Aug. 8th @ 2:00pm @ Flushing Town Hall
Aug. 13th (2 shows) @ National Puppetry Festival
Von der Mehden Hall, UConn, Storrs, CT
Chinese Theatre Works’ new production, presents episodes from 2500 years of Chinese history, seen through the lives of four outstanding women warriors: Hua Mulan (5th Century), Hongxian (9th Century), She Saihua (12th Century), and Qiu Jin (early 20th Century). Episode from the lives of these four legendary women’s stories are interspersed with vivid shadow sequences depicting the caustic effects of war on the social fabric, and with comic interludes on the 4 Confucian virtues that underlay proper woman’s conduct.
Mulan: Holding Up Half the Sky seamlessly blends together live performance with a wide variety puppetry techniques—traditional and modern rods and bunraku-style, hand puppets, direct screen and overhead projection shadows, and featuring a technique of “fabric-fold” puppetry pioneered by the Shanghai Puppet Theater. The text is presented in English and Mandarin, with excerpts from classical Chinese literature and opera sources) and is designed for both family and adult audiences. It is written and directed by Kuang-Yu Fong and Stephen Kaplin, with puppet and technical design by Stephen Kaplin.
for more info: Chinese Theatre Works