In the second week of the new semester, we are very honored to invite director Zhang Chenting of Erdo Children’s Theatre to come to SUIS Pudong and bring a new lecture, “On Original Musical Creation”, to our Grade 4 and 5 of ISP.
In fact, as early as 2019, Director Zhang came to SUIS Pudong and shared with the students in G5 at that time about how to feel the charm of drama in play. In addition to sharing the founding history of Erdo Children’s Theatre with us, Zhang Dao also brought many pieces of classic original musicals during her new visit in 2023. This really made the students excited and they even “ordered” the musical clips they are interested in. Some of them may have been to the scene, and some may have overheard it, but it is the first time to watch the clips under the director’s personal commentary.
Through the sharing of these musical fragments and aria, students can intuitively understand what musical is and how its expression differs from other plays. At the same time, these clips derived from the interpretation of peers, the lyrics are easy to understand, and even mixed with many popular language among students, the music is lively and catchy. Some students who had not been exposed to musicals before were immediately attracted.
If the sharing of these musical fragments has warmed the whole auditorium, the next link made the whole audience even more excited. Director Zhang told everyone about the importance of acting truthfully in the drama, and said that she did not advocate actors to simply imitate, but rather paid more attention to how they awaken their creativity and perception. When the students looked confused, Zhang said that she would invite several students to play a small game on the stage to experience it personally, and said that the students on the stage had better be brave, because there might be some uncertainties in the game. At this time, everyone scrambled to raise their hands to sign up. Finally, eight students were invited to the stage.
Zhang took a large box with the lid closed. She said mysteriously that there were some living objects in it. The students on the stage need to close their eyes and only use one part of their body to “touch” the mysterious objects in the box. Everyone’s curiosity was surprisingly inflated, and the audience on the stage made various guesses, but the students on the stage began to get nervous because of the “unknown”. Zhang continued, “For our audience, I suggest you also be careful, because it may fly. You can put your hat on.” The students on and off the stage hurriedly put on their hats or covered their heads with clothes, and some of them were frightened.
After several trials, Zhang finally revealed the answer: there is nothing in the box! When everyone breathed a sigh of relief, Zhang said that the game was actually to let the children show the most real inner and awaken the “body memory”. It dawned on everyone that this is so called a performance training!
More than one hour of lecture time soon passed, and everyone’s interest in musicals and performances was aroused. Finally, the students took a big group photo with Director Zhang and hoped to invite her again to share more musicals with us!