April 03, 2008 issue
Pining... in Peach Blossom Land at ASU April 16 to 20
Story by Anna Oakes
The final perform
ance of the Appalachian State University Department of Theatre and Dance for the 2007-08 academic year is Pining… In Peach Blossom Land, a play by Stan Lai.
Theatre students will perform the play in Valborg Theatre Wednesday to Saturday, April 16 to 19, at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, April 20, at 2:00 p.m. Assistant professor Kin-Yan Szeto is the director.
In the play, two theatre groups are mistakenly booked into the same theatre for a dress rehearsal. One is to perform a melancholy contemporary play called Pining. The other is rehearsing a farcical period costume drama called Peach Blossom Land. As the two groups struggle for control of the stage, the plays begin to interact and seemingly opposite themes and performance styles blend to form new meanings.
“Pining… in Peach Blossom Land is arguably the most famous play in modern Chinese language theatre,” said Szeto. The play premiered in Taiwan in 1986. The ASU performance will be the second-ever English language adaptation of Pining—Lai produced the English world premiere in California last spring.
“The production of Pining... in Peach Blossom Land is part of the Department of Theatre and Dance’s effort to promote diversity at a campus-wide level so that students, faculty and staff to have an opportunity to work with different national theatres, especially Chinese theatre,” Szeto said.
One group, starring Shawn Stoner as Chiang Pin-Liu and Catherine Ledford as Yun Chih-Fan, is performing the melodrama Pining, the story of an old man in Taipei looking for his first love from Shanghai. The other group, starring Brian Seagroves as Tao, Desiree Ricker as Chun-hua or the Woman in White and Alex Genther as Yuen/Man in White, performs the farce Peach Blossom Land, based on the fabled utopia of classical Chinese literature. In total, 13 students are in the cast.
“What happens is a juxtaposition of modern and ancient times, melodrama and comedy,” Szeto said. The play explores the nostalgia for homeland and the search for utopia during the times of political and social uncertainty, as well as the meanings of adapting a Chinese play for American audiences and the cultural translation between East and West, she said.
“We explore the Occidental imagination of China in contemporary American society (as with the Disney theme park) and reveal to the audience that this is an illusion of global consumerism,” she continued. “We also consider how we perceive utopia in American culture and in today’s Chinese society. The clash between Chinese and Western design components are used to show the farce and complicity of cross-cultural translation.”
Pining incorporates realistic acting style with a focus on contemporary Chinese cultural context, and Peach Blossom Land has influences from traditional Chinese opera, acting style, acrobatics and dance.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $6 for ASU students and faculty and are available at the Valborg Theatre box office. For more info, call 828-262-3063.
Want To Go?
Date: Wednesday to Sunday, April 16 to 20
Time: 8:00 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday/2:00 p.m. Sunday
Location: Valborg Theatre
Cost: $10 adults/$6 ASU students and faculty
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