舞台设计英文文献以及翻译

Creation

Accompanied

with

Historical Experiences

(I)

Any designer may have experienced the following scene:

After the last performance of a play, the fine-designed settings and stage properties were all piled

up in a corner of a storehouse,just looking like only a few hours ago, they had been so

imposing and brilliant, either soul- stirring or pleasing to eyes and mind. Those settings, props and

devices, which had been the product of our deep thinking and had given us our excitement, once

bathed

in

brilliant

lights

and

accompanied

the

actors

and

actresses

on

the

stage,

and

won

the

audience's

praises

and

applause,

now

are

simply

a

picture

of

ruined

Pompeii

And

moving our eyes in another corner, we would see other settings made in unknown time had been

covered

with

thick

layers

of

dust...And

there

were

still

much

more

articles

or

disappeared into nowhere long ago.

This description may seem a little bit sad. In fact, such a constant disappearing art as play is just

like

festival

fireworks,

though

it

can't

exist

for

long,

it

has

been

turned

into

a

kind

of

mind

nutrition, accumulated at the bottom of our heart.

At the moment, there may be a new script in our hands and a new blue print in our mind. So a new

samsara is started all over again. We experienced metamorphosis and

again, and witnessed different lives from ancient to modern, from emperor to common folks, and

from

fairyland

to

the

mortal

world,

a

course

of

dozens.

Or

hundreds,

even

thousands

of

years

seemed happened in a few years.

Drama

is

like

a

condensed

fictional

history

and

reality.

model

of

the

world

is

a

perfect

metaphor for it. A stage designer is like an architect who constructs this illusory world. Unlike the

other applied fine arts, stage design is to make the illusory world real.

It is difficult to complete this task. On one hand, we are very busy with our routines, many new

works are waiting for us to do, and we have no time to think what we have done in the past. On

the

other

hand,

the

world

changes

so

fast,

and

in

such

a

great

tempo,

our

subject

feelings

are

greatly changed shortly after a piece of composition had been done. A recollection of the old piece

of work may give you a quite different aesthetic judgement. As my young age is concerned, I am

not

qualified

to

talk

about

something

in

the

but

we

do

experience

a

lot

of

historical

changes.

People often talk about the drama crisis; however, we sensed a potentially vigorous hope rising

behind this crisis. As the society is transformed into a new one, and so is the drama. Drama is an

artistic form closely related to the public life from the beginning. But the fact that it is referred as

elegant

art

may

often

estrange

itself

from

the

tendency

is

indeed

rather

we know,

the people's way of life changes so greatly in the information age, so the traditional art form will

inevitably face enormous changes.

When the social conflicts are not so intensified, people's attention is turned from social problems

to their longing for material wealth, and from their thinking over the meaning of life to seeking

sensual pleasures. The audience's artistic need changes, too.

been as an art of expressing some deep philosophical ideas or expressing artist's own aspiration

has been gradually replaced by a kind of

by the public. Chinese drama, which in earlier times mainly served the function of soul probing,

will end its former period by going to the market.

1980's and 1990's are two quite obviously different decades. The 1980's is an age of de-structuring

and probing, everything is broken and reorganized. Drama composition of this time is more like

an

experiment,

few

can

be handed

down

for

long,

but many

are

very

enlightening.

The

1990's,

however,

is

a

decade

of

collective

achievement

and

harvest.

After

a

period

of

probing

and

experimenting, a series of mature works come out. The dramas I have designed just span these two

decades. It is the work of drama profession to summarize fully and rationally the history of drama,

and

as

a

designing

practitioner,

his

creative

ideas

are

the

results

of

intuitive

mastering

in

the

process of creative design. Here is the magic of artistic creation. From a designer's point of view, it

is really meaningful to record this process.

(II)

The first change I experienced in intuitively is the psychological change in creation.I feel much

more relaxed and free today than before when I am doing my design. The reason for this may be

explained in the more skilled techniques are not really the main obstacle in my

it may be explained in another way. As I am growing old, I begin to be fond of plain

things; the felling of religious sacredness in creation in the past seems things far feeling

of satisfaction obtained from creation is quite different from that in the past.

