20 students play 1 stage every 7 months, combining traditional Chinese puppet performance skills with modern puppet performances, including stick heads, threads, cloth bags, poles, light and shadow, machinery and other contemporary and domestic and foreign more comprehensive puppet performance styles...... An original puppet drama "Doll Repair Shop" with realistic humanistic care was recently staged at the Duanjun Theater of Shanghai Theater Academy, and all the students of the 2020 performance (puppet) major of the School of Drama of Shanghai Theater Academy handed over their graduation answer sheets with vivid interpretation.
"Doll Repair Shop" revolves around the doll repair shop of a Shanghai grandfather, telling the story of a father and son from estrangement to mutual understanding, the family love of the grandmother and granddaughter of Alzheimer's disease, and the companionship of dolls and small animals. The works combine various forms of artistic expression, such as puppetry, light and shadow, music, dance, and multimedia, to present a cross-section of real life stories, which are warm and everyday.
"The general concept is that puppet shows are more suitable for children to watch, so to be able to make a drama that can be watched by both adults and children, hoping that while children like it, adults and parents who accompany him can also feel it, which is the original intention of making this show at the beginning. Director Xu Qian believes, "Although it is difficult to deal with realistic puppet dramas in terms of directorial techniques, this is an attempt, and it is also a practice to lead the graduating students to be honest and innovative as a class teacher and the main teacher of the puppet major." It is hoped that the drama can promote teaching and exercise students' ability to create and perform roles with original plays. ”
For the first time, the protagonist of "Doll Repair Shop" uses a two-person puppet as an innovative form of puppetry. Moderately exaggerated double-wearing puppets have extremely high requirements for the coordination and accuracy of the actors' puppet control. The most eye-catching thing in the whole scene is the Dalmatian dog "Duole", whose design is novel and smart, and under the flexible control of the three actors, it is lifelike and has won the applause of the audience.
Puppet theater has a history of more than 2,000 years and is one of the first intangible cultural heritage items in China. As the first undergraduate class in China to establish a puppet major, the Performance (Puppet) major of the School of Opera of Shanghai Theater Academy was established in 2004, and this year is exactly the 20th year. Over the past 20 years, it has cultivated and delivered batches of outstanding puppet performance talents for professional troupes, laying a solid foundation for the inheritance and development of puppet art.
"Although there is a graduation drama every year, this year is an original puppet show that combines the skills of Shanghai puppets. Yin Wuwei, director of the puppet major of the Shanghai Theater Academy and producer of "Doll Repair Shop", said, "The play combines traditional puppets with modern urban Shanghai culture, and hopes to continue to explore a way to cultivate artistic talents that highlights Shanghai-style culture." ”