For Immediate Release - June 5th, 2016

I AM Concepts Brings Hong Kong Hit "Love Pings" To New York City

Audition Date: June 8th, 2016(Wed) Time: 10:00am-6pm

Location: Loft227, 227 W 29th Street, 4F, New York, NY 10001

Map: https://goo.gl/maps/8g8FoyXj9nG2

Casting Team: Kate March, Shek Wai-Ting, Robin Sokoloff

Interested parties, please email your bio, C.V. and photos(full-body & head-shot) to
support@iam-dining.com before June 7th, 2016 (Tues).

________________________________

THE PLAY

Love Pings is an original play written by American director Kate March in collaboration with the Hong Kong based and globally expanding production company, I AM (www.iam-concepts.com).

Love Pings chronicles the story of Jane’s adventure with 7 simultaneous love interests as she tries to find meaningful connection through the ever-fuzzy world of text messaging, iMessage, Whatsapp, Facebook, email, Skype, FaceTime, the old fashioned phone call, and the occasional live meet. The rapid fire dialogue is purely composed of virtual messages, interspersed with moments of face-to-face interaction or phone calls between characters. Love Pings adopts a unique story-telling approach by marking the flavour of the technology-flooded 21st century through physical movement. Themes of connection, relationships, presence, absence, and love in a digital and globally connected world are explored with a plot that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. Be prepared for some unexpected twists to this unconventional romance. Or maybe it isn’t radical at all, maybe it’s just love reconfigured for the digital age....Highlighting the endlessly fascinating connections that can be made through the virtual world, the question remains: are any of these digital “pings” signaling real love, or is it all an illusion?

Following its successful launch in OCT 2015 in Hong Kong to the 3 full-house performances, Love Pings is now invited to be restaged in New York City in a theatre located in the heart of Time Square.

Total duration of the play is about 1 hour and 50 minutes.

PRODUCTION SCHEDULE

June 8, 2017: Audition & Confirm Cast.

July 17th -25th: Director from Hong Kong will fly in to NYC to have 7 days intensive rehearsals with the NYC Assistant Director and cast.

August(TBC): Rehearsals with NYC Assistant Director.

Late-September: Director from Hong Kong will fly in to NYC to rehearse with the cast until the play moves into theatre.

Mid-October TBC: Move in to theatre (Potentially, the week of Oct 10th).

Possible Tour to Various Northeast Colleges TBC

________________________________

AUDITION (NON-UNION)

The audition will take approximately an hour with 2 parts involved (individual and group auditions). We highly recommend actor to arrive at the audition studio 15-30 mins in advance for administrative registration and preparation. Selected pages of script will be giving out during the audition. The audition will also be documented by video for only internal uses.

Part I - Individual Audition

Actor is required to prepare a monologue script.

Part II - Group Audition

6-8 actors will be collaborating in the selected scene from the script.
The group will have 10mins of preparation time.

________________________________

CAST BREAKDOWN

*Note that G, T, and M were cast as females playing male roles. Gender Fluidity is used quite significantly.

JANE FORD: an American woman in her late twenties who is living in Hong Kong. She’s creative, bright, restless, and magnetic. She’s looking for connection (love?) and for an adventure….She wasn’t looking for a new career in espionage, but it found her....in the midst of a whirlwind romance. She’s talking to 7 men over various messaging applications but one in particular strikes her fancy. Little did she know the real reason for their seemingly fated meet.

Z: a North African/French businessman and scientist in his early to mid forties. He travels internationally every week, potentially every day occasionally stopping at his Hong Kong apartment. He’s very genuine, sweet, extremely intelligent, and a bit of a nerd. His messages are a bit bizarre and ambiguous but come across as endearing and funny. He is hiding a secret which comes as a major surprise for the audience. He may or may not be a… spy.

T: a young Chinese businessman whose father is very involved with Chinese government and politics. He’s very composed, presentable, and exudes lavish lifestyle of luxury. His English is spotty at best. Obviously has an ego and excited to be involved with a foreign woman probably purely based on how it appears for outward appearances.

J: an Australian telecom man in his late thirties. He’s friends and colleagues with Z. He’s friendly, extroverted, and life of the party personality. Though underneath it all he is vulnerable and doesn’t always reveal the full story unless he’s a bit boozed up. Stops through Hong Kong periodically; very communicative to the point of being awkward sometimes.

