Just saw this, may be of interest to any arty types ....


The Fringe Festival 2010 @ The 'Vic Hua Hin'
22nd Jan – 20th Feb 2010 Every Friday - Sunday


The Fringe Festival 2010 @ Hua Hin will mark a new stage of performing arts in Thailand with the inauguration of the art complex ‘Vic Hua Hin’, an imaginative landscape comprising of a variety of performing spaces and facilities, including an energy-smart indoor theatre, Dome Dokmai outdoor dome with flowers crawling to its top, Art Camp with handmade igloo-like sculptures and a promenade open performance space.
Together with the opening of the neighbouring Patravadi High School, which is due to open in May 2010, Vic Hua Hin will commit to the development of a creative and artistic Thailand.

The five-week Fringe Festival will feature over 10 dazzling performances. It will open on January 22 with a special inauguration performance by Patravadi Mejudhon and a family concert, "Carnival of the Animals", by world-famous conductor Bundit Ungrangsee, who will give a full performance on January 23. Patravadi Theatre will present its critically acclaimed sold-out musical Phra Lor, internationally renowned Thai dancer Pichet Khunchun will give a solo performance and Thai pop singer/percussionist Tik Shiro will duel with US violinist Kyle Dillingham.
Israeli puppet theatre-artist Yael Rasooly will perform The Dream House (and other nightmares), and will also appear with Thai stage comedian Wanansak Sirilar for a funny double-billed performance of Comic Delights. ODC/Dance, the world-class contemporary dance ensemble, will deliver an evening of three original works by artistic director Brenda Way. Taiyuan Puppet Theatre from Taiwan will enrich the festival with traditional glove puppetry in A Sea of Puppets and Maya Dance Theatre will combine various Asian dance forms in Invoking Rasas.

Apart from performances, the festival will also include workshops, short films, village disco "ram wong", ballroom dancing, a food market and other free outdoor activities.

Link, English version is halfway down the page: http://www.totalreservation.com/event_ticket_detail.aspx?id=45

SJ

PS: This 'Vic Hua Hin' gaff is apparantly over the flyover heading South, then on the right hand side. Never seen it

Is it the same as this place http://www.huahinafterdark.com/forum/saturday-night-at-cicada-market-hua-hin-s-best-kept-secret-t14000.html?

Nope. It's a completely different place. About 500 meters past the flyover on the right. Large black building is the theatre and the surrounding buildings are to be a private high school of the performing arts.

First performances in the festival are 22 Jan and continue for 5 weeks. You can get the whole program at http://www.totalreservation.com/event_ticket_detail.aspx?id=45.

Scroll down for the English version, and mute your speaker after the first time through the sound bite.

This looks to be an awesome event.

More on this here. Pete

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2010/01 ... 120321.php

Another article from the Post:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/entertainmen ... tival-2010

The Fringe Festival is having a beach holiday this year in Hua Hin, starting tomorrow at the Vic Hua Hin theatre with local and foreign dancers, musicians and stage actors and continuing every weekend until February 20. Highlights include the acclaimed "Phra Lor" and a musical duel between American violinist Kyle Dillingham and Thai percussionist Tik Shiro.

http://www.patravaditheatre.com/index.p ... 2&Itemid=0

I just got an 'official' phone number for the Vic Hua Hin box office. 032 827 815

I sat in on a rehersal for Phra Lor last night. It's an awesome show. Don't miss it.

8:00 Friday, 2:30 and 8:00pm Saturday and 2:30pm Sunday

We're incredibly lucky this kind of stuff is going on in our town.

It must be getting some good attendance as a friend of mine was having difficulty booking hotel rooms for Saturday nights for last weekend and this week and I can't think of any other reason.

Don't think that's it. The theatre is nice, but it's only 320 seats. Even sold out (which it wasn't last Saturday) it wouldn't fill our hotel space.

More likely it's just the combination of peak season with the weekend swell from Bangkok. Hua Hin's become very fashionable as a getaway from the city.

