19th Macao City Fringe Festival themed “Boundless creation will show you around!” guides the audience through a journey full of fantasy
Organised by the Cultural Affairs Bureau, the 19th Macao City Fringe Festival, themed “Boundless creation will show you around!”, will be held from 10 to 19 January 2020, featuring a total of 17 extraordinary programmes and 13 outreach activities, guiding the audience on a journey full of fantasy in the streets and alleys of Macao.
The Macao City Fringe Festival adheres to the concept of “All around the city, our stages, our patrons, our artists”, encouraging the participation of all residents. This year, the Festival has launched a special series “Crème de la Fringe” with two subthemes, namely “On Site” and “Puppet and Object Theatre Festival in Coloane”. The former features three dance performances, ImprovFlashMob, Body Traveller and A Step to Theatre: Put out the Flame, as well as dance workshops and a sharing session. From street to theatre, the artists will use their bodies to present different possibilities, enabling the audience to feel the power of physical movement at close range. The second subtheme will feature three contemporary puppet theatre productions, Fragile, Story Market and Nightwalk: Pourquoi?, presented by artists from Macao, Taiwan and Canada in different styles, as well as extension workshops. With the power of Eastern and Western visual theatre, the performances will incorporate lighting, sound art, multimedia puppets and local original stories in Coloane, a place where humanity and nature still live in harmony, bringing to the audience alternative yet relaxing artistic moments.
ZU-UK from the United Kingdom will present their new production Binaural Dinner Date, partly an interactive performance and partly speed dating that helps the participants to break the ice within an hour. In “Break & Break!” Chou Shu-Yi Live Exhibition, the Taiwanese artist Chou Shu-Yi will lead the audience into the space of his video clips and respond to different urban and spatial transformations with live dance performances. The Compass Association of Creative Theatre will organise the Macao Murder Tour, a tour of Macao’s mysteries offering an extraordinary experience. Local artist Kawo invites the audience to experience a magical parallel world with installation art in Doppelgänger of Pluto. In Property Guide at Lou Kau Mansion, local artist Jay Lei will guide the audience into the mansion of a once powerful merchant family from a brand-new perspective. In Kaleidoscope in Motion by the local group Stella & Artists, beautiful dance routines coupled with electrifying digital fantasies create subtle visual effects and ignite the audience’s unbridled imagination. Local artist Chan Si Kei and Co-coism from Taiwan will jointly invite the audience to The Cinematic Duo to create a romantic date in the span of a film. In the co-production Wearing My Untold Stories by the Soda-City Experimental Workshop Arts Association and the Artistry of Wind Box Community Development Association, the artists will convey their feelings through clothing and encourage the audience to embrace those long-buried memories again by reminiscing with a range of clothing.
The 19th Macao City Fringe Festival also offers performances suitable for all ages. In Once upon a time in Macao, the Casa de Portugal em Macau seeks to represent exploratory and fantasy scenarios associated with the city through music and communion between past and present. In Look@You by Macau Talent Academy Association, the audience is invited to look, see and feel with the “eyes” through the creative body movement, music and mobile art installation. Melodic Fantasy by the Black Sand Theatre and the Clube dos Amigos do Riquexó is a performance for children to enjoy theatre, with puppets, actors and a lovely dancer as well as the magical sound. In addition, the Fringe Festival will hold a number of outreach activities such as a backstage volunteer campaign “Slashie”, workshops, talks and exchange seminars, bringing a rich and diverse art experience to the public.
This edition of the 19th Macao City Fringe Festival is supported by Sky21 as well as Bank of China (Macao Branch) as the designated bank partner. Tickets for the Fringe Festival will be available at the Macau Ticketing Network from 10am on 15 December (Sunday). Reservations can be made by phone and online from 12pm on the same day at the 24-hour ticketing hotline: 2855 5555 and the ticketing website at www.macauticket.com. Holders of BOC Multi-Currency Credit Cards or BOC Cards can enjoy a 12% discount on ticket purchases over MOP200. A 12% discount will also be offered to holders of a valid full-time Student Card, Macao Teacher Card, “OM Friends”, “CCM Friends” or “Friends of the Macao Chinese Orchestra” card, and a 50% discount to holders of a Macao Senior Citizen Card or Disability Assessment Registration Card. A 30% discount will be offered on every ticket purchase of any two programmes of the “Crème de la Fringe - Puppet and Object Theatre Festival in Coloane” in the same half day (This offer is only applicable to ticket purchases at Macau Ticketing Network outlets, but not applicable to online ticketing).
Registration for all workshops can be made online or by phone from 10am on 16 December on a first-come, first-served basis. Online registration can be made at www.icm.gov.mo/eform/event. For phone registration and enquiries, please contact IC through tel. no. 8399 6872 during office hours. For more information about the programmes, please visit the Fringe Festival’s website at www.macaucityfringe.gov.mo or the “Macao City Fringe Festival” page on Facebook.
The press conference of the 19th Macao City Fringe Festival was held on 11 December (Wednesday), at the Multifunctional Room of Xian Xinghai Memorial Museum and was attended by the President of IC, Mok Ian Ian; the Head of the Department of Performing Arts Development, Iu Wai Man; the Head of the Division of Performing Arts, U Weng Hong; as well as by representatives of art groups and art professionals.
