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Edwin Wan has studied drama in Hong Kong and went to do his MA in musical theatre at the Royal Academy of Music in the UK. His main passion lies with performing in musical theatre. However, Edwin is highly versatile and enjoys performing in all kinds of genres. Presently, he lives and works in Hong Kong.
Learn more about Edwin’s life and work in this exclusive interview.
I was born and raised in Hong Kong. I received acting training in Hong Kong and studied musical theatre in London. Upon my graduation in 2019, I intended to try and start out my acting career in the UK but Covid hit as soon as I began.
I returned to Hong Kong in the middle of 2020 and am now working as a full-time actor in a theatre company.
Yes, I studied business at university. I know a lot of actors fell in love with theatre early in their lives, but my exposure to theatre came rather late.
I was a very hard-working student, almost straight-A, in my school years. And went to a rather prestigious business school in Hong Kong, studying Global Business.
It was the course requirement that I had to go on an exchange in my second year. And so, I went to Newcastle in the UK for one term. It was 2010, the year the musical Love Never Dies came out.
I didn’t know much about musical theatre back then. But I’d seen The Phantom of the Opera when it toured Hong Kong. Knowing Love Never Dies was its sequel, I thought it would be cool to see the show’s world premiere. So, I got myself a ticket and travelled to London by myself to see it the first week it opened.
It was one of my early experiences with musical theatre and I was simply blown away by the singing and energy in the performance.
I really enjoyed how everyone, actors, and members of the audience, in the theatre were so focused on the action on stage.
That kind of togetherness and being in the moment felt almost surreal to me and it’s a feeling I cannot find elsewhere.
The idea of singing live with live orchestra was also something exciting. I especially liked Ramin Karimloo in the show and thought how nice it would be if I could sing like him. It was in that year that I began to fall in love with musical theatre.
After the exchange semester, I returned to Hong Kong to finish the third and final year of my business degree. I had the option to choose electives that were not part of my major. And there was a module titled “Music, Drama and Theatre”, taught by Dr Oliver Lo.
The course work for that module was to put together a forty-minute musical performance using existing show-tunes with new lyrics. I did that and it was my first experience as an actor in a “musical”.
After my graduation, I worked as a management trainee in a bank. The university organizes a musical camp every summer, also led by Dr Lo, and they let alumni participate.
So, for the first three years after my graduation, I performed in the summer musicals every year. I was lucky to have performed in the leading roles in musicals such as Aida, Guys and Dolls and Grease.
During the three years, I also took short courses on acting and singing, since I wanted to do better even as an amateur performer.
In one of these courses, I happened to meet a lecturer from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and he encouraged me to go to drama school. I was twenty-four and having worked three years in a bank, I knew that wasn’t for me.
I also thought twenty-four was the right timing to make the move as you need to spend four years in drama school. I thought graduating at the age of twenty-eight was still not too old to start an acting career.
So, I quit my job and went to drama school. The reason I studied drama, and not musical theatre was because there was no degree-level musical theatre training in Hong Kong.
For singing and dance, I can take private lessons, but you cannot learn acting without fellow actors. That’s why I went for a drama degree.
But musical theatre was still my passion and therefore in my final year at drama school, I applied for several musical theatre MA programmes in the UK. And I was admitted to the Royal Academy of Music.
The acting training in Hong Kong gave me a solid foundation and understanding of being an actor.
As a student actor, I performed in a wide range of shows, from musicals like Pippin and Songs for a New World, to a dramatized version of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. I even did a devised project based on Peter Handke’s Offending the Audience. Little by little, I learned about what it means to be an actor on stage.
Like how I should carry myself on stage in terms of body and voice, and how to be in the imaginative space of the story and the actual performing space simultaneously.
The year I did my musical theatre MA in London was like a fifth year of drama school to me. It was about consolidating everything I’ve learnt before, but with a focus in musical theatre.
The year at RAM was so packed that it felt like two or even three years. We had intensive singing, dance and acting lessons. In addition, there were masterclasses and competitions in which we all needed to prepare and perform.
The academy invited very prestigious artists to come in and work with us in these masterclasses. We were so lucky to have Patti LuPone, Imelda Staunton, and Claude-Michel Schoenberg in our classes, to name a few.
Of course, we also had our shows. Singing the jazz quartet as Angel City Four in Cy Coleman’s City of Angels was the highlight and grand conclusion to my training at RAM.
The jazz harmonies were probably the most challenging stuff I’ve ever sung and yet it was so rewarding to do.
I went back to Hong Kong because I was unable to find work, not just in theatre, in London under the pandemic.
Looking back, it was a good decision. I have been working in the performing arts field ever since I returned. Not too many actors were able to keep performing during the pandemic. I am very lucky indeed.
But most importantly, I am now able to stay close to my loved ones.
Since April 2021, I’ve begun my engagement as a full-time actor at Chung Ying Theatre Company in Hong Kong.
In addition to theatre, I recently got offered a job as one of the four vocalists in a Disney concert in summer and that’s a bucket list item checked. Meanwhile I also do voice-over and teach singing.
As for my dreams for the future, of course I still dream big and wish to perform in West End or Broadway musicals. But then it’s not as important as before. If there’s one thing that the pandemic has taught me, it would be ‘everything is uncertain’.
I cannot plan for the future, just like I never planned to become a professional actor when I performed in university. Life simply unfolded itself to me and I followed. I envision my future to be the same.
I would say cherish your passion and make the best of it. But don’t let it become an obsession.
You don’t always have to give up what you already have in life to follow your passion.
Ask yourself, what are the most important things in your life? Follow your heart and you won’t go astray.
Facebook/ Instagram: edwinwan.actor
Twitter: @edwinwan_actor
Actor, Director, and Lecturer in Hong Kong: Billy Sy
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Liam Klenk was born in Central Europe and has since lived on four continents. Liam has always been engaged in creative pursuits, ranging from photography and graphic design, to writing short stories and poetry, to working in theatre and shows. In 2016, Liam published his first book and memoir, 'Paralian'.
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