Hofan's recent doings

2008.09: 《這一半那一半》 Half & Half

2008-09-07T11:07:00.003+08:00

一班人，隨緣而相聚，與《流浪》、《共舞》的作者一同用身體探索半杯水的意義，爆發一小時的身體能量。 Inspired by Jeff Ong's biographical writings "Wandering in France with Leukemia" and "Dancing with Mary and Blood Cancer", members of Kongtact Square reflect upon experiencing life at its brink.

Kongtact Square 製作
6.9.2008 (星期六Sat) 5:30pm & 8:00pm

即興演出 Improvisers：
Force、Cyrus Hui、天明、Sally Chow、David Leung、Elaine Kwok、Gary Lee、Carfield Li、Jeff、可凡、丸仔
現場音樂及作曲 Live music and composition：
Hin-yan
音樂編輯 Music editing：天明
概念 Concept： Force、Sally Chow、可凡、天明、Cyrus Hui
監製 Producer： Force

一位患有血癌的作者，由《帶著血癌到法國流浪》開始，到《帶著血癌與瑪麗共舞》。無意地告訴了我們，面對生命的大限，除了要笑，也只有記得笑。
「法國」和「瑪麗」都是醫院的名稱，好與壞，實在在乎自己怎樣演繹。

情形就好像一杯半滿的水，這些人嫌棄失去了一半，那些人感激積累了一半。

你在橋上看風景，橋下的人在看你。

不同的世界，不同的夢想。

2008.07: The Pearl Sea Project

2008-07-25T10:57:00.001+08:00

Dancer for a month-long choreography project with New York choreographer Robert Wood and company: 25 July, Ac Hall / HK Baptist University.

It was great to be dancing again, and be directed after a year of being directed.
> Journal entries: Part I | Part II | Part III

2008.04: 石屎森林 Concrete Jungle Berzerk!

2008-05-08T09:22:00.002+08:00

After the work-in-progress showing, Dan flew home, and the project cast three new actors and came to its conclusion in 3 nights of (full house) performance at the Fringe Theatre in Central.

> official homepage for the show (with photos)
> see a video clip of the show

A Burnt Mango Dance Theatre production
Fringe Theatre 藝穗會劇院 - 2008.4.18-19 (五、六) 8pm

Director 導演 : Hofan Chau (周可凡),
with the assistance of Daniel Finkel
Music Director 音樂創作 : Hin-yan Wong (黄衍仁)
Actors / co-creators 創作演員 :
Haruka Ashida, Josephine Chai (齊釨湮) ,
Victor d'Aqunio ( 杜維德 ), Wynne Lee (李穎兒),
Walter Leung (梁遠光), Ken Wong (黃敬容),
Cici Wong (黃亭陶) & Adrian Yeung (楊振業)

2007.09-10: Liminal workshop

2007-10-11T09:40:00.001+08:00

For a month (Sept 10-Oct 10) Hofan took a course at the Cattle Depot with Liminal Theatre, which cumulated with some showings of Seneca's Oedipus by Ted Hughes

> Liminal training workshop
> 學員訪談分享紀錄

Hofan's blog entries on the workshop:
> Day One | Day Five | Day Six to Ten | Day Twenty | Day Twenty-Two

2007.09: Kongtact Square performance

2007-09-10T11:25:00.001+08:00

9th September, CCDC Dance Center.
A relatively relaxed performance with Hong Kong's Contact Improvisation group. Hofan took the opportunity to experiment with a duet and a chorus of five.

> Kongtact Square's website

2007.01-02: Return to the Overcoat

2007-01-19T05:48:00.007+08:00

Q: How do you feel about returning to play in the Overcoat with Theatre du Pif after a two year gap. Do you sense any difference in your performance after two years of study in Paris/London?

H: It's fun to return to (yet another) rerun of the same play, because it gives me a point of comparison. In rehearsal, the thing that struck me the most was how large a range one has to interpret each line... how each line can be flexed and thrown in many different ways to convey different nuances of emotion. I don’t think I was aware of this range two years ago.

I also have a much deeper respect for the construction of the play. It's a really well constructed piece, and now I can appreciate it in a way that I wasn't completely aware of before. And because half of the cast is new, this time around I am aware of the different possibilities.

I did find myself itching in the earlier rehearsals to give my opinion about this and that to Bonni. I guess after two years of training you learn to be quite opinionated and think that you know a lot about "what makes a play work." In fact, in Lecoq if you don't speak up then you'll never get to create the piece you want because everything is group directed. However, here I am hired in a different relationship, and I need to respect the boundaries of this relationship. Because it is not so helpful sometimes for a director to get so many opinions from all directions; and I really trust Bonni's theatre sense. It may just be that she is thinking of something else at that particular moment; or that she wants to bring out a different quality. So my role is to work on my performance, and I give comments on the scenes that I'm involved in.

Right before rehearsals started I watched another production of Theatre du Pif's, "Nocturne Vista," based on the writings of Franz Kafka. I was struck by particular moments or particular gestures in that performance: Kar Fei's entry as the Boss, Sean's transformation into the cockcroach; Bonni's swallowing gesture as a vulture. Those sudden moments of clarity: when an actor's presence leaps across the gap and sears a mark in you as an audience member. And I was much inspired by that. I thought, that's what I need to practice as a performer.

And as I rehearse, I realise that it has very much to do with the sincerity of performance. As I am in so many scenes, there are no "good nights" or "bad nights" really any more; because every night there will be a scene, or even a line, that surprises me. And so it's become a matter of keeping myself open to be surprised. Because there are so many ways in which a line can be true. If a scene needs to be a bluish colour there are the possibilities in the palette from ultramarine to slate blue-grey. Mmm – how fun.

________________________

The Overcoat - Theatre du Pif
17-20 Jan, 2007: Fringe Club (HK) 8pm
8 -10 Feb, 2007: Drama Centre Black Box (Singapore), 8pm

2006.12-2007.03: 我家有個大門神

2006-12-04T05:44:00.001+08:00

After two and something months of puppet making, rehearsals, etc our show finally hit the road. Our first show was at Tze Wan Shan housing estate, between a shopping center and their football basketball pitches. Frankly, I was surprised at how magical the big puppets were to the children.

This show has a large audience participation component, in which the puppeteer team has 45 minutes to train a group of audience members in flag waving, a shield dance and puppet manipulation. So the bulk of my work in this show is less in performance and more in teaching the children or whoever shows up their moves.

In the end I got a strong sense that pull of this show is really not on the acting, singing or even the script. The crowd yesterday sat through basically two runs (dress and the actual performance) because they wanted to watch their child or neighbours in their community perform. And so kids tripped over their flags, the formations were a complete mess, but at the end of the day, none of that mattered. They were having fun.

Eleven more shows to go...

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我家有個大門神 "The Doorgods of my home"

(Sundays: 1pm audience participation, 3pm performance)
10/12/2006 葵芳邨羅馬廣場
17/12/2006 粉嶺華明邨露天劇場
07/01/2007 赤柱廣場
14/01/2007 香港文化中心廣場C區
21/01/2007 大埔中央廣場
28/01/2007 愛東邨露天廣場
25/02/2007 天頌苑露天廣場
11/02/2007 秀茂坪廣場
11/03/2007 西貢海濱公園
18/03/2007 沙田大會堂廣場
25/03/2007 屯門公園（屯門大會堂）

> more info on the shows