Hopelessly Tatiana Brings Entertainment to Your Home With Lock-in Listen

Katie Coy | May 27, 2022 11:33 am | Add a comment | 112 reads

We are now almost one month into this semi-lockdown where, while most people are still able to go outside, pretty much every “fun” activity has been cancelled or postponed.

In times like these it would be easy to succumb to feelings of frustration and sometimes even downright depression. However, as has been the case over the past two years, Beijing and its creative individuals continue to prove time and time again that even, or perhaps especially, in the face of adversity they can rise to the challenge.

One such individual is Tatiana (Alex Smith, pictured below) who created and runs the podcast Hopelessly Tatiana. Although it would be unfair to say that this is merely a podcast, as it has become much more than that. With an active following, an even more active WeChat group, Hopelessly Tatiana is now an entire community.

As a member of the WeChat group myself, it has been particularly helpful in these troubling times with Tatiana and other members sharing useful mental health advice, support and generally just good vibes which really help one feel less isolated and alone.

Before Beijing's current outbreak hit, there had been a planned Hopelessly Tatiana Spoken Word event, due to take place on May 16 which unfortunately had to be postponed. But, never one to knocked back for long, within no time Tatiana was already planning a new online event to help relieve us all of the semi-lockdown boredom blues.

The event, called Lock-in Listen, will be a mixture of different performances including poetry, plays, skits and more. While the majority of the pieces are already known, published works, there will also be some original pieces featured too. Lock-in Listen is due to take place on May 29 via Tencent Meetings and ahead of the show I reached out to Tatiana to find out more about it.

Firstly, can you tell us a little bit about Lock in Listen and what exactly it is?
Lock-in Listen is intended to be a fun, dramatic reading of different types of pieces. It is intended to resemble a Radio Play. Each piece is meant to be read with entertaining, creative energy, whether a poem, skit, or short story. The goal is to have a creative outlet during our time stuck inside by bringing old stories to life.

Where did the idea for this come from?
I love story-based podcasts, and I thought wouldn’t it be fun to pick some stories, skits, and plays that are old and have people act them out for fun.

The first show will be on May 29, how can people listen?
You can join us for the live show on Tencent Meetings at 7pm through this link: https://meeting.tencent.com/dm/6yvI0Or2Ju6V

If someone wanted to get involved in the next show, how could they join?
Just add my WeChat (tatianamcl) and let me know you’re interested.

You’re planning on continuing to run this show until “lockdown” finishes, do you have a rough date for when the next show might be?
The current plan for the next show will be on June 12th.

When we do get out of lockdown do you have any future events already planned?
Oh yes! When we get out of the lockdown, we will reschedule the Spoken Word event we had to postpone and possibly begin auditions for the next live play!

If you want to find out more about Hopelessly Tatiana or listen to the podcast you can go to her website, to join the WeChat group you can add Tatiana through her WeChat ID (tatianamcl), if you want to see previous shows such as Flip the Script, you can see recording on her YouTube Channel Hopelessly Tatiana.