TTD 4.0 unravels creativity of future IIUM English teachers

By Nayli Halim

GOMBAK, 23 December 2023: The Main Auditorium at IIUM Gombak had a full house on TESL Theatre Day 4.0 (TTD 4.0) that was organized by IIUM TESL students and the TESL Students’ Society. There were three performances that lasted from 8.00am till 12.00pm that gained positive responses from audiences that consisted of families, the IIUM community as well as lecturers and students of other universities.

This event started with a passionate opening remark by Dr. Haziqah Zulaikha binti Aris, Head of the Department of Language and Literacy at the Kulliyyah of Education. She informed the audience that theatre performances take place every semester at the IIUM by the students as they are a part of the assessment of a literature course taken by TESL students. She claimed the theatre performances have been going on since before the COVID-19 pandemic. She also welcomed and thanked all guests from other universities such as UM, UNITEN, USIM and many more who watched the performances.

Shortly after the speech, the first performance, “Mahsuri and The Tale of Baghdad,” started with the message, “Justice and truth will always prevail.” It combined the elements of Mahsuri’s legendary tragedy and Aladdin as the hero saving Baghdad from being ruined due to Mahsuri’s curse. The first theatre performance was successful in rousing and grasping the audiences’ attention as reflected by their active responses throughout the show.

Afterwards, there was the performance of, “The Tale of King Mahmud and the Conditions.” It was set in the era of the Malacca Sultanate. This performance upheld the theme of love and highlighted the Sultan’s great effort in asking for Princess Gunung Ledang’s hand in marriage by meeting the three conditions set by the princess herself. The tale also included a lesson on the cons of jealousy felt by Hang Tuah, the King’s right hand man, and his attempt to sabotage the conquest because of his dissatisfaction towards Sultan Mahmud. Then, there was a special and praiseworthy performance of a violin and piano duet that left the audiences stunned and in awe filling the gap between the second and the last theatre performances.

When the last peformance, “Moana: Beyond the Reefs,” was presented on stage, the audience could be seen jittery and excited about it and they were surely not disappointed since the auditorium was filled with lots of cheers and applause throughout the show. This performance retold the original storyline of the movie “Moana” and at the same time added a little twist to it by incorporating Ursula and, “The Pirates of Carribean,” Jack Sparrow. Not only was it creative, but the performance also included a lot of comedy and singing from the actors themselves, meeting the characteristics criteriaof a musical performance.

TTD 4.0 continued with its next agenda soonafter which was a voting exercise by the audience to determine which performance was the winner amongst all of the theatre performances. Unlike the theatre performances of previous years, TTD 4.0 brought improvements to the table by turning the day into a competition and having the audiences become judges. While the audiences voted, the stage welcomed another special performance by IIUM Andeka Caklempong that played two songs for the day, Ketipang Payung and Bujang Lapok. Once again, the audience was left mesmerized by the performances.

The event was nearing the end by the time the emcees started announcing the winners. Dr. Haziqah, accompanied the Director of the IIUM Centre for Credited Co-Curricula (CCC), Professor Dr. Faizah Idrus, who presented the prizes. The voting placed, “The Tale of King Mahmud and the Conditions,” in third place, “Mahsuri and the Tale of Baghdad,” as first runner-up, and “Moana: Beyond the Reef,” as the Champion of the day. After the photography session, TTD 4.0 drew its curtain to the sound of a loud roar of applause of satisfaction from audiences.***