Recently we called on Thailand to\nask about the coup. From a condo on the Gulf, by the beach, Rey Buono told us\nthat he himself had phoned Bangkok the night General Boonyaratglin seized\npower. “My friend said: ‘What coup?'” Rey says. “I’m calling it\nthe Jim Thompson coup — smooth as silk.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With a resume of teaching, acting\nand directing credentials beginning in the 1970s, Rey arrived in Southeast Asia\nto become Singapore’s Victoria Junior College’s first Head of Drama. Theatre\nStudies was a Cambridge A Level elective, and in 1988 the island state’s first\nperforming arts course in the educational system at any level. Rey, working\nwith the Ministry of Education, was seminal in the formalisation of performance\neducation in Singapore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1997, after managing to offend\nthe government, Rey moved to Kuala Lumpur. “I had plans for a serious\nschool of performance,” Rey says. Unfortunately, he arrived just in time\nfor the financial crisis. He found a place at University Putra Malaysia, under\nVice-Chancellor Syed Jalaluddin Syed Salim; when the VC left university\npolitics kicked in, knives came out, and the music and performing arts\nfaculties were decimated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rey then approached Sunway College\nwith the outlines for his school. It was to combine instruction in both\nperformance and media, a novel hybrid designed to provide all the things a\nyoung practitioner would need in the film and theatre industry. In the first\nsix months of 2003, Rey spent a majority of his time developing the curriculum.\n“I’m very proud of that,” Rey says. “It probably the first of\nits kind, here: one that provides a grounding in both theory and practice, in\nboth Eastern and Western disciplines. Akademi Seni Kebangsaan had something\nlike it, but without the media component.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The school had an initial intake of\nfour students. “I’m grateful they took the risk — but the school wasn\u2019t\nmarketed very well. There were maybe two print ads in all the time I was there.\nGetting students were a real problem. That was a battle I fought and\nlost.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, Sunway’s Department of Performance\n+ Media is doing well. It has 39 students and an experienced teaching body —\nmost of whom are distinguished practitioners in their own right: actor Jo\nKukathas, filmmaker Bernard and writer Bernice Chauly, performance artist Ray\nLagenbach, playwright Leow Puay Tin. Ray and Puay Tin are now joint Heads of\nDepartment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rey is no longer there. “It was\nextremely difficult to leave,” he says, “But I was totally burnt\nout.” After wrestling with a largely unconvinced college administration\nfor three years, Rey took a holiday up north. “I had worked very hard in\nSingapore for nine years. Then there was UPM, which was difficult for different\nreasons, and then the stress of building the school at Sunway. So I came out\nhere, watched the beautiful ocean waves crashing, and decided I would rather\nnot continue.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rey now teaches a studio course, one\nthat combines the disciplines of various media including the visual and\nperforming arts, at a small private college in Chonburi. “It’s a lot less\npressure,” Rey tells us. “What can I say?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rey Buono the theatre director — in\nthis regard he is arguably most known to us as the director of the Instant Caf\u00e9\nTheatre productions of Merchant of Venice<\/em>\n(with Jo Kukathas as co-director), Moises Kaufman’s Gross Indecency<\/em>, and Paula Vogel’s Baltimore Waltz <\/em>— misses Kuala Lumpur. “I hope I’ll still be\nable to direct for the stage, both in Malaysia and Singapore. It’s the first in\n30 years that I’m not doing anything theatrical.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, Rey’s departure has\ncaused no small amount of wistfulness among many of his former students. Below,\nwe present five personal accounts from the Department of Performance + Media’s\nfirst graduates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ~<\/p>\n\n\n\n Khakis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nurul Ain Mohammed Jamlus<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was enrolling in Sunway College’s\nSchool of Performance and Media when I first met Rey Buono. He welcomed me\nwarmly, and we began talking about why I had decided to join the school. He\nasked me whether I went to see plays at the Actors Studio. “Yes,” I\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Do you know anything about\nKhakis-sen-nei?” he asked again. Because of Rey’s American accent I could\nnot understand what he had said. I thought he was talking about a pair of\nDockers khakis!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then he showed me a printout of an article and I said: “Oh, Kakiseni!” <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rey went: “Yeah, Khakissennei!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rey is passionate about theatre, bad\nat mathematics, and has an incredible sense of humour. He was not only a\nteacher but also a father: he brought hope to me and helped me believe in\nmyself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once, thinking about what university\ncourse or career to choose, I asked myself: “Is this what I really wanted\nto do? Could I do this?” I was battling not only myself, but also those\nclose to me; my sisters always assumed studying the performing arts was not as\nbrilliant a decision as studying law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rey told me otherwise: he told me\nthat learning the arts was just as important as learning law — and the special\nthing about the arts was that you dealt with your intuition and discovered new\nthings about yourself. He told me that being a performing arts student was\nbrave enough, and that I should never let go of my passion of the theatre.