Local Arts Festival in China (Zhejiang) – curating consultant

Local Arts Festival in China (Zhejiang) – curating consultant

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  • Arts Festival curating project for a traditional poetic town near the centre of Asia, Shanghai, supported by governmental funding.
  • Combined excellent international city festival case studies, with local knowledge to breath fresh artistic energy into an old town. 
  • Suggestion for existing productions and also proposing commissions to artists for tailor-made arts pieces according to the local landscape.

We provided consultant and curating services to a tourist destination town near Shanghai to develop an arts festival according to the local history and landscape. Through researching and analyzing case studies of famous international festivals and the unique local conditions, we had the inspiration to combine select of examples of international best practice with core Chinese values to run a great festival perfectly suited to the local community. The festival included performing arts, public interactive installations, family-friendly events and a light show, fashion show, academic forum, landscape photography competition and exhibition.

Theatre Development Plan (Shenzhen)

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  • London theatre industry and environment analysis.
  • Local audience analysis and audience development plan proposal. 
  • Festival and commercial events using multi-function venue spaces.

We provided consulting services to a leading Chinese property developer to understand the London theatre environment and cultural landscape to support their mid-size theatre development and programming project. One of the mostly highly developed cities in China, the average age of the population in Shenzhen is 28.9 years old, relatively younger than other Chinese cities. Most of the citizens have some overseas experiences, so they are more open-minded and curious about international pop arts. Furthermore, large numbers of foreign investors have brought a multi-cultural atmosphere to the city.  In combination this makes theatregoers a fashion life style and a new trend that is competing increasingly with cinema as a form of entertainment. According to these bases, we believe that a modern theatre space is urgently required and could add significant value, and provided our professional visions on the construction project.

Usher: The Front of House Musical West End Transfer

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  • Supporting Fringe musical production Usher transfer to West End
  • Supporting emerging artists’ development

USHERS: The Front of House Musical follows a shift in the lives of the stagiest people in the theatre; the front of house staff. The production is created by a group of emerging artists, with passion and dream. We partly supported the production West End transfer. The producer of the show has successfully developed his career in the industry and joined a top West End producing company.

Silk Road @ Peacock Theatre

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  • Achieved the UK premiere of this culturally important production, which was the first theatre piece staged after the Cultural Revolution.
  • Held a successful Dunhuang culture seminar and dance movement showcase at Asia House. 
  • Hosting a preshow reception with guests including senior politicians and industry professionals from both the UK and China.

We provided the one-stop services for the China Performing Arts Agency (CPAA) to achieve their London premiere of Silk Road, including tour management, marketing support, and event management. As the first theatre piece staged after the Cultural Revolution, Silk Road is an important cultural symbol in Chinese contemporary history. The trademark dance movement in this production has been applied to the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony performance.

Taiwan Season 2015
@Edinburgh Fringe

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  • Promoted the Taiwan Season in its second year as a brand to raise the platform for future emerging performing artists.
  • Enabled the Taiwanese artists to secure the most suitable venues, identify the best audience approach and engagement, and effective drawing and management of media focus.

We were contracted to provide the Taiwanese Ministry of Culture with a one stop service for the second season of Taiwanese work at the Edinburgh Fringe. The season showcased an incredible display of Taiwanese artistry from circus to contemporary dance to puppetry, all performed by Taiwan’s most talked about performance art companies. Our expertise and overseeing for the Ministry included: event planning, strategy development, venue pitching, contract supervision, third party marketing/PR, and project completion reports.

Following our work with trusted local marketing and PR partners, the performances went on to garner highly praiseworthy and popular reviews from theatregoers on social media and professional media alike, including The Guardian, The Times, and The Scotsman, amongst many others.

Legend of the Sun @ Sadler’s Wells

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  • Coming to London in the year of the UK-China year of cultural exchange, Legend of the Sun has been awarded several national arts awards and honours, including the Golden Lotus Award, the Outstanding Production Award at the 7th China Theatre Festival, and was selected as one of the 2004-2005 “Ten Best Productions” by the National Project for the Distillation of Stage Art.
  • With over 200 applications for our local dancer audition, we incorporated greater diversity into the show and also established a great network with local dance professionals. 
  • As London prepares to celebrate Chinese New Year, a fifty strong cast of dancers will portray the legend of the Zhuang people in this visually spectacular performance

Following the success of Silk Road with the China Performing Arts Agency (CPAA) last year, we are pleased to present Legend of the Sun, a traditional tribe story of the Zhuang people in Guangxi Province, to British audiences once again. This time, as the first stop of the show’s European Tour, we did our best to ensure outstanding local promotion.

