Theatre 戲劇
This section gives some idea about LGBT theatre in Hong Kong.
Disclaimer – Not all those mentioned below are LGBT themselves. Their inclusion here only indicates that their work is of LGBT interest.
Edward Lam
A native of Zhongshan, Guangdong province, Edward was born in Hong Kong. He is one of the founding members of Zuni Icosahedron. He started writing in the age of 14. In 1978, he worked for TVB as a contract scriptwriter. In 1989, he was sponsored by the Goethe Institute to visit Pina Bausch, a choreographer in Wuppertal. He established the Edward Lam Dance Theatre in 1991.
In 1994, Lam received the Golden Horse Award for the Best Screenplay Adaptation for Red Rose, White Rose. In 1999, he was named Artist of the Year 1999 by the Hong Kong Artists’ Guild.
In 2001, he established the Ideal School Laboratory to promote creative education in secondary school in the form of workshops. He has lectured on general education courses in local universities and film courses in Ngau Pang Sue Yuen. He has also written for local newspapers. He produced Farewell to the Breasts (in Cantonese) in 2002 at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, based on the Chinese novel Farewell to the Breasts by Xi Xi.
His drama works are in Chinese and include:
How to Love a Man Who Doesn’t Love Me (1989); How to Love a Man Who Doesn’t Love Me; Euro Version (1990); Scenes from a Man’s Changing Room (1991); What a Cruel Cruel World (1993); Scenes from a Man’s Changing Room (United Kingdom Version)(1994); Return of Cruel Cruel World (1995); Once a Princess, Always a Princess (1995); The Legend; Interviewing Eileen Chang (1995); Wild Life in the Fast Lane (1995); Hot and Spicy Acts of the Apostles (1996); Once a Princess, Always a Princess, Part Two (1996); Journey to the East, ’97 (1997); Fortune Cookies (1997); Bad Girls Meet Material Boys (1997); Hong Kong is Not a Place for Love (1997); Journey to the East, ’98 (1998); I Dreamt I was an AV Actress Last Night (1998); RAVE (1999); Les Parents Terribles (1999); What is Youth? Romeo and Juliet (icq version) (1999); Far from the Madding Crowd (2000); ITC2 as Metaphor (2000); Examination (2000); i-deal School (2000); 27 Schoolgirls and 17 School Boys (2001); The Naked Para Para (2001); Who’s Calling Eileen Chang (2001); Eat, Money, Man, Woman, and the Importance of Being Vulgar (2002); Who’s Calling Eileen Chang (Taipei) (2002); 18 Ways to say Goodbye to Your Lovers (2002); The Happy Prince (2003); East Wing West Wing (2003); East Wing West Wing Reloaded (2003).
Pichead Amornsomboon
Dramatist, actor and singer. Founded theatre group 2 On Stage in 2005 with Tony Wong Lung-pun. They have produced a series of plays in Cantonese, some produced with English subtitles. In 2007, for Homo Superus, their only work so far with a gay theme, and probably the most flamboyantly gay show yet shown in Hong Kong, they collaborated with music writer and director Frankie Ho and lyricist Renson Chan.
Pichead joined Asia Television Limited as a singer, actor and presenter in 1991. In 1993, he joined Cable TV as a presenter and programme officer of the Youth Music Channel. He also worked as a dubbing artist during the years 1993 to 1996. He later studied at the Academy’s School of Drama and graduated in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) Degree, majoring in Acting. During his programme of study, he was awarded a scholarship and the Outstanding Actor Award from the Academy. Between the years 1998 and 2001, he joined the Chung Ying Company as a full-time actor and has been involved in many of the company’s productions. In 2003, he was awarded a scholarship from the HKADC to further his studies in Paris under the tutelage of the famous acting teacher Philippe Gaulier. He has participated in over 50 theatre performances as an actor, including 2onStage’s productions and The Dream of Red Chamber.