G: a young British pilot. He’s incredibly sweet and stable perhaps to the point of naiveté and therefore, his personality comes off as dull, predictable, and needy. Always very calculated and composed in his interactions with Jane.

C: an American entrepreneur who has come to Hong Kong to start building a property empire. Self-made millionaire who’s not afraid to boast about it. He’s attractive, charming, outspoken, a bit sleazy, mid forties, and cunning. He’s married with 2 children.

M: an Italian fashion designer who lives in Shanghai but visits HK from time to time. He’s suave, stylish, attractive, funny, and charming. He’s also a total nymphomaniac with an insatiable appetite for sex. His character lightens the mood with his drunk booty call texts.

Q: a french night club owner/ restauranteur in his early 30s who was brought up in a wealthy socialite lifestyle. He's attractive, smart, nice and charismatic. He can come across as a little desperate at times, like he can’t handle being alone, even though he is supposedly in a relationship.

________________________________

ABOUT I AM CONCEPTS

I AM is a CREATIVE FORCE.

I AM does not fit into a neat category. I AM creates wildly imaginative concepts.

I AM transports people to a world of imagination and infinite creative possibility.

Join the I AM movement.

Express yourself.

www.iam-concepts.com

Founded in Hong Kong, and expanding rapidly and globally, the brilliant cohort (of performers, dancers, choreographers, actresses, directors, singers, writers, filmmakers, hostesses, and artists) engages and inspires global audiences with a range of creative services. I AM assists brands, restaurants, hotels, and individuals in expressing their unique identity through original creative content. From fusing dining with live performance to providing innovative entertainment for special events to writing and producing original theatre productions to training hospitality staff to be more charismatic, I AM ensures our creative direction and journey with every client is rooted in artistic integrity.

I AM is not just a creative agency, I AM is a movement.

________________________________

ABOUT KATE MARCH
(FOUNDER/CREATIVE DIRECTOR, I AM Concepts)

Kate March is an American performance artist, director, writer, choreographer, speaker, and producer based in Hong Kong. She received her BA in Performance/Choreography from Connecticut College (Summa Cum Laude) and her MA in Choreography from Middlesex University in London (Highest Honours). Often described as experiential, interactive, provocative, and immersive movement theatre, her work has been produced in London, Berlin, Bangkok, Shanghai, Hong Kong, New York City, and Connecticut, among other places.

One of her most acclaimed pieces is An Evening of Meat premiered in London in 2010 and went on to also achieve stellar reviews in Berlin, again in London in 2011, and in Hong Kong in 2013. From there she continued to hone her interest and expertise in creating conceptual dining experiences, seamlessly fusing live performance and dining to reinvent ‘dinner theatre’. Upon moving to Hong Kong in 2011, she produced several performance concepts which integrated theatre and dance in contexts outside of the conventional theatre space.

Most recently, Ms. March has written, produced, and directed 2 evening length theatre pieces which premiered to great acclaim: Love Pings (HK Premiere October 2015) and Encounters with Ladies ( HK premiere May 2015). A distinct channel for her continued artistic and entrepreneurial development is her involvement with the HK based creative agency, I AM, of which she is the founder and creative director (www.iam‐concepts.com) . Through I AM, she continues to travel and share her voice with audiences across the entire Asia Pacific region. In 2016, I AM will be premiering several new original productions in NYC and will be touring some of their repertoire outside of Asia.

Through her visionary leadership, I AM develops artistically driven event concepts and original productions inspiring audiences through immersive live performance. Beyond its growing commercial successes, Ms. March ensures that I AM acts as a springboard for encouraging creative collaboration and perpetual self‐exploration for audiences and artists alike.

In addition to her work with I AM, she was a part‐time lecturer of movement improvisation to undergraduates at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts where she still acts as a guest lecturer for both the BA and MFA programmes. In 2015, Ms. March delivered a TEDx speech in Hong Kong which has launched a series of inspirational speaking engagements. Her most recent speech was about pleasure and was delivered for an audience of 700 people at the 2016 Hong Kong ORGASMO event. Finally, in the same year, she was nominated for the Revolution Award as part of the annual local theatre “HKELD” awards.

www.iam-concepts.com | www.katemarch.com