Bigger and better! The National Theatre Festival Brunei made its comeback this year with a bigger roster of performance groups, and a community-focused programme aimed at bringing the joy of theatre to underprivileged communities and broadening the performing arts community”.
Nine local groups, sixteen original performances and plays, and a total of 75 talented, passionate performers; from dance, to acting, and comedy, there was truly something for everyone to enjoy over the three-day festival. Names like 247 Studios, Bruhaha Comedy, The Elisha Tiga Experiment and Relentless Entertainment and Performing Academy brought smiles, laughs and even tears to festival goers with stunning performances, alongside the workshops available. Syazni Bakar, Festival Director says that by opening up the festival programme to a wider variety of performing arts, they hoped to open the event to a bigger audience.
“We’re generally satisfied with everyone’s performances and what they delivered (this year),” said Bakar, adding that he hoped everyone would push themselves to do more unique shows for future editions of NTFB as there is always room for improvement. Siow Qian of Studios Eleve, one of Brunei’s premier dance schools, said that the inclusion of the dance in the programme this year was great as it gave the genre a wider platform and encourage attendees to consider dance as a serious form of performing art.
The festival also collaborated with Majlis Kesejahteraan Masyarakat (MKM) this year and opened up donations for an arts fund and festival ticket sponsorships for the disadvantaged, so that the communities under MKM would have the opportunity to be involved with theatre or any art related activities.
