On the afternoon of February 20th, the Guangdong Friendship Theater Drama Season–The Press Conference of the Movie Showing Youth Series and the meeting of the main creators and leading actors of “Shuiyue Luoshen” were held at the Friendship Theater. The event released the “Showing Youth” series grandly launched by the 2023 Guangdong Friendship Theater Drama Season. At the same time, the main creators and leading actors of the popular dance dramas “Tang Palace Banquet” and “Shuiyue Luoshen” were invited to the scene to share their creative experiences and insights .
Text/Guangzhou all-media reporter Zhang Suqin
Explore the world of “her”, many wonderful performances will be staged soon
According to reports, the drama season’s “Showing Youth” series focuses on women’s stories and includes various types of stage arts. In the next few months, the “Showing Youth” series will bring the audience many performances such as “Water Moon Luoshen”, “Looking for Her Fragrance – Eileen Chang”, “Romantic Candlelight Concert of Movie Famous Songs” and the youth version of “The Peony Pavilion”, etc. Great show.
From February 24th to 25th, the first performance of the “Showing Youth” series, the large-scale dance drama “Shuiyue Luoshen” will be staged in the Friendship Theater. “Water Moon and Luoshen” was written by Feng Shuangbai, chairman of the Chinese Dancers Association and dance theorist, directed by Tong Ruirui, a national first-level choreographer of China Opera and Dance Theater, and created by Zhengzhou Song and Dance Theater.
The large-scale dance drama “Shuiyue Luoshen” made the audience addicted with 120 minutes of stage aesthetics. Once launched, it has won unanimous praise from all walks of life for its superb artistry, strong national character, and profound ideology. “Five One Project” Excellent Work Award, “Excellent Play Award” of the 14th Wenhua Award, 2011-2012 National Stage Arts Quality Project Key Funded Plays.
Chief interview
One person plays two roles “Miss Tang Palace” incarnates “Luo Shen” and “Zhen Mi”
Speaking of “Shuiyue Luoshen”, audiences who have watched the hit TV series “Our Ten Years” must be familiar with it. In 2020, the dance “Tang Palace Banquet” created by Zhengzhou Song and Dance Theater will be popular “out of the circle”. The first unit “Tang Palace Banquet” in the TV series “Our Ten Years” revealed the story of the creation and arrangement of “Shuiyue Luoshen” and “Tang Palace Night Banquet” by the “Miss Tang Palace”. In the play, Yi Wenyan’s prototype is Yi Xingyan, the female chief of Zhengzhou Song and Dance Theater and the leading actress of “Water Moon Luoshen” Guangzhou Station.
On February 20, at the meeting of the main creators and leading actors, Wang Peng, Director of the Dance Creation Department of Zhengzhou Song and Dance Theater, introduced that “Water Moon Luoshen” is based on Cao Zhi’s famous works “Luo Shen Fu”, “Seven Step Poems” and the legend of the Central Plains. Integrate “poems, books, rites, music, and dance” together, and use beautiful dances to interpret a love spanning thousands of years. In dance dramas, male actors also dance with long sleeves, which is a challenge for male dancers. “The actors will use hearty dances to lead the audience to appreciate the majestic atmosphere of Jian’an poetry more than a thousand years ago and the emotional entanglements between Cao Zhi, Cao Pi, and Zhen Mi.” Wang Peng said.
Yi Xingyan is loved by audiences for her starring role in the phenomenal and explosive dance work “Tang Palace Night Banquet”. She admits that this is also a challenge for herself. “As a complete dance drama, “Shuiyue Luoshen” has rich storytelling and carrying capacity. The quality requirements for actors are very high, because the details of the story to be expressed are very rich, and the characters are also quite thick.” Yi Xingyan Said, “The Luoshen I understand is a helpless female image who cannot control her own destiny during the war years. I especially need to express her yearning for beauty and freedom.”
Sun Shujie, director of the Zhengzhou Song and Dance Theater, said, “The dance drama “Water Moon and Luoshen” was staged in 2010 and has been performed hundreds of times. It is also deeply concerned and loved by audiences from all over the world, and I think this is also the recognition and demand of the audience for excellent historical culture.”
In 2023, “Water Moon Luoshen” will start its third round of tour, and will perform 26 performances in 15 cities. It is reported that the Guangzhou station tickets for this tour have basically been sold out.
“Looking for Her” and “The Peony Pavilion” relay staged
Eileen Chang is the most “legendary” female writer in the history of modern Chinese literature. Her name has surpassed her works and time, and has become a cultural phenomenon. On March 11, the play “Looking for Her – Eileen Chang” directed by Li Bonan, winner of the Wenhua Award for Director, will be staged at the Friendship Theater. The three stories of time and space are staged in turn, intertwined into three lines of searching for Eileen Chang. While recreating Zhang Ailing’s life, the play also staged her classic novels “Red Rose and White Rose”, “Half Life” and “Little Reunion” on the stage, looking for her hidden traces hidden between the lines.
I don’t know where it started, and it goes deeper and deeper. “The Peony Pavilion” is a masterpiece handed down from generation to generation by Tang Xianzu, a dramatist and writer in the Ming Dynasty. From April 7th to 8th, the essence of the youth version of “The Peony Pavilion” produced and performed by the Suzhou Kunqu Opera Theater in Jiangsu Province will be presented at the Friendship Theater. Starring Shen Fengying and Yu Jiulin, national first-class actors and winners of the Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Award, the play uses simplicity to conquer complexity, making China’s most beautiful classical drama shine again.