Plays: “Behind the Curtains” and “Daiyu Burns Her Manuscripts”
Date Issued
2010
Date
2010
Author(s)
Lee, Ling
Abstract
In this thesis contains two plays: original written Beijing opera play “Behind the Curtains” （垂簾）and “Daiyu Burns her Manuscripts”（黛玉焚稿） adapted from Yueju opera（越劇）. Author’s reflections for both two plays are also included.
“Behind the Curtains” is a story of The Empress Dowager Cixi （慈禧太后）, beginning from her early years at the age of 16, to her role from “behind the curtains” which lasts for 10 whole years. In this 10 years, Cixi changed from a innocent young girl with beautiful, colorful dreams to a young woman aware of her unstable state so she decided to fight for herself and her only son. She finally succeeded, and the ear of “behind the curtains” had since begun. I wanted to bring a new point of view to the character Cixi, to take her as a “woman” instead of a “female politician.” So as to free me from the burden of real history and be able to create a play that is sympathetic to what Cixi had been through and what she really did or perused. I also combined some western playwright techniques with the traditional Beijing opera way in order to bring new life to this old story.
“Daiyu Burns her Manuscripts” was adapted from the Yueju opera version of “The Dream of the Red Chamber” （紅樓夢）into a Beijing opera version. The story is mainly between Jia Baoyu （賈寶玉）and Lin Daiyu（林黛玉）. Jia Baoyu was cheated to marry Xue Baochai （薛寶釵）to cure his madness resulted from the lost of his luminescent jade. When Lin Daiyu heard about the marriage, she thought her was betrayed and was heartbroken, so she burned all her poetry which full of memories with Jia Baoyu, then she died with grief. The lyrics from the Yueju opera version was partly preserved, and the origin novel and the version adapted by Ouyang Yuqian （歐陽予倩）were also my reference materials.
Subjects
Beijing Opera
Empress Dowager Cixi
Role from Behind the Curtains
The Dream of the Red Chamber
Daiyu Burns her Manuscripts
SDGs
Type
thesis
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