<![CDATA[Coronavirus: Singapore, Malaysia arts workers left reeling from cancelled shows, lost income]>

Kegan Venard's life has been upended in more ways than one.

Over the past eight years, the 31-year-old overcame the vagaries of freelance work to establish himself as a regular lighting technician in Singapore's flourishing theatre scene. On Valentine's Day, he proposed to his girlfriend, a single mother with two young daughters, and they were set to wed in October.

Then the Covid-19 situation escalated in March and he found himself in dire straits. Shows which would have kept him hired until December were all cancelled, and he felt forced to postpone his wedding. To keep paying the bills and supporting his soon-to-be stepdaughters, he dusted off his bicycle earlier this month and started work as a GrabFood delivery rider.

"I often start the day trying to 'psycho' myself with positive thoughts. Like, 'At least I get to spend more time in the sun,' or, 'I'm doing a good thing getting food to people," Venard said in a phone interview. "But inevitably, after a few deliveries, my mood dips and emptiness sets in. It's not just about the money. I loved my old job. This isn't what I'm meant to be doing."

A rider for the GrabFood online food-delivery platform cycles outside Raffles Place in Singapore last year. Photo: Bloomberg alt=A rider for the GrabFood online food-delivery platform cycles outside Raffles Place in Singapore last year. Photo: Bloomberg

It has been 24 days since Singapore closed its cinemas, theatres and other entertainment venues and a month since Malaysia implemented a strict movement control order.

Times have been hard for everyone in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, but one of the groups left reeling most, on both sides of the Causeway, is the one deemed least essential: the creative community.

According to ilostmygig.sg, a website that collates data on Singapore's creative industries and also provides resources on where to get help, since antivirus measures were stepped up in earnest, nearly S$30 million (US$21 million) in lost income has been reported by the thousands of freelancers who cannot find work in the city state's arts, media, design and entertainment sectors.

In Malaysia, cancelled shows have cost the country's major performing arts centres more than 1 million ringgit (US$229,000) in lost revenue, according to an estimate reported by The Star newspaper.

A sign is displayed outside a closed entertainment venue on Bali Lane in Singapore earlier this month. Photo: Bloomberg alt=A sign is displayed outside a closed entertainment venue on Bali Lane in Singapore earlier this month. Photo: Bloomberg

From stoic resignation to moody despair, the reaction to these losses varied greatly across the more than 20 filmmakers, creative writers, performing artists and technicians who were interviewed for this article.

The degree of their anxiety, however, did broadly correspond to the impact coronavirus restrictions have had on their respective industries, as well as the conditions each creator needs to thrive.

Prose writers and television producers, whose works can be consumed on various screen media, have tended to be a little more sanguine about slowdown and confinement.

By comparison, designers and crew for live shows, indie filmmakers and performing artists face greater economic and emotional challenges, given that their short- and long-term viability depends on packing cinemas, theatres and concert halls.

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For novelist Yeoh Jo-Ann, who writes between months-long breaks from her main job in tech advertising, lockdown has resulted in the cancellation of two book launches in Kuala Lumpur. But these disappointments have not led to economic peril. "As far as earnings from my books go, I've always had low expectations. Lockdown has caused some anxiety, but it has also given me more time to work on my second novel," she said.

TV writers and directors such as Malaysians Lee Thean-jeen and Gavin Yap, and Singaporean Jaya Rathakrishnan, also have reasons to be cautiously optimistic, with projects still ongoing, albeit in more solitary conditions. Lee is working remotely on the post-production of a regular TV series; Yap is writing the script for a film which "hopefully will be shot in July"; and Rathakrishnan is polishing the screenplay for a children's television show whose production is "planned for June, with a lean crew".

Leslie Tan, president of the Screenwriters Association (Singapore), said many television projects in the city state "still seem to be greenlit and proceeding as per normal", though shoot dates may be rescheduled according to changing government guidelines in the unfolding public health crisis.

For film and television freelancers who have fallen through the cracks, the Singapore Association of Motion Picture Professionals has worked with the government's Infocomm Media Development Authority to launch a S$40,000 Covid-19 Relief Fund to soften the blow of lost jobs.

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There have been similar efforts made for affected freelancers working in the performing arts " the hardest-hit subgroup among creatives - including Pasar Glamour Art Aid, a $120,000 fund jointly raised by actresses Janice Koh, Pam Oei and Petrina Kow. Singapore's National Arts Council (NAC) and Malaysia's Cultural Economy Development Agency have also launched a raft of Covid-19 financial assistance programmes. Despite these measures, many smaller theatre companies and individuals like Venard, the lighting technician, remain at risk.

Singaporeans Nelson Chia, Adrian Pang and Ivan Heng, and Malaysians Huzir Sulaiman, Jo Kukathas and Sean Ghazi " all artistic directors of companies forced to cancel productions " expressed mixed feelings about the year ahead, alternating between financial dread and artistic resolve.

While acknowledging the necessity of current closures, Chia said "our survival and success, how we practise our craft and perform our shows, depends on communal gathering and close interaction with audiences. Our raison d'etre is the exact opposite of self-isolation and social distancing."

"Even when the situation improves and the government decides to reopen the economy, entertainment venues will be the last to resume business," Heng said.

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Mindful of this likelihood, the NAC has started a Covid-inspired Digitalisation Fund, which calls for Singapore's artists and arts companies to adapt their work for online consumption. The scheme has been received with a mixture of gratitude and scepticism.

Malaysian actor and director Ghafir Akbar, who was slated to appear in two plays in Singapore and direct two others in Kuala Lumpur " all of which have now been cancelled " worries that "new methods of watching theatre might shift how audiences choose to experience shows post-Covid."

But Heng, Pang and Chia all stressed that it was impossible to recreate the magic of theatre online, though they are open to experimenting with the medium by creating monologues or theatre classes as stopgap measures to continue engaging with audiences.

For playwright Alfian Sa'at, schemes such as the Digitalisation Fund stem from a well-meaning but ultimately pragmatic rather than innovative strategy. "I don't see digitalisation as nudging theatre towards its future, but as responding to the urgencies of the present," he said.

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For the most part, arts companies are trying to ride out the pandemic by combining state assistance with support from private donors, to retain staff and develop new works for the future.

Huzir believes a number of these works will look at the human condition with greater kindness and urgency, given the experience of the crisis. "The pandemic will require everyone to renegotiate their relationship to the economy, to the state and to each other," he said. "More than ever, we will have to reinvent the ways that we relate to one another."

Though most will now hunker down with books, video games and online series, the time will eventually come when stage doors must reopen and, as Kukathas put it, "people should perhaps reassess the cliche of art being a non-essential service".

Venard would agree.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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