【明報專訊】Hi, I am Chattie. I am a cloud. I have been travelling around the world and have seen a lot of people and places. Some days ago, I went to Wan Chai to watch a play, and I chatted with some young people there.

What I watched was an open rehearsal rather than a real performance. Though it was an open rehearsal, it was up to professional standards. Its special effects amazed the audience. The trees tilted to the left and to the right while the main character had some dreamy thoughts. With a shadow, the director created a train coming from afar.

In addition, some of the actors gave the parts they played great vividness. The actress who played a blind old lady looked really old and the whole audience believed she was blind. A young lady who was forced to marry the wrong man acted well. She seemed struggling between hatred and love. The young actor who portrayed a weak man who would just do whatever his mother or wife told him to do is very talented. The one who played a person with intellectual disability was a surprise. The audience liked him very much because he was pure-hearted and had the sense to seek the audience's attention.

After the show, some young people who had watched it asked me how they could become artists. I said the most important thing was whether they were interested in art. There are many kinds of artists, and they like their respective arts in their own ways. Musicians are fond of music. There is music in their brains even when they are in a quiet place. Dancers cannot stop dancing. They move their bodies when they are waiting for the traffic lights to change. Directors keep observing and imagining. They have in their minds pictures of people communicating and different things happening. Actors like taking risks to gain experience and they enjoy being in the limelight. Painters' colour palettes are always close to them. They hold their pencils or brushes more often than they hold their chopsticks. Animators collect thousands of DVDs. They read a lot of comics and they know how to use different types of drawing software!

Don't be an artist unless you love art. When you are attracted to an art, you will keep trying to explore it and go deep in it.

An artist's path is not smooth, and only a few walk with you. Initially, you won't have steady incomes. Others may not understand your thoughts. You have to dig very deep into your own souls and face yourselves honestly. You have to break a lot of frames and find new angles from which to look at people and things. You have to be very open to others' opinions before you can make improvements. You have to work extremely hard before you can master the art you love and express your own ideas.

Having heard my reply, most of those young people walked away. However, some of them beamed with excitement, saying they would do their best to take those special paths. I bless them from the bottom of my heart. I hope they will become successful artists who abide by their arts and live really happily.

■Vocabulary Words

open rehearsal 公開排練

director 導演

actor 演員

artist 藝術家

musician 音樂家

dancer 舞蹈家

animator 動畫師

software 軟件

◆Jeffrey Chan

•An artist, theatre director and English teacher.

•He is interested in breaking frames in his living, direction and teaching.

•A co-founder of Sparky Creative.

◆Travis Ying

•An artist, theatre stage designer, illustrator and registered teacher.

•He is interested in spotting arts in daily life and he cannot stop sketching at meetings.

•The creator of Chatties and Friends, a co-founder of Sparky Creative.

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