who will guide them on a day-to-day basis, so it’s part of the learning process as well. The students are all so excited.
We are so fortunate to have Stephen Rahman Hughes who is one of the artistic patrons of Enfiniti Academy, return to mentor, choreograph and coach our young actors, and Seussical Jr. will also see Stephen breaking out of his actor mold and taking on the role of director for the first time in Malaysia. I sent him a text message to ask if he would do it, and he immediately said YES.”
Associate Producer Matthew Dason added :
“We are so grateful to our sponsors Tradewinds Corporation Berhad, RHB Banking Group and Jabatan Kebudayaan & Kesenian Negara for supporting us in this production as it will only benefit and enhance the industry with the involvement of such world class talent supporting the students of the Academy – the students are really excited to be working with and absorbing as much as they can from such renowned talent .
Tiara on Stephen’s role as director/choreographer:
“After the first season of Puteri Gunung Ledang, where we spent 3 whole months just training actors, dancers and singers to be triple threats, my very dear friend Stephen and I talked about running regular workshops and classes so we could continuously train new people for the industry. That’s how the idea of Enfiniti Academy’s signature workshop “The Starmaker Musical Theatre Bootcamp” came about. Steve played a big role in training our first students in 2007 and in 2011 we invited him back, along with 2 other West End luminaries Ramin Karimloo and Simon Bailey, to be our Artistic Patrons of the Academy. So, with his involvement in Puteri Gunung Ledang The Musical, Enfiniti Academy and now the academy, Enfiniti and Stephen have really come full circle!”
On working on Seussical, an excited Stephen Rahman-Hughes said, “I’m thrilled to be working alongside Enfiniti again this time as a Director/Choreographer. It’ll be my first time directing in Malaysia and to be working with the students of Enfiniti is a perfect start. I’m sure we will face some exciting challenges but with a fantastic story and great characters created by Theodor Seuss Geisel, reputed as the Shakespeare for children and of course the wonderful songs, I’m sure in the next month we’ll be having a lot of fun together. Seussical imparts some important messages in such an entertaining way and I can’t wait to be immersed into Dr Seuss’s world of fun and such imaginative characters.”
Enfiniti Academy is also very lucky to have Vince Chong involved in the project as a Performance Mentor to the students, so that they may draw on his wealth of experience as an actor/singer in musical theatre. When commenting on the project he said, “I’m deeply thrilled and grateful to Kak Tiara and Joanna Bessey of Enfiniti for reeling me in for such a fun project. I guess mentoring someone also teaches us to be better performers in return as well. Personally, I love working with kids. It is gonna be challenging yet fulfilling as well. Good practice for my fatherhood in future. Being a big kid myself I love being around kids hence “The Seussical” probably will inject back a little youth into my veins again. I just can’t wait for this project to start!!”
Other award-winning industry professionals who will also be working on the Academy’s production are Llew Marsh as Music Director, Melissa Teoh as Set Designer and Production Manager, to name a few.
Credits
Executive producer: Tiara Jacquelina
Associate producers: Joanna Bessey & Matthew Dason
Director / Choreographer: Stephen Rahman-Hughes
Music by: Stephen Flaherty
Lyrics by: Lynn Ahrens
Book by: Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty
Co-conceived by: Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty& Eric Idle
Based on the works of: Dr. Seuss
Music supervised, adapted and produced by: Bryan Louiselle
Date and time:
12th& 13th December 2013 – 830pm
14th& 15th December 2013 – 330pm & 830pm
Venue: PJLA, Jaya One
Ticket Price: RM 63
Ticket Purchase: 03 7960 0439 / 017 2289 849
