Datuk Faridah Merican (known as Faridah Merican), born 25 October 1939, is a Malaysian actor, director, producer and dramaturge. She is the co-founder of the Actors Studio (Malaysia), the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre, and the Performing Arts Centre of Penang (Penangpac).

Early life and education

Merican grew up in George Town,

Penang Penang is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia along the Strait of Malacca. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. Th ...

, and has credited her Penang childhood with her understanding of

Hokkien Hokkien ( , ) is a Varieties of Chinese, variety of the Southern Min group of Chinese language, Chinese languages. Native to and originating from the Minnan region in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern China, it is also referred ...

and

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

. She attended St George Girls' School, where she first discovered an interest in the theatre. Her father, Basha Merican, taught English language and literature at the

Penang Free School Penang Free School (PFS), located at Green Lane, George Town, Green Lane in George Town, Penang, George Town, Penang, Malaysia, is the oldest English-medium education, English-medium school in Southeast Asia. Founded in 1816, its academic achiev ...

, and Merican initially trained to be a primary school teacher, specializing in Physical Education. While a student at the Kota Baru Teachers Training College, she appeared as Kate in a production of Shakespeare's ''

The Taming of the Shrew ''The Taming of the Shrew'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunke ...

''.

Career

In the 1960s she worked as a newsreader for Radio Malaysia, and hosted radio talk shows on theatre and advertising. From 1969 worked in props and casting for the advertising agency HS Benson. She was a key figure in the postcolonial Malaysian theatre scene of the 1960s and 1970s, appearing in productions of ''Lela Mayang, Tok Perak,'' and ''Alang Rentak Seribu.'' She starred in the first production of the first Malay musical, ''Uda Dan Dara'' by

Usman Awang Wan Osman Wan Awang, also known by his pen name Usman Awang (, 12 July 1929 – 29 November 2001) was a Malaysian poet, playwright, novelist and Malaysian National Laureate (1983). Biography Wan Osman was born into a poor peasant family in ...

, in 1972. She later appeared in a revival of the musical in 1984, and produced and directed subsequent productions of the same work in 2002 and 2015 respectively. She has worked in

Bahasa Malaysia Malaysian Malay () or Malaysian ()endonymically known as Standard Malay () or simply Malay (, abbreviated to BM)is a standardized form of the Malay language used in Malaysia and also used in Singapore and Brunei (as opposed to the variety us ...

, Hokkien and Cantonese, as both performer and director. She has appeared in two Malay productions of Chinese playwright Tsao Yu’s 1933 classic ''Thunderstorm'', in 1983 and 2001, and directed productions of the play in English (2017) and in Hokkien and Cantonese (2019).

Personal life

She is married to Australian actor and director Joe Hasham, with whom she co-founded the Actors Studio (Malaysia) in 1989. In 1995 they established a theatre space in Plaza Putra,

Dataran Merdeka Independence Square () is a square located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is situated in front of the Sultan Abdul Samad Building. It was formerly known as the Selangor Club Padang, or simply the ''Padang'' (meaning "field" in Malay), and was ...

. Flooding destroyed the space in 2003 and they subsequently founded the

Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac; ) in Sentul Park, Kuala Lumpur is one of the established performing art centers in Malaysia. It is a non-profit company, aims to cultivate and sustain the performing arts for the Malaysian. KLP ...

. In 2011 they founded the Performing Arts Centre of Penang (Penangpac).

Awards and accolades

Merican has received the Boh Cameronian Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ahli Mangku Negara, and an Outstanding Achievement Award in the Arts, Culture and Entertainment category in the inaugural Malaysian Women of Excellence Awards''.'' She received an Honorary Master of Letters from the

University Sains Malaysia Universiti Sains Malaysia ( 'University of Science Malaysia'; abbreviated as USM) is a public research university in Malaysia. Founded on 1 June 1969 as a statutory body with its own constitution, it is the oldest institute of higher learning ...

and an Honorary Doctorate in the Arts from

Taylor's University Taylor's University (commonly referred to as Taylor's) is a private university in Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. It is Malaysia's top private university based on the QS World University Rankings. It was founded in 1969 as a college, was awar ...

. She is Adjunct Professor and Programme Development Director of TUTAS, Malaysia's first performing arts conservatory degree, jointly administered by the Actors Studio and Taylor's University.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merican, Faridah 20th-century Malaysian actresses 1939 births 21st-century Malaysian actresses Malaysian directors Malaysian producers Living people People from George Town, Penang Members of the Order of the Defender of the Realm