The producer and director of a successful local musical “Shiny Black Gold”, Datin Rosalina Ooi-Thong (pic), has been selected to participate in this year’s New Leadership Fellows Programme of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) in the United States.
She is the only foreigner selected for the pretigious programme. The rest of the 25 participants of the Washington, DC-based APAP are Americans, who have wide experience in the performing arts as well as leading various educational programmes.
Ooi-Thong, who is the president of the Perak Society of Performing Arts, is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dance, London, and University of Durham.
She has dedicated her life to the teaching, development and promotion of performing arts in Malaysia.
Her 2011’s “Shiny Black Gold” which portrayed the life and hardship of the pioneer tin mining community in Malaysia had even driven some members of the audience to tears.
“I am greatly surprised for being chosen to participate in the APAP’s programme,” she said before leaving for Los Angeles.
“It will give me a great opportunity to gain a lot of experience and meet the fellow presenters.”
She is attending a five-day summer intensive programme at the University of Southern California beginning Saturday. It will be followed by ongoing peer-based mentoring annual gatherings at the APAP/NYC conference in New Yoke City.
The participants will then continuously engage in an online resource and discussion platform.
“This programme is not simply for those who want to do their job better – though that is an inevitable result – but for those who seek to transform the world through their work as an arts leader,” said Mario Garcia Durham, president and CEO of APAP, in a press statement.
The APAP, which has 1,500 members worldwide, has for more than 50 years committed to leadership development in the changing ecology of the performing arts industry, providing avenues for members to expand and strengthen their leadership skills. – June 5, 2015.
Jerry Francis
— Malaysian Insider
