FIVE years ago Santha Press gave herself a work-or-starve ultimatum: after 14 years supplementing her earnings as a musician and actor by waiting on tables she quit her part-time job, forcing herself to find enough work to support herself.
Now Hong Kong's Fringe Festival has given the 32-year-old Melburnian the recognition she has striven for and confirmation that her go-it-alone decision was the right one - her first invitation to an overseas festival.
For Press, 32, who wrote seven of the eight songs in the cabaret Song For A Siren which she brings to Hong Kong, the invitation also confirms her skill as a songwriter.
'I have written sporadically for years and had written for choirs and groups but this was the first time I had performed my own material,' she says of Song For A Siren's debut at this year's Melbourne Fringe Festival, where it took the best cabaret award.
Staging it in Hong Kong has brought its own challenges, at first unwelcome but now, Press concedes, revealing hidden benefits.
Only two tickets were offered, so she will perform with a single musician, jazz guitarist Lliam Freeman, instead of the band, two puppeteers and a lighting specialist the Melbourne show involved.
