26 young people of The Bravo! Hong Kong Youth Theatre Awards Scheme 2017-2018* will be staging two shows for the Young Company Double Bill at the Sai Wan Ho Civic Centre Theatre on December 1-3, 2017.

 

Red Boat is an interpretation of a sensational story in an age of political turbulence. This topically relevant play is a timely catalyst for students to reflect on Hong Kong society today in the classrooms and beyond. Incorporating aspects of Physical Theatre, young actors trained in this dramatic genre will deploy their bodies as creative instruments. The Red Boat is an actual seafaring home of an opera troupe that stops in small towns to perform. The red boats, in history, are also often means of travel for revolutionaries in covert operations. In the play, two brothers forced apart then reunited struggle, argue and fight over personal and political issues, proving how current affairs affect the lives of even those who shun politics. 

 

Created by AFTEC’s Artistic Director, Dr Vicki Ooi with Associate Director, Oscar Fung, Red Boat is set in the tumultuous times post-Boxer Rebellion and the 1911 Revolution where internal strife and foreign invasion ruled. The Chinese were losing their trust in the government, and the choice seemed to be the ongoing monarchy, constitutional reform or western democracy. Reformists and revolutionaries split families and friends.  

 

The Secret Garden, written by Francis Hodgson Burnett is a well-known and touching story of a spoiled orphan’s self discovery and transformation through the fascinating  healing  powers of nature.  Mary Lennox, a sickly and foul tempered girl who is sent to live with her mysterious uncle, Archibald Craven, lives in a house full of secrets. An abandoned garden kept under lock and key is transformed into a thing of beauty, eventually creating a magical healing power that helps both Mary and another secret inhabitant of the house.

This play about young people and their search for identity and friendship is acted by young actors, giving an immediacy to the story as never before as they explore possibilities and limits in their own lives. 

 

*Bravo! Hong Kong Youth Theatre Awards Scheme, sponsored by the Lee Hysan Foundation,

is a bilingual theatre & life skills training programme for local young people aged 13-18. Professionally trained by local tutors and artist educators from the renowned London Academy of Music & Dramatic Arts, these 26 talented students have started in (April 2017) an intensive 1.5 years of bilingual training which include acting workshops, theatre performance, social service and life skills training.  It has been an exploratory journey in Classic Theatre and Physical Theatre covering theatre styles, physical training, play analysis, scene work and devising skills.

 

All 26 participants from 23 schools of the Bravo scheme went through three rounds of audition and were selected from over 400 applications. The participants will receive 300 hours of quality theatre training throughout the year and will compete for overseas professional training opportunities in London or Taipei in April 2018. Around 40% of Bravo participants are from underprivileged background with overseas training scholarships. All Hong Kong trainings are provided on free basis.

 

The Absolutely Fabulous Theatre Connection   www.aftec.hk  

The Absolutely Fabulous Theatre Connection (AFTEC) is a bilingual Learning Theatre™ and non-profit arts organisation dedicated to nurturing the next generation of youth. We believe in the power of the arts to inspire, motivate and transform, and use an integrated arts-in-education approach to enhance education and encourage learning. Established in 2008 as a registered charity, we have reached over 160,233 audience members and participants through our diverse programmes to date, and have been the Venue Partner of the Sai Wan Ho Civic Centre under the LCSD Venue Partnership Scheme since 2009.

AFTEC was selected as a top 10 high impact NGO in the PwC Community Mentoring Programme on social impact assessment in 2015, recipient of HK Arts Development Council’s Arts Education Award 2013-14, and is financially supported by the Springboard Grant (2015-17) under the Arts Capacity Development Funding Scheme of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Media enquiries: Christina Cheng, Head of Marketing & Publicity ([email protected]|25201716 / 91932114)