Turandot Reimagined
Jonathan Man Company ft. SOAS Silk & Bamboo Ensemble
Thursday 30 & Friday 31 July, 2015
Regent Theatre, Regent High School, Chalton Street, London, NW1 1RX
Genesis
Puccini’s iconic opera, about a Princess looking for love, is reinvented in ancient China in the exciting times of Marco Polo and Kublai Khan during the Yuan dynasty with an innovativenew interpretation. Giacomo Puccini is one of the world’s most respected opera composers with a love of Chinese and East Asian melodies. How might he have approached Turandot if he were alive today? Theatre Director Jonathan Man and Composer Ruth Chan have worked in association with Portsmouth’s New Theatre Royal, on a creative research and development process to explore the TURANDOT REIMAGINED idea. We have partnered with the SOAS Silk and Bamboo Chinese Instrument Ensemble to explore different tone colours and how these can complement Puccini’s original score, and the origins of Kunqu and Beijing Chinese opera to inform singing styles and characterisations.
Music: Giacomo Puccini
Words: Giuseppe Adami, Renato Simoni
Artistic Director: Jonathan Man
Assistant Director: Hao Wu
Ethnomusicologist: Dr Hwee-‐San Tan
Lyrics Translator: Simon Wu
Chinese Opera Advisors: Kim Hunter Gordon,Thomas Stell, Yuan Yubing
Mentor Producer: Laura Doye
Graphic Designer: Tim Man
Media Partner: The British Chinese Project
Music: Giacomo Puccini
Words: Giuseppe Adami, Renato Simoni
Artistic Director: Jonathan Man
Assistant Director: Hao Wu
Ethnomusicologist: Dr Hwee-‐San Tan
Lyrics Translator: Simon Wu
Chinese Opera Advisors: Kim Hunter Gordon,Thomas Stell, Yuan Yubing
Mentor Producer: Laura Doye
Graphic Designer: Tim Man
Media Partner: The British Chinese Project
Jonathan Man is a freelance director, producer and transnational theatre-‐maker. His experience ranges from Shakespeare to community projects, developing new writing and musicals. He was Co-‐Artistic Director at Yellow Earth. Past artist residencies: Shanghai Theatre Academy, Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, University of Michigan.
Hao Wu, theatre director, is about to begin a Masters in directing at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Founder of Liunian Drama Company. Previous work includes: The Closed Loop, Waiting for …?, Mirror, Flower, Blood, Moon, Mei and Yuki-‐Onna.
Dr Hwee-‐San Tan is a Research Associate at SOAS. Since completing a PhD (SOAS, 2003), she has held lecturing posts at Durham University (2001-‐2), University College Dublin (2005-‐8) and University of Surrey (2008-‐9). She is also currently Associate Lecturer in Ethnomusicology at Goldsmiths and guest lecturer at Middlesex University.
Simon Wu is a London-‐based, award-‐winning published playwright from Hong Kong who writes in both English and Chinese and an experienced translator previously shortlisted for the Gate Translation Award whose English to Chinese drama translations include plays by Alan Bennett and Roy Williams.
Kim Hunter Gordon has studied the xiaosheng stage role at the Jiangsu Province Kunqu Theatre and the sung-‐ only Kunqu tradition at Nanjing University. He is also translator for the Jiangsu troupe, co-‐founder of the University of London Chinese Opera Network and a PhD student of Chinese traditional theatre at Royal Holloway.
Thomas Stell Is studying the Mei-‐Pai Qingyi role in Jingju (Beijing opera) and Kunqu Chinese opera with Kathy Hall. He has also written theatre and dance criticism for the Edinburgh Fringe Review,Oxford Dance Writers and Oxford Theatre Review. He has directed productions of Ionesco’s The Lesson, and Selena Wisnom’s Ashurbanipal.
Yuan Yubing is a visiting scholar from Shanghai Theatre Academy, studying the history of Chinese traditional opera. Yubing has specialised in Kunqu opera singing and performance for over 13 years.
