Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News reporter Chen Yuhao
At the beginning of 2022, a long-lost snow scene made the snow scene of Hangzhou's West Lake on the hot search. "There is a West Lake here, I refuse to go", West Lake, the symbol of Hangzhou, how many people have gone to Hangzhou for thousands of years just to find her, looking for her "everywhere back to love", looking for her "light makeup is always appropriate".
Look for the West Lake in the beautiful scenery, and you can also find the West Lake in the theater. On the evening of February 13, 2022, Zhejiang Dialect Art Theater, the Miaoxiang children's drama "Catching Maxi Lake" produced by Zhejiang Children's Art Troupe of Zhejiang Performing Arts Group participated in the New Year performance season of Zhejiang Provincial Academy Troupe and was staged during the Spring Festival.
In this play, we are not only looking for the beauty of the West Lake, but also the humanistic stories, folklore and cultural heritage that flow through the city of Hangzhou.
"Catch The West Lake" is a "play" closely related to the West Lake, telling the story of an ordinary family of six in Hangzhou during the epidemic isolation period, the family opened their minds, overflowed with wonderful ideas, and interpreted the folk tales of the West Lake, making the original boring isolation life wonderful and interesting, full of warmth. The witty performances of the actors not only made the children laugh forward and backward, but also the accompanying parents laughed continuously.
This drama is the seventh work of Zhejiang Children's Arts and director Guo Hongbo, the idea of the play was born in the Spring Festival of 2020, when the new crown epidemic was raging, and the people of the whole country changed the customs of visiting relatives and friends and took the initiative to isolate at home.
Yu Bin, secretary of the party branch and general manager of the Zhejiang Repertory Theatre, said that in the special period when the epidemic has not completely dissipated, Zhejiang Children's Art hopes to use this drama to convey to the children the courage and optimistic spirit of people to actively face setbacks, to entertain and teach in the warm atmosphere of family affection, and to integrate the traditional folk culture of Hangzhou that has been passed down for thousands of years.
The play was officially established on April 17, 2021, participated in the Zhejiang Children's Drama Festival on June 1 of the same year, officially premiered at the Zhejiang Dialect Art Theater, and then toured all over the country, once went to Beijing to participate in the 10th China Children's Theater Festival and won the Outstanding Performance Repertoire Award, went to Shenzhen to participate in the Shenzhen Children's Drama Festival and won the Outstanding Performance Repertoire Award, and was selected for the 2020 Zhejiang Culture and Art Development Fund. In December 2021, Zhejiang Children's Art invited director Guo Hongbo to make a major processing and modification of the play again, and this time participating in the 2022 Zhejiang Provincial Academy New Year Performance Season is a new appearance.
After the performance, the crew invited experts from the province to discuss the play. Experts have said that the novel form of the play is a major contribution to the creation of children's dramas, and put forward valuable suggestions for the further processing and improvement of the play.
Teacher Hu Yuewei, a famous playwright and a national first-class screenwriter, said that "Catching Ma Xihu" is uniquely conceived, contrary to the style of suffering and tragic anti-epidemic drama, and the family made fun during the isolation and closure period, interpreting one West Lake folk story after another. In terms of content, the Folk Tales of West Lake are based on life, and at the same time full of imagination, and the performance form is very postmodern and interesting. A play of Drama, very OK!
Teacher Xia Qiang, a national first-class screenwriter, said: "I didn't expect that "Catch Ma Xihu" was so interesting, I should have brought my daughter to see it! He said that children's dramas can bring happiness to people, that is, success. "Catch The West Lake" made the theater laugh a lot, and it succeeded. On the basis of "laughter", the folklore of the West Lake is also disseminated in terms of content, and the performance combines the narrative body with the expression body, which is a forward-looking creation. This play is replicable and generalizable, and can be used as a theme for students' drama training.
Song Yingqiu, a national first-class actor, said that we are now accustomed to appreciating realist works and accustomed to the past Stanley system, but "Catch Maxi Lake" has another way, jumping in and out of the performance method, so that performance and reproduction are combined, and the use of props, the conversion of actor identity and the connection of story content are very clever and easy to look at, easy and witty. The play contributed to the performance form of children's drama.
Literary critic Ye Zhiliang also likes this work very much, he said, "Catch Ma West Lake" to create a dramatic situation with intangible cultural heritage, West Lake folk tales to create a dramatic situation, with family scenes, props to build an immersive experience, to dilute the conceptual theme to transform it into a way of life common sense, joy in life, to bring joy to children, both unexpected creation, but also cute and innocent.
At the end of the seminar, Tu Yuanyuan, deputy general manager of Zhejiang Repertory Theatre, expressed her sincere gratitude to the experts for their valuable suggestions and opinions, she said, "We will continue to polish, continue to process and modify, so that "Catch Ma Xihu" will become a high-quality drama of Zhejiang Children's Art, and we will also be committed to bringing the story of Hangzhou West Lake to children across the country." ”
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