「中國皇后號」 Less than two weeks to go!

Less than two weeks to go.

We, the family at the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, have been working hard on the new bilingual play 中國皇后號 for almost five weeks. During this time, my wife and I personally suffered a loss in the family with the passing of Beethoven; another actress in the group spent several days visiting her grandfather in the hospital; and yet another actress sadly lost her father just this morning.

Despite the losses and emotional hits, we have all continued to work hard on the play, which has presented us with multiple challenges due to its unique structure, something I think audiences will find very interesting.

It's great to be working with so many talented people including members of the HKREP, caucasian actors living locally in Hong Kong, and of course those wonderful actors from New York. Everyone is talented and dedicated to being the best they can irrespective of their role in the play. I was especially delighted by the local Caucasian actors. One, of Irish decent, speaks fluent Spanish (one of the languages I'm learning) is excellent with accents and quite a character to be around. Another is a professional voice actor and can readily produce multiple voices all of great quality. Yet another is simply a fun guy to be around and to watch on stage. And every one of the Caucasian actors; both local and from New York; have incredible voices, voices that will ring free through the City Hall theatre when we perform there from January 15.

But the most interesting person in the group is definitely the director. Sister Joanna 陳尹瑩 is intelligent, demanding, experienced and gracious. She is knowledgeable in many things including so many things not related to the stage. It has been an honour to work with her, and I mean this from my heart. She's a very special lady.

More later. I need to shower and sleep now so that I can continue to work hard refining my bilingual role in " The Empress of China" tomorrow ;-)

Friendly reminder. Tickets are available now from all Urbtix outlets.