bound feet blues

Introducing the world of Bound Feet Blues: the Australian Outback

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Bound Feet Blues is a solo theatre performance – but on an epic scale. Writer/ performer Yang-May Ooi takes the audience across continents from Asia to Europe and Australia. We’ll be sharing with you the landscapes of Bound Feet Blues here on this blog over the next few weeks. Today, the vast desert scenery of the Australian Outback.

In Bound Feet Blues, the open skies and vast desert of Australia gives Yang-May’s younger self a freedom she never had in the narrower landscapes of London and Oxford…

Australian Outback – Photo from flickr.com, thanks to Mark Wassell – https://www.flickr.com/photos/61520356@N07/ (CCL0

Uluru – once known as Ayers Rock . From flickr.com, thanks to Rita Willaert – https://www.flickr.com/photos/rietje/ (CCL)

A pivotal moment in Bound Feet Blues occurs on the precipice at Kings Canyon, Australia – photo from flickr.com thanks to Los viajes del Cangrejo – https://www.flickr.com/photos/viajescangrejo/ (CCL)

 

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Meet Crin Claxton, production manager for Bound Feet Blues

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Crin Claxton will be running the show for each performance, taking care of all the technical and behind the scenes details as the production manager to make sure each night goes off without a hitch.

Crin Claxton, Production Manager

Crin Claxton is a highly experienced lighting, sound and AV technician, and lighting designer. She worked as venue technician (chief) and touring technician (LX, sound, stage) for multiple companies and has been production manager and Continue reading →

Meet Hua Tan, set and lighting designer for Bound Feet Blues

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Hua Tan travels between Shanghai and London, working on diverse productions from Chinese language dramas and operas to international collaborations like the National Theatre’s Chinese language production of War Horse. She has created an amazing set for Bound Feet Blues as well as complementing Yang-May’s performance with a nuanced and atmospheric lighting design.

HUA TAN – Theatre Designer

Hua TanHua Tan is an established creative lighting designer and scenographer based in London who works for theatre productions in the UK and China. Hua completed an MA in lighting design from The Central Academy of Drama in China, and an MA distinction in Scenography from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. In her varied, successful career Hua has lit and designed for opera, drama, dance, and traditional Chinese operas. The highlights of her career to date include ‘Under The Hawthorn Tree’ (National Theatre of China), ‘Queen of coquetry’ (Shanghai Drama Art Centre) and ‘Open Country’ (Beijing Dance Academy). Her work has attracted awards and prizes including the ‘best lighting design’ at China Lotus Dance Festival, Shanghai Stage Art Society, Henan Theatre Festival, the ‘best set and Continue reading →

Introducing Tristan Bates Theatre where Bound Feet Blues will be playing for 3 weeks

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For a solo show like Bound Feet Blues where Yang-May is the sole performer and focus, holding the stage for an hour, Tristan Bate Theatre is the ideal venue. The theatre space is intimate, seating 60 people, and yet can seem vast as is appropriate for the epic quality of the story.

Tristan Bates Theatre

TBT_logoOpened in 1994, the Tristan Bates Theatre is dedicated to the memory of Tristan Bates, son of Actors Centre patron Sir Alan Bates, an aspiring actor who died at the age of 19. An intimate studio theatre, the TBT has an acclaimed history of showcasing and supporting the best new work in the heart of Covent Garden. Over the past two decades the theatre has Continue reading →

Meet Eldarin Yeong, producer of Bound Feet Blues

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Eldarin Yeong produced the showcase of Bound Feet Blues in Oct last year and is now working on the full production of the show for its 3 week run in Nov/ Dec this year. She brings her calm, efficient energy to the administrative, logistical and business side of the production, pulling it all together to make sure everything goes smoothly.

ELDARIN YEONG – Producer

Eldarin Yeong - Producer, Bound Feet BluesEldarin is a theatre producer and director, and the columnist on Theatre and Arts for UK Chinese Times newspaper. Her producing credits include: The Rites of Spring/ Romeo and Juliet (Concert Theatre National Tour),  Normal Love (Lilian Bailey, Sadler’s Wells),  Thor of the Common Man The Cockpit London), Aquatic The Cockpit London), film Atalantas (British Film Institute),The Monster in the Hall National Theatre of Scotland & Shanghai Grand Theatre) and Continue reading →

Yang-May Ooi will be at Papergang’s Echo Event at Bush Theatre, 20 Oct 2015 for a night of East Asian stories

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Yang-May Ooi will be taking part in an evening of East Asian story-exchanges with other established and upcoming East Asian artists at the Bush Theatre on 20 Oct 2015. The event is hosted by Papergang Theatre, a platform for British East Asian artist.

Papergang Echo event at Bush Theatre 20Oct15 screenshot

Here is what Papergang has to say about the evening:

“Through a mix of performance, poetry and music, established and up-and-coming artists are keen to share their tales, to awaken us, to connect us and to inspire…

Listen as our guests divulge personal anecdotes born from the different cultures that have shaped them – fantastical tales, personal truths, memories of far-flung shores or incidents that happened right here in our city.”

The event is already sold out!

