Monday, March 21, 2011

Drama Queen

Lately I'm trying all kinds of new things. Like kick boxing and starting my own business. And now, theater.

Well, let me back up. One day this woman named Luciana came to my kick boxing class and she said she was putting together a show for International Women's Day and she needed some fighters for a fight scene. My friend Dee and I volunteered.

We didn't realize that the show would require real acting with speaking parts and all but we were good sports about it. We set two not-so-ambitious goals for ourselves:
1) Have fun.
2) Make the audience laugh.

We achieved those goals and in addition we gave each other countless bruises and cuts during our rehearsals.

And we became fast friends our co-star Tom Lone and our director Aashna Sen.

The play ran at the Penghao Theater. If you live in Beijing then attending a play at this theater needs to be on your bucket list. It cozy and hip and you will love it, I promise. Be sure to get the carrot cake from the cafe. You wouldn't expect to get the best carrot cake of your life in a theater cafe, would you? Oh, but you will. Normally you get carrot cake because of the cream cheese frosting but would you believe their cheesecake has chocolate frosting? Carrot cake with chocolate icing! It rocked my world.

Let's see, where was I? Oh right, the play.

The proceeds from the play went to a non-profit called Wokai, which provides micro-financing for women in rural China. Click on this link and you can see women just waiting for funding for their projects, and it's easy to donate.

Here are some scenes from the play. As you can see I've overcome my inhibitions about hitting, kicking and biting.

















I'm not planning to keep the gold jacket that I wore in the play. What should I do with it? Please tell me in the comments section.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

That looks like a jacket for Audrey!

Melanie Gao said...

Anon that's exactly what Audrey said! :)

Unknown said...

How did the sword fight degrade into a cat fight?

Yuichiro said...

I was so surprised that you fought, but I was relieved you keep good shape.

Anonymous said...

Great performance, Melanie! I didn't know you could do a cat fight. ;-)

What's up with the man in the show? Standing there and watching the cat fight? LOL

It's so sweet of Buddy to have brought flowers.

-Xiang

Melanie Gao said...

Hubert, my character was much more complex than either you or I will ever understand. ;)

Yuichiro, come to Beijing and I will kickbox with you!

Xiang, that was the man who was dating both Dee and me. He enjoyed watching us fight over him. In the show and also in real life, I think.

Charlie Wang said...

That's really cool that you kickbox... I box, and would offer to spar with you. But it'd be embarrassing to get my ass kicked by a girl, so ya...

BTW your husband IS mighty sweet!

Melanie Gao said...

Charlie I have to admit I've never really sparred. We do lots of kicking and punching exercises but they're all routines. So maybe, possibly, I wouldn't kick your ass. :)

An said...

This is great! I would have liked to have seen that. No video? =)

Melanie Gao said...

An I've heard there is a video. Let me see if I can get it for you. :)

Ulyana said...

This was great!!!! I hope you kept the jacket...

Melanie Gao said...

I quickly passed the jacket on to my 10-year-old, who thinks it's fab. :)

Unknown said...

Cat fight! These boots were made for kicking!