Author: Yuri (Lecturer, School of Design, Xuzhou Institute of Technology)
In today's theater stage, LED large screens, digital media, projection technology and other modern scientific and technological means are more and more widely used in stage design, in the stage is more and more gorgeous at the moment, how should technology participate in the realization of art? how to interpret ideas visually? how to recreate the spiritual world in space? how to participate in the interaction of digital images without causing aesthetic fatigue? With the flourishing of new visual media technology, what is the significance and value of stage design for Chinese theatre art? This is undoubtedly a topic worth exploring.
Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe's complete "Peony Pavilion" stills data picture
1. Every detail should be rich in deep cultural symbolism
Stage design is the abbreviation of stage art design, from the perspective set of the Italian Renaissance to what we now call "Scenography" or "Stage Design", which has completely broken through the function of stage decoration as the exterior form of the play. It includes not only the traditional stage set, but also lighting, costumes, props, sound effects, and anything else that can affect the audience's visual and sensory experience, becoming the creator of the "stage space". The establishment of its spatial structure is closely related to the structure of the drama story itself.
On the theatrical stage, symbolism is an important means of expression, and every detail in the stage design should be rich in deep cultural symbolism. In recent years, many works that have appeared on the stage of Chinese theatre have been designed in terms of spatial refinement and symbolism, reproduction and expression, realism and freehand, all of which reflect the simplicity, purity, concentration and strength of treatment.
The drama "Because of You" performed by Jiangsu Performing Arts Group boldly broke through the usual way of presenting daily space, and adopted a two-story grid structure constructed of glass material in the design to form multiple performance spaces. A total of 18 electrified "privacy glasses" are used to realize the background switching of the whole play, sometimes it is the city night, sometimes it is the emergency ward, sometimes it is the office area, sometimes it is the community street, and sometimes it is the boarding trestle...... The refinement of this spatial form not only shows the sense of isolation between people and between homes in a special period, but also integrates different scenes and different regions into this highly expressive spatial structure, which effectively highlights the characteristics of the spiritual narrative of the play between figuration and abstraction, and gives the director and actors a lot of room for expression.
Produced by the Shanghai Dramatic Art Center and adapted from the TV series of the same name, the drama "The Awakening Age" embodies the perfect combination of assumption and fluidity in the design of the stage space. The two rotatable "high walls" composed of fully mechanical turntables are like open "pages", like heavy "historical doors", and like "giant ships" traveling far away, and can also carry group portrait exhibitions. The all-mechanical turntable technology enables the stage space to not only quickly transform according to the needs of the plot, but also to match the different scenes projected by the multimedia. At the same time, the rotatable and climbable characteristics of the turntable are also well integrated with the performance of the actors, providing multi-level and diversified possibilities for the performance space. When the new youth represented by Hu Shi invited Gu Hongming to negotiate with the British minister, accompanied by the distant tune of the Beijing rhyme drum, the two "gates" slowly opened a gap, giving people a sense of depth and beauty of "separate scenes" and "split scenes" (both are landscaping methods in ancient Chinese gardens), and the smooth transitions were ingenious and exquisite, which well completed Gu Hongming's scheduling from far to near sitting on the sedan chair...... The spatial transformation becomes visible and concrete, which effectively enhances the dynamic sense of the stage performance and the artistic conception of time and space changes.
In addition, the drama "Activity Becomes Humanoid", adapted from the novel of the same name by writer Wang Meng, uses a "merry-go-round" turntable to let the protagonist's depressed married life unfold like a jigsaw puzzle in a family space with an obvious sense of disobedience, showing Ni Zao, as a "son", a concrete examination of the absurd life of "father" Ni Wucheng from multiple perspectives.
These innovative stage designs for the current theatrical stage not only break the traditional style of the original circular turntable in terms of technology, but also have a rich symbolic meaning. It not only creates the assumption of stage time and space, but also serves as a powerful support for conveying the deep themes and emotions of the play. Excellent stage design needs to have a strong ability to summarize and refine the space and time depicted in the script, turn the triviality of reality into symbolic unity, and realize the imagination of the spiritual stage and the pursuit of the integrity of the aesthetic style.
Stills from "Activity Becomes Human" profile picture
2. With the development of digital technology, new forms of expression are constantly explored
Different from other stage works such as dramas and operas, the stage design of opera has always been "empty and simple", and the expression and aesthetic conception of "doing nothing with nothing" and aesthetic conception are quite similar to the spirit of classical Chinese painting. On the empty stage space, "one table and two chairs" can be varied, just through the opera actors singing, chanting, and playing, the audience can realize that the current stage is "thirty merits, fame and dust, eight thousand miles of clouds and moon", or "green poplar smoke outside the dawn and cold, red apricot branches in spring", ......"virtual and real are born together, and no painting is a wonderful place" is the aesthetic realm that the stage art of opera has always pursued.