Yang-May will be performing an extract from Bound Feet Blues. She says: “I’m also looking forward to seeing Continue reading →

Read Yang-May Ooi’s article on Coming Out as an Act of Personal Empowerment on Zusterschap for National Coming Out Day

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The male gaze has controlled how women look and behave for centuries. In ancient China, that view of women as decorative objects led to the brutal practice of footbinding that crippled Chinese women for a thousand years. Today, women in the West are still expected to be pleasing to men in how we dress and act. In celebration of National Coming Out Day, writer/ performer Yang-May Ooi looks at how coming out as lesbian can be a defiance against that objectifying gaze that is as much about personal empowerment  as it is about sexual orientation….

Read the full article on Zusterchap by clicking on the image below:

zusterchap screenshot

Zusterschap is a blog for women who want to challenge social norms:

“Every woman’s voice is a victory and our goal is to highlight the power of women coming together. No topic is off limits and at Zusterschap we are dedicated to creating a safe space for women.

Our goal is to create a supportive community that anybody can support. We want to encourage people into thinking it’s okay to be different and that it’s okay to want to challenge what society tells us. You don’t have to believe what is being sold to you because it’s all made up anyway.”

Zusterschap was founded March 24th, 2015 by Tara Costello and Katherine Hockley.

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You can buy tickets for Bound Feet Blues via bit.ly/bfbtickets

DETAILS

Tristan Bates Theatre
1A Tower St, Covent Garden WC2H 9NP

Tue 24 Nov – Sat 12 Dec, Tue – Sat at 7.30pm.
Tickets £16 / £12 concessions.
Q&As post-show, 27 Nov & 4 Dec.

For National Coming Out Day, read a FREE extract from Yang-May Ooi’s coming out story as told in her memoir Bound Feet Blues, the book

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To celebrate National Coming Out Day tomorrow, Sunday 11 Oct, writer/ performer Yang-May Ooi shares an extract from her memoir Bound Feet Blues – A Life Told in Shoes, the book that is inspired by her solo theatre piece of the same name. Bound Feet Blues is as much about Yang-May’s journey to discovering her sexual identity as it is the story of the women in her family. 

Here is the extract from the chapter entitled “Biker Boots” from the book, Bound Feet Blues:

Coming out is a rite of passage.

In the world of debutantes and high society, it is an ancient tradition going back generations. When a young woman comes of age, she is invited to a coming out ball to introduce her to society – and  in the aristocratic classes in Britain, to present her to the monarch. It is her “debut” into the world as an adult – or, rather, as a fertile virgin of a marriagable age. This custom continues to this day among the elite not just in Britain but also, surprisingly, in the ideally classless societies of Australia and the United States.

The coming out ball is the moment when high society gathers to view the future of their dynasties. Debutantes customarily wear white ball gowns, sometimes with long white Cinderella gloves and sometimes with tiaras or both.  If you Google images of  “debutante ball coming out”, you will see that the styles of the ball dresses have changed little since Victorian times and often the young women are indistinguishable from each other in their demure, beautiful uniforms. The eligible young bachelors gather round them in white tie and tails and suddenly, we are back in the world of Jane Austen and Downton Abbey and fairy tale princesses.

For a young woman in that society, to come out is to emerge from Continue reading →

Meet the Sponsors of Bound Feet Blues

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To put one person on stage for a solo theatre show like Bound Feet Blues, you need a team of other talented professionals working behind the scenes to make sure a range of components are all in place – from the creative vision, to production and business matters, set and lighting design, costume and the running of the show every night. There is also of course the theatre space that is the foundation of the whole project.

Over the next few weeks, we will be introducing you to the creative team here on this blog. Today, we would like to introduce to you – and thank – our supporters and sponsors without whom this 3 week production of Bound Feet Blues would not be possible.

Arts Council, England

This production of Bound Feet Blues – as well as research and development for the showcase performance in Oct last year – is generously supported by funding from Arts Council, England. We are grateful for their support.

Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. We believe that art and culture make life better, helps to build diverse communities and improves our quality of life.  Great art and culture can inspire our education system, boost our economy and give our nation international standing.   – See more at: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/#sthash.VUv8wa3X.dpuf

The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC)

We are indebted to The Housing Finance Corporation, which is match-funding this production of Bound Feet Blues.

Piers Williamson, Chief Executive, says: “THFC is proud to sponsor this intriguing piece of theatre. Bound Feet Blues is a show with an impassioned message about personal empowerment, acceptance of diversity and the relationship of an individual within her community. These themes are consistent with our corporate values as an independent mutually owned finance company and our core business of funding affordable housing in diverse communities. We hope that you will enjoy this innovative and thought-provoking theatre piece.”

 

THFC is an independent, specialist, not-for-profit organisation that makes loans to regulated Housing Associations, that Continue reading →

Do our shoes shape who we are? [video] – Yang-May Ooi, writer/ performer of Bound Feet Blues, thinks so

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Yang-May Ooi, writer/ performer of Bound Feet Blues – A Life Told in Shoes, talks about how shoes and bound feet in her extra-ordinary theatre piece are a metaphor for who we are – and who we long to be.

Bound Feet Blues – A Life Told in Shoes is a solo story performance written and performed by Yang-May Ooi and directed by Jessica Higgs. A memoir of the same name by Yang-May Ooi is also being published.

ABOUT THE SHOW
In an epic journey from China via East Asia and Australia to England, British-Malaysian writer-performer Yang-May Ooi explores female empowerment and desirability through the oral histories of three generations of her family and the shoes in her life. Yang-May uses the ancient Chinese tradition of footbinding experienced by Continue reading →