Before 30 Bucket List: The Challenge Begins!

On August 15th, 2014 I'll be turning the big 3-0. For some people this is scary. I remember there was this episode of Friends I saw as a teen where Joey was crying into a sad birthday cake screaming "We had a deal!" at the sky. For some people 30 is a revolutionary age, I think the Sex and the City factor had a lot to do with this. For me, age is just a number but 30 is a pretty significant number.

Since I turned 20, I've accomplished a lot in my life. I graduated college, and my Masters, I had my first paying job, I moved abroad, I had my first messy breakup, had my first drink, (at the legal age of 21, like a good girl), made new friends, dumped some bad ones, made a lot of good art, made some not so good art, explored the world and myself.

Shakespeare in the Port is coming!

We only have two weeks left until the Shakespeare festival is open! Yea!

Shakespeare in the Port is Hong Kong's first outdoor theatre festival. We're dedicated to exposing to kids to the arts in a fun, casual atmosphere. We are created by the artists of Hong Kong for the people of Hong Kong. When I started the festival 4 years ago, people were telling me the only way it would be successful was if I brought in fancy tours from England.

I call BS.

We received a small grant to help cover our production costs but a majority of our funding came from crowdfunding. That's right, our funding came from the people. This proves that our community is passionate about bringing a home grown, outdoor festival to Hong Kong.

Our two mainstage shows are The Taming of the Shrew and The Tragedy of Miss Julius Caesar. We also have special events on Easter Sunday, Shakespeare's Birthday Party and an Open Cast Party on May 4th. 

Here's our youtube promo for the festival.


Tickets can be purchased through Ticketflap.
You can find more information at our official website, www.hongkongshakes.com

Crowdfunding for Shakespeare Fest!

We launched a crowdfunding campaign for Shakespeare in the Port.

Shakespeare in the Port is a simple vision of bringing affordable, accessible Shakespeare to the public of Hong Kong. Oftentimes people think of Shakespeare as boring or too expensive to attend. We wish to break down these barriers and create an artistic experience that people of all ages can enjoy. 

We wish to create a theatre festival that is locally produced by the Hong Kong art community and inclusive to people of all backgrounds. Ticket prices will be affordable and the performance space will be handicap accessible.

Please help us spread the word. If everyone who sees our Fringe Backer donates 5HKD or .62USD we'll have the funding we need in less than a day!

http://www.fringebacker.com/en/projects/Shakespeare_in_the_Port/

Every dollar helps us make our dream come true of an accessible, affordable Shakespeare festival created by the artists of Hong Kong. All kids can enter the festival for free! I'm happy to answer any questions about the festival.

You can also find out more about the festival via our facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/hongkongshakes

Shakespeare in the Port Auditions!!!!

Most of you are hooked into my other blog and social media channels but just in case you aren't here's a reminder that Shakespeare in the Port auditions are tonight and next Sunday!!!!

YEA!

Anybody can audition. No matter how tall, what age or what language you speak. We need tons of actors to be involved with the festival and BONUS you all get paid a stipend for your time.

Reservations for auditions are preferred. (That way we know you're coming...) But if not walk-ins are totes welcome. We also will have monologues on hand in case you don't have anything in your rep to pull out.  If you're out of town but still want to be involved with the festival we can arrange private auditions or you can submit your monologue via youtube!

Upcoming... Men on the Edge and Bun in the Oven

Two upcoming productions in Hong Kong. One by me and one by Stylus Productions.

Shakespeare in the Port

Dear Blogger Friends,

I'm happy to announce that I'll be working on HK's first ever outdoor theatre festival dedicated to promoting the work of William Shakespeare! *applause applause*

This would not have been possible without the fabulous support of the amazing people at Cyberport who believed in my dream of an affordable, accessible Shakespeare festival in HK. I've had this idea for about four years in HK and finally someone was nice enough to sit down with me and listen to my concept.

Here's the link to the festival website. http://www.hongkongshakes.com

You can also find us on twitter and facebook.

We are currently accepting submissions from local HK artists for the festival. Please email me at meaghan@hongkongshakes.com to receive a packet.

And the Nominees Are...

The public has voted and chosen the best of the best for the 2012-2013 season! Don't shoot the messenger. Each category has 5 nominees based on the highest number of votes.The nominees appear on the ballot in random order.

We had a tie in the Directing category, so we have 6 nominees in this category.

For acting awards where nominees were nominated for multiple shows, they were nominated for the show with the most votes.

Show names have been removed from the Stage Management category as many of the nominees have worked and been nominated for 3 or more productions they have worked on in the past year and we thought it easier to simply list their names.

To get access to the ballot to vote you need to enter your email into the box on the original post about the awards. It will sent to your email address to assure that the vote is fair.

Heckler Awards

If you liked my awards on my blog last year then you'll be happy to know that my new online zine will be hosting them and making them bigger and better!

These awards are to celebrate local artists in Hong Kong that create theatre and dance. No tours allowed! Nominations begin June 15th and the ceremony will be on September 3rd at Bisous!

