We talk to Steve Nolan

The King behind the Kung Fu Showcase

By Louw Mulder

South African stages have ignited the last decade with a variety of shows, musicals and signature productions, but what I missed out on some six years ago, was the Wheel of Life, by the Shaolin Monks. At first I didn’t think I’ve missed much, but after speaking to Steve Nolan, founding creator and producer of Shaolin, and hearing the sincere excitement about the show as he described the ultimate Kung Fu experience on stage, I simply cannot wait for the South African leg of their new World Tour.

Not only will this be a first for me, but for this particular cast of Monks, it will be their first time visiting South Africa too. According to Nolan, it will be their first time outside of the Temple, and perhaps even leaving their hometown in China. Hailing from the Song Shang Mountain Range in the Henan’s Province, these Monks display centuries of disciplined and dedicated extremes of the martial arts, in an energizing theatre environment.

With over 30 years’ experience in lighting and production, Steve Nolan has covered almost every kind of event. After establishing himself as a world renowned lighting designer for stars like Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, to name but a few, he went onto more acclaimed productions to the likes of George Michael at Wembley Stadium, the Muse and Concert for Diana, The Montreux Jazz Festival as well as the Royal Variety Performance.

With concerts produced like Katherine Jenkins’ World tour, Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds Tour, and being the senior production Manager for the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, Steve Nolan surely set forth a very impressive resume. But it was the creation and producing of Shaolin, Wheel of Life about 18 years ago, that brings him to South Africa this time around, with the show Shaolin, which is in essence the sequel to Wheel of Life.

It all happened when Steve Nolan was approached by some Chinese promotors, where they wanted to raise money for the temple and to provide some funds for the temple’s schools. Realising that there could be something special about this concept, Nolan assembled his equally enthusiastic team, boarded a plane and left for China. The question was why this has to be one show with a demonstration of Kung Fu skills. Nolan suggested that you can tell the story theatrically, where people can get more of a feeling of what these Monks do, but with costumes, lighting, etc. The idea was accepted and within a year, they were up and running, touring the world.

All of the Monks from a very early stage, join the temple and surrounding schools, where they train and learn the basic Kung Fu disciplines, whereafter they go on to master the more specific styles, based on the movement of animals. Nolan explained that with these trained professions, there is hardly any choreography, but merely the organising of these acts in an orderly fashion to get the story across. “It’s just staging it in a way that is interesting rather than just being a sequence of demonstrations that would not be boring for a wider audience than fans of the martial arts.” Nolan said.

Nolan makes it no secret how much he enjoys working with these Monks. He confirms that working with the big stars are great, but because Shaolin was created by himself, it is quite close to his heart and special to him. “I love to work with the Monks. I don’t have to deal with the tantrums and tiaras, or whether they have enough M&Ms and crystal in their dressing rooms” Steven jokes. “The monks just want fruit and good food with water. But for most part they are just nice people to work with. Just like every new troop, coming from the same seed, they are just nice to deal with.”

All the Monks in Shaolin are ordained, and touring for them is a big eye-opener for most. When the older ones get too old to perform, younger Monks join the production. Their journey in the temple, and the 50 odd schools run by them, trains more than 100,000 students at a time, which even includes students from Western cultures. They study and learn academics and Kung Fu, but with that famous attention paid to the physical and spiritual lifestyle. Nolan laughed when he said that he won’t anytime soon run out of cast members for this show.

Audiences in South Africa can really look forward to an enthralling experience of skill and discipline. What will be seen on stage, will be more than just tricks or stunts, as Nolan tries to explain with a tongue in the cheek, but more a display of years of training? “There are sensational parts, like the breaking of iron bars on their heads, which are not magic, just a display of their lifestyle” he said.

“Whenever we do a new show, even the same show, it can be largely new cast” Nolan said, “but easy to pick up where you left off, because they all the same training and exercise. Then what you do, is you try to find individuals with more specialised training, which will be included.”

This production of Shaolin we will be seeing, premiered in London in October 2015, and South Africa will be the first stop of their tour, before going onto Singapore. “For the first time, there will be absolutely sensational Kung Fu girls, which is a fairly new thing that they do” Nolan said excitingly when telling what South Africans can expect this time around. “In China now, they have a lot of schools training girls, than when we started with the show and they’ve come a long way in what the training of girls are concerned.”

Traditionally, these monks were perceived in grey and brown robes, but this changes in Shaolin. “In the beginning of this production, you will see them in all sorts of outfits and costumes, and only when they do their duties, especially their ceremonial duties, they will wear the orange and brown robes” Nolan said as he gives a little bit of the show away. “Your audience will be seeing a lot of new costumes in this show that wasn’t there before.” Mr Nolan also triggered the excitement by saying that there will be a lot of new exciting things, but uttered an evil laugh when he said he can’t elaborate on this.

For Steve Nolan, the mastermind behind Shaolin, it is lovely to see the monks traveling and meeting new people. “When you see them on state, it is real.” he said. He summed up the whole essence of Shaolin: “These are people who learned to do something quite incredible. Inside of us all, if we were to dedicate ourselves enough, and train hard enough, and really believe that we can do something, it gives you a very good idea of what Kung Fu is all about.”