The role of the director

In the past years, the traditional artists participating in the "Experimental Tradition" have all been mature, veteran cultural workers, with recognized accomplishments in their respective fields. Perhaps because of this, they are beginning to hope to have new breakthroughs for themselves in their creative work, and my cooperation with them comes as a natural result. Tian Man Sha is a good example. At first, I invited her to chair seminars and workshops for students at Hong Kong University, and then I invited her to develop, on a cooperative basis, a series of "nontraditional" seminar works, including multimedia installations and video creations, followed by participation in Zuni Icosahedron's open stage work. And then I helped her, in her own field, to boldly experiment with the traditional stage, transforming herself from a Sichuan opera actor into a dramatic actor, and then developing into an original artistic worker. Another example is Kun Opera's Ke Jun: the script I created for him, Fleeing by Night, is itself a dialectical record of our cooperative process. I then cooperated with Zhou Long on The Outcast General.

I believe our traditional artists have reached a mature phase, and have become aware that, to be creative, they need both an experimental platform, for exchanging ideas, and space that has a greater capacity for experiment. Unfortunately, there are currently only organizations that buy programs, and organizations that support experimental work are lacking. I believe that supplying traditional artists with the conditions, the platform, and the space, for experimental work, is vitally important, because by helping them examine the past and look forward, they will necessarily broaden their horizons. This "Experimental Tradition" program just happens to give them the support to boldly try new things, in which they don't have to repeat the same performance over and over, in the confines of their own environment, and don't have to be a slave to the market. In other words, this program not only helps traditional artists boldly, passionately, discover the creativity that is deep within themselves, but also strives, on a rational basis, to build a better mechanism for future cultural development.

The traditional opera stage basically does not have a "director": what it does have is a troupe owner, artists, musicians, and amateurs. As hard as it is to believe, in the head of every veteran traditional opera actor is stored more than one hundred plays, which can be staged anytime without rehearsal. In fact, the actors are more or less the director; they are already very experienced in handling the space and time elements of the stage. Once they step onto the stage, they can bring their talents to full play at any time, a result of their accumulated training and performances. I am a layman in the field of traditional opera. I often feel, even though I am collaborating with them as part of the "Experimental Tradition", I am not actually playing the role of the traditional "stage director". I am not asking them to merely play their traditional opera roles, but hoping they will, at the same time, explore the boundaries of the traditional opera, and then, as a further step, break through the framework of the performing arts, the framework of the stage limits, and the framework of limits on the self. Thus my role as a director is almost invisible, being more like a manager or consultant: I don't give directions, more often giving inspiration. I push and support them, according to their inclinations and limitations, to challenge their boundaries, offering comments on their attempts from the sidelines.

I believe all of the performing arts have their own complete established framework. I have always believed that our modern theater should, besides creating new works within the existing framework, challenge and experiment with the boundaries of the framework of this theater, and develop the framework for a new theater, followed by challenging and experimenting with the boundaries on oneself. In this way only, can we develop a future meaning and role for the performing arts. Some opera professionals (or professionals in specific types of performing arts), perhaps because of the arduous training they undergo, all too easily get stuck within their framework, and become rigid in their views. They do not know how to consciously take a few steps back, observe the surrounding "forces", and actively understand what effect these forces have, how they are controlling the stage, and controlling creative work. They should be able to take a few steps back, and then make a few steps forward, focusing on the interaction between the work and these forces.