When The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts was founded four decades back, Tse Kwan-ho had just graduated from high school. He was head-over-heels in love with acting. He applied to the Academy's School of Drama once, and then again; finally, his dream came true.
"I was the first generation of theatre workers born, raised and trained in Hong Kong," he points out. Tse mentions this several times within an hour's conversation. It's something he holds dear.
Tse is known to be meticulous about role creation, yet his role as the "Big Bro" of the Academy needs no augmentation. It is his tried and true identity. Another HKAPA alumnus, director Sunny Chan Wing-san, once remarked that all HKAPA graduates look up to Tse Kwan-ho. While he modestly denies that's true, Tse says his role as "Big Bro" has encouraged him to ponder how to leverage his identity to motivate the next generation, to pass on his legacy.
Looking back at his secondary school years, Tse admits that he knew nothing about drama at first. Then in Form 7, he was picked to play the male lead Zhou Ping in Cao Yu's Thunderstorm for his school's drama competition.
"One day, I was rehearsing a rowing scene in the park with a female classmate," he recalls. "We were some distance apart, so we had to shout our lines. It opened up an outlet for my emotions in the most wonderful way. All of a sudden I felt I was Zhou Ping." Tse began to take rehearsals very seriously, eventually winning his first acting prize. This fueled his passion. A teacher referred him to an amateur drama club, and he set his mind on getting into the Academy's School of Drama.
The School was established in 1985, with Dr. Chung King-fai or "King Sir" as the founding Dean, Prof. Fredric Mao Chun-fai or "Mao Sir" as Head of Acting, and big names in drama on the faculty such as Colin George and Lee Ming-sum. For young women and men aspiring to work in the theatre, it was a huge honour to be accepted into the Academy. Tse was no exception. However he did not make the School's first intake. Reviewing his application, he believed he had chosen the wrong play.
"Comedies are supposed to make you laugh," he says now, "but no one laughed!" After his initial setback, he considered going to nursing school instead. Six months later, he was watching a play when he came to the realisation that acting was still his true love. He applied to the drama programme at the School of Continuing Education of what was then called Baptist College. There he learned acting from Jeffrey Ho Wai-lung, who has sadly since died. Thanks to Ho's training, Tse made the second intake of the HKAPA Diploma of Drama programme. This time, he chose a serious dramatic role as Amadeus for his audition.
Insight Into Training
Though Tse had been involved in drama back in secondary school, he did not receive systematic acting training until he joined the School of Drama.
"The Academy's drama programme covers a range of different elements, including foundational training in acting, movement and music," he notes. "There was also Western drama with Mr Colin teaching Shakespeare and Greek tragedy. The School would invite stage directors and guests from overseas to give talks. For us 'clean slates' who knew nothing, these were novelties. They really opened our eyes!"
When asked what training had the most influence on his acting, he says, "Everything!" But his deepest impression was a sensory-training course where the students had to enact an experience involving all five senses. He didn't know how to approach it, so he sat still, trying to get into character. To his surprise, Mao Sir applauded this interpretation.
"He said there's no need to force expression, that it was fine to wait for the right feelings," Tse remembers. “I didn't realise what I did was a kind of acting, too. I had simply wanted to flow with my emotions. Mao Sir's commendation was an affirmation of my approach, which became a cornerstone of my acting.”
Discovering Hidden Potential
After graduating from the Academy, Tse joined the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre. King Sir, then Artistic Advisor to the company, made the bold move to cast Tse for the role of King Henry II in the Chinese version of the play Becket. The original work by French playwright Jean Anouilh depicts the conflict between Henry II of England and Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The complex role of Henry II, depicted as a debauched tyrant, is usually given to an experienced actor. Tse's performance was an astounding success, but there was something he wanted to know. "Some time later, I found the opportunity to ask King Sir why he chose me," he explains. "He said it was because I was slightly neurotic. I wasn't aware of it then, but he saw it in me, and knew I could rise to the role. He was a visionary."
Tse is now a drama teacher himself. For the past few years, he has been a visiting lecturer at the Academy of Film at Hong Kong Baptist University and an Arts Ambassador-in-School for the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. He teams up with different organisations to launch and teach acting courses. He points out that the first lesson is always to Know Yourself.
"It is through knowing that we discover different faces of ourselves – the good, the bad, the selfish, the generous, the conniving, the honourable," he notes. "Actors need to know themselves in order to deploy the right face at the right time. Otherwise they will never truly get into character."
Whether Cantonese opera playwright Kong Yu-kau or Lu Mengshi in The Top Restaurant, councilor Yau Ming-foon in Ordinary Heroes or barrister Kam Yuen-shan in A Guilty Conscience, the Man of the Year or the man next door, Tse carves out his role with the same laser focus. To play a Shanghainese man, he went to live in Shanghai, throwing himself into the life and culture of a city he had never before so much as visited.
He admits that role creation is a luxury, demanding huge investments of time and research to understand the history, culture, ethics and aesthetics of each role. "The pace of society and the entertainment circle is too fast," he believes. “You have no time to let things sink in. But you need to force yourself. You need to do as much as you can!”
Valuing the Achievements of Predecessors
Tse typically looks serious, but he has a great sense of humour and a generous spirit. In recent years, he has been spending more time in Hong Kong, thanks to film projects. Working with young people both on screen and behind the scenes, he has now taken on a new mission — to nurture new actors.
Having joined the industry in the 1980s, "I've been baptised by different eras of its development," he says. "It's time to share what I know, through teaching, with the young. This is how experience and knowledge get passed on."
Last year, Tse received an Honorary Fellowship from the Academy, conferred in recognition of his contribution to culture, the performing arts, and the development of the Academy. Standing before his younger HKAPA siblings, "Big Bro" says he hopes to uphold King Sir's founding ideals, so that all drama students – past, present and future – continue to share a common language.
"Our teachers gave their all so that we could benefit from their hard work and achievements," he explains. "I consider myself extremely blessed to have received this gift. I hope the new generation can continue to be nurtured by the research and experience of my benefactors, that they will lay their foundation upon an understanding of the School's origin and source, and go further by acquiring new experiences."
Tse's advice for aspiring actors is to maintain an undiluted sincerity. "Young people nowadays have much to consider about life and their future," he points out. “But they shouldn't let these things undermine the sincerity and purity of their acting. Leave all distractions and stray thoughts before you go on stage or before the camera. An actor must have simple, unadulterated focus in order to draw and move.”
Hair: Yam Pak-chun
Makeup: Lui Suk-in