Chen Qianqian
Theatre director, screenwriter and educator. Master of Arts in Theater Education from New York University. He studied in the United States for six years and worked at the New York Theatre Workshop outside of New York. Later, he was a lecturer at the Art Education Research Institute of Hangzhou Normal University. He currently resides in the UK for a long time as a freelance artist. Original theatre works include The Educational Theatre "City Fragments" (2017), "Meet Me" (2017), the body drama works "Rabbit Hole" (2017), "Doll Factory Open Night" (2017), "Thunderstorm • Thunderbolt" (2016), the original script "Live Recording" (2017), "Safety Net" (2016, 2019), "Contact" (2015), "Unenlightened Era" (2015) and so on.
The first time I met Qianqian was at the group meeting of "Contact", she gently and lightly told her creation with the actors, quietly and quietly. After the group meeting, Qianqian took root in the crew to watch the actors rehearse. She sat in the corner of the rehearsal hall, smiling and eyebrows, sometimes quietly discussing the details of the rehearsal with the director, sometimes holding the book and reading quietly, always making people feel a gentle power.
Qianqian in the rehearsal hall
Later, after understanding, I learned that the screenwriter who wrote such a delicate emotion as "Contact" was actually a doctor of biology, and he was a "scholar" level god who hung all the way. In high school, Qianqian was guaranteed to Zhu Kezhen College of Zhejiang University for excellent grades, and after graduation, she received the National Scholarship Fund to enter the University of California, Los Angeles to pursue a doctorate in physiology. Qianqian, who studied in the United States, soaked in the laboratory during the day to raise singing birds and model autistic birds; at night, she transformed herself into the theater rehearsal hall, became a director, screenwriter, or producer, became a glittering element in the drama, and weaved colorful dramatic dreams in the interlacing of light and shadow.
Drama is the gene flowing in Qianqian's body, where her enthusiasm and tenderness lie. Because of her love, she set up the Sifan Drama Club in the United States, dedicated to organizing Chinese students to carry out theater activities, giving Chinese friends who love theater a warm home like home; because of love, she studied for a master's degree in theater education at New York University after graduating with a doctorate in physiology, and so far many works have been put on theaters at home and abroad for public performance.
The Age of the Unenlightened (2015)
"Thunderstorm • Thunderbolt" (2016)
Rabbit Hole (2017)
Safety Net (2019)
"Contact" is Qianqian's first work, written in 2012, when she was studying for a doctorate in the United States, which is her official work from the love of drama to a deeper level of independent writing. "Contact" has been drafted several times from creation to completion of the work, and has experienced a long creative cycle and finally took shape, it tells the encounter and miss of two lonely teenagers, comforting each other's heartache.
"Contact" is a story about Qianqian, the loneliness behind her as an honor student from childhood to adulthood, she draws inspiration from her childhood experience, and then uses soothing humor to lightly soothe the confusion and confusion that has been encountered; "Contact" is also a story that can enter every teenager and every adult, we are all in the cycle of daily struggle and exhaustion, eager to connect with the world, eager to accompany and understand. On September 5th, this long-conceived work will officially meet you at the Zhejiang Dialect Art Center.
screenwriter
Interview
Q
Why did you want to write something like Contact?
A: At that time, I was a Ph.D. in physiology in the United States, and around the first and second year of my Ph.D., I began to reflect on my relationships from childhood to adulthood. I always felt that I was a person who did not have a particularly close circle of friends, as if I was always excluded from some circles, and I was always a little lonely, so I wanted to explore what loneliness meant to people. So I read a book about psychology and thought about writing this story by hand.
You said that the play was inspired by your childhood, can you talk about the impact of your experience on the play?
A: I grew up as a person who was good, and I always worked hard to stay good. My parents were particularly busy at work and didn't have much time to spend with me. They liked my self-reliance and didn't have to worry too much about me, so my childhood was basically in my own world. Later, slowly, I also became less aware of how to communicate with them, and talked to them about what I thought and thought, and my daily life. I didn't have enough friends at that time, and I lived in my own world for a very long time. In order to stay good, I have accumulated a lot of pressure, and my parents continue to praise me, so that I feel that this is a condition for me to get their love, if I am not excellent, they will still love me and care about me. So in the script, the two lonely teenagers I write about are my two sides, both eager to get rid of loneliness and afraid of contact, both trying to maintain excellence, and exploring the meaning behind the so-called "excellent" and what the meaning of life is.
"Contact" stage design
In Contact, what are the topics you most want to discuss with you?
A: What I want to discuss most is the importance of connecting people. I read a sociological study at Harvard before, which discussed where man's happiness comes from, and it mentioned that man is not happy because he is successful, nor can he be counted as successful because he is happy, and that the power of man's happiness comes from his interpersonal relationships. I wrote a boy and a girl in the script, and the boy Fang Zhe represented a longing for other people's relationships, and although he had good grades, he couldn't find something to fight for. But when he got a confidant, Yuan Siqi, the connection formed between them allowed them to regain the strength to go on. Although human connections are fragile, and the connections we create are always broken in a changing life, if you have the motivation to try to create connections with others, you will continue to make new friends and create new connections, and this power is the power of happiness.
