Sunday 1 June 2008

Fang-Yi


We have received the flyers for Auntie. The choice was to graphically present the play like a Japanese manga. Tickets sales have started already. The company has had one of a show broadcasted on TV recently and their latest production, Ciao, Ci Chao is nominated this year at some theatre award. The audience is now very curious about this 'hyperbody' musical - I like the word...
We are all working very hard. Yu-Gou is penning the lyrics and meets a great challenge in my music, for the musical intonations, the phrasing, the melodic lines are unusual to him. But he seems to enjoy that. He regularly comes to me to check about a turn of phrase, or sing me a line, then goes back to his desk, while I show him the drafts of such and such song. We have reached some kind of climax in our creative process. Everyone is excited. Lili, the actress who plays the mother loves her songs. The viola player is discovering what is to be sung on what she has recorded. Dorian is finishing costume after costume and the dancers urge me to come up with more music so they can train and new ideas keep storming in and out of my head. This second and last month will be quite intense for everyone.
I met Fang-Yi for the third time yesterday. I brought ChingYao with me. He was so excited when he heard that I was in touch with her and that we were about to collaborate together. It was handy to have him with me, for he found the meeting place immediately. Since the occasion was also to meet a lady from the Taipei Festival, I thought it’d would be a good excuse to introduce him to them, since he is a singer.
On the first time, Fang-Yi was friendly, yet quite reserved. That was comprehensible for we didn’t know each other. On the second time, we were both more relaxed, and were munching organic burgers at a Mos Burger restaurant in Danshui. Bularey, her partner was also present. I joked a lot as they were warming up to me. On the third appointment yesterday, they kept teasing me incessantly. They had seen the DVD of NINA that I gave them and listened to some of my work: PLAY 2 PLAY, Nina‘s Hidden Glass, Reminiscence and a few songs from Circlesong. Obviously, my work with Jo has impressed them, and FangYi loved NINA.
On my side, I watched the two DVD they handed me last time: Fang-Yi’s last show, and a digest of Bula’s choreographic works including what he did for Cloud Gate.
We are now impatient to find a first project, even if it isn’t with Jo. Fang-Yi’s schedule is fully booked until the summer of 2009, so she isn’t likely to work with him straight away. Now that they know about my wish to settle in Taiwan, they want to connect me to the right people, so I can find a proper and interesting job that will allow me to stay with a working permit. The meeting was a short but highly pleasurable one.

No comments:

Post a Comment