Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on November 9, 2015.

 

Theatre-Lounge-Cafe_FD_9Nov15_theedgemarketsTHE Theatre Lounge Café is a venue where amateur performers and up-and-coming artistes can cut their teeth, as well as gain exposure for their craft.  Even so, Hilda Looi is not like most performers who have stepped onto the brightly lit stage of the cabaret lounge.

Presenting her first solo show, entitled All My Loving — a debut show by Hilda Looi & Friends, the 54-year old is living her favourite quote by CS Lewis, “It’s never too late to set another goal and to dream a new dream”, and no, in this case it’s not at all clichéd.

“Professionally I am a marketing specialist and hotelier, and worked in China for 20 years,” says Looi, who has worked in some of the world’s biggest hotel chains. Thinking about her future, Looi decided it’s time to leave the corporate world and returned home to Penang in 2011. At the time, she knew two things clearly: “I wanted to be with my family again, especially my mother — she just turned 80, and to pursue the performing arts.”

Singing and acting has never been too far away from Looi’s life, and she’s always found opportunities to perform, from school and church dramas and choir competitions, to singing at the workers’ union parties.

Looi says her first audition felt like “all hell broke loose”, she laughs. “I walked in and there was Faridah [Merican], Joe [Hasham] and Mervyn [Peters], who is now the music director for my show. I just took a deep breath and did what I had to do,” she says of her audition for The Actors Studio Seni Teater Rakyat’s 202 production Paper Crane.

Selected as an ensemble cast, the amateur theatre practitioner has participated in musical theatre shows like Chow Kit Road! Chow Kit Road, The Last Chendol and The Dollmaker’s Daughter. In between, Looi has also taken part in the Short + Sweet Festival as director and actor for three years.

Passion certainly doesn’t pay the bills, and she admits it’s not been easy to sustain a living in the past three years with only short-term work, before veteran theatre practitioner Sabera Shaik offered her a permanent job as assistant producer at the Masakini Theatre Company.

“When the USD went up to almost RM5, that was when I said I’m going back to China,” quipped Looi. “But jokes aside… I’m learning so much, and it has given me opportunities to meet a lot of people in the industry. Some things money can’t buy, and I just want to enjoy myself. If you think too much, you never get anywhere.”

It’s also why Looi decided it was time to take up an offer by Theatre Lounge Café to do her first solo show. “I hope to let the audience know who I am… somebody who may not be popular or famous in the scene, but who has a dream, and would just want to share it, that fun and enjoyment that I have in life.”

Performing 16 songs from a contemporary, jazz and musical theatre repertoire, Looi credits the people who have partnered with her for the show. “Mervyn Peters is someone I’ve heard of even from before, and he really pushes me.” She reveals that the music director has challenged her to perform Fever by Peggy Lee, “It’s a repeated base beat, and Elaine is playing it on the piano, so it’s even more difficult. I have nightmares about it,” Looi makes a dramatic face.

Accompanied by pianist Elaine Toon, Looi will also have her brother, Alvin Looi and his wife Karynn Tan, both theatre practitioners, and Malik Taufiq, a versatile actor, as guests on her show. “I will end with ABBA’s Thank You For The Music, because I grew up listening to them,” she adds.

Besides raising money for Cherishlife Home — an independent animal shelter, Looi hopes she can inspire others in her own way. “Who is Hilda Looi? She is a late bloomer… somebody who just wants to live her passion. She came in late, but she’s not afraid to come out of her comfort zone and to do things,” says Looi with quiet confidence.

She states, “I go to the gym four times a week, because I need to be fit. I cannot be a regular 54-year-old. In fact, I have to be at least like a 35-year old. I go for every audition, whether I get the role or not, there’s no bad feeling.”


All My Loving will be on from Nov 13 to 15 (9pm) at Theatre Lounge Café, Plaza Damas 3. Tickets are priced at RM100 and RM150 (sofa seating). For bookings and details, call (03) 6730 7982.

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