Arts Asia Pacific has been awarded one of 12 places across Australia in Telstra Business and Austrade's Business Club Australia Win Business Gold in China program. As part of the programme representatives from Arts Asia Pacific will travel to China during the Beijing Olympics to take part in a number of key networking and business gatherings held by Business Club Australia in Beijing.

Participation in the programme was open to companies who had previously worked or exported to Chian and who display a high level of innovation, entrepreneurship and long-term strategic planning.

At the awards ceremony on Wednesday June 11, 2008, Torben Brookman from Arts Asia Pacific said that Arts Asia Pacific was honoured be included in the Win Business Gold in China program as the sole representative from the arts and entertainment industry and that inclusion in the program has reinforced the long term strategic focus that Arts Asia Pacific has placed on Asia as a region but particularly China.

Business Club Australia (BCA) is the Australian Government's official international business program for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games (8-24 August), offering Australian companies the opportunity to benefit from the excitement and global attention generated in the lead-up to and during competition.

BCA will facilitate international business connections through a range of business networking and Games events, offering the opportunity for Australian companies to improve their international business prospects, while delivering the sporting experience of a lifetime. The hub for Australian business during the Olympic Games will be the Hilton Hotel Beijing.

SPENCERS THEATRE OF ILLUSION 2009 Australian Tour

“Don't look for the stereotypical top hat and black cape of an old-time magician. The Spencers are young, attractive and hip 21st-century entertainers”.
The Dallas Morning News, TX

Masters of mystery, Kevin and Cindy Spencer, never cease to amaze.  The Spencer’s have mastered an elusive quality that elevates an ordinary performance into the realm of inspired awe.  With charisma, their personalities travel beyond the stage lights to touch not only their viewers’ inquisitive minds, but their hearts as well.

For more than a decade, Kevin and Cindy Spencer have entertained audiences throughout the United States and around the world with one of the most successful touring illusion shows in the nation.

Arts Asia Pacific is currently booking and Australian tour for June-July, 2009.

Please contact Torben Brookman for more information.

THE WINDOW Asian and Australian Touring

One of the best productions in Tokyo this year… beautifully paced and interspersed with delightful humour, The Window will live for a long time in audiences’ hearts, wherever it is staged”
Nobuko Tanaka, The Japan Times

After a sell-out tour of Japan, the acclaimed multi-media theatrical event comes to the Adelaide Fringe in 2008.

Inspired by archetypal tales of journey, growth and redemption, The Window is a very human, personal story about a woman at the crossroads of daughterhood and motherhood. A story about abandonment, family, truths and untruths. Above all, it is a story of hope.

Featuring exceptional performances from co-author/actors Julie Eckersley (The Wedge, Newstopia, MTC) and Jo Turner (STC, Belvoir St, All Saints), The Window is an international collaboration between artists from Australia, Canada and Japan. This multi-media theatre event includes and inspiring soundscape by award-winning Canadian composer Michel Robidoux (Les Deux Mondes Company, Montreal) and stunning live visuals created by Queensland video artist Jen Jackson.

Producer and Director Mark Bromilow describes it as “a true collaboration between artists – a unity of sound, image and story”. The Window combines a powerful audio-visual element with stirring live performances from Eckersley and Turner. The result is a poignant, beautifully formed production. A must see for Fringe 2008. www.fringetix.com.au

The Window will be touring to Asia in November / December 2008 and then availbale for Australian touring in the first quarter of 2009.

ARTS ASIA PACIFIC Melbourne Office

Arts Asia Pacific has also recently established a permanent Melbourne base, which is managed by Mr Jarrod Carland.

The Melbourne company will be generally focusing on Australian and United States touring with an emphasis on musical theatre.

Contact details for Arts Asia Pacific, Melbourne are:

Mr Jarrod Carland
Executive Producer

1/135 Osborne Street
South Yarra VIC 3141
Australia
Telephone: 61 3 9866 6521
Mobile: 61 (0)413 979 849

GWB ENTERTAINMENT

In the United Kingdom, Arts Asia Pacific has joined forces with exciting independent director, Paul Warwick Griffin and producer, Gareth Hewitt Williams to form a new UK company, GWB Entertainment, which will focus on the production and development of new work as well as providing a base from which European tours and operations can be managed.

