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Eugene Ma

@playwitheugene

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I DIRECT live works🎭
I TEACH humans & actors (ex Columbia/Yale prof)🧑🏻‍🎤
HKU now 🧑🏻‍🏫
Collab & Train @deliberatecollision
Built @performance.atelier
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Hong Kong Grand Opera presents DIE FLEDERMAUS by Johann Strauss Jr. HKAPA Jockey Club Amphitheater, Wanchai June 13-15, 2025 Conductor: Pierre Vallet Stage Director: Eugene Ma Born out of Vienna’s 1873 stock market crash, Johann Strauss Jr’s Die Fledermaus was a celebration of joy in the face of crisis. Today, as we spin through burnout, wealth gaps, and late-capitalist absurdity, the operetta asks: what if we didn’t just escape… but truly laughed again?   Set in a fictitious near-future Hong Kong ruled by mega-conglomerates, corporate lawyer Falke throws a Gatsby-themed bash for the return of the incoming CEO Orlofsky, who brings a rare freedom: to laugh, to play, to unite. Eisenstein, a high-flying executive facing a sentence in the company’s private prison, sees the party as his last shot at flirting and flaunting. His wife Rosalinde, tangled in her own affair, plots to expose him. But as mistaken identities multiply and revenge fades into irrelevance, something unexpected happens—just when everything seems on the brink of chaos: everyone sheds their masks, letting go of their struggles for a fleeting glimpse of joy.   With French maestro Pierre Vallet conducting a production led by young international director Eugene Ma in his local opera debut, Hong Kong Grand Opera invites you to an evening of dramatic elation and melodious bliss! 小約翰·史特勞斯的輕歌劇《蝙蝠》，在維也納1873年股災翌年首演，為當時身處危機的市民帶來歡樂。時至今日，我們亦面對血汗職場與荒誕的後資本主義時代。這套經典作品仍能讓大家暫時逃離現實，真真正正地開懷大笑！ 故事設定於虛構中的未來，超級企業正主宰著香港。企業律師法爾卡為強勢回歸的總裁奧羅夫斯基籌辦一場Gatsby 式主題派對。這個高高在上的大人物原來是個愛玩愛笑愛團結的開明派。那邊廂，高層主管艾森斯坦即將鋃鐺入獄，他要在這派對中盡情放縱調情；他的妻子羅莎林德雖然也在和健身教練拉拉扯扯，但也決意要在派對即場捉賊拿贓。派對中人人身份錯亂，鬧劇連環上演，法爾卡的秘密復仇計劃也變得無關痛癢。偏偏在失控的臨界點上，每個人都卸下面具，放低心防，捕捉到一絲喜悅。 香港大歌劇院聯同法國歌劇指揮大師皮亞·華尼與首度於香港執導歌劇的年青導演馬嘉晉，為你帶來這場充滿戲劇張力與音樂魅力的奇幻之夜！ by @playwitheugene
Happy World Theatre Day!!!!!!!!!! (Show edition) It never ceases to amaze me how lucky we are to call our passions a career, albeit not an easy one. 1. The Making of King Kong (2018, Target Margin) 2. Animus Anima//Anima Animus (2018, The Public) 3. In the Blood (2019, Columbia MFA Acting) 4. Request Programme (2021, Ngau Chi Wan Civic Center, HK) 5. Wild (2023, Rose Theatre, Kingston-upon-Thames, UK) 6. Pulling Strings (2022, Tarragon / TMU) 7. We Found ___ in a Hopeless Place, a Cabaret (2023 TMU) 8. The Servant of Two Masters (2016, TFANA NY) 9. Accidental Death of an Anarchist (2013, Berkeley Rep) 10. Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land (2016, Oregon Shakespeare Festival) by @playwitheugene
WILD, a family concert-theatre spectacle July 2023 Produced by Hong Kong City Chamber Orchestra Hosted by FUSE International @Rose Theatre Kingston How very wild indeed! So many people to thank, now that we’ve built a set and tech-ed in 1.5 days, pulled it tighter and with more clarity than before. We even performed for HRH Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Edward) and the Lloyd Webbers! Every single department and performer of our company of 70+ on this literal flight with us represent the best of Hong Kong talents. Robust, rich in craft and inspiration, humble, fun (!), invested, efficient and adaptive PROS. And what moved me so is how this company of the highest level in turn has some of the smallest egos I’ve worked with. The circumstances were not the easiest, yet all were just sticking in their post, standing by and always ready to offer constructive help. We are talking about some of the best instrumentalists on faculty (some department heads) at the conservatory, one of the best classical singers in HK, the de facto leading man of the HK musical theater, respected local designers who have worked internationally… AND WE ALL PUT OUR CRAFT IN SERVICE OF A WORK FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES. With artistic integrity and spectacle and heart. The gasps we induced, the wonder we conjured, the joy we inhabited, and even the boos we earned in our final show(for the bad, no good; terrible poachers)! What entertainment! And