Sentimental Actress @ Muse, Part Three

彭浩翔(Pang Ho-cheung), who initiated the Isabella movie project, also regards Kearen Pang as a good creative partner, particularly for her enthusiasm and perseverance. He also praises her decision-making ability: “She’s more mature than most people her age – or, to put it in another way, she’s rather婆仔(old womanly).” He says that whether she is deciding to move house or buy a car, she is spontaneous, yet not governed by impulse.

Asked what he finds distinctive about her, he pauses for a moment. “To me personally, it is that she looks exactly like my mum – which is quite scary.” He and Pang are not related, though the fact that they share a surname has led to misunderstandings. In the early days of filling on Isabella, she repeatedly failed to show up on set at the right time. As the director, Pang Ho-cheung was a little annoyed and asked his assistants to explain her absence. It turned out that they had not issued Pang with call sheets as they assumed she was his sister and that he would simply tell her about the schedule. “They thought it was weird that we didn’t communicate with each other,” says Pang Ho-cheung. “Eventually, they realized we weren’t brother and sister.”

The assistants’ mistake is not unreasonable. Not only do they share a family name and bear a slight resemblance, but the two Pangs do make convincing siblings in terms of working styles. Before the writing of Isabella commenced, the “brother” devoted plenty of time to conversing with his “sister”. “Instead of getting down to the story straight away,” he says , “It’s my habit to start with random chitchats, deriving inspiration from everyday life.”

聰明的女人看不起花瓶，可是若有機會在舞台上扮「索女」的角色，沒有多少個可抵得住誘惑

Pang Ho-cheung says that the most difficult aspect of working with Pang is her packed schedule. Her success has left her with barely a minute to herself, which could be hazardous to the creative mind. But Pang does take the time to recharge her batteries. In the one-month interval between the end of Laugh Me to the Moon and the rehearsals for her next show, she took a few days out to enjoy a holiday in Bangkok with Yan and another designer. All they did was relax, eat and shop.

She also travelled to New Zealand last October, when she and friends drove from the east to the west coast: “The roads were四野無人 (deserted wilderness) – it was extraordinarily quite. And you could imagine a camera lens in the sky, capturing a car moving like a tiny spot … Those places are so huge that you see no end to them, and everywhere is flatland and mountains. Those places are just so pretty, so very pretty.”

Pang lives in the green countryside of西貢(Sai Kung). “I enjoy staying at home – it’s very country, very comfy.” “Home is her favorite place to hang out, and she loves walking her golden retriever Disa through the hills. Even more than its landscape, Sai Kung’s atmosphere appeals to her: In her previous apartment, also in Sai Kung, she and her neighbors were so close that they were like one family. “My old neighborhood was very friendly,” she reminisces.

“The event that I felt most deeply in 2009 was moving house – I never expected to have built up so much love in a place.” Her old neighbors are still asking when she will return for a meal. The village she has moved into is smaller and more remote, and she is growing fond of it too. She describes the “beautiful picture” outside her windows: “There’s grass near our house where the father and three sons from the expat family downstairs play rugby – it feels so warm.”

Pang looks back on her schooldays at St. Mary’s Canossian College fondly. She and黃君儀(Disaree Wong) have been best friends since secondary school. They belonged to an energetic group of nine, whose high spirits often landed them in hot water with the teachers at their traditional girls’ school. “We were always the ones who stirred things up. Good or bad, some teachers liked us because we made life less boring, but others found us naughty,” says Wong.

She gives an example that seems to exhibit more creativity than mischief: “In English literature class, say there’s a poem on wind which goes like “when we blow, blow blow.” Kearen and I would have some fun by creating sounds that mimic the wind, adding more animated effects to the class itself.” Pang incorporated some of her school memories into Laugh Me to the Moon. In one scene, students are meant to be taking dictation, but what they are actually writing in their books are pop song lyrics. The perfect then collects the books from the students and rewrites the right answers for them. Pang says this really happened in one of her classes.

Pang and Wong have remained best friends despite the different paths their lives have taken. One is business woman and mother, the other a stage actress without family ties, yet they remain best mates who, in Wong’s words,「心照不宣」(have a tacit understanding) and they still see each other about once a month. The “naughty” group from school also get together regularly. They still gather for birthday meals even though it’s been over a decade since graduation. “We have this tradition of having the birthday star treat everyone else,” Wong says. “There’re eight of us [the ninth member of the group now lives in Shanghai], meaning we have eight birthday in a year.”

Wong has seen her friend’s character shaped by the theatre, Having founded her own theatre company, Pang appears more independent and tougher than the playful girl she once knew. “As an employee, if I don’t work my boss will tell me to. Pang has no boss to urge her to work, yet she has a really strong drive to do everything.” She fells Pang has become a leader who is able to direct others.

However, what she admires most is how Pang is able to reflect on life and incorporate her reflections into her work. “I’ve always said you’re really cool. How is it possible for you to reflect so much on life?”

So, what is it that most moves Kearen Pang? According to Pang Ho-cheung, during those chats prior to Isabella, she became most expressive when talking about emotional pain she had experienced in love. This aura of wistfulness is a common trait she shares with her characters.

Her decision to leave Chung Ying in 2003 was prompted by a question that made her think about her life. She was asked: “Of all the plays you have acted in, is there one that has stood out for the impact it has had on your life?” Impact, to Pang, means revealing the emotions deep in her heart. She needs an outlet to express her feelings, and she is eager to share her dreams with others, to let people experience her highs and lows.

The question about impact made her realize she wanted to produce works that reveal her own emotions. Being an actress, director and playwright simultaneously has enable her to share her passions and observations with a wider audience. “A lot of people asked me which of my works have had the most impact on my life, but I have to reply they all have; they are all my creations,” she says.

Every aspect of Pang’s plays – from staging to music to monologues – is a consolidation of her own emotions, memories, life experiences and artistic determination. She has immersed herself in theater, creating plays that touch audiences’ hearts by being uniquely “her.” People instantly know “That’s a Kearen Pang Production.”

Joanna Law is an adventurer and enjoys talking to strangers. She has a degree in English from the Santa Clara University in California and received her Masters in Journalism from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Phoebe Poon is completing her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Hong Kong with a double major in English studies and history. Having “manoeuvred” in a creative writing workshop for a year, she was enticed into the writers’, world. At home, she splits her time among books, paper and the piano while dreaming about strolling in the woods.

(Part 3/3)