In fact, it is a change of creation preference. In the past , it is the expression to be stressed, and

now it is the acceptance.

I said a few years ago that I was not so detached as to perform my designs in a playfully relaxed

manner. Every design must be full of experience of life. Though I was fully relaxed and happy, I

can still remember the excitement and anxiety I experienced during my designing of each drama.

A drama which can not give me excitement of from which I can not find excitement does distress

me extremely; it usually gets half the result with twice the effort. I value greatly the psychological

background in the creation. Only if I regard the work as a spiritual fare to comfort me, I will have

sufficient motive to put myself into the design.

I know this is a harsh precondition.

This is also the common state of mind of the people at my age. The following are the words from

THE SPIRIT OF FOURTH GRNERATION:

the poet's mettle has dissolved in the blood of our generation. We're leading an ordinary life, but

we're singing the ideal songs all the way.

This portraiture is true to my state of mind during my creation a few years ago, which now seems

to have faintly changed. Just as Wu Liang said:

intercourse, all nibbling at our limited time and life, we are hard pressed to cope with it, without

experiencing that profound feeling. Everything passed through the mind without leaving any

unforgettable memory upon it.

Artistic creation gradually turns businesslike, either for money or for prize,

society replaces aesthetics.

creation turns into something playfully relaxed. In the past, each process of design creation itself

is a life burning, now it is very difficult to find such passion. It is for this reason that Mr. Xu

Xiaozhong once wrote his

As an artist, you should be on guard against the danger of losing yourself on one hand, and on the

other hand, you should search for a new self-realization.

(III)

I have never pursued such a goal as to achieve something with personal mark by some means and

form. Each design starts from the very state of

experience.

I entered the drama field in 1980's; it was a time when drama outlook was being hotly discussed. It

is natural for me to take whatever I met since I didn't have any fixed idea from the very beginning.

In my view, the differences of the outlook were not that important.

I have used many different styles: the extremely realistic one such as THE SHARE KITCHEN;

the illusory next to

framed THE DEATH OF BLACK SERGEANT; the bamboo-installed Huai Drama WINTER

PLUM BLOSSOM, machine-installed BRIDGE; the brilliantly gigantic earth installation at

Opening Ceremony of Chengdu International Panda Festival

old and broken

JESUS, CONFUCIUS AND JOHN LENON ; a bronze ware-felt STORIES OF WU AND YUE

KINGDOM ... From 1986 to present, off and on, I have produced about 70 designs, involving

stage play, opera, dance drama, Shaoxing opera, Huai opera, Guangxi opera, Sichuan opera,

puppet show, farce, large-scale dance with accompaniment, large-scale opening ceremony and

film and TV.

An American who teaches in a Taiwan university said to me after he read my collection of works,

natural, and was not pursued, so I didn't feel tired. If you are absorbed in your design, it is

impossible to repeat other's work or your own work. It is even more impossible for drama

into the same river twice

design. The magic of drama lies in its present tense, the immediate nature and the impromptus

quality, as if it is an exploring ship without a fixed route always cherishing the hope of discovering

some treasure at any time. Do you have your won style? It's just the difference between stage

design and painting. Painting needs a long time to perfect itself and persist in exploring one style.

The highest goal for painting is to establish one's own style. While stage design is a different thing,

you should constantly negate what you have done and do it without repetition. It takes constant

creation as its principal aim. If the design method used in this drama is the same as was adopted in

the last, it means the exhaustion of the designer's wit and the failure of creation. I've met with the

sorrow of the sort many times. A fairly good design concept and mode was ruined in a bad drama.

So I will not use the originality of one drama in another. What I do is only to ponder over the

drama and composing group when I take over a task. However, once all the comprehensive

elements are well used, the collective energy emitted from drama will surpass any other artistic

form.

The charm of the drama is an art that contains higher compatibilities and vast boundless

probabilities.

