New Feature- Artist of the Month

We at HKarts want to know more about the pieces that make our community so great! If you like to be featured as a local artist of the month please let me know. All styles and mediums welcome. (Even performance artists... Yeah, I said it.)

If you are selected as an artist of the month, please fill out the questionare below and PM it back to me with an avant guarde self portrait.
-Meaghan

Questions
1. Name, Birthplace, Age
2. How does where you were raised affect your work?
3. Where did you train?
4. What is your favorite style of (insert appropriate medium here)? Why?
5. What was the best show you EVER saw?
6. What was the best show in HK you EVER saw? (You cannot say your own.)
7.What piece of work are you the most proud of? (please include photo, if possible)
8. What is your process like?
9. What is your dream project?
10. If you could change one thing about the art scene in HK, what would it be?

Why Local is Better than Tours

When you go grocery shopping you are encouraged to buy local as it is better for the environment. It should be the same for art. Local art is greener because we don't have to fly the entire cast and crew in from god knows where to only fly them out a week later. It's not that I'm against tours completely, I have been known to book out 10 events at HKart fest. I just think that we as a community should always try and buy local before buying tour tickets.

Also, if you look at the homepage of Timeout HK, ten shows are featured as editor's picks. 8 of them are tours. How do they know the touring show is better than the local one man show? They don't. They haven't seen it and they may have seen youtube clips (of the famous world premiere cast), but other than that they have no way to judge the quality of the tour. 

Review- Coffee and Cigarettes- Aurora Theatre

 *This post is written by Guest Blogger and Reviewer, Becky Proudfoot. Only the typos and not the content have been changed by the editor, Meaghan McGurgan*

“Coffee and cigarettes – a series of short plays united by two common pleasures”  – exactly what it says on the tin.

Playwrights wanted!

10 Playwrights wanted for world premiere 10 minute play festival called "I "Heart" Hong Kong"

Must write a ten minute play about the experience of living/experiencing Hong Kong.
In the same vein as Paris J'Taime or New York, I love You the work is to be overall positive and talk about things we love about our fair city. (But don't make them fluffy, just because something is positive doesn't mean it ignores important issues.) Ten minute dance pieces/performance art are welcome but some visual representation must be submitted for proposal.

Review- I love you, you're perfect, now change! Hong Kong Singers

There are scripts in this world that cannot be ruined unless you butcher them. I love you, you're perfect is one of the most hilarious musicals to be written recently and is very loved by the theatre community. For it's accurate and yet hysterical view of men, women and love. Hong Kong Singers chose this as their next show, after producing big budget shows like Oliver and Millie in recent years I give them credit for going back to simplicity. It really showed a different side of them and was a nice showcase of good quality acting and singing in Hong Kong.

Directed by Wendy Herbert she took a really simple approach to directing the piece which I think was excellent. It was beautifully staged and I really enjoyed the black/white grey concept to the show. The pops of red that would show up occasionally were nice highlights to specific moments. Thanks to Marion McDonald for wearing the red lacy number. You made my night girl!

The cast was very talented, genuine, believable and most of all likable! We were rooting them on in all their situations and they seamless changed characters throughout the night. Serious props to the Matthews. (Both of them.) Matthew Gillespie's, The Tear Jerker and Matthew Collingwood's Baby's Parent's numbers were two of the best of the night.

Overall, I believe that the women were better singers but the men were really good at the acting side of things. I enjoyed the various shapes, sizes and ethnicity in the casting. I didn't quite understand why there was a cast of 7. Typically, I love you is done with a cast of 6. I thought maybe it had something to do with the availability of the actor's for rehearsals as one of the actors (Paul Hay) seemed to be in significantly less numbers than the rest of the cast.

Technically it was a good show. There were a few complaints from audience members about the speakers being too loud. Most of the audience members were older than 40 I would like to point out. All of us that own ipods were like, yeah!, crank it up bitches!!!!!
My only technical qualm was Daniel Cheong's makeup. It was signicantly heavier than the rest of the casts and his lips looked super feminine. He should have gone with a lighter color or something a little less shiny. An easy mistake to make, it's a small theatre space and you have to have a gentle hand with the blush brush.

Overall a great show! So happy I got a ticket as the thing sold out super fast! If you have a chance to steals someone's ticket for tonight or go to the bonus performance in DB you should. It's a great show with really talented people who were obviously working up a sweat on stage!
Grade- A+
(Great script, great actors, simple and not over fussed with. Perfection~!)

Review- The Bridge (El Puente)- Stylus Theatre

"Surprisingly Real"- Andrea, 17

"I think I'm too hung over for this play..."- Anonymous Expat

The Bridge is the English premiere of Spanish poet, Jose Sevilla. He has lived in Hong Kong for several years but still loves to write about his homeland. The Bridge was his first foray into the playwriting world, it was first scene in Spanish at the Teatro Sala Muntaner Festival in 2000. I was told in college by a very wise professor that as an artist you need to see one play, see one movie or read a book every month or you're going to become a bad artist. I have not had the opportunity to see Spanish Theatre before. (Zorro does NOT count, sadly.) Spanish theatre is pretty much overlooked in the American Education system: we are taught about Lorca, Arebal and the almighty, Lope de Vega. But otherwise it's ignored. (Which I don't think is really fair, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the readability of credible translations in English.)