Our events team put together such a classy affair at our new Enfiniti Black Box Theatre (thank you Team Enfiniti <3<3<3 Love you guys to bits!), and we had a really good attendance by friends from the media for a Saturday evening, considering f1, Sarawak elections and even Akademi Fantasia is all going on at the same time! Really appreciate you guys making the time :-)
It was quite an emotional moment for me somehow, I found myself choking at the beginning of my speech, I guess it was quite overwhelming after the long, long wait. And having to keep so many secrets for so many years, even from my closest media friends! Staying under the radar just to avoid having to say "I can't talk about this just yet". It felt wonderful though. And the people that mattered were there. Friends and family and those that helped make this happen.
I like saving postscripts of my speeches for the record, and for posterity, also for those of you who couldn't be there, this was my speech at the launch:
Like they say, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. But teach him how to fish, and you feed him for life.” This is what we hope to do, at Enfiniti Academy of Musical Theatre and Entertainment Arts (or ENACT).
This is for me, a dream come true. For the last 5 years, I’ve been dreaming of setting up an academy, to train and inspire the finest artists, performers and entertainers of tomorrow,
This is for me, a dream come true. For the last 5 years, I’ve been dreaming of setting up an academy, to train and inspire the finest artists, performers and entertainers of tomorrow, for the industry I love, the world of dreams, hopes, imagination beyond infinity.
This is the legacy I hope I can leave behind someday... but for now, I want to LIVE that legacy everyday, for the industry I love, this world of dreams, hopes and imagination beyond infinity.
It feels just like yesterday that I talked about this with Steve and Pat during the rehearsals of the FIRST season of Puteri Gunung Ledang the musical. I came home and shared it with my husband Effendi who said: “You should ABSOLUTELY do it!” And every day since then, he has been pushing us to think about what it should stand for, the logistics, and he’s been pushing us to move it, and make it happen. And here we are, today…
I’ve always been very passionate and vocal about my belief that the indicators of richness or development of a country, cannot be measured merely by how many tall buildings there are. It’s also about the richness of its culture, its liveability, the creative expression, the life and soul of the country.
It’s not going to happen overnight I know, but I DO know that today, with the launching of Enfiniti Academy of Musical Theatre and Entertainment Arts (or ENACT), we are one step closer towards achieving that goal.
I’m hoping that we will attract the most committed people who will come to work in ENACT, with ENACT, people who will share this vision and mission.
We’re very lucky to have found the absolutely talented actor-director Joanna Bessey, who is Course Director of the Academy. And all of this last week, so many others have come forward, talking to our Group VP of Operations, Izan Satrina, offering to impart their knowledge and skills to the next generation of artists.
This is going to be a wonderful opportunity, for all those people who have always wanted to grow this industry.
These people could be local home grown talent, like Joanna, Pat Ibrahim and Suhaili Michelin, or may come from industries that are richer and more experienced than ours by hundreds of years.
Wouldn’t that be wonderful – the world coming together, in the name of art, here at Enfiniti Academy!!! And why not? In our world, the world of performing arts, we speak in a common language, that transcends political and social boundaries!
We aim high, we aim for the stars. That’s the spirit and character of Enfiniti Vision Media. And I think there’s no reason to be humble about this.
Our shared vision, with the academy, is to actively create greater national awareness & appreciation of the Arts, and to focus on the growth of the Malaysian Arts Industry so it becomes a more vibrant & viable sector of the economy.
As a company, we want to engage the Malaysian & regional Arts Communities, to cohesively promote Malaysia as an Asian Arts Hub.
Enfiniti aims to create a whole sustainable eco-system of the arts.
We stage musicals that are most recognized for quality and production value in this country, and we will now continuously produce the artists and performers who make the shows come alive.
Very soon, through our events arm, Kit Kat Klub Events, headed by the talented Azimy Wan Ahmad, we will have non-stop events along the soon-to-be-launched Encorp Strand Red Carpet Boulevard, which will require talents galore, every week of the year.
Our absolutely creative Chedd Yusoff will also be heading one of Enfiniti’s most important projects, not just for our company, but for the country, a Malaysian Cultural Village. If you can just imagine this, the concept of the village is that EVERYONE who “lives” in this village is an actor, a performer.
So. We NEED a continuous “supply” of talent, internally for our own projects, as well as to feed the growth of the Malaysian arts industry!
I am today, boldly stating, that Enfiniti Academy of Musical Theatre and Entertainment Arts or ENACT is a boutique academy that aims to be an incubator of icons, trained in Malaysia, ready for the WORLD.
We are ABSOLUTELY committed to producing the highest standards of training in all aspects of musical theatre and entertainment arts. This means, we aim to produce not just performers, but producers, directors, writers, stage managers, set designers of the future. The eco-system of the arts industry.
The unique difference between ENACT and any other performing arts academy, is that the environment here will be more of a professional company in rehearsal, rather than that of an educational institution. Students will be exposed to the way a professional company operates, rather than just a school.
SO here we are today, it took 5 years to make this happen, but it will certainly be worth the wait. There are a few people that need to be mentioned today, who were integral to the process of putting the whole ENACT project together. This has been Liz Tajuddin’s baby for many years, she did the research and put the concept and financial papers together, and most importantly, she found us Raymond Miranda, who was then identified as the Head of Enfiniti Academy, and given the task of creating modules and the mechanics of running a school, but we have since widened his scope of responsibilities to make him Group Vice President of Content and Strategy at Enfiniti Vision Media. But on a personal note, the one person whom I really want to thank, for always pushing me to go for the stars and make the impossible happen, is my husband Effendi.
It’s very generous of Ramin Karimloo, Simon Bailey and my dear friend Stephen Rahman-Hughes to agree to officiate ENACT today. They do this purely out of goodwill, out of their personal passion for musical theatre, and wanting to contribute to the growth of the Malaysian arts industry.
They will forever be recognized as the 3 biggest stars of the West End, who officiated the Enfiniti Academy of Musical Theatre and Entertainment Arts, who gave the ENACT the prestige and stature.
My hope is that ENACT will be a legacy we can all leave behind for the continuance of the growth of the Industry.
Thank you once again for joining me on this very special occasion, the launch of Enfiniti Academy of Musical Theatre and Entertainment Arts.