Every model has its own inherent reason. But I think it is superficial to be meticulous about

creation only for the sake of proving one or two methods. One or two casual devices can indeed

win cheers sometimes, but I never take it as the best works. And sometimes there is only a

threshold between

Looking at the collection of my drafts of the former days, I feel heavy-hearted. The plays designed

only a few years ago and even of the last year seem to me to be the past events vanishing like

smoke. Then having a look at the foreign operas and melodrama, they display quite different a

creative state, which are after all in quite another space and many artists in China, I have

fumbled my way through for a few years, which reflects more or less the thinking course of the

Chinese artists. Now we are facing a completely new world. The accelerating tempo of life keeps

me from chewing upon the joys and sorrows of the past. When the memory remains, I'll take rapid

notes about what I have gained from my work for the past few years, which will benefit my future

design.

II The Recollections of My Creative

Designs

(I)

Yue Opera TWELFTH NIGHT

Lines, rhythm, the subtle and concise beauty of Shaoxing Opera.

At the first Shakespeare's Drama Festival in China, we took part in the stage and costume

designing of Shaoxing Opera TWELFTH NIGHT. It is a constructive attempt for us to perform

Shakespeare's immotal dramas have been attracting the wide performance all over the world. And

TWELFTH NIGHT was performed in various forms.

China

speare's , Shaoxing opera's and poetic flavours altogether, The hunting for Shakespeare's flavour

lies in appreciating the style of Shakespeare's poems. Yue Opera's flavour, however, is mainly in

the particularly gentle and delicate beauty of Southern China opera. Lines and frames extracted

from architectural structure by Chinese line drawing in traditional ink and brush style form various

compositions,which become the main stage setting language of Shaoxing Opera TWELFTH

NIGHT. And the light comic style of TWELFTH NIGHT is quite suitable to Shaoxing Opera.

The costume of quite elegant colour, the graceful charm of point and line composition particularly

displayed by traditional opera, and the subtle, concise, pretty and charming curve

each other taste fully and pleasingly, all these embody Shakespeare's poetic charm . This

setting was quite unexpected for Shaoxing Opera's actors and actresses who are used to the

splendid setting and bright- coloured dresses. Finally, this setting image became popular with them

and the audience.

Stage image should be as simple and complete as possible. One absolutely necessary large stage

property is used at most in each stage setting. Audience's attention should be fixed upon

performance without interference of any other unnecessary image. The stage should give a

complete organic image. The youth melody, the smooth rhythm, the pure charm, and the elegant

realm are all we try our best to achieve in TWELFTH NIGHT, in order to provide the suitable

stage image language for director's whole scheme.

(II)

Gui Opera THE SAD STORY OF THE CLAY HORSE

The clay horse, the sacred horse, from falsehood to myth

Though it is not the first play I've designed, its influence upon me is so great as to give me a real

start. I participated in the design while I was engaged in my graduate study. I participated in the

design while I was engaged in my graduate study. It gave me an opportunity to establish the

contact with the first- class director and the creative group. This design reflects the back ground of

the background of the ideological liberation movement after Cultural Revolution. I realize from

the experience for the first time the enormous effect of the stage design on revealing a play's

theme, In this play, I learned the design conception of the theme-oriented pattern.

Whether there is such a

THE CLAY HORSE. In reality, it is just a clay horse in a small and shabby

The runaway Zao Gou (a king of Song Dynasty pursued by invading army) is carried across the

river on the back of a peasant called Li Ma and hidden in the temple. In order to coax the invading

army to give up pursuing the king, the acolyte in the temple lies casually that

makes its power felt to ferry the king across the river

fled in panic, And Zhao Gou with the help of this falsehood, claiming to be the ordained master

protected by god, mounts the throne of the Southern Song Dynasty. Common people believe in it

without any doubt, They would never open their eyes to the real facts. They not only believe in it,

but also defend the dignity of the

whole cheating story, peasant Li Ma, involuntarily sacrifices his life to protect the myth. And Li

Ma's descendants and the other common folks kneel down in front of the

for blessings. The tragedy embodies itself in the psychology of worshipping destiny and divine

power, and it is deeply rooted in the collective unconsciousness of our main intention

of this play is to call for the self and independent consciousness and reflect seriously upon man's

own fate.

With the advancing of the story of the opera, and in the process of sanctifying falsehood, we

design three temples and three temples and three horses in a series of images: A small temple, a

big temple, and a splendid temple; a clay horse, a big horse, and a stately sacred horse.

