Julie Taymor is an American director and writer of theater,opera,and film. Her stage adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997 and received eleven Tony Award nominations,with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for her direction and costume design. Her 2002 film Frida,about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo,was nominated for five Academy Awards,including a Best Original Song nomination for Taymor's composition "Burn It Blue." She also directed the 2007 jukebox musical film Across the Universe,based on the music of the Beatles.
The culture of Hong Kong is primarily a mix of Chinese and Western influences,stemming from Lingnan Cantonese roots and later fusing with British culture due to British colonialism. As an international financial center dubbed "Asia's World City",contemporary Hong Kong has also absorbed many international influences from around the world. Moreover,Hong Kong also has indigenous people and ethnic minorities from South and Southeast Asia,whose cultures all play integral parts in modern-day Hong Kong culture. As a result,after the 1997 transfer of sovereignty to the People's Republic of China,Hong Kong has continued to develop a unique identity under the rubric of One Country,Two Systems.
The cinema of Hong Kong is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese-language cinema,alongside the cinema of China and the cinema of Taiwan. As a former British colony,Hong Kong had a greater degree of political and economic freedom than mainland China and Taiwan,and developed into a filmmaking hub for the Chinese-speaking world.
Cantonese opera is one of the major categories in Chinese opera,originating in southern China's Guangdong Province. It is popular in Guangdong,Guangxi,Hong Kong,Macau and among Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Like all versions of Chinese opera,it is a traditional Chinese art form,involving music,singing,martial arts,acrobatics,and acting.
Elizabeth "Liza" Wang Ming-chunGBS SBS,is a Hong Kong diva,actress and MC. She is a personality in Chinese-speaking communities. She has been nicknamed "The Big Sister" in the Hong Kong entertainment circle. Wang was a delegate in the National People's Congress from 1988 to 1997,and she is a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
The Music of Hong Kong is an eclectic mixture of traditional and popular genres. Cantopop is one of the more prominent genres of music produced in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta regularly perform western classical music in the city. There is also a long tradition of Cantonese opera within Hong Kong.
Di NüHua is a fictional Chinese story about Princess Changping of the Ming Dynasty and her husband/lover,Zhou Shixian. The first known story was a Kunqu script written in the Qing Dynasty,while the second version was a Cantonese opera from the early 1900s later found in Japan and Shanghai. Little information is available from this early 1900s version. The contemporary prevailing version,not meant to be historically accurate,comes from the second Cantonese opera script.
Tang Ti-sheng,born Tang Kang-nien,was a Cantonese opera playwright,scriptwriter,and film director. His contributions to Cantonese opera significantly influenced Hong Kong's reform and development of the genre beginning in the late 1930s.
Sunbeam Theatre is a landmark theatre in Hong Kong showcasing Cantonese opera. It is located at 423 King's Road,North Point,near the intersection with Shu Kuk Street.
Malachi Bogdanov is a theatre director.
John Paterson is a Canadian director,devisor,dramaturg,translator,actor and theatre creator who works across Canada,the United Kingdom,and internationally. His favourite credits include directing the installation of The List (BoucheWHACKED!),the site-specific The Women of Troy and F. Garcia Lorca’s The Love of Don Perlimplin for Belisa;production dramaturgy on the English language premiere of H. Muller’s Macbeth:nach Shakespeare;and playing Adolf Hitler and Walt Disney in The Blue Light and Scheffler in The Ugly One.
Sir Alistair Spalding has been the Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Sadler's Wells theatre since 2004.
Mathias Woo Yan Wai is a Chinese designer. He joined the arts collective Zuni Icosahedron in 1988 and is now the Executive Director cum Co-Artistic Director of the group. Woo is renowned for his creative career in multimedia theatre as a scriptwriter,director,designer,producer as well as curator with a portfolio of more than 70 original theatre works,which are best known for their unique rendering of space and technology.
Lucy Bailey is a British theatre director,known for productions such as Baby Doll at Britain's National Theatre and a notorious Titus Andronicus,described by a critic as "all eye-catchingly visceral but there’s little depth". Bailey founded the Gogmagogs theatre-music group (1995–2006) and was Artistic Director and joint founder of the Print Room theatre in West London (2010-2012). She has worked extensively with Bunny Christie and other leading stage designers,including her husband William Dudley.
Tang Shu-wing is a theatre director,actor and educator in Hong Kong,having worked in professional theatre for 30 years. Sometimes nicknamed the "Alchemist of Minimalist Theatre",he received the Best Director award three times at the Hong Kong Drama Awards. While studying law in the early 1980s,Tang acted in student productions. He is the Dean of Drama at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Parole Magazine describes Tang as "one of the most talented theatre directors of Hong Kong". He has done more than 60 works,including spoken drama,non-verbal theatre,dance drama and opera.
Tianyi Film Company,also called Unique Film Productions,was one of the "big three" film production companies in pre-Second World War Republic of China. Founded in Shanghai in 1925 by the Shaw (Shao) brothers led by Runje Shaw,the company also established operations in Malaya and Hong Kong. Although the company's Shanghai studio was destroyed in 1937 during the Japanese invasion,its offshoot in Hong Kong,later called Shaw Brothers Studio,blossomed into a media empire under the leadership of the youngest brother,Sir Run Run Shaw.
Melody Siu-Wan Sze is a mezzo-soprano singer,voice teacher and singing coach.
Darko Tresnjak is a director of plays,musicals,and opera,and winner of several awards,including the Tony Award. He was the artistic director of the Hartford Stage in Connecticut,United States.
Katie Fong Yim Fun is a former Chinese actress and Cantonese opera performer from Hong Kong. Fong is credited with over 150 films. Fong has a star at Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong.
Ka-Sing Lam was a former actor and Cantonese opera singer from Hong Kong. Lam is credited with over 300 films.
