I've been coming in China for a few years for personal reasons. On my very first day, I knew this is where I wanted to live. So I arranged first teaching, in Pudong. And I did that for a year. Then I eventually moved to Puxi, and teaching drama to children in an association with Shanghai theater academy, that's my principal employment. I'm also working with the English Repertory Theater, company theater, there's two.

Because I thought my acting life is over when I came to China. But it's been just the opposite. I've been performing a lot. Some of the great great plays, had some opportunities to direct. This is the right decision for me.

Well, I didn't choose to do it. This is the theater company, the producer choose to do this play, and she asked me to direct it. I've been involved with productions in Twelfth Night, this is my fifth production, as a producer or an actor. If I was been to choose my own play to do it, I probably choose something else. But this is a very, very popular play. It's good if you want to sale tickets to make money, cause people want to see this play. And I've directed before, I've directed seven years ago, in Massachusetts. So I'm very familiar with it. My goal in coming to China is to work with Chinese actors in Chinese. I didn't want to rush it. I wanted to just let things develop. And I always thought that when I came to the point where I'm ready to direct the Chinese actors in a Chinese Shakespeare play, this would be the play I would do. Because I was familiar with it; because it has a relatively small number of people in it; and it's a very popular play! So by coincidence when I was asked to direct this play in English, I thought now it's the time to do it in Chinese. Because I've built the set, I got all the props, and I can use them again. So, we've met with the Chinese actors, they seemed have great interests in it. It's not 100% guaranteed, but it's looking good. And within a few weeks when the show I'm doing now is over, we'll meet and do rehearsals. Most of the Chinese actors I'm working with speak some English, some speaks very good English, one of them don't speak any at all. But...and my Chinese is basic. But I know the play, and I have my script, with Chinese on the side. I know what they're saying. I know the play upside down, backward; I know this play so well. So even if I don't know each Chinese word, I know the speeches they are saying, because I know this play so well.

No they don't. A lot of them have some kind of performing experiences. There are some comedians, some poets...but actually I see this is a good thing, because it’s better to work with people who have no experiences than people who have bad habits. And the strongest challenge working with the English-speaking actors are that they all come from different backgrounds, they all have different ideas of how to do the work, they all have different vocabularies. I don’t think I’ve been 100% successful when getting them all pointed to the same direction. So when you work for people who are a blank slate, you can get them understand the way I work and the way I want them to work right from the beginning in a way, because everybody is talented, I believe that everybody has a talent, you know, so this is not a question of talent. I can get a good performance out of anybody if they listen to me and try to do what I ask them to do. So I think as long as they have the enthusiasm and good voices and attractive people, I think we'll be a very good show.