\n“Many law undergraduates decide to venture into the arts themselves,\nanyway,” Rey added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He taught me how to be in control of\nmyself, and to never let my desires fly by me when I walk the journey of my own\ndreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ~<\/p>\n\n\n\n Masks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Helena Foo<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Make her look so different I\nwon’t be able to recognise her,” Rey Buono said. A friend of mine was\ngoing to make me up for our second semester year’s Mask and Characterisation\nclass. I detested this idea, especially since we were supposed to look entirely\ndifferent from ourselves. After I had put on my ‘mask’, Rey came in, looked at\nme, and burst out laughing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then the lights in the theatre were\non and I was staring at a colourful face in the mirror. “Who do you see in\nthe mirror?” Rey whispered in my ear. “Do you love her or hate her?\nWho does she remind you of?” Five minutes later, I began to feel the\nemotions that Rey was trying to bring out in me: then he let me go and called\nhis next victim to the mirror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rey was always there whenever things\ngot too much for me to handle. If anyone broke out in tears or lost their\ntemper in class, he was there to put his arms around us, to tell us that\neverything would be all right. I always felt safe in his arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I went to him whenever I needed his advice\nand we would end up talking about something entirely different. He cracked some\nof the funniest jokes I’ve heard; his sense of humour and joyous presence\nalways gave life to every room her entered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ~<\/p>\n\n\n\n An Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Joylynn Teh<\/p>\n\n\n\n We were in a classroom, our sweaters\non, hands tucked under our armpits and between our thighs, the air-conditioning\nfreezing. Rey Buono sat in a blue plastic chair, a friendly clown-like smile on\nhis face, reciting by memory Jaque’s speech from As You Like It<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide\n<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice, <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Turning again toward childish treble, pipes <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n That ends this strange eventful history,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Is second childishness and mere oblivion,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n There were tears rolling down Rey’s\ncheeks. Everyone sat speechless and I had goose bumps. It didn’t look like he\nwas acting; the words were alive because Rey was describing himself and making\nhimself vulnerable to us. This was Performing Arts 100, our Introduction to\nTheatre. It became easy for us to be similarly transparent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rey loves Mozart. He drinks lots of\ncoffee, functions almost exclusively through his second and sixth charkas, and\nis aware he is getting old. “It’s okay,” I said to him once, “As\nlong as you are growing old gracefully.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n He laughed and replied: “Honey,\nI am not at all close to becoming graceful. I am a grumpy, dirty old man.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rey loved popping in during classes\nother than his own to say hello, or to sing a song, or to tell a joke. One of\nthem was:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q: How many feminists does it take to change a\nlight bulb? <\/p>\n\n\n\n A: None of your goddamn business!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I miss these interruptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ~<\/p>\n\n\n\n Facts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cindy Tey<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every new batch of students in the\nPerformance and Media school has to stage Samuel Beckett’s Act Without Words II<\/em>. It was the first piece of theatre I performed\nin my life. It was so much fun! I respect Rey Buono because of his vast\nknowledge of theatre, but I treasure my experiences with him most because it\nwas in this time that I had discovered my passion, love and talent for acting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I feel pretty, oh so pretty \/\nI feel pretty, and witty, and gay!” are the lines from West Side Story<\/em> I remember Rey singing\nthe most; his love for musicals was written on his face. I provide a list of\nfacts about Rey Buono you might not have been aware of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n His full\nname is Reynold John Buono. