History
Our early days
The first performance of playback theatre for the Chinese community in the UK took place on May 30th 2004 at the Camden Chinese Community Centre in association with the Chinese Information & Advice Centre. The title of the performance was The Hearts of Women. (Read about this performance)
A second performance entitled Treasure Box, took place on February 20th 2005 at the Islington Chinese Association as part of Making Our Stories Visible, a community arts project funded by Arts Council of England. (link to promotion leaflet in English and Chinese)
In connection with Whispers of Time - a Chinese National Healthy Living Centre project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund - playback was performed at showings of the DVD documentation at several Chinese community centres during April & May 2005.
The UK Chinese Playback Team also performed at the launch of www.stoplookgo-evergreen.org.uk – a domestic violence website for Chinese community in the UK – which took place in Birmingham on July 7th 2005. (Read about this event)
All of our early team members, Michele Chung, Dorothy Wong, Ku Ieng Un, Gabriella Zanzanaini, Christina Paul, Mok Sio Chong, Lou Chong Neng encountered Playback Theatre with Veronica Needa in Hong Kong & Macau. With guest musicians, Sherry Robinson and Terrino Chan, they joined the UK Chinese Playback Team while doing under- or post-graduate studies here in the UK. Many have now returned to Hong Kong & Macau.
New Blood & True Heart
Since January 2006, a new clutch of people have come together with a commitment to practice and perform playback theatre. On Saturday 28th January, the UK Chinese Playback Team performed at East@West Wing – a new arts festival in Slough to showcase British East Asian talent.
A series of open Playback workshops for the Chinese community was then followed by commitment to regular practice rehearsals voluntarily. And over the first half of 2006, the UK Chinese Playback Team has been reconceived as True Heart Theatre. Our first performance under that name was for Creative Partnerships North London, on June 8th 2006.
We currently practice at Camden Chinese Community Centre, and host Open Practice Days for Chinese community members and friends (non Chinese folks are most welcome to join us) on a regular basis voluntarily. Our plans for the near future include ongoing training, open practice days, and more performance engagements subject to availablity of funding.
Thank you for the in kind support by the Camden Chinese Community Centre.