Apart from the well-conducted marketing, VIP reception and tour management, we planned the audition event, which received over 200 applications from university dance graduates and local professional dancers. Eventually, we chose 1 male Italian dancer, Giuseppe Laurenza, and 1 Greek female dancer, Eleni Papaioannou, to go on stage together. Both of them have significant performing experience and help greatly to make the show even more eye-catching and memorable, through collaboration with the long-standing Chinese performers.

The show received great reviews from various media, including British Theatre Guide, Everything Theatre, Public Reviews, Critical Dance, and others.

Beauty and the Beast
UK performance with workshops

  • Cooperated with the Puppetry Department of Shanghai Theatre Academy performing Beauty and the Beast, a co-production with Quanzhou Gaojia Traditional Opera Company to the UK.
  • Delivered 3 performances and 4 workshops in 5 days visit, supported by Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of Exeter, Chickenshed Theatre, Goldsmiths Confucius Institute for Dance and Performance and Centre for Chinese Traditional Culture.

We worked with Shanghai Theatre Academy to deliver an educational event introducing the traditional Chinese puppet culture. Beauty and the Beast is an experimental piece presenting a Western fairy tale story by traditional Chinese opera with puppetry. The puppet workshops, lead by YU Yang, the lecturer from puppet department of Shanghai Theatre Academy, introducing and showing the puppet-making techniques on the spot.

Night of Beijing @ London O2

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  • We acted as the bridge between the British venue coordinator and backstage crew and the Chinese performing artists.
  • We delivered on a tight schedule with only one day to set up the stage and prepare the venue for the event. Beginning at 4am our team rigged the lighting, performed the necessary sound checks, and dressed the stage with the event’s logos and branding. 
  • Coordinated the technical and dress rehearsals. Welcomed the VIP guests upon their arrival, and performed many other communication duties to ensure the smooth running of this performance in Central London.

Night of Beijing is a traditional Chinese folk music concert performed by China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra and numerous solo artists. It took place in Indigo- O2 on the 21st of June 2015.

The show started at 8pm, and the running time was 2 hours. The program included many well-known Chinese folk music, such as Jasmine Flower, Horse Racing and Golden Snake Dance. The majority of the solo artists are known nationally in China. Aside from the Chinese artists, the programmer also invited local musicians to participate, such as New London Children’s Choir and Soprano-Judith Howarth.

One Step Before the Fall & Antiwords
@Tianjin Grand Theatre & Beijing Penghao Theatre

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  • Promoted the productions through digital, print, and social media to develop the audience for the company’s first visit to China.
  • Helped make history when promoting Antiwords, an adaptation of Vaclav Havel’s ground-breaking play Audience, signifying the first time a version of the 1975 work had ever been staged in China.

From the Czech Republic dance-theatre group, Spitfire Company, comes a powerful multi-genre piece about boxer Muhammad Ali and his greatest fight to date: his battle with Parkinson’s disease. One Step Before The Fall sees Markéta Vacovská impassioned, powerful dancing meet the mesmerising wave of voice and sound produced by Czech Grammy winner Lenka Dusilová in the tight confines of a boxing ring.

As the production’s promoter in China, Performance Infinity ensured One Step Before The Fall and Antiwords received a critically acclaimed premier in Tianjin Grand Theatre. We successfully pitched the production to venues in addition to assisting with tour management and audience development. We recommended the work to Beijing NLGX Theatre Festival at Penghao Theatre and coordinated the presentation of the play in addition to a movement workshop led by the artists for local Chinese theatre professionals and dance participants.

National Theatre of China Richard III
@ Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

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  • Supported the National Theatre of China to ensure a smooth communication between the theatre company and Shakespeare’s Globe.
  • Oversaw the delivery of the production and provided a range of services, which included: pre-tour communication, on-site coordination of technical and dress rehearsals, providing photography and documentary filmmaking, arranging and securing interviews with local Chinese media.

In 2012, the National Theatre of China (NTC) came to London to perform a reimagined version of Richard III upon Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre stage as part of the Globe to Globe Festival. The production returned for a second time in 2015 to mark the UK-China Year of Cultural Exchange. It ran for five days from the 20th of July until the 25th.

The production stood out because of the way in which Wang Xiaoying, Artistic Director and Vice President of the National Theatre of China, integrated traditional Chinese cultural elements into the timeless and enduring story of Richard III. UK audiences were able to watch Shakespeare’s historic play with a new and innovative perspective.

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