FEELIN' GOOD - NINA SIMONE

THE MAIDS
BY JEAN GENET / DRAMA

STARRING LA CHIQUITTA & FABIOLA

OPENS NOV 6 AT MCAULEY THEATRE,
HK ARTS CENTRE

POSTER DESIGN BY JULY MALANTIC

HYPERACTIVE (R) MAPS OUT A MARKETING PLAN
WITH THE MAIDS' PRODUCTION MANAGER,
ENAN LIM.

I trekked to My Musical Studio on Saturday night for The Maids' first reading and production meeting. I was a bit apprehensive, but mostly, I was excited. Apart from my frequent outings as an MC and the odd appearance onstage, I haven't really been in involved in theatre work in a significant way.

I arrived at 5.30pm on the dot. My best friend, Rye, was ceremoniously pouring white wine for everyone. "Everyone," really was juts a handful of people: Rye (Solange), myself (Claire), Moe (Madame), Enan (Production Manager), Alvin (Director), and Tina (Co-director, Dramaturg).

We jumped into the material immediately - no preamble. I guess the best way to tackle any Genet piece is not really to approach it, but to attack it.

And that's exactly what we did.

The last time I touched The Maids was in 2002, for my senior directing thesis. I re-imagined the final sequence - a gruesome but nebulous act of sacrifice - as something that might have happened within the tight, echo-bound walls of a bath room. I got an A+, but I'll never forget the countless sleepless nights I endured, trying to make sense of the ending. 

Rye and I have been talking about performing The Maids as our alter egos, La Chiquitta and Fabiola, for years. Rye had always been more emotionally infatuated with the project than I ever was. The Maids is the kind of dangerous material that grips you by the balls and never lets go until it gets out of you a release that is neither satisfying nor predictable...

So this time around, I vowed not to over think it. I'll take the material as it comes, I told myself, one day at a time, and try to not to be wholly consumed by it.

...who was I kidding?

By the third line, I had become Claire - impetuous, impatient and impressionable -an accomplice to terrible acts that nobody will ever completely understand.

It felt so good.
 

// IT'S A NEW LIFE FOR ME

AND I'M FEELIN' GOOD... //

TWENTY-FOUR/SEVEN/ONE

MONDAY
EAT YOUR WORDS
CHEF AND SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR JASON BLACK WAS THE CREATIVE FORCE BEHIND AN EVENT
THAT RAISED HK$132,000 IN AID OF FOODLINK.

TUESDAY
THE MAIDS
MY DEAREST FRIEND, RYE, HAS FINALLY SECURED THE RIGHTS TO STAGE HIS (OUR?) VANITY PROJECT IN HK 

WEDNESDAY 1
ERA ORA MEDIA PREVIEW
WITH THE LABEL'S DESIGNER, EUNY L.

WEDNESDAY 2

HK1K CAKE CONSULTATATION

THE PENINSULA HK'S EXECUTIVE PASTRY CHEF LUDOVIC DOUTEAU

PRESENTS HIS INITIAL IDEAS FOR HK MAGAZINE'S 1,000th ISSUE BIRTHDAY CAKE

WEDNESDAY 3
CHOCOLATE TASTING AT THE PENINSULA BOUTIQUE
THE PENINSULA BOUTIQUE'S DIRECTOR OF MARKETING ADRIENNE TIN LEADS US THROUGH AN IMPROMPTU EXPERIENCE WITH CHOCOLATES
HANDMADE BY THE PEN'S OWN CHOCOLATIER

WEDNESDAY 4
SALON DE NING'S OPEN MIC NIGHT
TAKING MY FNAL BOW AS THE MONTHLY EVENT'S MC FOR THE PAST 2.5 YEARS

THURSDAY
GLOBAL PARTY
AS MC AND AUCTION MASTER OF AN EVENT WITH PHANTOM VIPs:
ANGELINA JOLIE. JOHNNY DEPP. THE ROLLING STONES. MAO. WARHOL.
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?

FRIDAY
POUNDING PAVEMENT
SEEKING INSPIRATION FOR HK1K WITH CHARMAINE

SATURDAY 1
WERQ OUT.
ON THE WAY TO SUN YAT SEN PARK TO MEET MY FABULOUS PERSONAL TRAINER, BRIDGE.

SATURDAY 2
STEPHEN SONDHEIM'S FOLLIES
STAGED BY THE HK SINGERS AT THE SHEUNG WAN CIVIC CENTRE

SUNDAY
SUPERMAN
GAY OF HYPERACTIVE ENERGY MEETS THE MAN OF STEEL

Monday

EAT YOUR WORDS featured five of Hong Kong's top food critics paired with five of the city's most celebrated chefs. One hundred and thirty hungry diners crowded The Salted Pig, eager to witness a culinary bloodbath.

In the end, the dessert course by Chef Gregoire Michaud and The Dim Sum Diaries' Ale Wilkinson won the most votes.

Hyperactive co-organized, MC'd and auctioned items off to raise a total of HK$132,000 in aid of Foodlink.


Tuesday

Rye walked into my door with a surprise:

My very own copy of the rights to stage The Maids in Hong Kong. For years, Rye has been dreaming about staging this play as a vanity project for La Chiquitta and Fabiola.

It's finally coming true this November.


Wednesday

1.
Era Ora Press Preview at Boujis. Met the lovely designer, Euny L., who had just wrapped up a shoot in Ibiza. It showed. Her skin glowed a light, golden caramel. I was clearly dying with envy, and so, to make me feel better, Euny gave me a pink pocket square.

