Laura's Homepage

(June 2002) -- Laura was first exposed to Cantonese Opera when she was very young, by her grandmother in HK, where she was an opera fan of Yam Kim Fight and Bak Shu Shing.

She joined Oakland Red Bean Cantonese Opera in 1997. Besides learning from Sifu Jing Liang, she also studied under Master Wong Chi Ming and Master Lum Siu Fun.

Laura has performed leading roles in four skits and one duet singing shows. Her first and second performances were in 1997 & 1999 for the Red Bean Opera House Annual Celebration. Her third performance was in 2001 for the Tri-Valley Classical Cantonese Opera Show – a charity show for the Bay Area seniors, where she played a spoiled princess in the skit “Taming of the Royal Princess”. Her fourth skit performance was in July 2002 for the Red Bean Opera House 6^th Annual celebration. In this performance, Laura played the role of Royal Concubine Jun Fei of Emperor Guong Shui from the Ching Dynasty. Her last duet singing performance partnered with Tammy Tan (a professional singer) was in December 2002.

Besides great performance and singing skills, Laura also has superb organization skills. She was a major organizer for several very successful performances.

Her next challenge performance will be on July 5, 2003, with the Red Bean 7^th annual celebration at the Great Star Theatre at San Francisco. In this performance, Laura will be the key actress in a long play “Lioness Roars” as a scholar’s wife Lau Yuk Ngor who is well known for being very beautiful, highly intelligent and extremely jealous. For more information, please see Lioness Roars website.

PROFILE
Name: Laura Ma
Nickname: Lew Wing-Yee, "Na Sister", "Jhing Fly!", “Meaty Goose” plus ?? behind my back that I don't know about!
Height: from 5' 1 to 5' 5' with Jun Fei hi-heel shoe!
Weight: from 100 to 150...depending if before, during, or after each performance!
Age: Young look
Opera Facts
    Favorite Skit - Taming of the Royal Princess (my own performance) and "King's Daughter Flower" - one of Fairy Snow White skit!
    Favorite Song - the hot one is Jun Fei for now. I love most of the Yam-Bak songs!
    Favorite Tune to sing - "little-cook" (shiu-cook)! (I still can't figure out differences between those "easy turn over"' or "southern-tune" or "2nd Floor (yee-lau)" melody yet).
    Favorite Role - Meaty Goose (Lau Yuk Ngor) in the 2003 Lioness Roars show
    Favorite Move - Jun Fei's painful walk (no one can tell the way I walk is because of that Jun Fei shoe!)
    Least Favorite Move - fast round table -my foot gets cramped very easily! Cha-Tuk-chang with Water-Bubble-long walk!
    Funniest or Stupidest Practice Blooper - My mouth open with a smile, looking at my partner, but no sounds coming out because I forgot the words!
    Most embarrassing stage moment - In my very 1st show in Golden Drum as a beautiful princess - I start with 4 beautiful hair pins nicely set in the wig and only one hair pin left at the end of the show....the rest of them were on the ground!
    Actor/Actress - Actor: Yum-Sword-Fei or Chan Poi-Chu
                              Actress: Fairy Snow White (read it the other way around = Bak-Shu-Shing)!
    Role Model - ALL performers!
    Quote:
        "Really?"
        "WHAT?"
        "No Problem!"
        "Don't say no, I know you can do it!"

Be sure to catch Laura's next performance: Red Bean's 7th Annual Opera Show – Lioness Roars

July 5, 2003, 7 PM at Great Star Theatre in San Francisco. See Lioness Roars website.

General admission tickets are $50, $30, $20. For advance ticket reservations, please contact Laura at laura_lew_ma@yahoo.com.

Any donations to the Red Bean Cantonese Opera House in support of this cultural event will be highly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your support.

Pictures
Click on images for full size

Laura in a performance of "Taming of the Royal Princess" with Linda Lee. 2001.

Laura and Cecilia Yu

Laura and Ivy Ho

Laura and Linda Lee

Laura and Sandy Ng

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