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He is 60\nand a Leo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He cracks\nreally funny dirty jokes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n His mum\nwas a singer in a pub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His\ngrandma was the one he loved most, the one who supported him in love for\ntheatre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He loves,\nprotects, and respects the masks he owns very much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He loves\ncoffee — his room smells like 100-year-old coffee<\/p>\n\n\n\n He takes\nthe lift when going up but always take the stairs when coming down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He has a\nBuck Fush sticker on his car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thailand is the place nearest to his\nheart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his absence new students no\nlonger perform Beckett.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ~<\/p>\n\n\n\n CIA Agent<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Razif Hashim<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once upon a time I was a student of\nbusiness: I wanted to do something that could get me into the corporate world.\nAll I ever had in my mind was money. But behind this urge was a craving for\nattention: I wanted to express my brilliant theories of oppressed times, when\nmy parents were always too busy and I was left at home with the maid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then Rey Buono came along. I met him\nfor the first time in 2003. “This guy is probably either CIA,” I said\nto a friend, “Or a bum.” For several years I was convinced and\nparanoid about it, because I used to go to class high — and not on life, I can\ntell you that. Then I realised that the CIA would not spend their time looking\nfor potheads. I don’t regret taking that chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I miss most about Rey Buono is\nhis sarcastic, eclectic, eccentric, sadistic sense of life. Only God knows what’s\nin his mind — though he would disagree, of course, because he doesn’t believe\nin one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or perhaps he thinks he’s God. He\ndoesn’t show it, of course, but I know he finds pleasure in creating sets,\ndirecting actors and anything else that makes him feel All-mighty. That’s why\nhe’s in theatre. This is what I find most remarkable about the guy: his passion\nfor what he does. When he was starting up Sunway’s Performance and Media\nschool, he was splitting his schedule down to the hairs: going back and fourth\nbetween the education board, and the management board, and classes in between.\nHe walked head first, diminishing any problem that came his way, not giving up,\neven for a moment. It was this surety that made the school what it is today:\nthe most Avant-garde school of art Malaysia has ever seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rey described Malaysia’s\nsociological problem simply: “This country is stuck in a traffic\njam.” He said this jokingly but meant it in earnest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Think about it,” he would\nsay. “When we are in a jam we are constantly waiting to get where we’re\ngoing, and it is this waiting that has lulled many into a state of idleness:\n‘What can we do? We’re in a jam.'” I thought over this statement, and I\nthink it has made me what I am today. It thought me to respect time, other people,\nand the importance of leaving early. Thank you, Rey. It should be our school\nmotto: Leave Early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rey Buono is my role model. Wherever\nhe goes, he takes a theatre with him. Shakespeare would have loved him; Godot\nwaits for him. We miss you, Rey. Hope you’re having a good one in Thailand. If\nyou ask me, though, I’d say Chonburi’s getting the better end of the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ~~~ <\/p>\n\n\n\n Helena, Nurul Ain, Joylynn and Cindy appear in an adaptation of Ovidia Yu’s 3 Fat Virgins Unassembled<\/em>, directed by Zahim Albakri, at The Rooftop Theatre, Sunway University College, between Thu 12 – Sun 15, Oct 2006. Razif most recently appeared as a King Scout in Bernard Chauly’s Goodbye Boys<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n First Published: 04.10.2006 on Kakiseni <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently we called on Thailand to ask about the coup. From a condo on the Gulf, by the beach, Rey Buono told us that he himself had phoned Bangkok the night General Boonyaratglin seized power. “My friend said: ‘What coup?’” Rey says. “I’m calling it the Jim Thompson coup — smooth as silk.” With a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,3535],"tags":[2766,1761,4027,4025,4021,4023,607,608,4024,771,1215,3167,4022,1840,1252,4020,3026,237,2085,693,957,4026,46,4019,4028,4018,601],"language":[7523],"writer":[7625],"class_list":["post-27604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-theatre","tag-bernard-chauly","tag-bernice-chauly","tag-chonburi","tag-cindy-tey","tag-department-of-performance-media","tag-helena-foo","tag-instant-cafe-theatre","tag-jo-kukathas","tag-joylynn-teh","tag-leow-puay-tin","tag-moises-kaufman","tag-mozart","tag-nurul-ain-mohammed-jamlus","tag-ovidia-yu","tag-paula-vogel","tag-ray-lagenbach","tag-razif-hashim","tag-rey-buono","tag-samuel-beckett","tag-sunway-college","tag-sunway-university-college","tag-the-rooftop-theatre","tag-theatre","tag-universiti-putra-malaysia","tag-upm","tag-victoria-junior-college","tag-zahim-albakri","language-english","writer-zedeck-siew"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27604"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38578,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27604\/revisions\/38578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27604"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=27604"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writer?post=27604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}