His performances in Aladdin and Sylvia with the Chung Ying Theatre Company have won him the Best Supporting Actor Awards (Comedy/Farce) at the 9th and 10th Hong Kong Drama Awards. And his performances in Two of Us won him the Best Actor Award (Comedy/Farce) and also the Best Director Award (Comedy/Farce) at the 15th Hong Kong Drama Awards. He is currently a freelance theatre practitioner and drama tutor. He starred in Scrooge; The Musical in Hong Kong in 2009, which won him the Best Actor Awards (Drama); he came out to his public on stage in March 2010 by giving thanks to his partner at the awards ceremony.’ Add ‘He starred in Mr Diva’s Master Class in 2011.. 2 On Stage’s works include: Two of Us (2005); Two of Us (Re-Run) (2005); 2 Come to Pass (2006); Two of Us (2nd Re-Run) (2006); Two of Us (Singapore) (2007); 2 Come to Pass (Re-run) (2007); Homo Superus (2007) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 2009.
One Night in Falsettoland in Concert (2011).
Alvin Wong Chi-lung
Dramatist. In 2004, Alvin’s theatre group, W Theatre, staged Queer Show, a gay comedy written and directed by him, at the Shouson Theatre. Featuring Joey Leung of Best Memories of My Life as Michael. In October 2007, his Little Hong Kong saw a reprise of Michael’s role at the Arts Centre. Queer Show and Little Hong Kong have been performed many times again in various Hong Kong theatres including the Lyric Theatre at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in April 2008 and for a fifth time in Hong Kong in July 2011.
Tony Wong Lung-pun
Actor, artist in movement, director, co-founder of 2onStage, which produced shows like 2 of Us (2005) and 2 Come to Pass (2006). Co-director of Homo Superus (2008). With Allen Lam, creator and performer of Moments in the Palm of Your Hand (2009). Brings diversity issues to Hong Kong schools through touring play group.
Invincible Truth (2011) with Allen Lam.
Allen Lam
Dancer, choreographer, director. With Tony Lam Moments in the Palm of Your Hand (2009).
Invincible Truth (2011) with Tony Wong.
Dancing Andy
Dancer, choreographer, teacher. Father figure to several generations of Hong Kong dancers and performer in innumerable shows.
Pak Li
Hong Kong playwright, director and producer, author of 40 plays, 38 of which have been performed. Joint Chinese Secretary of the TCJM. Author and director of Rope of Love (2009).
Alan Li
Born in Southern China, raised in Hong Kong, Li moved to Canada in 1976, first to Winnipeg and in 1981 to Toronto. Since then he has become one of the most prominent Chinese activists for lesbian and gay equality in the world. He was trained as a doctor, and has practiced medicine and served as health promotion advocate within culturally diverse community settings since 1987, and he has served in various advisory committees on AIDS.
He helped found, in 1996, the Coalition Against Homophobia. During a one-year stay in Hong Kong in 1986-87, Li co-founded the Hong Kong 10% Club, the first publicly incorporated lesbian and gay community organisation in Hong Kong. While there, he also met his partner, Keith Wong, also a founder of the group.
Li has been the only openly gay person to head a mainstream Chinese organisation in Canada., the Chinese Canadian National Council. In 1983, Li founded and produced “Celebrasians”, an annual lesbian/gay cultural and musical variety show, and since then has performed in several of them as actor, dancer, singer, and master of ceremonies.
He sings/performs in Cantonese opera productions, and has written, acted in and produced his own play, Story of Two Boys, performed path-breakingly in Hong Kong in 1987.
Clifton Kwan
Clifton Kwan (關逸揚) has worked as a make-up artist, model, singer, actor, radio DJ in Vancouver, Canada where his family moved to when he was 10. He moved back to Hong Kong in 2004, two years after graduating from Vancouver’s Blanche Macdonald School of Design where he majored in Makeup Artistry. The Hong Kong-born Canadian also writes several blogs (on AliveNotDead and Yahoo! Hong Kong), and is the producer and actor of Mars, a show about relationships including gay, first published in 2007 as an internet novel. It was turned into a radio play by the LGBT radio programme We Are Family on RTHK 2 and first performed on stage in 2009. It was re-staged in Hong Kong in June 2011 at the Sheung Wan Civic Centre. His show It’s Oh So Queer (我的基本生活) was staged in Hong Kong in February and October 2011.
Derek Wong
Writer and actor. Wrote and starred in My Very First Time, June 2010 at the Sheung Wan Civic Centre, Hong Kong.
