Drama Theatre means a lot to me.
In 1986, one year after the HKAPA was established, I was admitted to study there. On seeing the Academy for the first time, I exclaimed, “What a beautiful college it is!” I was amazed to see the inch-thick purple carpet. Having grown up in a public estate, I have never seen any carpet so thick before. The splendid feeling of standing on it with my bare feet was beyond words. It was an eye-opening experience seeing students from various Schools of the Academy practicing musical instruments, singing, rehearsing scenes works, doing body stretch or having high talk, and elaborating the scripts. I thought this must be the heaven for art performers!
My first performance at the Academy was The Vision of Simone Machard directed by Prof. Fredric Mao Chun-fai, where I took up dual roles as a refugee and a troupe head. I was lucky I could briefly act alongside Simon Yeung Ying-wai, the leading actor of that performance. I still remember the moment when I walked down to the Drama Theatre along the staircase of the backstage to get ready before the premiere began. It felt very different from how I felt when I performed at other drama clubs. I should have been particularly nervous right before the show, but why was I feeling so relaxed at that special moment?
That was because student performers all had rehearsals in the Drama Theatre in those years. The rehearsal for The Vision of Simone Machard lasted for more than a month. That said, we could perform on the stage of the Theatre every single day during that period. With all these practices, green performers like us became so familiar with this stage unnoticeably that we had even made the stage our home in which we no longer had fear standing on it.
Even though I have not performed in the Drama Theatre for a long time, the nonsensical stuff I did during my performance as a refugee in The Vision of Simone Machard, the tears, laughter, and shocks of watching The Shadow Box in the auditorium, and the efforts I put in mastering the subtext of Anton Chekhov when performing in Three Sisters… everything about the place is still vividly remembered.
I look forward to standing again on the stage of the Drama Theatre, the place where we belong, to listen, receive and share the joy of drama.
Rita Tong Liu Drama Theatre
