Hong Kong 2007

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Day 11 - August 8, 2007

Today was the the last day of workshops for the group and last minute shopping for me. The last days with some of the kids at the Lutheran School for the Deaf was quite special. The group presented us with handmade cards and gifts. We have definitely made an impact on several lives there.

I was able to quickly locate a few of the shops where I had seen items previously but thought I'd have to pass up. And after receiving some last minute handbag orders from home, I set out to find my "all purpose tailor-watch-handbag" guy. Like I've said before, you are constantly approached by hawkers here. This guy had approached me several times to check out his wares and I finally took him up on it. I showed him a picture of a handbag I wanted and an hour later he produced the bag for me. Incredible system. I went for another fitting at the tailor. I'm very impressed. Such skill to produce a piece of clothing that fits you perfectly and doesn't appear "hand-made".

The big news today is the impending typhoon. Typhoons are common place here and they have quite an elaborate warning system - radio, TV, internet, signs everywhere. They are categorized by numbers 1-10. 10 is the most severe. At warning level 8 (T8), everyone is sent home or told to stay where they are someplace safe, transportation is closed, and all buildings are closed. The forecast predicted a T8 by early the next morning. So we met with Janet and Mimosa and developed several contingency plans if the typhoon got to that level. If the typhoon got to that point, the theatre where we had rehearsal scheduled would be closed and we would not be able to have our tech rehearsal - not good.

All we can do now is wait and look out the windows tomorrow morning to see if there are cows flying past in the rain and wind.

Day 12 - August 9, 2007

Woke up early this morning to check on the typhoon status. It's raining pretty heavily but there seems to be normal traffic moving below. The status check says there are two typhoons and we are at T3 status. It looks like it will be a messy commute but we are on our original schedule which is a great relief. Tim and I pack up our things and make our way to the subway (MTR) station where we are to meet Amy Chan. Amy is our lighting coordinator (we would call it either an assistant lighting designer or master electrician). She and Vic (production assistant) have been terrific coordinating all our technical needs for the performances this trip. The commute is wet and messy but is a normal everyday occurrence for folks here.

Amy leads us through the local neighborhood to the Sheung Wan Civic Centre. It is a beautiful facility. The technicians there are quite skilled, pleasant, efficient and work quickly. We were scheduled to focus from 9:00 - 13:00. We had finished our lighting focus and our backstage set up by 12:30. Buoyed by how well things were going we headed off to lunch with plans of being able to write cues before the cast arrived for their spacing rehearsal at 16:00.

Lunch was terrific! We went to this dumplings place which was about the size of a large closet. The choices on the menu were dumplings or dumplings wth noodles. So guess we'll have the dumplings.

We went back to the theatre after lunch and before we left for the day we were able to run thru the tech for the show twice. The crew is so great. I am personally thrilled at how the show lighting looks and want to express my gratitude to Amy for her wonderful work getting us set up and for being the translation conduit between me and the board operators.

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