The Malaysian Insight

THE Performing Arts Centre of Penang (Penangpac), the only fully functioning performing arts centre in the northern region, is in danger of closing down in less than two months if the government does not come up with solutions to keep the dying industry afloat, its general manager Fa Abdul said.

She told The Malaysian Insight the performing arts industry is facing a catastrophic crisis because of Covid-19 and the pandemic has reshaped the art world like it never has before.

Fa said currently, the Penangpac team, including herself, are receiving a flat rate salary of less than RM2,000, of which she warned would have to be reduced if the situation does not improve.

The employment status of their team of 11 people has also been downgraded from full-time employment to contractual employment.

“We have gone through two major pay cuts. In June 2020, every team member went through a 30% salary cut. In June 2021, we considered another 10% cut, making it a 40% salary cut – however, we scrapped the idea as it meant some of our staff would end up earning less than RM1,000 per month,” she said.

“As the post-pandemic future of the arts looks bleak, we end up with the vicious question we keep asking ourselves: ‘How do we move forward at least for the next three months?’”

“With our government’s lack of enthusiasm to address the pandemic’s effect on the creative arts industry, what more to safeguard us from tumbling over, we can only rely on ourselves to stay alive,” she said.

Fa said as a “quick fix” to counter the risk of permanently closing down, Putrajaya should allow performing arts centres to reopen for recordings in order to continue creating content for their online audience.

“The funding assistance we received so far is tied to programmes, as in we get the fund when we produce something. We are not able to produce with our centre being closed and we are not allowed to resume operations.

“This is why we are desperately urging the government to allow us to do recordings in our space. At least we can produce shows for online viewing,” Fa said, adding that at this point, they can only survive up to the end of August with funds depleting.

“We have no funds to support our team beyond that.”

Since the onset of the pandemic, Malaysia has recorded more 951,8844 Covid-19 infections and 7,440 deaths (as of July 21) despite various lockdowns implemented by the government.

In June, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the national recovery plan, which comprises four phases to chart the success rate of each state in combating the virus.

Penang is currently in phase 2 of the plan, which means that the state’s daily Covid-19 cases are below 4,000 and 10% of its population are fully vaccinated.

However, despite outdoor filming being allowed starting yesterday for states under phase 2, no green light has been given for indoor filming yet.

Currently, the not-for-profit centre has three ongoing online theatre shows with tickets priced between RM15 and RM20 to allow people from all walks of life to enjoy their productions.

While it has been receiving good support from the public, Fa said it is still not enough to sustain the centre.

She said in a normal year, the centre received around 30,000 visitors. However, since the start of the pandemic last year, it has had fewer than 1,000 virtual visitors.

Penangpac held two fundraising campaigns in the past year. The first, “Do you have RM1 to spare?” raised about RM110,000 last year. The centre, however, needs RM600,000 yearly to stay afloat.

Fa said in 2021, due to slashed salaries, they only needed RM30,000 monthly to run the centre. Through the Patron of the Arts (Pota) campaign, Penangpac was able to raise about RM120,000.

“We started a T-shirt campaign (free ‘I am a Patron of the Arts’ tee with every donation above RM100).

“We had our Penang chief minister join the campaign as well with a donation of RM60,000 and a few other state excos as well.

“Under Pota we also had a donation drive-through where we set up a donation stall at Straits Quay, Tanjung Tokong,” she said, adding that they had planned to set up a similar drive-thru donation spot in Penang but the lockdown had prevented that from happening.

“However, both funds did not last long, as long as our centre is closed, there is no incoming revenue to help us sustain ourselves,” she said.

Besides screening online theatre shows and fundraising campaigns, penangpac has also produced online content on poetry recitals, open microphone sessions, script readings, and workshops on playwriting and directing over platforms such as Zoom, YouTube and Facebook.

“We are doing our very best to stay alive, however, we do not wish to sugarcoat this very difficult situation,” Fa said.

“Our funds are depleting and we are working very hard to get donations and sponsorships in. Unfortunately, nothing is helping much at the moment,” she said.

Penangpac was founded in 2011 by Dr Faridah Merican and Joe Hasham in a collaboration with The Actors Studio Sdn Bhd and Eastern & Oriental Bhd. – July 22, 2021.