The opera ends with the climax of pious devotees sacredly worshipping in front of the glorious

temple of the sacred horse and in the winding smoke of burning incenses and bright candlelights.

This sacred horse doesn't exist in reality, but it does exist in people's mind. People

in return are controlled by awes the soul of the people, comforting and ruining, inspiring and

depressing at the same time.

Gui Opera hears like Beijing Opera, it in deed has the same origin as Beijing Opera. Its powerful

quality well suits the theme of the opera

(III)

Sichuan Opera STARTLED DREAM FROM RED MANSIONS

The neat calligraphy and incomplete stone tablets with unclear words on it, the symbol of

declining feudal society and its culture.

What most stage artists pursue today is to display a wide social significance and deep philosophic

theory in their works. This is an inevitable demand made by the fact that today's drama expresses

itself more widely and deeply and the audience's appreciation level is much higher than before. In

traditional opera, the audience may linger for a graceful figure, an elegant piece of vocal music, or

a gorgeous dress. Even today, drama is first of all recreational and aesthetic, but the audience

demands more than this. Today's drama provides an active opportunity for contemporary

playwrights and the audience to think and reflect together under the cover of aesthetic activity.

What we see in the story is not the joys and sorrows, partings and reunions, honor or disgrace, rise

and fall of a certain family. We are more concerned about what happens behind and beyond it. We

try to look into others and ourselves from the story, and explore the secrets of the world and ours.

If the displaying of the drama's action environment is one of the functions of stage design, then is

tis not enough for today's drama environment to account simply for a place in its ordinary

meaning. The thoughts of designers and directors turn toward two poles, both micro and macro.

One is the externalization of innermost being, the other is the display of the broad background.

A DREAM OF RED MANSION, the remarkable Chinese literary works, is world-famous for its

multi-arrangements of stories and wide contents. A prosperous red-ology (the study of A DREAM

OF RED MANSION) around this book appears both at home and abroad. From the triangle love

affairs of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai, and the different characterized images, of the 12

pretty maidens of Nanjing, the playwright ofthe STARTLED DREAM FROM RED MANSIONS

chose Wang Xifeng and Jiao Da, the inconspicuous in original book, as the leading roles. It is

really a masterstroke.

In face of Jia Mansion's declining fortune, Wang Xifeng show her intelligence and capability,

sparing no efforts in preventing the decline. While Jiao Da, as a well- deserved house servant,

remains loyal and faithful, he deplores and bemoans the lost of good time of yore. The master and

servant are irreconcilable rivals, yet both have a dream to restore the old glory to the Red Mansion.

However, time is inexorably changed. The whole feudal society is too corrupt and decadent for

any remedy. It is no alternative but to see helplessly

edifice falling apart

facing is not only certain individual's personal degeneration and immorality, but also the powerful

historical law of society. What the strain their nerve to preserve is something meaning-less. And

their loyalty is historically vain and ridiculous. So it is said that Cao Xueqin sang a great elegy to

the death of an old time in his A DREAM OF RED MANSION.

Thus, the stage design of STARTLED DREAM FROM RED MANSIONS strives to show the

broad background of the Chinese feudal culture, leaving certain actual dynasty, time and mansion

(family) to an insignificant place. Words from the Four Books and Five Classics' are copied in

Chinese calligraphy everywhere on the stage setting. Along with the declining of the Jia Mansion,

the standardized calligraphy is changed into the damaged stone tablets with the broken words on it,

signifying the declining of feudal culture. About a dozen of vertically hung scroll installations

revolve from several angles, with various compositions, emerging and disappearing now and then

to stress the sense of mobility and vision of drama performance. Actors and actresses go in and out

of the installations, fully mixing the stage installations with the performance together.

Dream and reality overlap. A word of

mistiness, illusion, symbols, and mystery becomes what the drama tries to reach.

Before the performance begins, the whole stage setting is open to the audience. The whole stage is

full of words and excerpts from

from A DREAM OF RED MANSION written on strips and scrolls of paper hanging from the

flowered lanes on the stage. It constituted an integrated style, and what's more, the poems

themselves are worth appreciating.

Pages full of fantastic talk,

Penned with bitter tears,

All men call the author mad,

None his message hears.

