Volume 1, No. 10. June 15, 2001
It's a dinner theater!
Ocean Park announces the arrival of "The Glory
of the Forbidden City," June 7, 2001. Measurements: 300 capacity, 26 cast and
crew members, 55-minute show after dinner. Delivered by Hong Kong United Arts
Agency.
With the International Travel Expo in town, Ocean
Park officials took advantage of the coincidental scheduling to invite Expo
attendees from around the world to see the official premiere of their themed
acrobatic show. Guests eat dinner in a restaurant, then walk to an outdoor theater
made over to replicate the Qing Dynasty's Summer Palace, but enhanced with an
in-house-built sound and light system and special effects.
For opening night, however, rain forced the crowd of 200 to stay in their dining
seats as the performers played in the restaurant sans technical effects. "The
essence of the show remains," the park's entertainment manager Lisa Tsang said
of the indoor setting. "The only thing we could not do is lighting. It still
managed to wow the crowd. So, we're confident if we could have done it in the
theater it would have been a double wow."
This is Ocean Park's first attempt at staging a major evening production. The
show features the Guangzhou Acrobatic Troupe performing a four-scene descriptive
rendering of the Qing Dynasty: "Battlefield," "Victory," "Imperial Garden,"
and "Coronation." Ocean Park conceived the show and produced the original music,
costumes, lighting and sound. It then contracted with the Guangzhou Troupe,
a frequent visitor to the park the past eight years and multi-gold-medal winners
in international competitions. The highlight for the first week's audience was
the "face changer," an artist who switches masks "in a matter of a mini-second,"
Tsang said.
That's an appropriate ingredient in a show that is helping change the face of
this zoo.
©2001, Minton Enterprises LLC
All rights reserved