Wanted: Cute. Dark hair. Dark eyes. Preferably of Asian or Eurasian descent with a basic grasp of the English language. Must NOT suffer from stage fright. Well, if you think you fit this description - and you are four or five years old - you are welcome.
The Hong Kong production of Miss Saigon is now calling children across the SAR for its audition for the role of Tam this Sunday.
'It is not pre-registered but we have contacted several exclusive kindergartens in Kowloon Tong about the event. The response has been great,' an insider tells me.
'Among other criteria, the ideal candidate must be approximately 95 cm tall. It is very important that he or she must not get frightened on stage. We have had an incident in the past when the child got so scared he wet himself on stage . . . which was quite embarrassing.'
Tam is a non-speaking and non-singing part but he does have a few big scenes in which he is being hugged by his mother Kim (who will be played by Deedee Lynn Magno) and seen sleeping sweetly in bed. Darren Yap, the associate director of the Hong Kong production, will fly in from Sydney especially for this audition.
The audition will be held at Lyric Theatre, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (APA), from 11am.
Still on the subject of children, the programme line-up of this year's International Arts Carnival has just been announced. As diverse and rich as ever, the event will involve local, mainland and overseas theatre and arts groups from France, Japan, Korea, Britain, Canada and the United States. Among the biggest attractions for IAC 2001 is the Shaolin Warriors, who will appear in the 'Kung Fu and Acrobatic Wonders' programmes.