Performing Arts Gala: Graffiti for First-Timers
The 29th Macao Arts Festival (MAF) Outreach Programme, organised by the Cultural Affairs Bureau, features 28 programmes which total 44 activities, including talks, workshops, artist talk, art critique, accessibility services and movie screenings, aiming at broadening the audiences’ thinking about life and enriching its cultural experience.
Tadashi Suzuki, who belongs to the first generation of theatre directors and writers of post-war Japan and is the founder of the Toga Festival, the first international theatre festival in Japan, presents the “Artist Talk: Tadashi Suzuki”, one of the highlights of the Outreach Programme. Using The Trojan Women as an example play, he will share with the audience how he recreates the theatre world through the actors’ bodies. The “Workshop on Suzuki Method” enhances the participating actors’ skills of “maintaining the energy, controlling the breath and steadying the centre of gravity”, which can be used in all types of stage performances. In the “Macho Dancing Workshop”, Filipino choreographer Eisa Jocson transcends gender boundaries by performing a Macho dance, a type of seductive dance typically presented by young men in nightclubs in the Philippines. The “Cloud Gate 2 Workshop” introduces “Tai Chi Dao Yin”, a physical training discipline exclusively practised by Cloud Gate 2 dancers to build up the basics of dancing.
In “1 Day! Home Sweet Home”, participants follow the footsteps of local urban planner Lam Iek Chit for a fun-packed trip. Starting with the cardboard city Home Sweet Home, the event will lead the participants to step into the real living environment and ponder over the relationship between land and home, self and community, and reflect on Macao’s urban planning so that everyone can build their own dream home.
In tandem with the theme of this year’s MAF, “Origin”, and its focus in Asia, the “Writing Workshop on Street Roaming and Discovery”, hosted by Hong Kong writer Tang Siu-wa, promotes local writing and broadens the imagination of participants through the explanation of writing theories, writing techniques exercises and on-site writing. From roaming through the city to writing about streets, participants will be able to pay attention to details of the city and write about themselves. During the 29th Macao Arts Festival, a number of pre-show talks will be organised, including the “MAF Free Talks”, to which art critics from around the world are invited in order to share their insights regarding the shows.
The 29th MAF Outreach Programme aims to promote artistic activities in the community. Apart from the spectacular performances of the Performing Arts Gala, this edition of the MAF also offers the public a workshop by Israeli theatre troupe The Key Theatre, in which children will learn how to manipulate paper puppets; a graffiti workshop will also be hosted by a local graffiti art group. In addition, five outstanding and varied films were selected to be screened in different neighbourhoods. In order to allow people with visual and hearing impairments to enjoy arts without barriers, arts accessibility services will be made available in several shows, including for Home Sweet Home and the screening of the movie The Posterist - The Art of Yuen Tai-Yung.
For more information, please refer to the 29th MAF Outreach Programme booklet or visit the MAF’s webpage at www.icm.gov.mo/fam. Admission to all the 29th MAF Outreach Programme activities is free and applications are open from 12 March onwards. Seats are limited, and subject to availability. Interested parties can register online through the webpage www.icm.gov.mo/eform/event, or by phone. For more information and reservations, please call IC through tel. no. 8399 6699 during office hours.
