With the first series of Directors' Lab (experimental theatre work-shops) just finished and the second starting next month at Cattle Depot Artist Village, have you achieved what you set out to do?
Onandon theatre workshop artistic director Chan Ping-chiu:
'The idea behind this Directors' Lab series is to give local theatre directors from different back-grounds the opportunity to work together. I think we've done that.
'It was hoped that through this collaboration, the artists could explore a new theatrical language. Whether we've managed to do that you'll need to speak to the critics, but the artists tried not to go up the same old path and attempted something different.
'We also wanted to raise the profile of the Cattle Depot Artist Village, which is part of our plan to promote the site and bring more audiences here. The first three collaborations [Chan with Steven Pang Ka-wing; Tang Shu-wing with Hui Shu-ning; and Bonni Chan Lai-chu with Lee Chun-chow] did bring in a sizeable crowd - up to 200 came to the best attended performance. But these directors are old hands.
'The new series will be very different because all the directors are new. There were no criteria in our selection, although all of them are in one way or another linked with onandon theatre workshop. They're not all Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts graduates. They're taking this exercise very seriously, but, as with the first series, it's the creative process, rather than the final production, that really matters.'
