***********************************************************
70 senior citizens will take to the stage at Hong Kong City Hall in November for a joint district performance under the Community Oral History Theatre Project.
The Community Oral History Theatre Project - Islands District (Tai O) is co-organised by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Chung Ying Theatre (CYT), the Neighbourhood Advice-Action Council and the Hong Kong Heritage Conservation Foundation Limited, and was launched in Tai O in March 2013. Through organising a series of workshops, the project aims at gathering personal experiences and valuable recollections of the elderly of Tai O, writing scripts with the oral history information that is collected, and providing an opportunity for the elderly to act out their stories on stage themselves. The performance derived from such oral history information will be staged starting next month. Apart from senior citizens from Islands District, elderly participants from Sham Shui Po and Kwun Tong will also be present in the joint district performance titled "Our Community in Silhouette", to tell their personal and communal stories.
The story of "Our Community in Silhouette" is about Man Kwong Photographic Studio, which is facing closure after serving the Tai O community for decades. Its owner sets out to return her pictures recording traditional life in the waterfront village to the people who appear in them, only to find that they are no longer there. With the sun setting on the fishing industry, many villagers had moved away from Tai O to urban areas where, in places such as Kwun Tong industrial buildings and flatted factories in Sham Shui Po, they toiled and strove under the Lion Rock to create the economic miracle that became the foundation of modern-day Hong Kong.
Community Oral History Theatre Project Joint District Performance - Sham Shui Po, Kwun Tong and Islands (Tai O) "Our Community in Silhouette" will be staged at 3pm on November 15 (Saturday) at the Concert Hall of Hong Kong City Hall. The programme will be conducted in Cantonese with English information in the house programme. Tickets priced at $100, $80 and $60 are now available at URBTIX. Half-price tickets are available for senior citizens aged 60 or above, people with disabilities, full-time students and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) recipients (limited tickets for CSSA recipients available on a first-come, first-served basis).
For programme enquiries, please call 2591 1300 (LCSD) or 8106 8336 (CYT), or visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/ab/en/OH_taio_joint.php. For ticketing enquiries, please call 3761 6661. For credit card telephone booking, please call 2111 5999. For Internet bookings, please visit www.urbtix.hk.
Since its launch in 2009, the Community Oral History Theatre Project has been implemented in Sham Shui Po, Kwun Tong and Islands District (Tai O). The project aims to encourage active participation in arts and cultural activities by the elderly. It is also hoped that young people will be able to gain an understanding from the performances by elderly people of how the older generation grew up, and reflect on their own lives as a result.
Ends/Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Issued at HKT 11:01
NNNN
