Sentimental Actress @ Muse, Part two

Pang experienced a period of writer’s block while writing Laugh Me to the Moon. “I’m very inexperienced when it comes to creative work,” she says. Yet she refused to seek help from more experienced writers, fearing that an outsider’s input might result in a story with which she had no real connection. She regards her repertoire as a personal journal: “I hope that 30 years from now I’ll remember I wrote Laugh Me to the Moon in 2009 because I was thinking about blah blah blah…”

Her faith in herself paid off. By listening to her own inner-voice, she has developed into an idiosyncratic playwright-director-actress. Her philosophy is not about setting lofty goals and trying to climb as high as possible, but finding her way as she goes. Laugh Me to the Moon doesn’t celebrate the achievements of someone who dreams big and strives for the impossible. Little Shan’s childhood dream of flying actually stems from her naïve belief that her missing father has gone off to the moon. While Pang’s sympathy is clearly on the side of her protagonist, the need to communicate Little Shan’s awakening to and reconciliation with brutal reality goes beyond mere nostalgia for the simplicity of childhood.

The play also owes a debt to her love of麥兜(Mcdull), the local cartoon series. “I appreciate its歷練的天真(experienced naivety), the way it looks at the world with a child’s eye but a mature mind,” she explains.

“The most過癮(fulfilling) thing about the creative process is how after writing a story, you want to get through to the audience – you want to know if they get what you mean. Did they experience a共鳴(resonance)? Have they had the same experience? This kind of connection gives me a satisfaction much greater than when someone says ‘good show’, ‘your acting skills are stunning,’ “wow you really cried there’ and so on…”

When asked what makes theatre so interesting, Pang talks animatedly and at length. She is the kind of actress who chats with her audience outside the theatre. She also reads their emails, keeps track of their blog comments and even responds to them on her own blog. Her blog records the “regular and irregular gatherings” of the “KPP miraculous organization” (as she calls her fans’gatherings), the first of which was held a week after the rerun of goodbye BUT goodbye.,

She used her blog to gather the “organization” together again this January – about a month after Laugh Me To The Moon was staged.

Haven’t seen and chatted with you guys for a whileBack from holidaysLooking at my diaryThis SundayIs the only one without rehearsal before二人餐(Table for Two) is stagedSo I decided to go up to the moon with youTo meet new friendsTo chat about Laugh Me To The MoonTo have a casuallaughIt was decided in a rushBut still I hope to see you guys

Almost 50 people show up the following Sunday afternoon in a café above a crowded street in海防道(Haiphong Road), Tsim Sha Tsui. Its windows are open at treetop level, letting in natural sunlight.

The choices you make will affect the path you take

Tables have been pushed aside, and couches and chairs are arranged in a big circle in the long room. Most participants are about the same age as Pang or older – her plays tend to appeal to a more mature audience – though there are a few students.

She stands next to the door and as people arrive she asks “ Do you know what we’re doing today?” Failing to get a proper responses, she continues half-jokingly, “Right, actually we really don’t have much to do.”

Pang spends the first hour introducing every participant one by one. Her rationale is that “ if you don’t get to know the others, you’ll feel embarrassed when you come again.” Except for a few new faces, she not only knows everyone’s names, but also such particulars as when she first talked to them, what they do, and their hobbies. When latecomers arrive she is careful to bring them into the conversation. When she sees someone whose name she can’t recall, she says, “I remember every sentence you guys said – I remember what you told me then.”

The gathering then becomes something like a “meet-the-artist” session, with the curious participants seeking behind-the-scenes anecdotes. Food is being served, and some people move around the room. Voices get louder and louder. Pang shifts to her left to avoid a group blocking her view of someone who is asking her a question. Eventually she puts down the microphone and just starts talking directly to anyone who wants to chat. When most of the food has been eaten, she returns to the microphone, shouting, “各位團友(mimicking a tour guide’s announcement), it’s time to move on. Please don’t leave your belongs behind – we won’t be coming back here.”

Later Pang adds photos of herself and every participant to her blog. They are fitted on to a grid and each picture bears a concise descrīption of the person. Perhaps this acts as an aide memoire, helping Pang remember her supporters.

Just as the three-and-a-half-hour gathering passed casually without a strict program, KPP’s production meetings are similarly寫意(relaxing) and informal, according to楊子欣(Yeung Tsz-yan), who started working with Pang as lighting designer on the third run of goodbye-BUT-goodbye. She also worked on Laugh Me To The Moon, and describes the process : “It felt like a very close family working together for two months, doing all sorts of things like eating and having fun. You never feel you’re having a meeting. Every time, you learn more about others’likes and dislikes then adjust the work accordingly,” Yan says.

The designers would meet regularly in Pang’s studio, the meetings becoming more frequent as opening night approached. While a work schedule did exist, they often end up spending only a fraction of the day on the designated issues. The rest of the time was spent sitting on the floor chatting freely about everything from story ideas to stage effects. The technical style of Laugh Me To The Moon owes much to this boundary-free collaboration.

In her first collaboration with Pang, Yan was impressed by her trust in the designers: “Once she decides to use you, she trusts you. It’s rare for directors to work things our together with designers.” Normally, designers submit their proposals to the director who will say what they don’t want and seek amendments. But the production team for Laugh Me to the Moon was formed months ahead of the show, around the time Pang first started drafting the story. “She would then accommodate the designers’ ideas for visual effects” Yan says.(Part 2/3)