as a snobby maker, it’s oft-necessary to have visceral reminders that these works of entertainment for KIDDIES are essential, and still demand the same of us - in a looser dramaturgical structure. They received the gift of our performance much more fully than the regular judgmental adult would - apparent from the buzzing energy in the room! And I hope some of them will be changed and inspired by what they saw, and even some of them becoming at least friends of the arts as they grow. Magic took place this week. And if nothing else, they’ve changed me. And I am forever grateful for this process and trip! And for the vision and trust of Leanne and Nick Harvey!! by @playwitheugene
Thank you magical WuZhen Theatre Fest 2026! Thank you universe (for showing me the fruit on the tree)! Thank you Stan! Thank you, conversation and intrigue! Thank you for showing up! Thank you for your spunkiness. And for letting yourselves shine, unicorns. Thank you for experimentation! Thank god for massages. Thank you new FRIENDS. 🫶🏼🥰🫂🥹 Thank you, very solid productions of our classics. #istruthalwaysthebestwayforward #whatwhensomeonenearanddearholdsontoaliejusttosurvive Thank you, youth and engagement! Thank you for mashing old and new forms — with such ALIVENESS. Thank you for getting me in, Yi Zi!! What a WILD performance. Thank you for the Easter egg, you creepy kitten. Thank you for process-based spaces. Thank you Chu! Thank you GTY! Thank you Chang Chang! Thank you Molly! Again, just thank you. 🫂 by @playwitheugene
3026: A Cantopop Odyssey Grand Theater @ Xiqu, West K - June 2026 In a stroke of luck and fate, I got to make one more show with the charming and secretly audacious @alamfish . Yet this time, it was a much larger show that required much more structure and less intimacy in a 1000+ seater. Being tasked with creating a jukebox musical, with the set up and budget of a cabaret, and having to spotlight two wonderful singers, a youth chorus, supported by a brilliant band led by @jezzachu . As with my general fate with large scale productions, we had four full studio days of rehearsal to put this together due to availability (and we snuck in an off site dress rehearsal and some early individual creative meeting sessions of course), and the result had me super proud of all involved! Alex was a mensch in this process — with many new songs to learn, and a dramatic frame to juggle with a rehearsal schedule that I would’ve never been secure under if I had to lead a show, he was always calm and steadfast. A no doubt leader of a team under any conditions! And @candacepooon playing way more than a manager was a constant rock in this process. Jerold was also beyond game and open to play with the shapes of many of these standards with some very exciting finds - especially 心債in 4/4 and 改變常改變～ Leading a band with no time to spare, and still got it down. With @natewong.playsgongs @jbasslines75 @bzpobzpo @edward_dlee being not only great musicians, but fantastic showmen being featured in this fantasia. Of course there’s @kayan9896 who really stood her own! As our star-turn “eleven o’clock” antagonist. Musically solid, and always game to play, while being a superb team player. Resulting in a shining, towering, seductive and mystifying presence in this show! Then there is @aimhighmusicfoundation and @lunarantz ! Thank you @renee.chingyan for drilling the Ants on my behalf with love and force in equal parts!! For @john.laudon ‘s performance as our opening narrator; and for @colvinluk for introducing me to Alex to begin this whole odyssey! And to our producers: Susanna, Cathy and Vivian 🙏for your trust and support! And @jmeyuen.aep for your 2000 🤩drafts! And Denzel 🔦! by @playwitheugene
Had the pleasure to witness the “crowning” of the next Miss Universe Hong Kong tonight~ 👑 👑 👑 CONGRATS FIRSTLY to super woman and national director @funny3b - YOU DID IT ALL. And FINALLY congrats to our next Miss Universe HK @jen.zhou !!! Very happy to be coming on as her performance coach next, helping with voice & speech as she prepares for Miss Universe in Puerto Rico. So she doesn’t crack when she screams HOOOONG KOOOONG. <LOVED those vids tho. BRAZIUUUUUUUU> So much passion, charm and ambition to represent in the room tonight. Excited to see what comes next. Also amazing to see @joannejosephinerhodes be so eloquent and gorgeous as a judge tonight!! Only two years(?) since being crowned Miss Universe HK~ Good people! Yum food! Fun night! by @playwitheugene
