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“This was not the life I was meant to have…” – Bound Feet Blues Performance Photo

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In Bound Feet Blues, writer/ performer tells the story of her great-grandmother in China who had bound feet. This performance photo from the showcase night in Oct last year, shows Yang-May enacting a scene of this bound foot woman from her family’s history: “This was not the life I was meant to have…!”

** Bound Feet Blues is NOW ON  at the Tristan Bates Theatre until Sat 12 December 2015. Don’t miss this “mesmerising” and “powerful” show – buy tickets below or via bit.ly/bfbtickets **

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BUY TICKETS

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

DETAILS

Tristan Bates Theatre Continue reading →

Local author Yang-May Ooi talks to Dulwich OnView about Bound Feet Blues – now on at Tristan Bates Theatre

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Dulwich OnView, the online magazine celebrating all things Dulwich and South East London interviewed writer/ performer Yang-May Ooi about Bound Feet Blues and the shows relevance for modern women today. Yang-May also shares her stories about the role of fashion and shoes in her life.

** Bound Feet Blues is NOW ON  at the Tristan Bates Theatre until Sat 12 December 2015. Don’t miss this “mesmerising” and “powerful” show – buy tickets below or via bit.ly/bfbtickets **

To read the full article, click on the image below…

dov screenshot

Dulwich OnView magazine celebrates the people and culture of Dulwich and the surrounding areas of South East London.

The magazine came about when a group of us, who love the Dulwich area and Continue reading →

Bound Feet Blues opens tonight for 3 weeks – Buy tickets here!

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Writer/ performer Yang-May Ooi and the creative team are at the theatre right now working on the final preparations for opening night tonight. There is the final dress rehearsal, the technical lighting run through and making sure the set is just right.

Then, finally, after almost of a year of preparation, Bound Feet Blues will open as a full production tonight at 7.30pm at Tristan Bates Theatre for a 3 week run. The house lights will go down and as a haunting fusion ballad of East and West plays, Yang-May will step onto the stage to perform the work she wrote almost two years ago….

Have you got your tickets yet?

Go to the bottom of this page for the link to the box office or go straight to buy tickets via bit.ly/bfbtickets

There’s still an outside chance that there will be tickets left for opening night tonight – but if not, the show runs for 3 weeks to 12 Dec. So there’s still time to get your tickets to catch this extra-ordinary solo show.

Watch the highlights from the showcase performance in Oct last year:

 

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BUY TICKETS

**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.

**BUY ONLINE via: bit.ly/bfbtickets **

Meet The Centre for Solo Performance where writer/ performer Yang-May Ooi developed the script of Bound Feet Blues

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Bound Feet Blues was just an idea in the mind of writer/ performer Yang-May Ooi when she signed up for a workshop at The Centre for Solo Performance in January 2014. With the guidance of facilitators Luke Dixon and Sean Bruno and the feedback of the others workshop participants, Yang-May completed the script of Bound Feet Blues in 12 weeks. She performed a work-in-progress version of the piece at the Centre’s Going Solo scratch night in March 2014 at Conway Hall.

At the performance was one of the producers of the South East Asian (SEA) Arts Festival, Annie Kwan, who invited Yang-May to perform the completed show at that year’s festival in October. The showcase was performed at the Tristan Bates Theatre to a sold out audience and 4+ star reviews. Now, within 2 years of first starting the script, Yang-May and the Bound Feet Blues creative team have brought the show to full production, opening at Tristan Bates Theatre for a 3 week run on 24 November 2015.

The Centre for Solo Performance

CSP-workshopBased in central London at historic Conway Hall, THE CENTRE FOR SOLO PERFORMANCE works with THE CONWAY COLLECTIVE in providing a specialist series of unique performance workshops, events and opportunities catering to writers, actors and performance artists interested in creating, developing, sharing solo performance work.

LukeDixonSeanhiresLuke Dixon is a performance maker, writer, teacher and academic, internationally known for his innovative productions of Shakespeare, his site-specific performances, his teaching of actors and his research into performance. www.lukedixon.co.uk Sean Bruno has a wide range of experience in making, both solo and collaborative, performance work in various contemporary and traditional styles; including dance, spoken word, multimedia and site specific. www.seanbruno.co.uk

Creating Solo PerformanceTheir book Creating Solo Performance is now available as well. It is an innovative toolbox of exercises and challenges focused on providing you – the performer – with engaging and inspiring ways to explore and develop your idea both on the page and in the performance space. Creating Solo Performance by Sean Bruno and Luke Dixon £18.99

You can watch highlights from that first scratch night performance at Conway Hall below:

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

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Introducing the landscape of Bound Feet Blues – Malaysia, where writer/ performer Yang-May Ooi grew up

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The setting of Bound Feet Blues ranges from Oxford in England to China and the Australian Outback – and to Malaysia, the childhood home of writer/ performer Yang-May Ooi. We are sharing with you some of these landscapes here on this blog.

Many of the scenes in Bound Feet Blues depict Yang-May as a child running barefoot in the garden and spending time with her family.  To give you a feel of that lush tropical landscape that forms the central heart of the show, here are some photos of gardens in Malaysia and of Kuala Lumpur, Yang-May’s hometown.

