Wearing a red hat and a blue tweed coat, paddington bear said this time Chinese is coming!" The IP Bear, which conquered audiences all over the world, flew directly from Off Broadway to Shanghai. On May 7th, the first stop of the global tour of the parent-child drama "Paddington Bear's Bear Home" was held in Shanghai.
In a newly created comedy story, Paddington goes to his neighbor Mr. Curry's house to borrow granulated sugar, but Mr. Curry is busy preparing for the arrival of his aunt Matilda, and the kind Paddington decides to help him tidy up the house! Kind help leads to a series of accidents: overturning Aunt Matilda's favorite cake, the water pipe bursting and flooding the bathroom floor, the vacuum cleaner breaking the dust goddess scattering flowers, the laborious wallpaper turning into a slimy mess... The aunt is coming, can Paddington get everything done?
Talking about the reason for making this drama, Cao Yebo, general manager of Hongyang International and general representative of Broadway On-Demand Network greater China, said: "2 years ago, I was at the door of a theater in Xi'an, and I saw some parents sending their children to the door of the theater, and then waiting outside for their children to come out after watching the play. I asked a dad and said why don't you go in? The dad replied to me: This is for the baby to see I don't mean anything. This incident inspired me and our team how to let parents and children watch a parent-child drama together, and everyone as members of a family do one thing together. That's why we have this parent-child drama that we see now, "Paddington Bear's Bear Home". ”
The Chinese production will be co-directed by Jonathan Rockefeller, the original director of Outer Broadway, and Gao Shengyun, the Chinese director. Gao Shengyun gave a detailed introduction to the performance at the press conference, and also shared some stories that happened during the rehearsal: "The bear will have six shapes on the stage, and this bear looks like it is very small, but in fact, it needs two people to operate, so the tacit understanding between the two actors is very important." We had to spend a long time figuring out how to make this little bear move in front of the audience like a living Paddington bear. For this reason, we also made seats with pulleys for actors and puppeteers. The actors need to spend a lot of arm strength and endurance on the performance of the bear, which is a big challenge for them. ”
Compared to the bears in previous books and on the screen, "Bears Are Home" wants to share a cute and kind story. In addition to the joy and laughter brought on the stage, Gao Shengyun also expects this drama to bring the audience a different spiritual journey: "Behind this story, I think it is more important that Paddington is a bear who dares to make mistakes, although he loves to help others, he is always messing things up." So in fact, in our play you will see that he is very brave to make mistakes, and at the same time he also has the spirit of more and more courageous, which is a life attitude that is worth learning from big friends and children. ”
The most curious thing on the stage is the well-made props in the performance, the director revealed on the spot, most of the props of "Little Bear Is Home" are carefully produced by the original company, and then sailed to China, the props are completely designed according to the size of the entire stage and some of the plots contained in the whole work. "We have a lot of stage organs this time, which will surprise the audience a lot, and we look forward to everyone going to the performance site to find treasure."
In addition, the China tour of the "Paddington Bear Cub" parent-child drama will join hands with the art accessibility platform launched by the British Council and the Beijing Endless Cultural Exchange Centre to launch a relaxed and free venue that advocates and practices artistic communion: during the tour, some performances will arrange sign language openings, Chinese subtitles throughout the tour, use wheelchair audience areas, fine-tune the sound and light effects of the stage that may stimulate a part of the audience, and allow the audience to make sounds because they feel the plot or because of their own needs during the performance. Don't mind if there are spectators who need to leave the venue for breaks and repeat admissions.
It is worth mentioning that the organizer also borrowed the Padding Bear IP to combine catering and cultural consumption, and jointly created the Paddington Bear with the Langham Hotel Xintiandi. Themed immersive afternoon tea.
The Chinese version of Paddington Bear's Bear is licensed by Rockefeller Productions, produced by Hongyang Theatre, Produced by Dream Culture, and co-produced by Big Ship Culture. From June 3rd to June 6th, "Paddington Bear Cubs" will be officially performed at the Hongqiao Art Center in Shanghai. Following the shanghai performance, "Little Bear Home" will blossom in China, with the first round of tours to Ten cities in Chengdu, Beijing, Suzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Xi'an, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Xiamen. The second round of ticketing for Shanghai Station and the national tour have also been officially launched.
Author: Wang Xiaoli
Image: Courtesy of the organizer
Editor: Zhou Minxian