In recent years, with the development of digital technology and the change of aesthetic concepts, the stage design of Chinese opera has been constantly exploring new forms of expression, giving classical opera a modern beauty and promoting the diversified development of Chinese opera art. In 2020, in the cross-border integration of Chinese opera "Shocking Hong", with the cooperation of modern sound, light and color, the integration of dance and opera is extremely eye-catching. The play takes Qiu Jirong, the fourth-generation heir of the Peking Opera Qiu School, as the narrative thread of his exploration of his own dreams, and through five dream-like fusion performances adapted from Kunqu opera "Peony Pavilion - Dream" and Qin Yan's "The Legend of the White Snake - Broken Bridge" and other opera classics, it shows the audience an artistic journey across time and space, and explores the inheritance and innovation of opera art. Towards the end of the play, the door of the multimedia screen reflecting the existing flower face pattern slowly opened, and Qiu Shengrong's classic singing segment "The Case of Quanmei" from the 1964 Peking Opera film "Qin Xianglian" sounded, as if through a time and space tunnel, deeply connecting the artistic soul between the dancer Qiu Jirong and his grandfather Qiu Shengrong in the play. The classic passages in the performances of that year were delicately captured and magnified under the montage-like camera movement, smoothly completing the intertextual interweaving between each dream and the dancer's psychology. The stage of light and shadow and the use of mirrored multimedia construct a dream space with both traditional charm and modernity, skillfully integrating the aesthetic elements of classical opera and the visual language of modern dance. This work has fascinated many "post-00s" young people who do not know much about the art of opera, and has provided a new paradigm and possibility for the innovation of contemporary opera.
In the complete version of The Peony Pavilion, which was performed by the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe last year, the themes of fantasy and reality, life and death were vividly expressed by using huge high-definition projections and computer animation on the background of the canopy. At the climax of the plot development, red azaleas are flying all over the sky on the digital canopy, constantly blooming and emerging, which appropriately interprets the aesthetic image of "red azaleas crying all over the green mountains", and in the contrast between bright and pathos, the magnificence of Du Liniang's love and the bloom of life are written.
Drama theorist Liu Housheng once said: After experiencing a period of stable development, any drama genre will always make a leap forward according to the requirements of the times, otherwise it may be weakened. Digital media technology empowers the traditional opera stage art, which not only provides the audience with a more immersive and vivid viewing experience, enhances the immersion of opera performances, but also provides the possibility to express complex plots and imaginary scenes, and opens a new window for contemporary young audiences to observe traditional culture.
3. It should be a kind of beauty that blends with the plot and provides rich space for expression for the actors
Under the tide of digitalization, stage art design is ushering in a revolutionary breakthrough. The huge potential unleashed by the strong advent of artificial intelligence and AI technology is promoting theatrical stage design to move towards "intelligent design". Through its powerful deep learning and algorithm analysis, AI technology not only liberates designers to a large extent, but can automatically generate, create, and modify concept drawings and 3D scenes, and even expand the boundaries of theater in stage effect creation, lighting design, set replacement, stage equipment lifting, and participating in performances. For example, it can automatically adjust the brightness, angle and color of the light according to the movements and expressions of the performers, can more accurately control the speed and smoothness of the movement of the stage set, and can also expand the visual dimension of the audience in the performance, lighting, space and music.
In this regard, on the one hand, theatrical stage design should actively embrace the current technological changes, deeply participate in the realization of technology, and constantly explore new artistic concepts, means of expression, stage styles, and performance modes; on the other hand, it should always be vigilant against technology, be wary of excessive dependence on technology, and not let stage design be reduced to pure installation art or empty electronic spectacle, and dissolve the essential core of drama. It can be seen that the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe's complete "Peony Pavilion", no matter how gorgeous the stage is, is based on being faithful to the traditional aesthetic system of Kunqu Opera and following the freehand tradition of opera; the reason why the dramas "The Awakening Age" and "Activity Becomes Human" successfully attract the audience into the theater is still the touching humanistic connotation of the original works that it perfectly retains and displays.
Stage design should always serve the play and the people in the play. Through the visual elements of "shape, space, color, and material", the spirit, fate, value, and emotion of the people in the play should be fully displayed, as well as those subtle, rich, and diverse human nature.
Excellent theatrical stage design should be a kind of beauty that blends with the plot, provides rich space for expression for the actors, and provides the director with a reference for the aesthetic style and tone. At the same time, in the face of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, excellent stage design should also be used as a new quality of productivity to promote the development of drama and even the entire art industry. It is expected that in the great wave of technology and art catching up with each other, Chinese theater and stage art can continue to break the boundaries of a single discipline and move towards a deeper and broader artistic field.
Guangming Daily (2024-04-24 Edition 16)
Source: Guangming Net-Guangming Daily