The British Chinese Project seeks to be a voice for the British Chinese community. Our vision is of a Britain in which the Chinese are seen as an essential and indispensable part of our multi-‐cultural makeup, visible in all sections of society – from the arts and media to policing, from business to politics.www.bcproject.org
Ruth Chan is an acclaimed composer for film, television and theatre and has had work programmed by Hong Kong Arts Festival. She recently received an Arts Council England/British Council Artists’ International Development Award, which funded two months as Artist-‐in-‐Residence with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra.
Christine Allado trained at the Royal Academy of Music. Theatre: Here Lies Love (National Theatre), From Here To Eternity (Shaftesbury Theatre), A Catered Affair (Jack Lyons Theatre), High School Musical, The Golden Mickeys (HK Disney), World of Wearable Art (Star Hall, Kowloon) and Phantom of the Opera (Burnham Stage).
Henry Ka-‐Lok Ngan graduated from the RNCM (MMus) and Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (BMus). He has widely performed in opera and concerts. Roles: Tamino Die Zauberflöte, Idomeneo/Duca Rigoletto, Arturo Lucia di Lammermoor, Camille Merry Widow. Selected to perform with the King’s Singers and Andrea Bocelli.
Jonathan Chan trained at University of Wollongong, Australia and has worked extensively in theatre, film and television in Australia and the UK. Credits include Father Ling in the West End production of It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman and Stanley Lim in The Last Days of Limehouse.
Keith Pun recently graduated with a Masters in Vocal Performance from the RCM. Keith is studying with Russell Smythe, Lawrence Zazzo and Andrew Robinson. He has worked on baroque and contemporary projects with conductors Jonathan Cohen, Timothy Murray and Jonathan Peter Kenny in London and Hong Kong.
Nadia Eide. BA(HONS) Musical Theatre, Guildford School of Acting. Roles: Keeper of the Stone/Dance Captain in Duncton Wood, Johanna in Sweeney Todd, Yum-‐Yum in The Mikado, Nancy in Oliver!, Christine Daaè in Phantom of the Opera in Concert, and Principal Opera Singer in Streetmosphere Opera Shows (The Venetian, China).
Noa Meidan started her acting training in Tel-‐Aviv and continued at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. She gained her Masters at East-‐15 Acting School. She has played roles of Brecht, Ibsen, Lorca, Hare and Shakespeare. Noa is vocally trained as a mezzo-‐soprano and has performed in several opera productions and masterclasses.
Miranda Man has performed with many local community choirs and groups including theNew Theatre Royal Portsmouth’s The Rite of Spring project in 2013 to mark the centenary of Stravinsky’s work. She has sungmost of the great choral works, some Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and Handel’s Messiah at Sydney Opera House.
Claire-‐Monique Martin. Theatre credits: Antigone (Southwark Playhouse), A New Way To Pay Old Debts (Rose Playhouse), Song of the Seagull (Menier Chocolate Factory), The Great Gatsby (Kings Head), Thérèse Raquin (Courtyard Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Rockwell House). Film credits: Elizabeth Taylor Waiting for Liz.
Ruth Helen Pownall trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts and won the award for Musical Theatre. Ruth’s credits include: Susan Sondheim’s Company, Vivienne Kensington Legally Blonde, Meet Me on the Southbank (Feature Film for the BFI and BBC 1), The One Show and Jack Whitehall’s Backchat.
Georgina Tarrant has performed with a number of community choirs – including Slough Philharmonic and Voci Chamber Choir – singing sacred, secular and popular music in early German, middle English, Italian, Latin, Russian, French and now Mandarin. Georgina is excited to be part of Turandot.
Britanny Wallis recently returned from a New Zealand/Japan tour of Phantom of the Opera, where she performed as Christine (understudy). She has since re-‐settled in West London. Previous credits include: Phantom of the Opera (NZ), Hairspray, Nine, Die Fledermaus (National Tour), 42nd St, and Godspell.
Mariano Venida is a painter, animation voice artist, musical, stage, television and film actor and rock band singer from Manila, Philippines. He was in the West End, National UK and Asian touring cast of Miss Saigon, where he understudied and played the roles of the Engineer and Thuy.