Claudia Lau in Blood Brothers

Next up in our Blood Brothers blog series, we have Claudia Lau! This was her first YAF musical experience and she was one of the narrator and part of the singing ensembles.

Tell us about yourself and our role in Blood Brothers.
My name is Claudia Lau, I'm 16 and I'm currently studying at Island School. I began my musical studies at the young age of 4 with piano, and throughout the years I've picked up the violin and vocal as well! This is my first HKYAF production, and in the production of Blood Brothers I play the role of the Narrator (along with 8 other narrators).

The most challenging thing was…
Understanding and embodying the role of the Narrator. I felt as though I struggled the most out of the 9 narrators. I didn't get the hang of it until the morning of our first show! I've never been comfortable with or a fan of physical theatre, therefore I was not confident whatsoever with the physicality of the Narrator role from the beginning. I found that I struggled to understand the 'weird but not too weird' concept that the Narrators should embrace and how to move across the stage like a Narrator should. It really was a long process but by the time I got it (thank heavens). It became very natural and almost a part of me, in a sense. And how could I possibly forget… THE CLOAKS! In our first dress rehearsal, I tripped, fell over, ripped… (you get the idea) over my cloak at least 10 times throughout the run-through. All of us complained about our cloaks and we found it super difficult to move around in them. I tripped on my cloak during our last show as well and in that moment, I laughed at myself though I also panicked a little, oops!​

I'm going to miss…
There are so many aspects that I'm going to/am missing already! Starting with the obvious, I really miss the 6 hours of rehearsals every week. Mondays and Wednesdays were the days I'd look forward to most-going to YAF, seeing everyone, working hard for a full straight 3 hours, learning from Lindsey, forgetting about school(!!)… It's strange to know that I have free time after school and have tutoring/homework to fill it up with. The next aspect I've already missed has to be Lindsey! Lindsey is a miracle worker. She's brilliant, super inspirational and I owe everything that I've learned and achieved over the past 3 months to her. She has taught me so much (not just about theatre!) and I've gotten to know her off the stage as well. I miss everything about her-whether it's her bubbly personality or the occasional angry frustration stemmed from rehearsals, haha! Last but possibly the most important aspect that I'm going to miss, has to be the friends that I've made from this production. I've met some of the most incredible people that have become an extremely important part of my life. They've helped to make this journey 10 times the fun it could’ve been and we've all grown to care for each other. Not being able to see them as often as we were able to is quite upsetting. Its as if we're inseparable!

What is your favourite song/dance number/scene?
SUCH A DIFFICULT QUESTION. The most significant numbers for me personally has to be Easy Terms, Long Sunday Afternoon and Marilyn Monroe (3). Easy Terms and Marilyn Monroe (3) were sung by Shimali and I'd cry a little every time I'd watch her perform it. It was so touching and so beautiful. Shimali's voice has this subtle vulnerability that fills me with overwhelming emotion, hence why I want to cry. As for Long Sunday Afternoon, it was Trevor's solo. I remember hearing it for the first time during auditions and already I was blown away by his talent. Hearing it again on stage, so emotional, well-polished and beautifully sung made my heart utterly melt. It was really tough to keep a straight face as a Narrator during all the songs because it was so easy for me to tear up!

Three tips for a successful performance?
- Knowing the whole show inside and out-the order of songs, lyrics, harmonies, the script-lines, characters in each scene etc. Its so important to be switched on every single rehearsal regardless of your own presence in the scene or not. Knowing everything that goes on will ensure that you don't mess up yourself and you never know when you may need to help another cast member!

- Always be switched on, focused and engaged. It's so easy to snap out of it and become really passive about it, especially when you're not specifically in that scene. The minute you don't engage, you're making the experience bad for yourself. It looks bad on your part and the energy of the whole show decreases.

- Believe in yourself. A few friends from the show gave me a pep talk the night before our first show because I was feeling a little upset and showed a lack of confidence. I picked myself back up the morning prior to our first show and decided to change my perspective towards everything. Its of utmost importance to stay positive and to believe that you were chosen because you were good, and very often its easy to forget that when there's so much other talent surrounding you. The faith you have in yourself and knowing that others believe in your talent gives you the confidence needed on stage and the motivation to bring it to the next level, going above and beyond to do a brilliant job. Prior to every show, before I stepped onto the stage, I reminded myself: 'I got this. I can do this. Go and rock that stage.' It sounds cheesy, but the validation you give yourself makes all the difference and it will show on stage.

What's next now that Blood Brothers is over?
Catch up with IB (International Baccalaureate)…. fun times! Our school gives us a ton of support constantly and our teachers understood how busy we became-juggling our academics/extra-curricular whilst attending so many rehearsals so they were quiet lenient and asked us to catch up at a later time. Its tough with IB, but we pulled through. But now that its over, I really do have a lot of catching up to and I need to 'try' and focus a lot more on my pile of work that needs to be completed. Within the coming two weeks, however, I have our school Christmas Concerts to prepare for. Super exciting! So glad that I won’t be away from the stage for too long…

“I wish that I was bit like…that guy!”____ Is there anyone you wish you were a bit like?
Shimali!! As Lindsey says, she's just 'AWESOME!'. She's incredibly talented, a beautiful person, a joy to watch on stage, and an amazing person to be friend. She ticks every single box there is. I think that the whole cast basically dream of being Shimali, or dream of having Shimali's voice and talent, hahaha!