Here's the link to the open nomination ballot:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9J56KFX

You can nominate up to 5 persons/shows in each category.

To find out more about the awards and the categories, I recommend you go to my new blog and check out the post that has all the details and has the sign up for where you can get your final ballot.

You can also sign up for the newsletter there. We'll be sending out the invites for the awards party through our mailing list, so make sure you sign up!

http://www.hkeld.com/articles/view/the-20122013-hecklers

New #HKproblems video

We filmed a new video for hkproblems version 2.0

If you missed our first one, it just recently got 12,000 hits on youtube!

#HKproblems_theplay

#HKproblems_theplay
May 5th, 8pm
Doors open at 7:30
Tickets are 200HKD (Discount for groups of 6+)
18+ Adult content.

I have the second run of my original play #HKproblems_theplay happening next Sunday at Grappa's. I would really love it if some of my blogger buddies came and showed their support to the local art scene. I'm paying the actors and the crew, so every ticket counts!

Grappa's Cellar is pretty big and can hold up to 200 people so no need to worry about selling out. Come out and see us! If you want to call in advance and book a nice table right in front you can call 2521-2322 

Here's the press release for the show. We basically were fans of the #hkproblems twitter feed and thought this is fabulous material for a show, someone should do one. Then we thought on it some more... Why can't we write a show about it? 2 weeks later we had a script. In 2 months we had the play rehearsed and we produced our world premiere at Beating Heart. Craig was super supportive of us and I was very grateful to him to giving our dog and pony show a home.

We had reviews come out for the show. See one here.

We had people love us. We had people hate us. Some people called our show, "An Abomination." Others called it,"the best show I've ever seen in Hong Kong".

For the second run we're going to make it bigger and better. We're filming a new youtube segment. We were surprised and shocked to find our video from the first production just recently had 6,000 hits on youtube. 

I hope to see you all there. I promise it'll be better than the inflatable dog shit statue at the WKAD.

Find out even more about the show and the people working on it at our official website!

Review- Featuring Loretta- Dramatic English

Peter Brook states in his book, An Empty Space, that all one needs to produce theatre is "an empty space, an actor to walk across it, and someone to watch him." Dramatic English's production of Featuring Loretta starring: Aisling McDonnell, Daniel Levia, Michael Rogers and Shirley Sheung went back to basics and put together a show with ZERO budget to present to audience's for FREE! In their program notes, the cast writes: "You don't need anything beyond a script and a few good friends..." Amen!

Review- ODD Showcase- ODD

Most of the time when you see a show in Hong Kong you grumble about the ticket prices. This was certainly not the case tonight. Tonight I got to see a great FREE piece of NEW theatre created by local artists that was better than a lot of the stuff I've paid over 200 bucks to see. New theatre should always be celebrated because it's difficult to create from nothing. I give serious credit to the ODD Group for the hard work they put into the show tonight. Sure, I didn't like all of the pieces but I thought all of them came from valid places and were entertaining.

80 Days Around the World- Week Two

Week two has been a relative success! We had a few snafoos in our original plan/budget with the Gaga ticket escapade but thankfully have been able to sort things out. It has been a relatively slow week for eating but we were able to mark off a few more countries! For Vietnam, Matt went to one of our favorite places the Bao Bao King in Jordan. They have cheap but good food and options for both the meat eaters and vegetarians in our group. Friendly staff and FYI, ask for the secret sandwhich menu.

On Monday we had German food at a resteraunt called the Berliner. We ate at the one in Olympic. I would recommend lunch time for this place as it is pricey but the food was good and you get large portions. LOVED the dessert that came with our lunch set! Scotland was handled by the Canny Man in Wanchai. Good selection including a vegetarian haggis. Very warm and comfy bar. They also are a big supporter of local theatre. Support a restaurant that supports local artists! The salmon is REALLY good!

We had brunch at Lotus. The food was ok and the service ok. I did not enjoy my laksa as it was not laksa; more like spaghetti with chili pepper sauce. There was no broth and everyone knows the best part of laksa is the broth! Matt loved his Eggs Nordic!

Matty also took a couple other establishments off the list with a visit to Dimpal Fusion in Jordan to mark off Middle Eastern. They have good food but terrible service. Food had to sent back and by the time it was ready he had to take it to go! We recommend this place for off hours rather than the lunch rush. Also, be careful with special requests. This place gave me peanuts once in my food despite being told to keep them away and often messes up orders. He also went to Cafe Bistro which is a tiny Christian establishment in Jordan with two locations. Ran by very nice people the food is getting better. They had great food when they first opened but had an unfortunate chef switch a couple months ago. Their food is now back on track although it leaves something to be desired in the veggie category. The infamous cum baby picture can only be seen at the Shanghai St. branch on the 2nd floor.

With 65 days left and a lot more countries to hit we have a lot more work to do! If you have any restaurant recommendations leave it in the comments!