As a kid I wanted to be a lawyer. But then I realized it’s not the profession I was fascinated with but the lawyer character in a Hong Kong series. That opened me up to the world of acting, but I didn’t get the opportunity to follow up on it.
I wasn’t allowed to study acting. My interest in theater really kicked off at university when I was in a TV major. I didn’t do the admission audition so I wasn’t able to take acting classes. But I persisted. I did a lot of sit-ins and got to perform in other students’ plays. Then one day the teacher called me up and finally let me take her class.
I knew it was the right thing for me, having that communication with an audience. So I went for a production internship at DAS and learned how to record a play for TV. My career slowly began from there.
I didn’t start with proper training. But this allowed me to stay free from the rules and theory. I learned from real work experience, training with professionals and working on every part of the production. This practical viewpoint helps me to quickly solve problems.
8x8 Theatre was founded with only a few members in 1998. It’s very small budget, the first small troupe to have its own space—a tiny one with about 30 seats. For two years, I needed to take care of the coffee shop and massage parlor downstairs, closing them during rehearsals. It was a tough time, but also the most productive period. Now I’m happy to see new shophouse theaters emerge using the same model.
I knew theater would be my career when I came back from France. Pichet Klunchun and I performed together for a street art festival. The amount of donations we got at the end proved the saying “you can’t make a living by just doing plays” wrong. If you produce good work, people will appreciate it.
There’s more life in theater, compared to TV and movies. The audience can slap me in Insomnia. It’s the proximity; you can really feel the existence of both the performers and the audience.
My plays need to connect with society. They need to touch on something current that people can relate to. I first wanted to work on TV programs because of its power to reach a great number of households. But it can be of great benefit when you can actually speak to people. People lower their guard when they’re engaged in a play.
If you rely just on governmental funding, you will produce zero shows in your lifetime. Most of the time they’ll tell me there’s no budget available. So I tell them I was just asking and that I will do it anyway.
You need to get paid. My troupe was one of the first to insist on paying our crew. They must not work for free. You need to set the standard. It’s not a big chunk of money, but to make progress you must step up and build a sustainable system.
You just can’t die. It’s a tough job, but you need to be tougher. If you really want it, you have to commit yourself and make it your first priority. You need to be able to say no to job offers, for the quality of the work you’re doing. Money is appealing but you need to know your goals. You need to stay alive.
It feels like planting seeds with every piece I produce. I stick with theater because it shows results.
Passing on knowledge is essential. It also makes you understand yourself and your work better. It also helps you learn from the new generation. It’s a two-way learning process.
I sometimes get jealous of the new generation. The opportunities were much more limited back then. Now if you want to produce a play you can just do it. You have theater projects like Take Off. There’s much more support. Everything seems to be so easy to the point where some kids seem to take it lightly. Producing a play is not difficult, but there is a process.
I failed commercially. But I’m satisfied with what I have achieved artistically. Our troupe has produced a diversity of plays and adaptations. I’m proud to see some of our accomplishments, more or less, pave the way for others.
The public only knows about big productions. The media is in the hands of a few people, there’s so little coverage for small theaters. It’s a shame, it limits people’s choices. I’m not against the big plays, but there’s so much more to see.
It requires effort to watch a play. Most people are already busy and tired making a living. We were taught to go to department stores on the weekend. It’s handy happiness. It’s also cheaper to watch movies. To watch a play together, a family of three needs to pay B1,500. Not everyone can afford it.
You must avoid the pitfalls of self-admiration. It’s not enough to work just because you feel happy about it. To perform is not like hanging an abstract painting out for an audience. Individualism has its place but you still need to communicate.
If your work is merely self-indulgence, then don’t complain that people don’t go see it. For me a performance only has its life when it interacts.
It’s a double-edged sword, how the theater scene here revolves around a close-knit bunch. There’s tendency to praise one another. Critical opinion is crucial. It’s not enough to listen to your loyal crowd, at least not for me. You need to care about the impact it has on people.
Like democracy, we need more criticism in the scene. If you ignore people’s negative opinions of your work, you are just a dictator of your art.
