- 2023-12-18
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What does theater mean?
"Creating another shore that allows us to detach from reality and view current life from a higher-dimensional perspective. In theater, we stand on the other shore, gazing at the present," as said by Jinghui Meng in his opening speech at the Anaya Art Festival.
On the afternoon of December 18, 2023, the drama show began. Despite the winter chill, the passion on stage remained unabated, and an atmosphere of revelry and freedom filled the air. Under the guidance of theater teacher Zagrya, the participating students delivered a brilliant performance with their exquisite acting skills. The intertwining of various emotions brought laughter and tears to the audience.
As the lights dimmed and the music played, the first program made a stunning entrance. The audience's sight was greeted by a small round table set in a bar background. The battle between KFC and McDonald's officially began! The students' witty and humorous performance elicited bursts of laughter from the audience, and the dramatic and flamboyant storyline captivated everyone's attention. The program concluded with thunderous applause.
In the following second program, Teacher Zagrya boldly innovated by making some modifications to the story of Princess Zhaojun's Sacrifice. The unexpected idea of swapping the genders of the male and female characters heightened the dramatic conflict and greatly attracted the audience's attention, offering them a refreshing experience.
Once again, the stage went dark, actors of the third program appeared with tents. It piqued the curiosity of the audience about what story would unfold. As it turned out, three students went camping in the forest and encountered unexpected supernatural occurrences. The realistic performance of the actors added a touch of mystery to the stage.
In the blink of an eye, the fourth program arrived. SHBS version of "The Hunger Games" took the stage! Three chairs stood in the center, and a tense battle erupted on stage, captivating the audience's gaze with every move. After several rounds of struggles, a champion emerged! The cheers from the audience resounded throughout the venue.
With the completion of the four performances, everyone was still immersed in the world woven by the plays, unable to break free for a long time. These stories that unfolded on stage created another shore belonging to theater, but at the same time, they created a spectacle. Here, everyone felt everything "unreal" and "abnormal," enjoying all the gathered beauty. Exaggerated, magical, and fantastical, in this time and space, everything appeared incredibly harmonious, naturally coexisting.
After the performance, the reporter interviewed some of the participating students and the overall responsible teacher, Zagrya, who expressed their innermost feelings.
Jenny, Secretary-General of the Student Council: "I'm very grateful to the school for providing us with such a great opportunity to showcase our talents. It's a great honor and joy to participate in this large-scale team activity together."
Bruce, President of the Student Council: "Participating in the drama show has been a great learning experience for me. I was pleasantly surprised by Zagrya's idea of incorporating 'The Hunger Games' into our campus. We spent two weeks in class developing the framework for the script, and I especially want to thank Zagrya for her hard work. Actually, the rehearsal time for this play was very limited, and we even faced challenges such as students being absent due to illness, which affected the completeness of each rehearsal. However, in the end, we all worked together to overcome these difficulties. I believe the most exciting scene of the entire performance was the fight scene at the beginning of Act Four, and the choreography for these actions was derived and created based on Zagrya's under & over exercises in class. In summary, everyone gained a lot from this experience."
Zagrya, Drama teacher: “It is the best feeling ever, full of different feelings like frustration, fear, excitement, and fun! I absolutely love to rehearse with the students. Of course here are a lot of difficulties. The biggest is that there is no time to rehearse with the different classes together to put the whole Drama Show together. Time to allow the students to rehearse with the technical cues is also not available. This causes confusion and affects everyone’s performances, and the show can't run smoothly and professionally. I’m very nervous to see my students on stage, and also extremely proud of them and what we've accomplished under difficult circumstances. Other people don't really understand how difficult it is to perform in a play. They also don't understand how much each student has grown during this process. It's not always the best actor who has worked the hardest. Every student improved on their own level. My dream is for the audiences to show more respect for the performers by laughing and enjoying the shows, but also by quickly settling down afterwards, and paying attention to the rest of the show by not making noise, chatting loudly, playing on their phones, etc. In this way the audiences will also find more value in the shows.”
文 | Olga Liang (G10)
审核 | Wu Xu
翻译 | Lexie Liu (G11)
排版 | Jang
配图 | Photography Club
