Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On

My Macau theater debut was a rousing success. At least in the sense that no one made any serious mistakes, everyone seemed to have a good time and no one got hurt.

We did three shows on the weekend – Friday to Sunday. I was originally expecting a matinee on Sunday, but apparently that's not the way they do things on the Portuguese side. Even though each show sold out, there are no current plans to extend the run. We had the theater for those nights only. Someone else will be in that space the rest of the week.

Maybe that's the best way to avoid papering the house. The longer the run, the more you need family and friends to boost attendance. If you are only there for a few nights, it is much easier to rely on the general public showing up.

From my point of view, I like the way we did things. There were few rehearsals, but everyone had other things to do. The actual performance itself took very little time out of our lives. The theater was big enough that it did not feel like we were staging in someone's living room, but small enough that no one was crippled with stage freight. Working with an actor who freezes on stage is never fun. It was all casual enough to make Shakespeare less stressful, but serious enough to do his words justice.

My one complaint was that it was all in Macau. I have nothing against Macau, but I live in Hong Kong. Most of the people involved, and probably most of the audience, live in Hong Kong. Right now, we have about four typhoons or soon to be typhoons swimming around the Pacific Ocean. None of them are ever going to hit Hong Kong, but they do affect the waters between Hong Kong and Macau. It is a quick ferry ride, but it feels longer when the waters are raging. Maybe next time we can do it on calm weather days.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

After very little rehearsal time, I'm making my Macau debut tomorrow. Everyone seems to know what they are doing. The sets have been built and the costumes are all fitted. All of the blocking is complete and the cast know their parts. I don't have the biggest part in the play, but I would have liked a little more rehearsal time.

Most of the rehearsals were in Hong Kong, which was convenient not only for me, but also for almost everyone else. At least 90% of the people involved live in Hong Kong. Dress rehearsals and the actual production are in Macau.

Getting from Hong Kong to Macau is pretty easy. The only problem is what you do once you get there. Hong Kong has one of the best mass transportation systems in the world. Even if I did not live close enough to the ferry terminal to walk, I would be able to get there easily from anywhere in the city. Once in Macau, most of us rely on taxis. The buses go all over the place, but I have never been on a Macau bus that was not standing room only, filthy and pungent. None of that gets any better in summer.

I'm not entirely nervous about tomorrow. I suppose I should be. I'm not really an actor. Most of my theater experience involves dancing and singing. The Tony Awards separate musical and play for a reason. If you wow them with your fancy footwork, most audiences will forgive a stiff line reading. With Shakespeare, there is nothing to lean on. Hardcore fans have the lines memorized before they even buy their ticket. If I'm dancing, I'm relatively certain that I know the choreography better than anyone in the audience. With Shakespeare, it is always possible to have people watching you who know your part better than you do.

At the same time, this is not New York or London. This is a small production in Macau that will never be mentioned in the New York Times. No one involved is diving in half assed, but none of us are counting on this play to make or break our careers. We all have other jobs that pay the bills.

Trippingly on the Tongue

I have been studying my script. It is not verbatim Shakespeare, but it stays relatively faithful to the original. The language is updated, which is probably a good idea since the audience is mostly Chinese. I have to assume that most people will have at least a working knowledge of common English, but I doubt everyone in the Chinese audience would be familiar with 16th century English.

The good news is that it is not completely modern. There is no, “Yo, what up, dawg?” It is simply easier to understand.

An example from Act I, Scene 2:

What you say is true. Since the little
wit that fools have was silenced, the foolishness
that wise men have makes a great show.

Rather than the original:

By my troth, thou sayest true; for since the little
wit that fools have was silenced, the little foolery
that wise men have makes a great show.

Wherein I'll Catch the Conscience of the King

I'm doing something a little different this summer. I will be playing Celia in a limited run of As You Like It. The rehearsals will be in Hong Kong, but the theater itself is in Macau. That's not much of an issue since it is so easy to get from one to the other. People who live in Los Angeles have longer commutes.

The biggest issue for me is that I have not read this play in about a hundred years. I don't really remember much about it, except that it is a comedy, which means it has a happy ending, and it is one of those plays where everyone takes on a thin disguise or alter ego. It also has Rosalind, one of Shakespeare's better female characters. But I'm not playing her.