"Contact" rehearsal photo
How did the previous theater education and work experience abroad help "Contact"?
A: There is more inspiration in style. The biggest influence on "Contact" is "The Bizarre Incident of the Late Night Puppy", which has won many drama awards before, and its limb use method is very fresh, allowing the body of the group actor to fill the empty stage and show different atmospheres. I expect that the final presentation of "Contact" will be similar to this work. When I wrote the script, I had not yet received the corresponding course on body drama, and later I learned a lot of knowledge about body drama, and I have been rehearsing body drama for several years, and I am familiar with a lot of techniques, and the appearance of "Contact" is becoming clearer and clearer in my mind.
Your previous works often attach a lot of social significance, including "Safety Net", "Doll Factory Open Night", etc. How do you think about the relationship between theater attributes and current society?
A: Before I officially studied drama for a master's degree, most of my understanding of theater stayed in the student drama club on campus. Although we are not from the class, our enthusiasm for drama is very high, and drama helps us understand the world, improve our teamwork ability, and enhance our personal comprehensive ability, and its educational significance is greater than its artistic significance. Later, by chance, I went to New York University to study educational theater and studied applied drama. This course allows you to engage in theatrical activities with different groups, and the goal of the theatrical activities is to help specific groups, such as children with autism, prison inmates, elderly people in nursing homes, and so on. When I finished studying applied drama, I felt that the role of drama should be far greater than its entertainment and educational nature for students, and it should be of great help to the progress of society. But in China, the application of drama lacks a certain soil, the biggest problem is funding, there is no clear agency will allocate funds for you to do these activities, and the social impact of applied drama can be much smaller than that of foreign countries.
In my opinion, the current presentation of "Contact" has been tried and worked hard in the direction of applied drama, perhaps because the topic it deals with has its own social significance, do you think "Contact" has a revelation for life?
A: We also hope to use Contact to spark a discussion about the psychological problems of adolescents. I have found that the public in China has a very limited understanding of depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other diseases, but in fact, there are not a few people with serious mental illness in the adolescent group now. Illness can cause them to be unable to go to school, have difficulty dealing with relationships, and live a very painful life. Parents sometimes cause a vicious circle because of their lack of understanding of diseases and accompanying knowledge. Our schools are also absent, and when our child is diagnosed with depression, the school's first reaction is to want the child to drop out of school. People with psychological problems and mental illness need some social support, but our environment does not give them enough care, and people's knee-jerk reaction is to alienate them, but in fact they have done nothing wrong. Patients will also have a strong sense of shame for this reason and become reluctant to communicate with people. What is normal? Is it wrong for teenagers to have mental problems? Is the question of derogatory, or positive, or debatable? This is the topic that Contact wants to discuss.
Under what kind of coincidence, this cooperation with Zhejiang dialect was generated?
A: I have known Wu Yanlin, the head of the Zhejiang dialect, for a long time, and I used to know about the situation of Zhejiang dialect through her. She placed high expectations on Zhejiang dialect, hoping that Zhejiang dialect could be full of vitality, inject fresh energy, and rehearse more excellent plays. She had been inviting me to write a script before, and when I felt that the book "Contact" had reached the standard of the qualified line, she gave the book to Director Wu. Captain Wu especially likes this topic, because there are almost no theater works in China that focus on teenagers, but there are many abroad, such as the "Late Night Puppy Bizarre Incident" I just mentioned, and "Dear Evan Hansen" on Broadway in the United States, all of which are about teenagers. Domestic teenagers are often under strong academic pressure, and basically no one takes them into the theater. Maybe because they are not the main theater audience, so few people in China have created plays for them, but I think their stories are also worth listening to and telling.
What are you looking forward to for this play?
A: "Contact" has become a play with strong musical, dance, and physical elements during this rehearsal, and I think it will eventually present a play that is very mature in industry and technique. This time, Zhejiang dialect provides us with better conditions for doing the play, and the cast of actors, lighting, stage art, and costumes are all very good, so I hope that this play is first of all a mature work. Secondly, I hope that this play can continue to be performed, and I hope that its stage life can be longer. Because a script, if you don't take it to perform, it's equivalent to not writing it. I hope that "Contact" can enter more schools, let children, especially middle and high school students, see more, and hope to enlighten their lives.
What are the expectations for the audience?
A: "Contact" is a play that anyone of any age can watch, and if more middle and high school students are willing to watch the play, I will be very happy. I hope that the audience will have expectations for our play, because the play ultimately serves the audience.
Written by: Lin Qiaosi
Typography: Koji
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