West of the Border '11

Producers
Jeffery Sichel Project Leader, Artistic Director
Xu Jiali Stage Director, Choreographer
Pei-Chun Lin Musical Composition
Fangfang Xu Mandarin Language
Amber Espar Company Manager
Jordy Ross Project Administrator
Michael Liebenluft (Yale Fulbright Scholar) Logistics in China


Student Producers
Ben Hyams Assistant Director, Stage Manager, Class of '12
Ella Williams Sound Engineer, Performance Understudy, Class of '14

Student Performers
Briana Chang Confucius, Class of '12
Andrew Elk Zitu, Class of '12
Nina Rizzi Zilu, Class of '14
Keala Cote Qin Ran, Class of '14
Evan Pott Premier, Class of '12
Raekwon Walker-Perry Guard and Little Hao, Class of '13

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It’s 10:55 PM. At 2:30 AM I will be on a bus to the airport, to take a plane back to Boston.

sombreros-and-deep-dark-lagoons:

what an experience this has been. i can’t really put it in words. i’m so sad to leave, but also can’t wait to get back home. bye china

Getting on makeup for a performance in Shanghai.

Getting on makeup for a performance in Shanghai.

Taken by Raekwon Walker-Perry Opening ceremonies of the 33rd ITI World Congress.

Taken by Raekwon Walker-Perry

Opening ceremonies of the 33rd ITI World Congress.

Written by Amber Espar Our workshop time with Zhejiang Opera Companyhas been rich and flexibly evolving as we get to know our teachers and they learn more about us. Michael Leibenluft, a recent Yale graduate and 2011 Fulbright fellow and graduate student at Shanghai Theatre Academy has been playing an essential role as translator, site logistics coordinator and mentor for the group. Our days with the Opera Company have included a chance to see films of the company’s performances from their tours around the world. We learned more about the Beijing Opera “Hang dang”  or character types with their respective costumes, make-up, hand gestures, eye focus quality, gaits, voice tones for singing an recitation and the overall “fa” or way that these all come together.  On our first day, the students showed our piece “The Beauty Trap” to the teachers, who were quite impressed with how much everyone had learned in such a short period of time. Our teacher comes from a family of Beijing Opera performers. He began training at 6 years old and when he was 7 it was decided that he would study to take on the roles of the “chou” or martial clown characters. His father played the “wu sheng” or martial male character.  We continued out work today by trying on movement sequences that represent riding a horse and then we followed the master teacher’s rich sing song tones to take on the voice qualities that signify the different character types. The students also received one on one instruction for parts of their particular roles in the show, honing in on timing and specificity of gestures or getting feedback on their intonation and other aspects. What a full day of work!We have two more days of workshops with the troupe leader. Early Monday morning we take a long train ride to Xiamen for the World Congress of the International Theatre Institute.

Written by Amber Espar

Our workshop time with Zhejiang Opera Companyhas been rich and flexibly evolving as we get to know our teachers and they learn more about us. Michael Leibenluft, a recent Yale graduate and 2011 Fulbright fellow and graduate student at Shanghai Theatre Academy has been playing an essential role as translator, site logistics coordinator and mentor for the group.


Our days with the Opera Company have included a chance to see films of the company’s performances from their tours around the world. We learned more about the Beijing Opera “Hang dang”  or character types with their respective costumes, make-up, hand gestures, eye focus quality, gaits, voice tones for singing an recitation and the overall “fa” or way that these all come together. 


On our first day, the students showed our piece “The Beauty Trap” to the teachers, who were quite impressed with how much everyone had learned in such a short period of time. Our teacher comes from a family of Beijing Opera performers. He began training at 6 years old and when he was 7 it was decided that he would study to take on the roles of the “chou” or martial clown characters. His father played the “wu sheng” or martial male character. 


We continued out work today by trying on movement sequences that represent riding a horse and then we followed the master teacher’s rich sing song tones to take on the voice qualities that signify the different character types. The students also received one on one instruction for parts of their particular roles in the show, honing in on timing and specificity of gestures or getting feedback on their intonation and other aspects. What a full day of work!We have two more days of workshops with the troupe leader.


Early Monday morning we take a long train ride to Xiamen for the World Congress of the International Theatre Institute.

Dragon Tea

theconfuciusproject:

So fist of all I don’t even know how to explain this day that we just had. I will try to explain it the best I can but I feel as though no amount of words could amount to the amusingness of this day. So getting up, I made scrambled eggs with chopsticks a feat in and of itself then we headed down the road to pick up some rental bikes. For those of you who have never biked in a Chinese city let me tell you it is no easy process there are no rules and is extremely scary. So we biked a long scary ways to the tea museum. Passing tea fields as we went. At the tea museum we were honored with a free tea testing. We all sat and watched as she brewed four different teas the way that it has been done for thousands of years. It tasted delicious and I later splurged and spent the entirety of my wallet on boxes of tea. Unfortunately we lost Riz at this point in our journey for she wasn’t feeling well L. So we continued riding in the ungodly wet and sticky heat in to the country. We saw mountains and temples and temples on mountains. We stopped at a tiny village for lunch, which as the cheapest and best food that we have had yet.  We continued up a hill, which turned in to a mountain. Half way of which the chain on Evans bike snapped in half. (Showing how entirely shitty our bikes were) so thus Evan had to go all the way back down to get another bike while the rest of us went to a memorials with leg thick bamboo. Sweating bullets we made it to the dragon well, a beautiful cluster of temples with a magical well. We washed our face and hands in the clear deep pool. We bottled a few cups of it for later teas. The bravest of us each took a sip of the water, thus becoming dragon warriors and where able to pump our now rejuvenated dragon warrior selves up the rest of the mountain. And I would like to give credit to Evan for being the only one to make it the entire way with out walking his bike. At the top we came across a small traditional town with white houses and black roofs. Mike treated us all to the most amazing ice pop I have ever had and after a few pictures we continued on our way. Starting to head down the mountain we realized that very few of our bicycle breaks actually worked and those who did made an incredibly piercing squeaking sound. So we park out bikes in another small quaint village and walk around a little bit. Then the craziest thing happened. A man (which we now call the Dragon man) invited us in to his house to drink tea. As it proceeded we saw that we were sitting on dragon chairs drinking dragon tea (longjing tea) with dragon cups. They gave us tea that they had grown themselves as well as the delectable sunflower seeds I have ever had. Everyone in the village was so welcoming and kind. We had a whole of 20 minuets to get down the entire mountain, which wasn’t so difficult because none of our brakes worked anyways. It was the perfect amount of beauty and fright shouting as we rolled down the winding mountain road. This was the most amazing day since we’ve been here. It was the first day I have really felt as thought we have been old China. This is what we came here to do and see. We are socking up the culture and customs like sponges and now even using squat toilets don’t seem so bad. Were leaving to go to the night market and I cant wait to see what incredible beautiful adventures are still to come. So amazing!

Cote writes about the Dragon Day in Hangzhou.

This man and his wife invited us in for dragon tea in rural Hangzhou.

Cote liked the bamboo at the revolution memorial.

Cote liked the bamboo at the revolution memorial.

The shrimp we had for lunch.

The shrimp we had for lunch.

Signing the Tea Museum guest book.

Signing the Tea Museum guest book.