Fairy Cave, Undersea Dragon Palace, Heavenly Cloud Sea, Alchemy Furnace... From February 2 to 6, the national exclusive immersive acrobatic show "Journey to the West·Wukong" created and performed by the Guangzhou Acrobatic Art Theater was held at the Guangzhou in theater. The audition used gold medal-winning acrobatics and a variety of modern stage technologies to bring out the dazzling scenes of the "Monkey King" fighting against heaven and earth. The audience was filled with exclamations and cheers.
In order to increase the immersion of watching the drama, the in theater was specially decorated into the "Huaguoshan Water Curtain Cave", and there was a "gurgling water" created by spray at the front of the stage. The show’s chief director Guo Hongbo told reporters from Nandu and N Video that “Journey to the West·Wukong” integrates difficult acrobatics into the plot, and also integrates magic, martial arts, puppets and other elements, and introduces the large-scale stage play “The Three-Body Problem” and competitive mobile games. The main creative teams of "Honor of Kings" and other films work together across borders to explore new forms of high-quality literature and art produced in Guangdong. "We hope to make the classics "jump on the stage" and create a refreshing Journey to the West story."
uses silk hanging acrobatics to express the "Samadhi True Fire" in the alchemy furnace.
Shocking audiovisual "Growth Story"
"Journey to the West" is a myth and legend familiar to Chinese people. The acrobatic show "Journey to the West·Wukong" excerpts a section of it, from the birth of the stone monkey in Huaguo Mountain to meeting Tang Monk at the foot of Wuzhi Mountain, which is where Sun Wukong sets foot. The history of spiritual growth before the journey of learning.
In the process, in order to understand life and death, he came to Lingtai Fangcun Mountain to study as a teacher. After mastering supernatural powers, due to blind ignorance and arrogance, he took away the Dinghai Divine Iron from the East China Sea Dragon Palace, caused a riot in Pantaoyuan, and fought with Tathagata Buddha. ...Finally, I was pressed under the Wuzhi Mountain, and gradually reflected and understood. "Growth is never just a matter of children, we all need to grow; growth is never about defeating others, but about defeating yourself." The creators hope that this is a work for all ages - when watching the show, " "Big Friends" can also briefly "jump out of the Three Realms" to dialogue and connect with their own hearts. The addition of
multimedia tools makes it easier to "immerse" and "immerse yourself in the drama". Guo Hongbo, the chief director of
, told Nandu reporters that the play was jointly created by the multimedia production team of the large-scale stage dramas "The Three-Body Problem" and "Tomb Raiders", as well as the open source teams of Universal Studios and Disneyland shows. In terms of lighting design, It has a lot of laser lights, cutting lights, and a through-wire device that allows actors to go directly from the last row of the auditorium to the stage. The entire wire device can achieve multi-directional and multi-level changes to better express the various characters. "Soaring in the clouds and riding on the mist" and "Mystical powers are vast".
At the same time, "Journey to the West: Wukong" united the main creative team of the competitive mobile game "Honor of Kings", adding the acg style favored by young people in both stage design and costume design, intending to "break the dimensional wall", Explore more possibilities for national style visual design.
There is more than one place in the play where the actors come to the stage to interact and even talk directly to the audience, turning the audience of the audience into participants in the plot, and also expanding the performance field from one stage to the entire theater. Created more joyful moments.
Another attempt to "integrate skills into drama"
The acrobatic art that challenges the limits of the human body has no concept of "plot" in itself. It is not easy to use acrobatics to create characters, tell stories, and break the "sense of disobedience" in conveying emotions. There are many "left and right fights". But in "Journey to the West: Wukong", the surreal acrobatic movements fit perfectly with the unconstrained mythical world.
"Lifting and lowering soft steel wire" acrobatic passage. According to the creative team of
, nearly 20 types of difficult acrobatics are used in the whole drama to perform classic scenes from "Journey to the West" such as seizing the treasure in the Dragon Palace and causing havoc in the Heavenly Palace. A climbing pole is used to show the monkeys playing in the Huaguo Mountain, a rolling ring is used to symbolize Nezha's "cosmic circle", a silk hanging is used to simulate the true fire of Samadhi in the alchemy furnace, and there is also a luminous diabolo version of the wonderful deep sea world... Many ingenious ideas will make the audience smile; at the same time, the play integrates dance, opera, magic, martial arts, puppets and other elements to further enrich the sensory experience.
Sun Wukong is naturally a being who "goes to heaven and goes to earth".In each "Journey to the West: Monkey King", three actors play "Sun Wukong" at different stages, which can not only shape the multi-faceted character of the character, but also give full play to their respective acrobatic expertise. Among them, Tang Zhe, who plays the role of the young Wukong in Group A, used his "Lifting and Lowering Soft Wire" program, which once won the world's highest acrobatic award, to artistically show Sun Wukong's long and dangerous journey to become his disciple; while Wang Jianguo's "blackened version" "Sun Wukong, arrogant and wild, stood firmly on the flying pole, and also impressed the audience with his superb skills.
In fact, for this group of professional acrobats, the bigger challenge lies in acting skills. When answering questions from Nandu reporters, chief director Guo Hongbo said frankly: "In the past, our acrobats only had 'number one expression' on stage, which was laughter. But now, they need to learn from dramas and stage plays to show joy. , anger, sadness, joy. This is probably the most difficult and takes the most time."
Guo Hongbo also revealed that almost all the behind-the-scenes dubbing work for this show is done by the acrobats themselves. Since they rarely "speak" on stage before, some even have to start learning the four tones of Mandarin and complete the correct pronunciation bit by bit.
Young actors take the lead
"Journey to the West·Wukong" is produced by the Propaganda Department of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee, Guangzhou Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism Bureau, Guangzhou Cultural Development Group Co., Ltd., general manager and artistic director of Guangzhou Acrobatic Art Theater, "Ballet on the Shoulder" The founder Wu Zhengdan serves as the producer, and the leading actors are all new generation acrobats.
28-year-old Li Mengnan told Nandu reporters with a smile that she is already the "oldest" actress on the stage; the youngest He Yi, only 14 years old, brilliantly completed the role of "Little Monkey King" in the play; Most of the actors are from the student team of the Guangzhou Acrobatic Troupe, and have collectively participated in acrobatic performances such as "Butterfly" and "Swan". Including the lead actor Tang Zhe, who came to the Guangzhou Acrobatic Troupe to study at the age of 7 and is also a leading actor who has grown up solidly from the troupe.
Li Mengnan is the inheritor of "Shoulder Ballet". She once served as the heroine "Zhu Yingtai" of Group B in "Butterfly". This time, she participated in the silk section of the alchemy furnace in "Journey to the West: Wukong". He also played the roles of "Fairy" and "Electricity Mother" while performing acrobatics. He was also the deputy director of the play, assisting the chief director in guiding the performances of the younger brothers and sisters.
In the first round of auditions, "Journey to the West: Wukong" won praise from famous artists and literary enthusiasts. The creators also revealed plans to adapt the story of "Journey to the West" into a series of acrobatic shows. Guo Hongbo said: "Because the story system of "Journey to the West" is so big and there are so many people who like it, we hope that after completing the first part, we can continue to launch the second and third parts to make it a series to meet the audience's expectations."
He introduced that next, "Journey to the West: Wukong" will set off from Guangdong and embark on a tour. While the creative team is optimizing and adjusting the resident version, they are also preparing a tour version to cater to overseas audiences.
Interview and writing: Nandu reporter Hou Jingjing
Still photography: Feng Wanbin Tata