The ODYSSEY, ISF Academy, May 2026. Finally saw The Odyssey today! I would’ve usually tried hard to track the relationships of the 2000 gods and humans and their wives and son’s son - oh the Greeks~ but this time, I got to just relax and not track anything, and lightly grin as I anticipate the Cyclops and the pigs and Calypso and all! Cuz I actually got to take over a production of the Odyssey this past May. With the brightest and most dedicated students from grade 3-5! 🤯 #neverhaveiever #neverdidiimagine #neversaybieber #gladidid I had been intentionally trying to widen the range of folks I work with (like the brilliant English majors and business school students last semester) so I can experiment with and prove that the same rigor can be achieved and embraced with varying priorities even when the constituents aren’t career theater folks. When intention and the ask are communicated with care and clarity - with a shared visions and mutual stakes, magic can happen anywhere. The primary students were sometimes no weaker in their commitment than their grad school counterparts, with slightly less contextual awareness of course! Though brilliantly with less fear and inhibitions on their good days! The tradition of the school has dictated that it’s usually a mash with the pop culture references from a decade - the 80’s. And that was bizarre because I was ALREADY directing a production of 3026: a Cantopop ODYSSEY, ALSO FEATURING SONGS from the 80’s - and had a similar circular dramaturgy of “coming back” - to home, to oneself, to his roots. LITERALLY REHEARSING THE SAME MONTH!! So here are some shots! Had been running around much that it took me this long to post! Eternally grateful to ISF and Principal Shan Ning and Ho Lun for your trust. To Ms. Allie M for being the best support system and for all the tools (and your sweat) for working with the primary dears - and for holding together the costumes department, while teaching a full load! And I’m also beyond grateful to @jovib for everything la! And working with @esskyinthesky ‘s @divamusicproduction on production elements was such an unexpected delight. ITHACA AT LAST!!!!!!! With friends! Xx by @playwitheugene
Delightful to have spent an afternoon sharing my journey with the very storied and accomplished gents from the Hong Kong North Chapter of the Rotary Club. I very much wish to learn from them next time, as I got to do most of the talking. Delighted by the enthused questions and post-sharing chat! Many thanks to the invitation of the current chapter president @cleung_philip . by @playwitheugene
Nothing makes me more delighted than when I see YEARS of hard work being rewarded with being seen - especially those who weren’t on the meteoric track at the get go. When they do, it’s extra tasty and moving. Often when the person leaves the “goals” and “markers” and just give it a go for the shits of it (and then start finding the joy and pains of it so fully) and stop latching on to the small things, something magical happens. So so proud of WENXIN!! Winning best leading actor at the “First” Film Festival in China - where the foremost industry folks champion the crème de la crème and give them the serenade to rise. Glad to have made a dent on your journey! Glad to be the “pointed professor” who helped you “shed your shell” from the pressures of making a living with your social mask at your gym business - and look at you now! ”At the Dome Studio’s acting program for working actors, a professor taught him incisively that an actor must let the character‘s emotions flow through them—that delivering lines is not about spouting slogans. After Professor Eugene’s final class, Wen Xin embraced him for a long time, reluctant to see the end of the transformative course. ‘In the fitness industry, you’re constantly meeting customers and staff—you always have to know what to say to them. That persona, over time, becomes ingrained in you, like a shackle, a shell,‘ he reflected. He felt that Eugene had shattered that shell for him.“ Seeing others and being seen is so important, y’all. And it’s reciprocal - thank YOU as well. Trajectories can be changed and skins that no longer serve can shed when that occurs, often for the better! 沒有什麼比看到多年來的努力終於得到回報更讓我開心的了——尤其是那些一開始並非馬上踏上巨星之路的人。當他們忽然有第一次肯定的那一刻，特別有滋味，也特別感人。很多時候，當一個人終於去認真接觸和學會他所愛的所謂藝術是什麼，放下外在的「目標」和「指標」，純粹為了使命而投入，然後在過程中真切地感受到一路上的喜悅與苦痛，不再執著於細枝末節，神奇的事情就會發生。這次真的以文昕為傲！！在中國「FIRST青年電影展」拿下最佳男主角——那裡集結了業界頂尖人物，共同推選行業翹楚，為他們的崛起蓋上行業的肯定。郝蕾贏了女主，我剛剛左腳破了的時候也看了她評判的節目！ 很開心在你的旅程中留下了一點點痕跡！很開心能當那個「尖銳的教授」，幫你擺脫健身事業生計中那張社會面具所帶來的壓力——看看你現在的樣子！你的臉是鬆的！（不是說臉皮鬆！） 「在山下學堂職業演員班，一位教授尖銳地教會他，要讓角色的情感在自己身上流淌，說台詞不是喊口號。在老師尤金的最後一堂課後，文昕與老師久久擁抱，捨不得課程結束。『做健身行業，每天見到顧客、見到員工該講什麼，這個身份久了會長在身上，像一個枷鎖，一個殼。』他感覺尤金把他身上的殼打碎了。」 by @playwitheugene