I squinted at her alienesque visage, wracking my memory bank for a clue as to where I've seen her before. I finally ventured: "Were you a former Miss Singapore?"

She threw her head back. A throaty laughter roared 'round the walls of her slender neck,

2.
Met The Peninsula Hong Kong's Executive Pastry Chef Ludovic Douteau, to chat about HK Mag's 1,000th issue birthday cake.

The facts:
- red fondant
- HK skyline gold stencil
- miniature 'HK Hipsters' done with chocolate
- 1.5m base
- 8 layers high
- will have to completed on-site 1 hour before the event

Tour-de-force.

3.
We were only supposed to look at the teas. Swear!!

But if The Pen Boutique's Director of Marketing, Adrienne Tin, follows that through with an impromptu chocolate tasting, featuring little delights made by The Pen's own chocolatier, are you gonna say no?

Didn't think so.

4.
Curtain call on Hyperactive.

After 2.5 years, it was my final night as MC of Salon de Ning's monthly Open Mic Night. Big love to SdN Manager Eli Homawoo, songbird Felicia, and the band - Samson, Sty, Robert and Leo.

I honed my MC-ing chops at SdN, learning how to adjust to different audiences at lightning speed.

It has been an awesome ride.

Thank you.


Thursday

The Hong Kong leg of The Global Party was meant to have been as huge as the title suggested. I was asked to MC, and once again, there's an auction in the program.

These were big-ticket items, too, meant to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Children's Cancer Foundation. Warhol's 'Mao.' Autographed and framed memorabilia from Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp and The Rolling Stones. Entire weeks in Balinese luxury villas. Rides on one-of-a-kind Formula One racing cars.

And more.

By some freak 'accident' only about 20 people showed up to the event.

"Sorry for wasting your time," said Shore's Mark Cholewka. I couldn't even manage a reply, except a mumbled "Noworriesbyeseeyousoon." I was too stunned that a black-tie affair fell off people's radar.

Shit happens.


Friday

Charmaine and I grabbed lunch at Porto Fino to thank the owner, Felipe, for hosting The List Magazine's GuestList event the previous night. It was a success. I expressed my regrets that I wasn't present.

Charmaine and I then pound pavement to seek inspiration for HK1K at Shanghai Tang.


Saturday

1.
"Health is wealth," I chuckled drily, as I pushed and plodded through the short walk between my flat and Sun Yat Sen Park. This is where my personal trainer, Bridge, meets me thrice a week to whip me back in shape for Pink Season. I refused to be a fat cow for yet another year during the twinbill Mr Gay HK / Floatilla weekend.

Fit, not fat.

Fabulous, not forlorn.

2.
Caught up with my dear friends, Peter and Matthew, to watch the HK Singers' staging of Sondheim's Follies.

The acoustics in the Sheung Wan Civic Centre are already problematic, to begin with. The sound mixing and the musical direction only served to exacerbate the problem.

I had my ears covered the entire first act. Unlistenable.

I felt for the actors, who had so much energy and enthusiasm and heart. Must be frustrating to have to fight to be heard.


Sunday

Saw Man of Steel in IFC with the gang.

"Well, well..." I mused, considering Henry Cavill's ridiculously muscular physique with great interest. "Is this the ideal I must now work towards?"

24 HOURS A DAY.

7 DAYS A WEEK.

1 HYPERACTIVE GAY BOY™.

#gethyperactive

SUNDAY WITH LA CHIQUITTA AND HYPERACTIVE

HYPERACTIVE WITH A PINA COLADA
ON THE HONI HONI TERRACE

LA CHIQUITTA AND A GINORMOUS FRUIT COCKTAIL.

(WE'RE REALLY REFERRING TO THAT HUMONGOLICIOUS FRUIT COCKTAIL.
THE ONE ON THE RIGHT IS SIMPATICO MICHAEL BUSHELL. THANKS FOR SHARING, BUSHY! )

I like to keep my Sundays free from social commitments in order to prepare myself for the Hyperactive week ahead. But I made an exception last Sunday for Pink Dollar's Sunday Soiree at Honi Honi. My dear friend, Paul, was the organizer; my best friend, La Chiquitta, was the featured performer; and it was just such a refreshing type of event to have on the LGBT calendar. It was in one of Hong Kong's hottest new bars and the DJ line-up was awesome - a BIG shout out to the fabulous DJ Julez Clark, whose every thrilling track made my tush twitch with a tingling sensation! Can't believe I just said that - will someone please remind me next time that alliteration is cheap?!

I MC'd the proceedings purely by accident. Paul asked me to ask the crowd to move back so Chiquitta has space to perform. Can you guess what happened next? It was impossible to wrest the microphone away from me after just the one public service announcement. Of course I had to do a complete opening spiel.

Chiquitta's rendition of Love on Top escalated into frenzied heights of dancing, lip-syncing and head banging  with every key change. And there were, like, 78 throughout the song. By the time it ended, I was amazed that Chiquitta's eyelashes were still firmly on. The same couldn't be said about the crystals on her vajazzled hot pants; she squirted them all over the unsuspecting patrons.

Afterwards, Chiquitta and I retreated to a fire exit to tape a new Sip webisode.

"Wanna make it worthwhile?" Paul whispered into my ear.

I smiled.

I looked at the glistening, sweaty heathens dancing whilst palming huge coconut and watermelon cocktails - as though Monday were of no consequence.

"Paul," I thought, "it already is."

 

HONI HONI BAR
A: 3/F Somptueux Central 52 Wellington Street Central, Hong Kong
E: info@honihonibar.com
T: +852 2353 0885