Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre

Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre
A front view of klpac
Background
Location:	Jalan Strachan, Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Visitors:	50,000 per year
Established:	May 2004
Venues	The Actors Studio (TAS) at Lot 10, Performing Arts Centre at Sentul Park
Performances:	Drama, Musical, Lecture, Dance, Film Screening, Participatory, Workshops, Traditional Performance
Also Called:	KLPac, Pentas Seni KL
Information
Website:	klpac.org

The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (informally, KLPac) or Pentas Seni Kuala Lumpur in Sentul West is one of the most established centres for the performing arts in Malaysia. It is a non-profit company whose aim is to "cultivate and sustain the performing arts for the betterment and enrichment of communities within the Klang Valley and for the Nation." Located in Sentul West Kuala Lumpur, KLPac was founded by Joe Hasham and Dato' Faridah Merican, below Dataran Merdeka. Each year, KLPac and the Actors Studio plays host to more than a hundred major events, as well as many other workshops, classes, film screenings and more. Many of KLPac's events are self-directed, self organized shows, as KLPac also rents out their facilities, equipment other for individual performing arts events.

In 1995, Faridah Merican and Joe Hasham created the first privately owned and operated theatre in Malaysia below Dataran Merdeka, called The Actor's Studio at PlazaPutra (now known as Dataran Underground). In 2003, flash floods in Kuala Lumpur destroyed the underground complex. In May 2004, Yayasan Budi Penyayang Malaysia, YTL Corporation Berhad and The Actors Studio Malaysia created a new jointly-owned platform to develop the performing arts, which became the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac). KLPac opened its doors in May 2005.

The impressive KLpac building has in fact a long history. The railway warehouse was in Sentul Park, a piece of land which came under YTL ownership with the acquisition of another company. The remodel features glass windows along the front of the building, as well as a walkway leading up to the building. In the 1800s, the building was a wood-crafting workshop and sawmill. In 1906, it became part of Sentul Works becoming the region’s most important railway depot & workshop. It then was bombed during tail end of WWII but was soon rebuilt. It was converted into a makeshift golf clubhouse in the late 1960s, but became abandoned in the early 1990s.

The four main areas of the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre are:

Studio 1, one of the rehearsal and training studios in KLPac

The Actor's Studio at Lot 10, Bukit Bintang, has a 198-seater Hanamichi Thrust Stage. The Actor's Studio has been moved, from its original space at PlazaPutra, to Bangsar, and eventually to its current space on the rooftop of Lot 10.