Hi, this is Serena Pau, Head of Production Committee at More than Musical. Being a tech startup founder, a lot of people are surprised to find out that my other passion is in show production/music, as A) it is not logical like the tech world and B) I don’t even play any musical instrument in a proper manner. Having to run a tech startup is already quite a heavy workload and in fact, why would I want to be volunteering as head of production and gain experience of opera in Hong Kong production?
Well, passion is very often developed when you are young, with or without knowing it. I started my “show biz” when I was 8 in school and was acting as a parrot in an interschool drama competition and our show back then was “The Jungle Story”. Honestly, I do not recall much of the show details since I was acting in at least another 10 shows till I was 18, but one thing is still impactful to me: the costumes and make up I had over the 10 years.
I grew up in a family with love for performing art: opera, classical music, Chinese opera, musicals etc were part of our family events in the past time and I really enjoyed the value of live shows, now being in one myself. Imagine if you go to an opera and the costume look outdated, the actors are wrongly chose and the lighting was totally off, what would your impression be? Every small detail in a show matters as they affect each other and they all have to be delivered at the show at the right time.
I believe my passion in building a tech startup could easily be applied at the Kiss of Tosca production, it is all about sourcing the right resources to deliver the show at the right time. Costume making and make-up artist alignment are my major duty and these two parties have never met but yet they have to work closely with each other. The most difficult thing of all however is, we need to make sure both parties understand what our director and designer Nic Muni wants and Nic is based in the USA while we are based in Hong Kong. Let alone language barrier with all the technical terms being translated and the time zone difference, design communication has never been easy. There were still communication issues especially with the costume, how can we describe a fabric swatch and discuss about it just on video calls? The costumes are extremely costly and to me, the most important part of the show and we have to make it right, as this is the first impression that we are creating to the audience.
I am extremely thankful that I have found very hard working and passionate teammates like Cindy from Cindyalan who is a third generation tailor and Li our make-up artist, who has extensive experience in concerts and movies. Without such a passionate team, we could hardly make things move forward. Both ladies are serious in what they are going to deliver and are ready to go for the extra miles without being pushed by the More than Musical team.
The story does not stop here as the hair piece of Tosca is yet to be delivered form Rhode Island to Hong Kong before the show and our stage production team is busy with the props, the stage platform and the lighting ques. I could hardly imagine even if a chair is missing, what would happened. Check out our other programmes on www.morethanmusical.org to see if anything interests you!
#thebestisyettocome #operahongkong
21st October 2018