I did not bother to read the play when I got the part because I need to concentrate on the adaptation we will be doing. When it comes to Shakespeare, different productions can be practically different plays. Reading the original might only confuse things when I read what we are doing. After I have my part down, I will probably look at the standard version and compare the differences.

For now, I need to memorize a few lines, which is pretty easy to do with Bill. He wrote some memorable stuff. Also, Celia is only in a handful of scenes.

Macau part 3

The legal age in Macau is 18, just like in Hong Kong. This means Ryan and I can drink all we want even though we are both still under 21. I’m not much of a drinker anyway, but I am not above a cocktail at dinner. In Hong Kong, being legal at 18 really only means you can drink when you’re under 21. In Macau, it means you can drink and gamble.

Our hotel had an average size casino. We played some of the slot machines and Ryan tried roulette. We mostly lost.

We also went across the street and tried out the Wynn and MGM. I don’t know much about gambling, so I mostly stayed with slot machines, but I tried out some strange Chinese numbers game that I still don’t understand – and walked away $10 richer.

Ryan tried out some of the more advanced games and played blackjack for over three hours at the Wynn. He walked away with about $500 dollars. We quickly spent most of that with an afternoon at their spa with massages and seaweed on our faces and then an expensive dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant. No one ever said we were especially good at gambling.

The Venetian is father away, on a different island, but it is an event in itself. Even if you don’t gamble, it’s worth a look.

We also went to the Sands, but it was a bit of a let down after the Venetian. I liked the Fisherman’s Wharf across the street much more than the casino.

Macau part 2

Another difference between Macau & Hong Kong is that Macau has pockets of empty streets. You really never see that in Hong Kong, where there are people everywhere.

Ryan is on a flashing kick lately, so he wanted to do it while we were somewhere less crowded than usual. I told him he could go first – and he did. So I took a few pictures of Ryan in various states of undress on deserted Macau streets. I don’t think I will be posting any here. Sorry.

He wanted to get completely naked at a Chinese temple, but I thought that would be too disrespectful. Streaking on an empty street is one thing, but we’re just visitors here. We shouldn’t completely piss off the locals.

I’m hoping this is the end of this little fantasy.

Macau part 1

I’ve always been told that Macau is like Hong Kong, for as long as I thought about going to Macau, at least. It’s really not.

Macau is a tiny city, smaller than Hong Kong Island, which itself is less than 10% of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is more than a city when you include Lantau, the New Territories and the outlying islands. Macau is just a city.

There’s also a big difference in their past. Macau’s Portuguese past is far more obvious than Hong Kong’s British past. There are old churches and Portuguese buildings everywhere. A lot of the city looks like it could be a European village, if you ignore all the Chinese people and signs. Hong Kong looks very much Chinese.

There’s also the big difference in gambling. Hong Kong has horse racing, which I’ve been told is taken very seriously by some of the locals. Macau has very serious gambling in billion dollar casinos. The Venetian is the largest casino in the world and looks just like the one in Las Vegas. There’s also an MGM, Wynn and Sands, along with a lot of Chinese companies. Hong Kong is bigger in every way, except gambling. That’s where Macau is all aces (or some other gambling idiom).

Macau Pictures 21

The main bridge between the north & south islands

Macau Pictures 20

I don’t know what this is supposed to be, but it’s next to the Miami street

Macau Pictures 19

This is the New Orleans street

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The main shopping area of Fisherman’s Wharf is supposed to look like various American cities

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Part of Fisherman’s Wharf is supposed to look like an ancient Roman village

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The Sands across the street from Fisherman’s Wharf, restaurants & shopping

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Mount Fortress
Built by the Portuguese in the 1600s

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A-Ma Temple
The largest Chinese temple in Macau
Built before the Portuguese came

Macau Pictures 13

Chapel of Our Lady of Penha

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Mainland China

Macau Pictures 11

Japan Town
Japanese restaurant street

Macau Pictures 10

The volcano at Fisherman’s Wharf

Macau Pictures 9

A really bad picture of me taken at a really good Spanish/Portuguese restaurant