Dear all,
It brings me great pain to make the following announcements:
1.0 Idora
As you know, Idora has been working with VTC as Junior Producer for some 6 months now, and has in this period produced good work for us. Unfortunately, due to the unfortunate loss of our Speech & Drama contract with Education Venture Sdn Bhd this year and several other projects not coming to fruition as planned and hoped, VTC can no longer afford to keep Idora on its payroll. Thus it is with great regret that I have had to give Idora her one month's notice with effect from the 1st of April 2005, as I feel (which she concurs) that it is in the best of both our interests. In effect, she will be relieved of all her duties in VTC come May.
2.0 YAs
I have been following the happenings and blogs of the YAs, albeit remotely, and Azmir's recent posting and Alia's response has struck a chord with me. It appears to me now that the structure of the program needs to be seriously revised and is somehow more counterproductive than fruitful. As I mentioned to all of you when you first joined, we understand that it is a long program and that you all have other commitments, thus attendance issues can be accomodated, but only to a certain extent. With the departure of Idora from the company in May, the YAs will no longer have a Producer responsible for it and effectively cannot move ahead.
Therefore, I am moving for a discontinuance or rather suspension of the YA program till I return in November, upon which I will contact all of you personally to discuss the future of the first batch of the program. Trust me when I say that this is not the end for the YAs, but pending the revival and reconstitution of VTC and my return to the country, it must be suspended before any further problems crop up.
I am more than happy to offer your membership fee of RM50.00 each back to you should you feel that it is neccessary, and am able to announce that I will be staging a production at year end to which auditions for some roles will be open firstly to members of this group of YAs, then only to the public. Otherwise, I am still keen on a YAs production, but only during the first quarter of 2006, which could be the TIP idea or something totally new. I promised that you will all get a chance to shine on stage, and I am hereby renewing my promise that you will, in due time.
3.0 TIP
Feel free to keep the ideas flowing for the TIP, as well as YAs. The blogs will still be maintained notwithstanding the suspension. But please be adviced that no performances will take place until after my return to Malaysia in Nov.
4.0 Sums
Sums has been granted a sabbatical from this month up till August. Therefore, any problems whatsoever or enquiries should be addressed to me directly via email at yang@victoriantheatre.com or phone on +447917367017.
5.0 A Personal Apology
I am very sorry to have to suspend the program. If it is any consolation to any of you, ALL VTC programs are being suspended at the same time, for the same amount of time, with a real possibility that the company will be dissolved in due time and its' business transferred to another entity yet to be set up with a new internal organisation and structure, which I hope will be more successful and condusive for the programs and dreams that we all share.
At the core of all this, I am sad to say that the main problem plaguing VTC is a lack of resources. As Resident Producer, I have tried to keep things afloat till my return, but even with the heavy personal investment of over RM25K since Summer 2004, it seems not to be working.
Whichever the case, I am planning to return to KL for at least a couple of weeks in August to sort various things out concerning the company and if I do, I will make sure we all get together to talk this over and look towards what can be done in the future (post-November) to resuscitate the program and the marvellous synergetic group that you are, as the first batch of the YAs.
I understand that this will come to ALL of you as a rude shock, but believe me when I say that I have no real choice other than to do things this way. Please feel free to return with comments, criticisms, shocked feedback, angry rants, heavy insults, verbal abuse at my email address yang@victoriantheatre.com or text or phone me on +447917367017.
6.0 A Suggestion
I suggest that ALL of the YA should get together as soon as it is possible to talk this over. Should there be strong or unanimous sentiment that this decision of mine should be reversed, I propose that one of you write to me representing those concerned about reversing the suspension of the program. As YOU make up the YAs and the TIP, I feel it is but respectful that I present you with the last vote on the matter. However, to accommodate the continuance of the program, amends and changes will have to be made to ensure that VTC and I can actually keep it running. FYI, sspace will not be closed down, but it will just be unused at least till August, so you still have a space to use, for all intensive purposes.
Thank you very much for all your time and effort this past many months and I hope that we will still be able to work together in the near future. As it stands, you are all held very specially to the company and me.
Yours regretfully,
Square
