30 years of grievances and resentments, the past events of two generations, and the complex lives of eight characters, together create a grand classic - "Thunderstorm" known as "a milestone in the maturity of modern Chinese drama". The 2024 Shanghai Theater Academy teacher version of "Thunderstorm" was officially announced today. The work is directed by Pu Cunxin, chairman of the Chinese Dramatists Association, and is jointly created by teachers and students from the Performance Department, Stage Design Department, and Creative College of Shanghai Theater Academy.
's works will be presented at Shanghai Opera Experimental Theater from May 10th to 12th.
"Thunderstorm" is a drama that never ends in the history of Chinese drama. It has profound connotations and extremely tense dramatic conflicts. It is also a high-quality masterpiece that inspires contemporary people to think deeply. Shanghai Theater Academy chose this play to present, not only because "Thunderstorm" is a shining pearl in the history of modern Chinese literature, but also because Shanghai Theater Academy and "Thunderstorm" have a decades-old fate: since 1979, a teacher from Shanghai Theater Academy starred in From the beginning of "Thunderstorm" to the creation and production of the teacher's version of "Thunderstorm" in 2024, the show and Shanghai Theater Company have been "accompanying each other" for 45 years.
During this period, 7 Shanghai Opera versions of "Thunderstorm" were analyzed and innovated from multiple perspectives by Shanghai Opera people, from the Shanghai Theater Small Theater to the National Center for the Performing Arts. The theatergoers have devoted extremely deep creative emotions to "Thunderstorm".
Pu Cunxin, the director of the play, is an old friend of the Shanghai Theater Academy. The first play he helped to create was the graduation drama of the 2017 Tibetan Class of the Acting Department and the Stage Design Department, a Chinese-Tibetan bilingual version of "Hamlet."
In the past year or so, he has read all the "Thunderstorm" scripts on the market and refined the essence of the earliest version to form this version. The brand-new play will break through the conventional design in stage art, build new sections in the narrative structure, and add human arcs to the characters, thereby creating a refreshing "Thunderstorm".
In terms of artistic value, "Thunderstorm" presents a perfect classic with its strongly conflicting plot settings, three-dimensional and complex character images, and simple and concise lines of dialogue. In terms of artistic presentation, it is a high-quality masterpiece that allows all actors to play and shine. Each character has a specific revealing role, vividly reflecting the complexity of human nature and the turmoil of the current environment. The creation and arrangement of the
teacher version of "Thunderstorm" aims to take "cross-department exchange of knowledge and needs", "cross-professional integration of industry and education", "full front-line teaching team" and "all-round efforts as one heart" as the creative principles to combine a film with profound social significance and high Drama works of artistic value are re-created and re-expressed using the literary vocabulary of the new era, giving the classics a new luster.
Author: Wang Xiaoli
Text: Wang Xiaoli Pictures: Pictures provided by the performer Editor: Xu Yang Editor: Xing Xiaofang
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