Known throughout the world for its athleticism, passion and intellectual depth, San Francisco-based contemporary dance troupe ODC/Dance will astonish Thailand with their performances at the "Fringe Festival 2010 @ Hua Hin" and Patravadi Theatre in Bangkok this month.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/entertainmen ... nd-bangkok

The Fringe Festival demonstrated how promising the future is for the Hua Hin venue - even without state funding

The expatriate community in Hua Hin was "very excited" about the festival, she says, "and many expats returned week after week, buying the top-price tickets and donating money and becoming great supporters of ours".

"Some are retired here and others are here for a few months," Patravadi notes. "They see that Hua Hin has good infrastructure and modern conveniences, but the town has always lacked culture - but now it's complete."

She frets, though, that the festival won't survive without government support.

"We spent Bt500,000 re-staging 'Phra Lor' and got back Bt40,000 in ticket sales. Because the notion of going to the theatre is new to people here, we gave away a lot of free tickets to familiarise them with it. Hopefully they'll return."

With its inaugural festival completed, the 30-rai, Bt500-million art centre - which will soon have its own Patravadi High School with accommodations for students and teachers - continues operating at full strength, notwithstanding the financial risks.

"Schools, both local and overseas, are interested in our arts camp, and when the high school opens on May 17 we may get some additional profit to cover the cost of productions."

Starting on March 20 for four consecutive Saturdays, the company's Silpathorn winner, Manop Meejamrat, will re-stage "Eclipse", one of the 10 best productions of the last decade.

That's followed by the likay "Sudsakorn", and then in May a new production by Kru Lek, based on Thai songs about Hua Hin.

"These productions will premiere here and then hopefully go to other theatres where we have connections - in Bangkok, Ratchaburi and Samut Sakhon," she says.

"Nakhon Ratchasima will have a new theatre for likay, and Bangkok will have a new theatre on Sri Nakarin Road where Tik Shiro and Kyle Dillingham will perform in June.

"These are our new alliances. Of course, it would be better if the governors of these cities talked to one another more about this."

Kru Lek wishes high-ranking government officials would visit the Vic Hua Hin. The Culture Ministry gave her a starring role at the press conference where it unveiled its "creative economy" mega-project, so it looked as though the Vic would be getting major support. The opposite occurred.

I drove to Hua Hin three times for the Fringe Festival, found the traffic smooth, and was able to return to Bangkok on the same day.

The five-hour, 400-kilometre drive is not the exhausting ordeal some people might imagine, particularly when Hua Hin replenishes the body and spirit with fresh seafood and unpolluted air - not to mention the invigorating stage shows.

The festival's curtain raiser - "The Carnival of the Animals" concert by Bundit Ungrangsee, his wife Mary, and their professional-musician friends including the mesmerising piano couple Artas and Indhuon Balakauskas - proved that Western classical music has relevance to Thais.

It was also refreshing to see the world-renowned conductor play the storyteller, connecting the movements in the Saint-Saens masterpiece.

Less memorable was violinist Paye Vie Trio, who seemed to think he was performing solo.

On the second weekend, "Phra Lor" looked and sounded better than it did at its premiere in Bangkok, although lead actor Sarawut Martthong remained unconvincing. Regardless, with enough support, this show could represent the Thai performing arts anywhere.

It was thought provoking to watch Pichet Klunchun rework his dance dialogue as a solo the following weekend, with explanations (in English, oddly) and demonstrations of the different movements in regard to the past, present and future of khon.

The new venue, though cramped backstage, proved it can serve various genres. Better air-conditioning would make it a more pleasant experience.

Also gratifying were the shows by both locals and foreigners and professionals and students at Dome Dokmai, a flower-bedecked outdoor space where you can munch on local snacks and desserts.

Source: The Nation More info: www.vichuahin.com

A modern take on traditional Likay
The Patravadi Theatre introduces new musical theatre with 'Sudsakorn'

Choreographer Jitti Chompee admitted that in his studies of performing arts overseas, his style and preference was inevitably Westernised. But his upcoming production is about to challenge even himself as well as the contemporary art scene in Thailand.

This Saturday, at Vic Hua Hin, a musical theatre titled, Sudsakorn, under Jitti's choreography and direction, will mark yet another highlight of a performance under the roof of the renowned performing art centre Patravadi Theatre - where a traditional likay will be reinterpreted and reconstructed with contemporary visuals, music and modern dance style.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/entertainmen ... onal-likay