 

Garden, Kuala Lumpur – from flickr.com (CCL) https://www.flickr.com/photos/smarterwithin/

 

Garden, Kuala Lumpur – via Pinterest – https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/412079434624710326/

 

Malaysia – contrast of East and West – from flickr.com (CCL) – https://www.flickr.com/photos/hagens_world/

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

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Meet Bound Feet Blues Q&A chair Beverley Glick (27 November 2015)

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There are 3 Q&A sessions taking place during the Bound Feet Blues three week run. The first one will take place after the show on Friday 27 November 2015. We are delighted to welcome back Beverley Glick to chair this first Q&A of the full production. Beverley was our Q&A host for the showcase in October last year and steered us through the evening with quiet warmth. This first Q&A is going to be engaging and discursive with her in the chair again. So please do come and join us on Friday 27 November to see the show and take part in the discussion afterwards with Beverley, writer/ performer Yang-May Ooi and director Jessica Higgs.

Beverley Glick

Beverley Glick has been a professional storyteller for 35 years – first as a music journalist and pop magazine editor and subsequently in a variety of roles on national newspapers. In recent years she trained as a presence-based coach and now help individuals and business owners dig for the personal stories that will change their lives and change the world. She is also a public speaking coach, co-host a live storytelling event (thestoryparty.co.uk) and the author of Dig for the Story in Your Soul – #StoryWisdom to help you author an authentic life (out now on Amazon).

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BUY TICKETS

**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.

**BUY ONLINE via: bit.ly/bfbtickets **

Yang-May Ooi on Resonance FM’s Out in South London talking about Bound Feet Blues with Rosie Wilby

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Writer/ performer Yang-May Ooi dropped into the Out in South London studio at Resonance FM earlier this week to talk to Rosie Wilby about Bound Feet Blues, the show and the book. Bound Feet Blues may be about bound feet but it is also Yang-May’s coming out story – and Yang-May chats to Rosie about the metaphor of binding and restriction in the show and how it relates to her emerging lesbian identity. They also talk about friendship and falling in love… of course!

To listen to the conversation with Yang-May, click on the image below:

resonance screenshot

OR click here to launch the audio player

You can also listen to the whole show via the Out in South London Listen Again page for 17 November 2015.

Out in South London

Out In South London is a weekly LGBT radio show on Resonance 104.4FM that goes out live every Tuesday at 6.30pm. It is devised and presented by comedian Rosie Wilby and jointly produced by Rosie Wilby and Sabine Schereck.

Out in South London started as a monthly show on South City Radio in Peckham in December 2008. Rosie was inspired by shows like Out This Week on Radio 5 Live in the 1990s, where she once worked as a trainee reporter. The show transferred to Resonance 104.4FM in late 2009.

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BUY TICKETS

**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.

**BUY ONLINE via: bit.ly/bfbtickets **

From storytelling to stage performance – Yang-May Ooi talks about her journey from writer to performer

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British-Malaysian writer/ performer Yang-May Ooi has been interviewed for Outstation.my, the online magazine for expat Malaysians, by writer/ journalist Ai-Leen Lim. In the interview, she talks about her journey from writer to performer in creating Bound Feet Blues, her solo stage show, opening in London’s West End on 24 November.

You can read the full article, – brilliantly titled “The Rebel Bearing Shoes”! – with background information about Yang-May by clicking on the image below…

outstation screenshot

Outstation.my is an online magazine for Malaysians living abroad. Ai-Leen Lim is a writer/ journalist from Malaysia, now living in London.

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The power of vulnerability to inspire others – Yang-May Ooi talks about performing Bound Feet Blues

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Yang-May Ooi talks about allowing herself to be vulnerable on stage in performing Bound Feet Blues and how vulnerability can inspire others to connect with their heart and  humanity.  You can read the full interview by writer/ journalist Anna Sayburn Lane on her blog, Bloomsbury Bluestocking.

Click on the image below to go to Anna’s blog to read the full article…

bloomsbury blue screenshot

Bloomsbury Bluestocking is a blog about writing and literature by Anna Sayburn Lane.  Anna is a novelist, short story writer and storyteller, inspired by the history and contemporary life of London. She is editing her first novel,Unlawful Things, and contemplating novel number two. She has published short stories in a number of magazines.

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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.

One week to the opening night of Bound Feet Blues! Have you got your ticket yet?

/ Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

Yang-May Ooi’s astonishing one woman show Bound Feet Blues will open in one week’s time on Tuesday 24 November 2015 at Tristan Bates Theatre. Have you got your ticket yet?

Not yet? Don’t miss this extra-ordinary tour de force solo performance. You can still buy tickets via bit.ly/bfbtickets

Bound Feet Blues takes us back to ancient China to the inner chamber of a mother with bound feet as she describes and demonstrates the brutal practice of footbinding on her daughter. We may judge this in our modern times as cruel but if we were women living in that time, would we do the same out of love for our little girl?

We also see Yang-May as a tomboy aged 10 and as Continue reading →