🌖 🎤 Regrettable Midnight Karaoke posting is back… 😂🤭Discovered a classic 陳百強 (Danny Chan) Canto pop song (and guessed a few notes in the first verse)~~ Love those tunes yoooooo~ #midnightkaraoke #cantoclassics by @playwitheugene
【 活動回顧 Throwback｜當劇本的聲音在玻璃屋文化區裡迴蕩】 連續六個夜晚，六個劇本，無數次靈魂的交會。 在玻璃屋文化區這個光影透亮的文化共享空間裡，我們將時間放慢，把舞台還給最純粹的「語言」與「聲音」。 感謝每一位讀劇演員。沒有繁複的道具與場景，僅憑一張劇本、一支麥克風，以及演員們極具穿透力的聲音與神情，便在空氣中勾勒出無數個立體的世界。每一句台詞的停頓、每一次呼吸的重音，都讓角色的靈魂在空間裡有了形體。 也深深感謝在這個星期走進玻璃屋文化區的每一位你。感謝你們帶著好奇與專注前來，用靜默的聆聽與熱烈的迴響，填滿了這個空間的色彩。因為你們的存在，這場關於戲劇與思考的碰撞，才有了最完美的迴音。 一週的讀劇演繹暫時落幕，但思緒的漣漪仍在延展。願我們在下一個文化角落，再次相遇、再次撞擊出新的火花。 - Six consecutive nights. Six plays. Countless encounters of souls. Within the luminous shared space of the Glasshouse Cultural Area, we slowed down time, restoring the stage to its purest elements—language and voice. Our deepest gratitude goes to every reader-actor. Free from elaborate props and stage sets, relying solely on a script, a microphone, and their captivating voices and expressions, they sculpted vivid, multi-dimensional worlds in the air. Every nuanced pause in dialogue, every measured breath, gave tangible form to the souls of the characters within this space. We are also profoundly grateful to every one of you who stepped into the Glasshouse Cultural Area this week. Thank you for bringing your curiosity and focus, painting the vibrant colors of this space through silent attentiveness and warm resonance. Because of your presence, this collision of theatre and thought found its most flawless echo. Though a week of play readings has drawn to a gentle close, the ripples of thought continue to expand. May we cross paths again in another cultural corner, kindling new sparks together. Special thanks to @deliberatecollision @playwitheugene @kathleenw_ - #香港好去處 #藝文 #週末好去處 #hkcafe #hkculture #lemnaculture #lemnaofthealchemist #barlemna by @playwitheugene
That’s a wrap. Our very first Deliberate Play Reading Festival has come to an end. What began as an ambitious idea just over a month ago became: 2 venues. 1 Festival Kickoff. 6 play readings. 1 new Cantonese workshop translation. 5 playwrights. 27 roles. 23 actors. 2 directors. 3 producers. 3 production associates. All driven by passion, generosity, and goodwill. With no funding. We did it. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to every artist who said yes, every audience member who took a chance on unfamiliar plays, and everyone who stayed behind after the readings to talk, argue, laugh, and continue the conversation. Those moments reminded us why live theatre matters. Thank you to the wonderful teams at @barlemna and @zervehk for believing in this festival and opening your spaces to us. This week, contemporary plays that rarely find a platform in Hong Kong met local audiences. A new Cantonese translation took its first steps. New collaborations began. Old friendships were rekindled. New ones were formed. We watched artists from different backgrounds, generations, and disciplines meet one another through stories. That, more than anything else, was the festival we hoped to create. This wasn’t about presenting six readings. It was about asking whether Hong Kong still has room for artistic curiosity—for gathering around a script simply because it’s worth reading, for making things before anyone knows what they’ll become, and for building a community around new work. We leave this week exhausted, grateful, and more convinced than ever that there is an audience—and a community—for this. Thank you for helping us prove it. We’ll see you at the next one. — Eugene, Kathleen, XJ and the Deliberate Collision team by @playwitheugene

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