Someone once told Seng Soo Ming that it was impossible for a young boy from Seremban to learn theatre. As a determined young student, Soo Ming regularly made the 45-minute journey from Seremban to Kuala Lumpur to see theatre and dance performances, and attend workshops.

It was at one of these workshops where he discovered Kuo Pao Kun’s plays and artistic philosophy, and learnt about ITI. Since graduating in 2008, Soo Ming has become an award-winning director, actor, playwright and drama educator whose work takes him around the world. Last year, he made history together with his co-actor Fred Chan as they became the first Malaysians to be cast as leading villains in a Bollywood film, 120 Bahadur.

When Soo Ming moved to Sabah in 2012, he started Pitapat Theatre in Kota Kinabalu. There was no professional theatre scene back then, and he faced many challenges acquiring resources and funding. But he relished the chance to start something new and learnt to work with the community. He trained amateur actors for months before productions and found his own way of teaching acting.

One of the plays he directed under Pitapat was An Enemy of the People. At the Moment (2015–2018). The production started out with eight actors but was whittled down to five when it went on tour to Kuala Lumpur. By the time the production was invited to the Tua-Tiu-Tian International Festival of Arts in Taiwan, only one actor could commit. Soo Ming adapted by scrapping the original script and created a new version which incorporated ritual storytelling and live music. In its second iteration, An Enemy of the People. At the Moment garnered four accolades at Kuala Lumpur’s ADA Drama Awards in 2017, including Best Actress and Best Director.

Soo Ming still fondly remembers his first wayang wong class at ITI. The instructor’s demonstration of improvisational movement was so compelling and breathtaking. “ITI really opened up a new world for me as a theater creator,” says Soo Ming. These powerful experiences prepared him for his first role after graduation.

In 2008, Soo Ming was cast in acclaimed Taiwanese director Stan Lai’s The Village by Performance Workshop, and played a character who spoke Hainanese. Few people speak the dialect, but luckily for him, it was a language he grew up with. The production toured on and off to the US, China, Taiwan and Singapore, until the pandemic.

Soo Ming admits that there are many obstacles to overcome when making theatre in Malaysia. Many of his friends have stopped, and some question why he continues. ITI has shown him that there is power and value in theatre and it is this belief that continues to sustain him.