were chewing grass on a small hill nearby. In the distance, the river bend was enveloped in a shade of deep blue light brighter than the sky.
He told us a fable.
I dreamed that there’s a piece of ivory in my stomach, it scared me to death!
Have you thought of becoming a bird?
Why a bird? I’m happy with the way I am, and he says he loves me.
Faulkner.
I like “Roses for Emily.”
I called you up many times.
Do you know how to read palms?
No need for any explanations, you don’t have to explain any more!
This kitten is so cute.
I think I’ve seen you somewhere.
I have a sweet tooth, and I’m also a sucker for sour milk.
Your hair looks so nice, is it real?
( The sound of a baby crying. )
Sweetie, oh, sorry, I forgot to change your diapers!
( The sound of a car engine starting. )
How are you going to get back?
It’s so bad, what kind of stupid play is this anyway?
Are you doing anything tomorrow? Shall we have dinner together?
( Sounds of a baby crying, a car engine starting and running, bicycle bells and the trickle of running water from a tap, and in the distance, the siren of an ambulance. )
The end
Some Suggestions on Producing The Other Shore
1. The so-called “spoken drama” (huaju) tends to emphasize and highlight the art of language; in order to free drama from its constraints and to revive drama in all its functions as a performing art, we have to provide training for a new breed of modern actors. As with the actors in traditional operas, these new actors must be versatile, and their skills should include singing, the martial arts, stylized movements and delivering dialogues. They should also be able to perform Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekov, Aristophanes, Racine, Lao She, Cao Yu, Guo Moruo, Goethe, Brecht, Pirandello, Beckett, and even mimes and musicals. The present play is written with the intention of providing an all-around training for the actors.
2. An ideal performance should be a unity of somatics, language, and psychology. Our play is an attempt to pursue this unified artistic expression and to assist the actors to achieve this goal. In other words, we should allow the actors the chance for linguistic expression in their search for suitable somatic movements, so that language and somatics are able to evoke psychological process at the same time. For this reason, during rehearsals and actual performances, it is not advisable to separate dialogue from movement, i.e., to memorize only the dialogue, to do reading as in common practice, or to strip the language and transform the play into a mime. Certain scenes in the play do not feature dialogue, but there are still other aural expressions, which could be regarded as a kind of sound language.
3. Even though our play is abstract, the performance should not aim at sheer conceptualization in the stark fashion of the play of ideas. Our aspiration is to achieve a kind of emotive abstraction through performance, i.e., a non-philosophical abstraction. The play seeks to set up the performance on the premise of non-reality, and to fully mobilize the imagination of the actors before evoking abstraction through emotion. Therefore the performance requires not only the unity of language and somatics but also the unity of thought and psychology.
4. Except for a few simple props, the performance does not require any scenery. The characters’ relationships with their surroundings and other objects are contingent upon life-like dialogue and communicative exchanges in the play. In the case of monologues or in the absence of dialogue, music, sound effects, movement, the look of the eyes and changes in posture could also take on performing roles, so that the props and surroundings will not be relegated to being inanimate objects or mere adornments.
5. The play highlights the performance’s ability to ascertain in the mind of the audience the existence of non-existing objects, for instance a decrepit heart, a concrete or
He told us a fable.
I dreamed that there’s a piece of ivory in my stomach, it scared me to death!
Have you thought of becoming a bird?
Why a bird? I’m happy with the way I am, and he says he loves me.
Faulkner.
I like “Roses for Emily.”
I called you up many times.
Do you know how to read palms?
No need for any explanations, you don’t have to explain any more!
This kitten is so cute.
I think I’ve seen you somewhere.
I have a sweet tooth, and I’m also a sucker for sour milk.
Your hair looks so nice, is it real?
( The sound of a baby crying. )
Sweetie, oh, sorry, I forgot to change your diapers!
( The sound of a car engine starting. )
How are you going to get back?
It’s so bad, what kind of stupid play is this anyway?
Are you doing anything tomorrow? Shall we have dinner together?
( Sounds of a baby crying, a car engine starting and running, bicycle bells and the trickle of running water from a tap, and in the distance, the siren of an ambulance. )
The end
Some Suggestions on Producing The Other Shore
1. The so-called “spoken drama” (huaju) tends to emphasize and highlight the art of language; in order to free drama from its constraints and to revive drama in all its functions as a performing art, we have to provide training for a new breed of modern actors. As with the actors in traditional operas, these new actors must be versatile, and their skills should include singing, the martial arts, stylized movements and delivering dialogues. They should also be able to perform Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekov, Aristophanes, Racine, Lao She, Cao Yu, Guo Moruo, Goethe, Brecht, Pirandello, Beckett, and even mimes and musicals. The present play is written with the intention of providing an all-around training for the actors.
2. An ideal performance should be a unity of somatics, language, and psychology. Our play is an attempt to pursue this unified artistic expression and to assist the actors to achieve this goal. In other words, we should allow the actors the chance for linguistic expression in their search for suitable somatic movements, so that language and somatics are able to evoke psychological process at the same time. For this reason, during rehearsals and actual performances, it is not advisable to separate dialogue from movement, i.e., to memorize only the dialogue, to do reading as in common practice, or to strip the language and transform the play into a mime. Certain scenes in the play do not feature dialogue, but there are still other aural expressions, which could be regarded as a kind of sound language.
3. Even though our play is abstract, the performance should not aim at sheer conceptualization in the stark fashion of the play of ideas. Our aspiration is to achieve a kind of emotive abstraction through performance, i.e., a non-philosophical abstraction. The play seeks to set up the performance on the premise of non-reality, and to fully mobilize the imagination of the actors before evoking abstraction through emotion. Therefore the performance requires not only the unity of language and somatics but also the unity of thought and psychology.
4. Except for a few simple props, the performance does not require any scenery. The characters’ relationships with their surroundings and other objects are contingent upon life-like dialogue and communicative exchanges in the play. In the case of monologues or in the absence of dialogue, music, sound effects, movement, the look of the eyes and changes in posture could also take on performing roles, so that the props and surroundings will not be relegated to being inanimate objects or mere adornments.
5. The play highlights the performance’s ability to ascertain in the mind of the audience the existence of non-existing objects, for instance a decrepit heart, a concrete or
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