3 November 2017
(Yang Shuwen playing the role of "Wang Zuo" in "Eight Hammers - Storytellor with a Cut-off Arm)
(Ceremonial photo of Xi Zhonglu, master actor for martial character, accepting Wang Zhuo, teacher of our school, as student)
“Learn from Masters” Classic Plays Inheritance Program is a key program that the Chinese Opera School affiliated to the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) has been pushing forward in the recent years, and it is also one of the customized programs of the Chinese Opera Performing Arts Education and Inheritance Base of our school. This program aims to provide the professional teachers of our school with the platform to learn plays from master artists and learn teaching from master teachers and provide them with the platform for practical performances, with the purposes of inheriting the classic plays, rescuing the lost plays and ultimately serving the teaching and improving the quality of teaching. Since the program was implemented, more a dozen of young and middle-aged teachers have, in their spare times, learnt the relevant plays from such master artists and master teachers as Bi Guyun, Wang Mengyun, Zhu Bingqian and Sun Yumin with remarkable results. The play “Eight Hammers – Storyteller with a Cut-off Arm”, which will be staged at the Shanghai Tianchan Yifu Theatre on the evening of 25 November 2017, is one of the achievements of the “Learn from Masters” Classic Plays Inheritance Program.
“Eight Hammers – Storyteller with a Cut-off Arm” is rarely staged presently, in which the role of “Wang Zuo” (i.e. the storyteller who cut off one of his arms) is highly demanding in terms of singing, speaking, movement and acting and is of a significant inheritance value. Yang Shuwen, a teacher of our school, will play the role of “Wang Zuo” in the performance. Yang Shuwen graduated from the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in 2002 and has learnt directly from Ye Peng, famous Peking Opera performing artist, as his student. She has been teaching at our school for 15 years since graduation. In these 15 years, she has dedicated to the education of students in terms of both skills and personalities and has cultivated some new blood for the performing arts of the elderly character in Peking Opera. Outside her busy work, she has never forgotten to improve her own professional skills and has continued to learn from master artists. “Eight Hammers – Storyteller with a Cut-off Arm” is a play that she has learnt from Zhu Bingqian, famous Peking Opera performing artist. Through learning this play, Yang Shuwen has become even more sophisticated in her spoken and acting skills in Peking Opera and greatly broadened her own performance style. In order to present the play in a complete and high quality manner, our school has also invited Xi Zhonglu, national first-class actor, inheritor of intangible cultural heritage and master actor for martial character, to play a supporting role in the play. At the same time, Guo Wenhua, national first-class actor of our school, and Wang Zhuo and Dai Guoliang, well-accomplished young teachers of our school, will also participate in the performance of the play. Through this performance, not only can we improve the professional capabilities of the young teachers of our school, but also enrich their stage experience and teaching repertoire, and effectively serve the classroom teaching.
After the performance of the play, we will also hold a "master and student acknowledgement ceremony" in which Xi Zhonglu, master actor for martial character, will formally accept Wang Zuo, a well-accomplished young teacher of our school, as his student. This will be another “master and student acknowledgement ceremony” of its kind in which a teacher of our school will be formally accepted as a student by a master actor, following the previous occasions when teachers of our school, Guo Wenhua, Yang Shuwen, Pan Jiehua and Shi Xiaojun were formally accepted by master actors/actresses, Wang Mengyun, Ye Peng Sun Yumin and Shen Shihua as their student respectively. The arrangement for teachers of our school to be accepted formally by master artists as their students to learn directly from them will not only benefit the inheritance of the art of Chinese operas, but also enable the styles of the masters to be continued in the classrooms and reflected in both the teachers and students.
