WTF are you thinking HK Arts Festival?!!!

This is my official response on this. Early Bird Bookings are a necissity for HK Arts Festival but anyone can tell you it's a serious pain in the ass to do it. You have to coordinate with your friends about what they want to see. One of you gets stuck paying for it on your credit card and you have to wait for the person to give you the money. On top of everything you never know if you're getting the first or second choice in seating. ANNOYING but it was a system that worked. And it's how I secured my Juliet Binoche tickets, my Pina Bausche tickets and my Robert Wilson tickets in previous years.

Now, some "genius" at the HK Arts Festival decided to make the Early Bird Bookings in releases. You only a certain number of programs available at a time to purchase. You're not going to have the whole catalog available until after the counters open. Which means all your abilities to do discounts for large ticket purchases are going to be impossible. Apparently, they don't want me seeing 15 shows again...

Our first release opened today and we have access to three of the programs.
None that I am excited about... So, I guess I'm sitting on my ass waiting until someone decides to let the other shows come available for sale...

Thanks HK Arts Festival! This was your best idea-yet.
Well besides having a HK Arts Festival with 70% of the performing groups being from other countries...

http://www.hk.artsfestival.org/en/book/early-bird

Social Media as a Viable Tool in the Theatrical Arts

Recently I did about 35 job interviews for positions back in the states. They were for various positions in companies from Artistic Director to Community Outreach to Teaching Positions at Universities. One common question was asked in all the interviews. "Do you have experience in using social media and the inter-web in promoting theatre?"
This is the first time I had been asked this question sooooo many times in interviews. But it makes me think about how the landscape of theatrical advertising and outreach is changing in our modern era. In the "olden days" all one had was the three basics: 1) word of mouth 2) print 3) radio and tv

Now, we have so many more ways of reaching an audience. We can reach them through mailing lists, twitter, facebook, pinterest, klout, flashmobs, viral videos, street art, as well as any of the traditional methods. It's great because we can reach such a more diverse audience then we ever could before. Our reach can be global in 2 seconds by making a youtube ad, for example. But, when the human attention span is getting shorter and shorter; which is the best method of getting a hold of new audience members and more importantly... keeping them?

Marketing is an essential part of the theatrical arts. If tickets aren't sold- then the show can't go on. I went back in my mind and started thinking about past campaigns I had worked on and seen in Hong Kong and why they worked.

Artist of the Month- July- Lara Genovese

This month's artist was recently voted Best Designer by the public! She also recently appeared as an actress in Filumenia presented by the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Stylus Theatre and Talking With presented by Aurora Theatre. She is a multi-talented theatrical artist and a very nice person. We respect Lara's talent and love her go getter personality! If you need a hard to find prop in town or if you need a set built she is the girl to go to. I love working with artists who are very dedicated to their crafts and Lara is certainly very dedicated to her work. She is a complete pleasure to work with and a true professional from my small experiences with her. I hope to have more in the future.

Please enjoy getting to know a little more about Lara, her opinions on the Hong Kong art scene and the biz.

Please remember you can always nominate a friend for an Artist of the Month article. We are always looking to showcase new talent in town of any medium!

Review- Filumena- Italian Chamber of Commerce and Stylus Theatre

"Children are children"- Eduardo Filippo

This is by far the most memorable line in the show and one of the overall themes of the play. We are all equal. We are all children at one point in our lives. We are all the same and should be judged the same. Filippo's play also explores meanings of motherhood, respectability, and what is the family unit. When the family is such an iconic thing in the Italian culture Filippo explores the non-traditional family with a mother who takes care of a children from a far and a woman who was raised in a family that hated her.

Filippo's play, Filumena was one of two Italian plays that hit the Hong Kong stage this weekend. It was produced by the Italian Chamber of Commerce in partner with Stylus Theatre. Directed and Designed by Adam Harris. I came to the theatre expecting a barrel of laughs, as when I studied Filippo in college I had come to believe that Filippo was a satirist but I left the theatre I was a bit puzzled to say the least...

Review- Accidental Death of an Anarchist 個無政府主義者的意外死亡- FM Theatre Power

There is certainly a plethora of Italian theatre in Hong Kong this weekend. Audiences have a choice of Filumena presented by The Italian Chamber of Commerce and Stylus Theatre or they could attend FM Theatre Power's production of Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo. Surprisingly both going down in the HK Arts Center in Wanchai!

Mo from FM Theatre Power was kind enough to translate the program for me and give me some background info on their rehearsal process before I came. Many thanks! I'm a big fan of their work since I saw Kitty Hunter last year. (It was the their some what controversial production where the murderer stuffed severed heads of prostitutes into Hello Kitty stuffed animals...) Because that's what HK serial killers do, la!

My first #TDHK

My first #TDHK was an interesting experience to say the least. #TDHK is an event in Hong Kong started by @jmis and @hypercasey to put faces with the twitter accounts in Hong Kong we follow daily for our chuckles. If anyone has not delighted upon #hkproblems please have a search for it. It says everything you've wanted to say but never say allowed. Many thanks to @AndreMartin for offering to have a coffee with me the next time I'm out at the Y2 in Chai Wan and to @jdalarose for buying a girl a drink! Thanks to @hypercasey for inviting me to be the representative of the art community! It's nice to be surrounded by a bunch of financiers... They smell very nice! (Not that you thespians stink...)

What was most interesting about this event was that when I mentioned to people my occupation of Theatre Director it was a rather mixed reaction of "Really? That's cool!" or "There's a theatre scene in Hong Kong?" I guess because my life is so absorbed in theatre every single day that I didn't realize there are hundreds or thousands of expats that never even hear about the productions we put on. One person had lived here SEVEN years and NEVER seen a theatrical event because he thought they were all in Cantonese or tours! WTF?!!! He had never heard of any of the local performing groups which was a bit shocking to me.

I got a bunch of new twitter followers last night so I hope this will help diversify our audience a little bit. Because Hong Kong has a lot to offer in the terms of theatre. There is a production of some type on every single weekend. You just need to look. Or twitter peeps, feel free to ask me! I'm happy to point you in the right direction.

Follow me for all my blog updates @mmcgurgan

Shameless Plug as always...

HK Arts Awards 2011-2012 THE WINNERS!

Thanks to everyone for all their support during this project! It's been an enlightening experiment.
Congratulations to all the winners. If you were not present at the awards ceremony I have a little something for you as an award. If anyone tonight picked up an award "in honor" of an absentee please pass it onto them. They were not expensive but they were made with love.

I hope you had fun! I know I did!