fannywrites

A recent obituary of the Indian actor Shashi Kapoor brought back memories of my first exposure to two plays in the late 1950s.  A traveling repertory company from India  performed two plays in my school, Sacred hear School in Hong Kong. It was founded by English expatriates in India. Now I know that the founder was the father of the English actress Felicity Kendal. If I remember correctly, one play was a Shakespeare play and the other was by Oscar Wilde. I can’t remember which. I was enthralled by the performances.  I already enjoyed Cantonese operas. It was at those performances that my love for the performance arts took a firmer hold.

A movie, Shakespeare Wallah from Merchant Ivory Productions told the story of a repertory company like the one that came to Hong Kong. It starred Shahi Kapoor and Felicity Kendall. I saw it in the U.S. in the 1960s and enjoyed it very much.

Nowadays, I go to musicals more than plays. I’ve been trying to instill a love of the performing arts, dance, musicals, concerts(not rock) to my now 15 year-old twins grandchildren.

It’s too bad that in general, tickets are astronomically expensive.  Live performances are not available to most children.

I was happy to receive a Broadway.com gift for a Broadway show. When I ordered two tickets from a representative, I was charged $37.40 service charge for each ticket. The same charge for an online order. I told the representative that I would go to the box office to save the charges. He told me that the gift cannot be redeemed at a box office. That’s the policy! I advice that if you want to give someone a gift for a show, give cash instead.  If you buy four tickets with a gift certificate, the charge will be almost $150!

Actually, when I bought tickets at a box office three months ago, I was charged for service also. It was about $6 per ticket. I understand someone not living in the metropolitan area cannot get to the box office easily.