With the singing of this poem, the performance begins.

In the second scene, Jia Zhen, a gentleman, flirts with Win Keqing, a maid, in a neat, serious and

canonical background full of flavour of the feudal ethical code, with the behaviours of the

characters and the background, displaying to the fullest extent of corruption and hypocrisy.

Keqing is insulted, and abandons herself to despair. Just then, the vertically hung scrolls turn

around to produce a dizzy effect as if the sky and the earth are spinning round. Keqing dies of

illness and disease. The stage images directly take part in the performance and extend the actors'

movements.

In the third scene, red pillars and the personalized pillars symbolize a kind of force. Ruizhu, a a

maid,, witnesses the Jia family's scandal, is chased by the family guard. Having no way out,

despairingly crying out,

make them afraid of my eyes witnessing their scandal and my tongue leaking out their secrecy?!

She is forced to hit her head against the pillar and died.

Lu Xun, China's great modern writer, referred to Jiao Da as Qu Yuan of Chia Mansion. Though a

lackey, he has a heart of master, JIao Da, who is full of the suffering consciousness and the

righteous spirit of a faithful lackey, looks indeed both respectful and ridiculous. His staunch

loyalty only earns him a mouthful of horse excrement in return. Filled with grief and indignation,

JIao Da embosoms himself to the stone lion. There is a sentence in A DREAM OF RED

MANSION saying that every thing and every person in Jia Mansion Has been corrupted to the

core except the two stone lions by the gate still remaining pure. But in this play, the two lions turn

into two beauties flirting with Jiao Da and ridiculing his blind loyalty.

stone-carved things, imperceptibly influenced by what you see and hear for a long time, should

follow their foul example

In the fifth scene, Wang Xifeng manages to sustain the dilapidated family. The red pillars remain

erect, yet among them are damaged stone tablets with unclear words on them. The Jia family is

only outwardly strong but inwardly weak.

In the sixth scene, a jubilant celebration of birthday is held just as a dying person's momentary

recovery of consciousness just before death. Soon afterwards, Jia Mansion is searched and

confiscated. All ghosts come to claim their lives upon Jia Mansion. The red pillars on the stage fall

and disappear gradually.

is falling apart. And it is as if birds finished their food and went to seek refuge in the forest,

leaving the ground blank and clean.

From the standardized calligraphy to the broken stone tablets, it gives us an image of declining.

The settings form a process and image series.

Hu Weimin praised this design as reaching the levels of

understandability

(IV)

Drama JESUS, SONFUCIUS ADNJOH LENON

BIGLE, THE ANALECTS OF CNFUCIOUS, and SONGS of LENON, the striking of cultures in

different times and spaces

In 1988, in late autumn and early winter, Toronto was beautiful. I was in charge of the stage design

in the stage opera JESUS, CONFUCIUS, AND JOHN LENON rehearsed by Toronto Performing

Art Stage Play Troupe. Mr. Director Alec Stockwell gave me a Chinese copy of the new work by

Mr. Sha Yexin before he went back to Canada, hoping that I could go to take part in the rehearsal

of the play in Toronto. It is the first time to rehearse a drama by a Chinese play wright in Candad,

and also the first time to invite a Chinese stage designer. I was very glad to have this opportunity.

Before leaving, I did some deskwork and preliminary conception according to technical materials

of the theatre sent by Mr. Stockwell. Only when I arrived in Toronto did I start the actual design

work. The performance was held in FACTORY THEATRE.I had thought it might be a small

factory club, and later I know the theatre has a history of more than one hundred years. It is a

medium-sized theatre in Toronto,with an open stage and has more than three hundred seats for

audience.

Local government and civil organizations, especially some Chinese societies, funded the rehearsal

of this play. Critical reviewers and our counterparts in theatrical world showed concern and

curiosity over the art performances from China.

From the play's name JESUS, CONFUCIUS, AND JOHN LENON , one can sense the

characteristics of the play. God feels that mankind is degenerating, so he sends Jesus Christ,

Confucius and Lenon to the earth to investigate what becomes of the man he has created. Thus it

gives the above three men who represent different times and national cultures of heir own a

same problem differently, and it gives us a lot of fun to see the play. They discover that neither