Contact details in the UK are:

The Attic
17 St Mary's Terrace
W2 1SU, London
United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0)207 168 5637 

FULL CREAM PRODUCTIONS

Arts Asia Pacific has established a design arm of the company focusing on graphic and website design and website management, joining forces with Melbourne based company, fullcream productions, which has specialised in design for the entertainment industry for several years.

Through fullcream productions, Arts Asia Pacific can cater for all entertainment design needs.

SLAVA'S SNOWSHOW 2008 Korea Tour Update

They call him "the best clown in the world". His Snow Show is celebrated as "a theatre classic of the 20th century" (The Times, London). Recognition came unusually early for Slava Polunin, and from that moment on, his fame was unstoppable.

The Russian clown master’s Slava’s Snowshow has picked up a blizzard of awards all over the world, with Slava clowning around the globe for more than thirty years and finally arrived in Shanghai in December 2007. Every night, the Opera Hall at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center was packed with exhilarated audiences, filled with laughter and snowflake-like white confetti. The production then toured to Hong Kong in December, 2007.

The next destination to be blown away by Slava’s blizzard conditions is regional Korea where the production is touring from March to May, 2008

WE WILL ROCK YOU Korea 2008

Seongnam Performing Arts Centre
Seoul, Korea
2 - 24 February, 2008

We Will Rock You played at the 1,800 capacity Seongnam Performing Arts Centre in Korea from February 2 - 24 February, 2008. Originally the production was to have transferred to the Seoul Arts Centre, however after a fire in December, 2007 the Seoul Arts Centre required significant refurbishment which is stil underway which unfortunately made this transfer impossible.

Despite this set back, the audience response was amazing with nightly standing ovations and demands to bring the production back as soon as possible.

This production of We Will Rock You tours from Korea to Singapore and Hong Kong.

COMPAGNIE PHILIPPE GENTY ‘La Fin Des Terres’

“Genty is a veteran master of theatrical visual illusions, and his new production, La Fin des Terres… is a kaleidoscopic dream fantasy in which impossible transformations take place”
The Sunday Times

“To miss a new work by Philippe Genty is to miss out… pure poetry, life-saving grace,
and delight for both the Paris Capitale eyes and the heart."

The renowned Compagnie Philippe Genty has been presenting inspired and original work that merges visual and physical theatre with dance and puppetry for the last thirty years. Genty’s universe is surprising, funny, and sometimes disturbing, but its richness in colors and shapes is always fascinating.

This universe takes shape in the French company’s latest production La Fin Des Terres, which roughly translates to “Lands End” or “where the world ends” and recently toured to Hong Kong and Macau in December, 2007.

In a journey to the heart of dreams with their apparent incomprehensibility, recurrent visions, phobias, monsters and fairies, we follow the fragmentary story of a couple that take a poetic plunge into the land’s end, a dream world where imagination begins.

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR KOREA 2007

Superstar Dome, Chamsil Arena
Seoul, Korea
12-18 December, 2007

Busan Citizen’s Hall, Busan
South Korea
21-23 December, 2007

Thirty-three years after its Broadway opening, the Tim Rice-Andrew Lloyd Webber musical has an enduring relevance and emotional pull. We're talking about the greatest drama of all time - the last week of Jesus Christ's life - set to classic rock music!

More than 30 years after it premiered, "Superstar" is still contentious. It plays with sacred images and beliefs in ways that continue to push boundaries. This is the story of how Jesus comes to cleanse the world of its sins of money and sex and is then betrayed by Judas.

Arts Asia Pacific was proud to co-produce the English language premiere of this classic production recently in Korea.

The production played at the Superstar Dome in Chamsil Stadium from 12-18 December, 2007 in front a 4,000 strong crowd and at the Busan Citizen's Hall from 21-23 December, 2007. The stellar casts featured performers from around the world who have been in leading roles on Broadway, the West End, Europe, South Africa, Australia and Asia.

METRO STREET by Matthew Robinson
Click here for full details!

Arts Asia Pacific is excited to be presenting an intimate reading of Matthew Robinson's new Australian Musical, 'Metro Street' as an offical fundraiser for Breast Cancer Australia.

