Rey Buono, who was named by the Milton Academy in Boston, Massachusettes, as having sexually assaulted 12 of his students while working at the performance arts school between 1973 and 1987, had been involved in local theatre productions aside from lecturing at a few institutions of higher learning.
Actor Chacko Vadaketh said he first got to know Buono in the early 2000s, while working on a play, The Star reported.
“I’ve known him since he directed me in the play Gross Indecency: The Three Trials Of Oscar Wilde about 15 years ago. He is a very skilled director with a great record in terms of the work he’s done here.
“This information is quite shocking, and it’s surprising that it’s coming out now after so long,” Chacko was quoted as saying by the daily.
Another theatre veteran, Bernice Chauly, also said she was shocked by the revelation about Buono.
“I’m still completely flabbergasted and trying to process it, because we’re very good friends and these are very serious allegations.
“The way I know him, he’s always been a very kind and thoughtful person. I don’t know how to react to this,” she told The Star.
Chauly, who is a writer, poet and educator, added that she has known Buono for more than two decades.
Another actor Ghafir Akbar said he is surprised over the accusations against Buono.
“I can only speak about him as a teacher. He was an important teacher to me and pivotal to my starting a formal education in the theatre,” Ghafir told The Star about working under the direction of Buono in The Baltimore Waltz and Gross Indecency: The Three Trials Of Oscar Wilde.
Marvin Wong, a much younger participant in local theatre works, remembers Buono as being a good teacher and professional in his work when they worked together in 2009 on the production of A Light In KL City.
“My experience working with Rey has been educational, enriching, and completely professional. He has been nothing but avuncular to me and I consider him one of the best teachers I have ever worked with,” the 26-year-old Wong was quoted as saying.
Theatre studies
Meanwhile, Buono had also taught at three local institutions here, namely Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) from 1997 to 2002, Sunway University College (2002-2006) and Taylor’s University (2011-2012).
The allegations of his sexual misconduct at the Milton Academy in Boston came as a shock to the university staff.
A spokesperson for UPM said Buono taught theatre studies in the university.
“I spoke to our staff members in the department and the then head of department. According to them, we never received any complaints from the students about him.
“Of course, we did not know details of his background, only his academic particulars,” UPM corporate strategy and communications office director Prof Nor Kamarian Nordin told The Star.
Taylor’s University said Buono was found to have been a good co-worker by his colleagues and that no report of misconduct was reported during his tenure at the university.
“We were not aware of the reported misconduct (in the US) and are shocked to learn about it,” the varsity said in the statement.
Elizabeth Lee, the senior executive director of Sunway Education Group and Sunway University, questioned if the Rey Buono who taught in local universities was the same man who is alleged to have commmited sexual misconduct in the US.
“We need to be sure that this is the same Rey Buono who was with Sunway University from 2003 to 2006.
“Our Rey Buono was very high profile. How do we know he is the same one mentioned in the US reports?
“It seems like two different persons, the Rey who worked in Boston and the Rey who worked at Sunway,” she told The Star, adding that Buono came highly recommended by then UPM vice-chancellor Syed Jalaludin Syed Salim and the Singapore education ministry.
Lee also said the university conducts background checks on everyone it employed.
“We even go to the extent of carrying out police checks if needed. We take all of our student complaints about staff seriously and investigate them.
“I checked with the staff who worked with him then and those with us now and found no student complaints were ever received about him,” she was quoted as saying by the daily.