Introducing the Shanghai Repertory Theater

Shanghai Repertory Theater stages its first show. Repertory theater is a company that presents several different plays, operas, or pieces usually alternately in the course of a season at one theater or is a theater housing such a company. Hard to be a repertory theater on your first try but the actors are good so we can give the produce an "A+" for ASPIRATION if not actual reputation as a repertory... And maybe SRT will build on the success of all those volunteers that made East West theater - many of whom are in this production - which gave producer Rosita Janbakhsh her start. Rob Tromp stars as SCROOGE in their first show : A Christmas Carol

Tickets for a Christmas Carol are on sale now. RMB150 for students, RMB200 for adults. Group packages are also available. To purchase, visit www.kecenter.org.cn, www.ticket2010.com or call 136 4170 1170.

Introducing the Shanghai Repertory Theater
Daily Blog
Monday, 16 November 2009 11:11
Written by Caroline Tylawsky


Shanghai’s newest theater company, the Shanghai Repertory Theater, is kicking off the holiday season with a production of the Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. Scrooge in all his philanthropic glory and his whole gang of ghosts will be on stage at the Ke Center from December 2-6.

SRT is an English-language professional theater run by Rosita Janbakhsh, previously the executive producer at East West Theater. A Christmas Carol will be their debut performance, featuring several familiar faces in the cast and crew – including Rob Tromp as Scrooge, Charlie Mayer as Bob Cratchit, Arran Hawkins as Marley’s Ghost, and Jessica Sands as Tiny Tim.

To help introduce the new theater company to the local stage scene, they’ll be holding a launch party at Chinatown this weekend (Saturday, Nov 21, 5pm) – members of the cast and crew will be in attendance, and the night will feature ticket giveaways, scene previews, canapés and, of course, some holiday drinks. It’ll be free entry starting at 5pm, with scene previews at 5.30, 6.30 and 7.30 (which will also be the ticket giveaway times).

Keep your eyes open for our interview with Rosita and more about A Christmas Carol in an upcoming issue of that’s Shanghai.

Tickets for a Christmas Carol are on sale now. RMB150 for students, RMB200 for adults. Group packages are also available. To purchase, visit www.kecenter.org.cn, www.ticket2010.com or call 136 4170 1170.

Fan Yuming starts filming "Huo Guo"

Director (Andy) Fan YuMing kicks off filming the short trailer-style film "Huo Guo" ("hot pot") today. This modern gangster comedy film presents a satyric look at modern China as local and Italian forces struggle to gain a piece of art from China's heritage. Mix all the ingredients and wait until it comes to a boil.

A typical spicy hot-pot

I feel like I am going out of the frying pan, (or at least the hot pot) and into the fire. I am acting in this little production and will be speaking in Chinese.. Wo zhen hai pa, yingwei wo Zhongwen zhen shuo de hen cha !!! (I am nervous because my Chinese sucks!)

including some lines in Shanghainese -- so now I know the meaning of "Nao zi wa te le!" a local insult meaning literally "your brain is broken"and have found it is useful in Shanghai traffic.

Westview Films announces "Dark Waters"

Westview Films announced its new feature film project, DARK WATERS.

Like director Richard Trombly's other Mandarin language films in China, this story centers on the struggle Chinese youth face in balancing 5000 years of tradition and the crashing wave of modern society and western culture.

Even as the modern world should offer endless freedom of choice, there seem to be so few options to many young Chinese. It is like being on a boat and seeing so many possible destinations in the distance around you while being restricted in choice to merely going up or down stream.

(one of China's ubiquitous riverboats)

"When I arrived in China 6 years ago, China had few highways and few tractor trailer trucks to deliver things. China was, however, embarking upon a great effort to create a vast national highway project and has made incredible progress," says Trombly. "But for now, there are still huge numbers of riverboats traveling the "water highways" in rivers and canals across the country. Thousands of families live on these riverboat barges that remain the backbone of the logistics in China. But times are changing and the modern highways and improved rail systems are slowly spelling the end of this way of life."

Trombly is fascinated with this way of life that will soon disappear and how it fits the struggle of young people in China. This setting makes an ideal backdrop for exploring some of the issues and challenges faced by China's youth. The restricted and claustrophobic environment leads to interpersonal conflicts against a counterpoint of some of the loveliest rural scenes in China.

Trombly said the script is currently in development and will be filmed later in 2010. Trombly is working with some top Chinese talent to develop this story with native authenticity and international perspective.

Director Richard Trombly to head Westview Films

Westview Films

Westview Films is founded to make international films within the China market. Few foreign filmmakers can successfully navigate the governmental restriction, take advantage of the cost savings in China or produce stories that resonate within the Chinese culture.

Few Chinese filmmakers can make films that are accessible to an international audience.

That is our niche.

We will work together with top foreign and local talent to promote cultural exchange with producing great films.

We will be shortly announcing our first project.

Contact : Richard@trombly.com

"Meatspace" Short film selected for Chong Qing, China film festival Nov 21-29

Director/producer Gianpaolo Lupori's intriguing short film follows the theme of lost youth in modern China. Many young Chinese spend so much time online that they never talk about being in "cyberspace." Instead, their "real" lives are referred to as spending time in "meatspace." This presents a vision reminiscent of Clockwork Orange but with the director's keen insight into the gentler and more restrained nature of Chinese youth. It is in fact the very restraint and lack of power, that drives this story forward. Richard Trombly co-produced this Shanghainese-language short.

Synopsis

Among the millions pursuing a better life in the technologically saturated city of Shanghai, four dissatisfied ordinary youngsters drift between reality and cyberspace as they attempt to transform their nondescript lives by posting a series of controversial videos on the Internet.

The virtual quest, however, soon turns into a nightmare as the backlash response to their posts spills out into the real world to haunt and track them down.

Statement

Over the past years, the Internet has not only had a deep effect on the way we interact with each other, but also how we determine our personalities and relate to our surroundings. individuals are now able to creatively engineer their persona, giving new relevance to enduring philosophical investigations on the nature of identity and reality. The extensive influence the Internet has on individual and collective patterns of behavior has also spawned numerous alternative cultures that already present complex hierarchical structures, beliefs, mythologies and parallel economies.

While critics are concerned that these virtual behaviors are unraveling an already fragile social fabric and destabilizing traditional values, others believe cyberspace has provided its inhabitants an opportunity to escape their worries, broaden their horizons and satisfy emotional needs.

However - as is the case with any fledgling alternative culture - while they struggle to break out of conformist patterns, these individuals may find themselves completely disorientated, possibly facing irreversible alienation.

‘Meatspace’ is a poetically licensed reflection on some these social, psychological and cultural alterations generated by virtual interactions between individuals.

Inspired by true accounts, as well as research into various cyber cultures, ‘Meatspace’ investigates the dysfunctional relationships members of these newborn cultures may establish with the various alteregoes the Internet enables them to create. The film also attempts reveal some of the difficulties they may face as they struggle to reconcile their disembodied, virtual experiences with their material lives and the devastating effects it may have on the individual.

The movie refuses to take sides, choosing rather to ally itself with its characters, sympathetically portraying difficulties of individuals trapped between two equally menacing realities; describing how lack of prospects, human contact and self esteem may drive someone to burrow themselves completely into a parallel reality where they may experience the artificial freedom of recreating themselves.