The reading will feature a stellar cast of Nancye Hayes, Robyn Arthur, Graham Foote, Lucy Durack and Verity Hunt-Ballard , backed by a four piece band.

SYNOPSIS
Sue is dealing with a marriage that has broken down and a recent diagnosis of breast cancer that she doesn't know how to communicate to her son, Chris. Chris and his girlfriend Amy are having troubles of their own nearing the end of their University courses and unsure where life is leading. Chris and Amy's neighbour, Kerry, has come to the city to escape her small country town, meanwhile Jo, Sue's Mum, is trying to hold things together for her daughter and grandson.

‘Metro Street ' follows the journeys of these characters and reflects upon how families and friends interrelate in modern Australia and the impact that we have upon one another's lives. ‘ Metro Street ' tells our stories and could be your family, your friends or your neighbours.

To purchase tickets please got to: www.stmartinsyouth.com.au

Slava's Snowshow Touring Update
Slava's Snowshow will be presented in Shanghai and Hong Kong by Music Nation Production Company in associate with Arts Asia Pacific and Live Entertainment Asia as follows:

Arts Asia Pacific now on MySpace
To visit please click here Arts Asia Pacific - MySpace
To join us as a friend please click here: Join Arts Asia Pacific on MySpace

Brad Little Concerts - Smash hit in Korea!
On December 6 & 7 2006, Korean audiences were delighted with three concerts of by the star of the Asian Tour of The Phantom of the Opera, Mr. Brad Little.

The concerts, Brad Little - UnMasked, showcased a selection of Mr. Little's favourite Broadway songs. Mr. Little was joined on stage by Korean star and 2006 most popular musical actress Miss Kim Sohyun, Australia star of the World Tour of Cats Mr. Simon Pryce and as suprise guest Mr. Little's wife, Broadway performer, Ms. Barbara McCulloh. The performers were accompanied by a touring band of 10 under the Musical Direction of Mr. Peter Casey.

Brad Little - Unmasked was presented at the 1800 seat Opera Theatre at the Seongnam Performing Arts Centre and was presented by PK & Wise, A-Net Korea, Arts Asia Pacific and Angels Unlimited. The concerts were rehearsed and developed in the US and Australia by Arts Asia Pacific and Angels Unlimited.

Return concerts in Korea as well as an Asian Tour are now under development.

Arts Asia Pacific touring Jesus Christ Superstar to Asia
Arts Asia Pacific is now deleloping an Asian Tour of a new production of Jesus Christ Superstar developed in South Africa and directed by Paul Warwick Griffin.

The new production which played to rave reviews in Johannesburg and Cape Town will be touring to Athens, Greece in April 2007. Arts Asia Pacific is then developing future dates for this production.

Arts Asia Pacific has secured the rights to tour this production to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines. If you are interested in this production please contact info@artsap.com.

Arts Asia Pacific to bring Australia’s premier Children’s theatre to Asia
Arts Asia Pacific has recently started working with Australia’s premier performing arts company for children, Windmill Performing Arts.

Arts Asia Pacific will be working with Windmill to extend the touring of their amazing productions throughout Asia.

Windmill’s productions are highly regarded throughout Australia and since 2002 have been nominated for 7 Helpmann Awards. Arts Asia Pacific is excited to have the opportunity to bring these productions to the rest of Asia.

HypOpera – Australia’s New Corporate Entertainment Sensation!
HypOpera, a new corporate entertainment act is taking Australia by storm. Devised by Simon Pryce, Vanessa Scammell and Tyran Parke who have association with previous highly successful corporate acts such as ‘The Three Waiter’s’ and ‘The Rat Pack is Back’, HypOpera is a unique act that is capturing the imagination of audience across Australia.

‘I had the enormous pleasure of being totally sucked in, and duped by the three brilliant young talents. Anyone wanting something a little different for their evening's entertainment couldn't do better than to hire these hilarious villains. Do yourself a favour, and check em out!’
Barry H Crocker AM

HyOpera is now available for bookings for corporate functions, parties, launches and charity events.

For bookings or more information please contact:
Richelle Brookman on hypopera@artsap.com or +61 (0)2 9328 6788