With a slight twist in honouring the country’s best of performing arts, the BOH Cameronian Arts Awards move on
ORGANISED by BOH Plantations and Kakiseni, the highly-anticipated 14th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards (14BCAA) took place recently at the St Regis Hotel Kuala Lumpur to honour the best talents in the local performing arts industry.
However, there was a slight twist to this year’s event. Only 12 awards were handed out this time compared to 42 previously, which included categories from theatre, musical theatre, music and dance.
Some of the award categories were removed and instead of being divided into sub-categories, all six shows under the Best Of 2016 banner vied for the 12 awards.
The six were: Black & White@Variation Rerun 2016,
The 12 awards categories included Best Group Performance, Best Music & Sound Design, Best Solo Performance — Instrumental and Innovation In Musical Theatre.
While there was confusion among the attendees, as well as award recipients, we asked Kakiseni president Low Ngai Yuen the reason behind the game change.
“Starting this year, the award show is reinvented as a platform for producers to meet potential sponsors keen to back local performing arts companies financially.”
The two-hour affair also aimed at fostering collaboration between arts enthusiasts and the private sector and investors.
Low added: “By awarding outstanding performances without restricting them to individual categories, we create a wider platform that will encourage the growth of the industry.”
As Low tried to push the envelope and raise the bar higher, all in the name of artistic excellence, the event still felt a little shortchanged, at least for now.
“The first year is bound to have some confusion and misunderstanding. But I’m sure it will get better from now on. That’s how we move forward,” added Low.
From the layperson’s point-of-view, it was hard to say exactly how the 14th edition is going to be remembered. But for industry key players, like the winners and champions of the arts, it would certainly in mind in the years to come.
Founded in 2002, the Cammies, as it is more fondly known, is endorsed by the National Department For Culture And Arts under the Ministry Of Tourism And Culture Malaysia.
THE WINNERS
At the awards evening, PAN Productions’ musical theatre Into The Woods won Best Overall Productions.
Directed by Nell Ng with musical direction by Shensation, the musical is based on the popular fairytale stories of the Brothers Grimm.
Staged in May last year at the KuAsh Theatre in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, the show is about a childless baker and his wife after being cursed by the once-beautiful witch.
In order to fulfil their wish for a child and to restore the witch’s beauty, the baker ventures into the forest to find ingredients needed to reverse the curse. On his way, he meets Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Jack — each on a quest to fulfil a wish.
Another standout was Richard III, a play directed by the Malacca-born and Beijing-based actor-director Deric Gan Eng Kee.
Held to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the passing of the well-known playwright William Shakespeare last year, Gan’s Chinese interpretation of the play depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and the subsequent short reign of King Richard III of England.
Gan, who won Best Director award for his The Dawns Here Are Quiet last year at the 13th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards, was over the moon when he bagged best direction again for the second consecutive year.
“I feel extremely honoured and happy to win this for the second year. No words can describe my feeling at the moment. I hope Chinese-language theatre can improve further and raise the bar for Malaysian arts and theatre industry,” Gan said.
Gan is expected to work on a play based on the acclaimed Chinese playwright Tsao Yu’s Peking Man to mark the 110th anniversary of Chinese theatre.
What started out as a hobby in acting for veteran actress Sukania Venugopal later turned into a career, one that she has enjoyed doing for the past 30 years.
She was genuinely surprised when her name was announced as the winner of Best Actor In A Supporting Role.
She won the award for her role as Alta in the play The Language Archive, written by Julia Cho and directed by Ghafir Akbar.
“It’s quite phenomenal to be recognised for all the hard work that we’ve put into making the play, said Sukania, who also bagged Best Supporting Actress award at the Straits Times Life Theatre Awards last month for her role as Savitri in the dance musical Ghost Writer.
Sukania said it was passion for performing that got her this far.
“You need to enjoy and love what you’re doing. I enjoy every process that comes with performing. And it’s all about endless learning as well. I even learnt a lot from working with the younger actors,” she said.
Over the years, Sukania has been part of stage productions both in Malaysia and Singapore. These included Leela Purushotaman, Balek Kampong, Sybil, Puteri Gunung Ledang and Twelfth Night. She has also dabbled in movies such as Garuda and Talentime.
Other winners included DuaSpace Dance Theatre Academy’s Black & White @Variation Rerun 2016 for Best Choreographer In A Feature Length Work; Ng Chor Guan’s For 2020: I’m From 2020 in Best Music And Sound Design, Carpe Diem by Checkmate Creation in Best Production Values, Mahsuri (And Other Peculiar Tales) A New Musical in Innovation In Musical Theatre and Raja Malik’s The Language Archive in Best Set Design.
This year, two Malaysia-born artistes and a homegrown collective were chosen as the game changers for the awards’ social media campaign.
They were Rani Moorthy, a theatre producer and filmmaker; Rendra Zawawi, the Los Angeles-based music producer and singer-songwriter; and the 11-time title holder of the Genting World Lion Dance Championship, Kun Seng Keng Lion And Dragon Dance Association.
For the complete winners’ list, visit www.kakiseni.com