Berani Kids' Club

Gong Xo Fa Cai! Wishing everyone a good time with family and may the coming year bring greater blessings in every aspect of your life.

What have we been doing so far? Besides organising the arts festival, we have one paid project with Oakbridge International School and one sponsored programme at Yayasan Sunbeams. What do we want to work towards?
1. Private donations are always welcomed. You may do this through the Pay It Forward app and search for Berani Kids.
2. A patron that can bring us to better platforms to share and collaborate.
3. Companies that are willing to sponsor a community programme for a year at least.
4. Paid projects, workshops and regular classes not only for kids but for all ages.

If you would like to collaborate with us, please feel free to email us at [email protected] and we will get back to you the soonest we can.

We are so grateful for KLK who committed to adopt a community for a year. As a result, we have been working in Yayasan Sunbeams since April and they even just had their first mini showcase 2 weeks ago. They explored the culture of Kelantan, the dialect, learned to make the wau as well as perform dikir barat. Well done!

Here are some reasons why we focus on creative arts education:

1. It complements mainstream education. Studies have shown that creative arts education and culture education balances the usage of the brain because it helps one to use and focus on the right side of the brain whereas, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) subjects in mainstream education are focused on the left side of the brain. Not only that, it also helps these students to do better in these subjects.

2. There needs to be an awareness that when students are involved in activities such as drama or theatre, singing, dancing or music, they also learn skills and acquire benefits that are not usually cultivated through mainstream subjects in schools. These skills and benefits include the growth in self-confidence, the capacity to work in a team, and problem-solving skills. The benefit of self confidence alone could help break the poverty cycle one may be living in or make better choices for their life which in the bigger picture could lead to lesser bad choices that are made that leads to criminal offence. Also, in a multicultural country in Malaysia, it will build tolerance and understanding of the different races in Malaysia as often, creative arts education requires for people to work in a team. This awareness could then lead to the breaking of mindsets where creative arts education is 'useless'.

Berani Kids. The word Berani means brave or corageous. In my experience, being brave causes discomfort and it can get ugly. When I was growing up as a South East Asian, I was thought to not question and to not speak up, and to never challenge status quo. Being good means to just follow. However, life has taught me that my existence has a purpose. I bring something to this world. We cannot all be fitted into the same mould. We have a voice. All these things takes courage. We need to be brave. It takes courage to love. It takes courage to care. The symbols of courage are not just muscular men, tigers or lions. You and me are symbols of courage. Our kids and their childlike faith are symbols of courage. Living an authentic life is courageous and brings ultimate happiness. Hence, the logo, a smiling sun.

You can now register directly here as well:

ONETIX ONETIX is Malaysia’s latest ticketing agent which provides innovative online ticketing solution with own custom backend platform for classes, workshops and all ticketed events.

This is a little bit about one of our founders, Thasha Gunaseelan. She graduated in law but after her debut stint in 59 Minutes directed by Kelvin Wong, she realised 3 years later that this is the industry that she has a purpose in. She started off working in Blubricks and invested her time learning about teaching drama. Later on, she went on her and freelanced in various private and international schools teaching drama. She got her big break in being an assistant director in children's theatre production called Bites of Delight that subsequently led her to direct George's Marvelous Medicine, another children's theatre production. Her other notable works are Tailor Made Man that won the Audience Choice's award at the Kakiseni Boh Cameronion Awards, writing, producing and acting in The Becoming Of, as well as acting in Brown Boy's Dream which won a Festival Director's Award in KLPAC's Short and Sweet Festival. in 2022, she completed her Masters in Arts and Cultural Management, founded Berani Kids, was in Theatresauce's Emerging Directors' production as well as started lecturing part time in UPM.

From Fear to Fun: A Brave Drama Workshop for Kids
For ages 7-12
Give your child a safe environment to explore their dramatic potential. Using fun games and activities, students will be able to grow in confidence and hone their presentation skills culminating in a final showcase for the whole family to enjoy.

Date: 5-9 December 2022
Time: 9am - 12pm
Final showcase at 11.30am (9 December 2022)
Venue: Studio 3, PJPAC
Price: RM150 per child

Camillea Benjamin - Bio

A Graduate of the Department of Performance and Media at Sunway University , Camillea Benjamin is a multidisciplinary performing artist who debuted on the professional stage with To Which My Brother Laughed (2019) , an important piece of theatre centering the public caning of two women in Terengganu in 2018 . She is an alumni of the Theatre for Young People Programme at The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre. Other theatre credits include These Familiar Strangers(2022), Stories From The Metropolis (2021), T4YP Emergence 2020(2020), Ola Bola Merdeka Tour(2019), the multi award winning production Talk(2019), In Between (2019) Bunga Mimpi Yang Kembang Kuncup(2019) and Sinbad The Musical (2015)

Syed Zalihafe started pursuing his passion in thatre since the year 2000.
Starting off as an assistant stage manager on productions such as Dramalab’s A Flight Delayed (2000) and Repertory 21’s Five Letters from An Eastern Empire (2000), he moved on to stage manage celebrated plays such as the Cameronian award-winning Spilt Gravy on Rice (2002 and 2003) by Jit Murad, and Checkpoint Theatre’s Atomic Jaya (2003) by Huzir Sulaiman.

He moved on to more challenging position as Assistant Director to SuperMokh the Musical (2014), Lat The Musical (2013) and Mencari Sumaiyah (2015).

He was nominated and won Best Director in a Musical by KakiSeni Cameronian Arts Award for his work in "Dia Semanis Honey" (2017)

He believes the children are our future, if we teach them well, they will be an all rounded great person and they'll lead the way for a better future.
Show them all the beauty they possess inside.

Thasha Gunaseelan is one of the founders of Berani Kids. After teaching drama for 12 years, she is a strong advocate for the equal opportunities for creative arts education. She believes in the benefits. She believes, that the creative arts can be the answer to a better social and economic wellbeing of a community. Berani to her means standing up, voicing out and taking up space.

Introducing, Berani Kids' Club. We aim to advocate for equal opportunities for creative arts and culture education. We aim to provide a sustainable creative arts and cultural programme for B40 communities as well as public schools for free with the help of grants, sponsorship as well as donations made from the public. Our heart has always been for the community and we are here to serve the industry and the communities in Klang Valley as well as the other states in Malaysia. We hope that this may create new audiences as well as create awareness of how creative arts is so applicable and relevant in everyday life as well as passing down our Malaysian culture to the next generation in order to preserve. We hope that this too gives a voice to these communities as well as by building their confidence, we hope that we get to improve the social and economic wellbeing of the communities. Our humble request to fellow creative arts practitioners and educators is: Saya budak baru belajar, kalau salah, tolong tunjukkan.
We picked the name Berani, as we would like to speak boldness and courage into every person that we cross paths with. What does one living bravely look like? Brave enough to dream big dreams, perhaps? Brave enough to know and claim their space in this world? So let's rise up together, be brave together and see the ripple effect, and what could come out of it.