Veteran Dutch musical actress recalls her favorite memories of important productions and how Chinese audiences surprise her, Zhang Kun reports.

Dutch musical actress Maya Hakvoort won the Shanghai Magnolia Stage Performance Award on Feb 27. She is one of a few foreign artists to have won the award at all 33 sessions.

The Magnolia Award is Shanghai's annual celebration of live theater and honors the best stage productions and actors. Hakvoort won the award for her performance in the title role of Lady M, a musical production in English by Shanghai Culture Square and Xu Jun Drama and Musical.

Since landing a role in the musical Chicago in 1988, Hakvoort has built a prolific career on the German and English-language musical scene, performing in several important productions such as Elisabeth, Mozart!, and Evita, among others.

Lady M has an international cast led by Hakvoort and is the first English-language musical production created in China. Written by British playwrights James Beeny and Gina Georgio, it premiered at Shanghai's MIFA 1862 Theater.

"In 2023, director Xu Jun asked me to play the main role in Lady M," Hakvoort tells China Daily before receiving the Magnolia Award. The production has three male English actors and the rest of the cast is Chinese. "I was thrilled. The whole show was in English, which was easy for me to learn. It was modern Shakespeare in a modern setting and costumes."

Working with the Chinese production team was also a new experience for Hakvoort. As a performer used to playing powerful female roles, Hakvoort says: "I make very brave choices." Meanwhile, she found the actors in China would "do what the director says and then put a little of their own spin on it".

"We learn from each other," she says. "As a result, we had to melt together. We met each other in the middle."