All The World's A Stage...

Do you need an actor, stand-up comedian, singer, MC, guest speaker, stage manager or publicist for your play, film, commercial, party, corporate training programme, conference, PR event...? I'm ready and waiting for your call.

I'm Kay Ross in Hong Kong, and I LOVE watching, participating in and marketing the performing arts.

Check out my performing arts CV and my fab photo gallery, then contact me today if you need my services.

A multi-talented performer

As a teenager in Adelaide, Australia, I was a member of a youth theatre group called The Saturday Company for four years; I sang in the choir and performed in theatre productions at Adelaide Girls' High School, and I sang in the choir and studied drama for one year at Adelaide University.

Since then, I've done countless workshops in acting, Playback Theatre, improvising, stand-up comedy, singing and dancing.

When I was based in Edinburgh, Scotland, from August 1979 to October 1980, I performed in some amateur theatre productions, including one in the 1980 Fringe Festival.

In Hong Kong, I've been involved in lots of shows with the Hong Kong Players, Hong Kong Singers, American Community Theater, Kassia Women's Choir and other groups - I've performed onstage and/or helped with publicity or stage management. 

Here's a short YouTube video of Kassia Women's Choir (including me) singing "Joyful, Joyful" in our "Soul Sister 2" season, March 23, 2010 at St. Mary's Church, Causeway Bay. (The sound quality of the recording isn't great, but you'll get the idea.)

I've also done some professional acting gigs: I was an extra in a local feature film; played Margaret Thatcher in a TV commercial; appeared as Mrs Santa Claus in a Christmas promotion in several shopping-malls; was a story-teller for local kindergarten students; and acted in an online promotional video for a group of Hong Kong hotels (see my blog post about that experience).

As an added bonus, I speak fluent French (so I've played lots of French maids, ooh la la!).

The healing power of laughter

Friday February 3, 9pm-10.30pm, $150 - "The Game Is Afooter!" a comedy improv show by PLI (it's the sequel to our Sherlock Holmes spoof, "The Game is Afoot!", in June 2010)
Thursday March 1-Sunday March 4, times and ticket prices to be confirmed - the 2nd Annual Hong Kong International Improv Festival

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Improv comedy

I'm a member of People's Liberation Improv (PLI), a comedy improvisation troupe based at the Club. We perform comedy improv shows featuring improvised scenes based on suggestions from the audience (think "Whose Line is it Anyway?"). You say it, we play it!

On August 26, 2009, we did our first international show, in Macau. We also performed two one-hour sets in the first-ever Hong Kong Comedython (a 12-hour event on May 8, 2010), and also in the second annual event (June 11, 2011). Both events, held at Champs Bar in the Charterhouse Hotel, Causeway Bay, were in aid of Hong Kong Dog Rescue.

PLI also performed in the first-ever, and hugely successful, Hong Kong International Improv Festival, with Beijing Improv and Seoul City Improv, March 3-5, 2011. We then sent a small team (including me) to the Beijing Improv Interactive Arts Festival over the Easter weekend, April 22-24, and some of us (again including me) performed in the Seoul International Improv Festival, May 13-15.

On June 28, 2011, PLI presented "Life Is An Improvisation Game", a talk/workshop about adding creativity to life and business, at the Hong Kong Fringe Club. We explained and demonstrated how the principles and techniques of comedy improvisation can be applied in life and in business for better communication, teamwork, creativity, problem-solving, productivity and just plain fun! Comments from participants included: "It was awesome" and "Last night was simply fantastic!" and "Session was brilliant & funny".

Here's a video of a short improv game, "Angst Choir", performed by PLI in our "May Contain Nuts" show (May 2010). You can't see me much (I'm on the far right), but you can certainly hear me!

Here's an article about PLI from "BC Magazine", July 2, 2009. And here's our PLI Facebook page, with lots of short video clips of improv scenes. We're on twitter at PLIHongKong.

Stand-up comedy

Since February 2007, I've performed my own original stand-up comedy material at the TakeOut Comedy Club, Hong Kong's (and Asia's) only full-time, dedicated comedy venue. But I'm taking a break from stand-up now to focus on improv.

A highlight for me was performing as one of the two local opening acts for visiting professional comedian Bernadette Pauley from the USA, on June 26, 2010.  

The TakeOut Comedy Club is in the basement of 34 Elgin Street, SoHo, Central. On foot, come up the Mid-levels escalator to Elgin Street, turn right, and the Club is just a few doors down on your right.

Most stand-up comedy shows at the Club last for about 1.5 hours, and feature 6-8 solo performers (all English-speaking).

Sorry, no food or drinks on sale at the venue (but people have been known to bring in their own cans and bottles from the nearby 7/11 - shhhh, don't tell anyone). Audience members receive a two-for-one voucher for drinks at a nearby bar after the show.

I performed in the VDay production of "The Vagina Monologues" by Eve Ensler, on February 24-25, 2011. It was great fun!

All proceeds went to the Women’s International Shared Experience (WISE) project, a charity that uses social media to educate women in Asia and Southeast Asia how to use a computer, the Internet and a camera to share their stories.