The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presented Qingqing Yang’s Four Dreams (China) livestreamed on the commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 16 December 2019 at 3:30 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC-8) / 5:30 CST (Chicago, UTC-6) / 6:30 p.m. EST (New York, UTC-5).
Qingqing Yang’s research focuses on creation through dreams. Her work uses the practice of subconscious painting to evoke a dream-like state in which she is uninhibited to explore the relationship between life, death and love. Her creation takes inspiration from the Four Dreams in Linchuan by the Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu, consisting of four plays about love and society: Peony Pavilion, Purple Hairpin, Handan and Nanke. All four “dreams” are known to be among the most outstanding works of Chinese literature. After an artist talk on Four Dreams in Linchuan, Yang will transition to a performance combining projected visuals, music and her gestural acts of painting. Yang will create an illusionary atmosphere in the Segal Theatre that allows the audience to feel the experience of entering a poetic dream. Qingqing Yang’s interpretation of the subject is a dreamlike painting performance, setting the stage for a trans-medial conversation between poetry and her calligraphic painting style in the theatrical world of reverie.
About the playwright: Tang Xianzu (1550—1616) was a playwright of the Ming Dyansty who followed the concept of “turning love into dreams and turning dreams into theatre”. His drama is an exploration of contemporaneous lifestyle, following the stories of different characters, each representing diverse social situations and reflecting the profound philosophy thinking of the time. Many of Tang’s ideas were ahead of their time and relevant to today’s issues, exemplifing care for the world, questioning political power and wealth, as well as awareness for issues facing women. Through the eyeglass of ghosts, chivalrous heros, immortals and Buddha in a dream world, we can reflect on the vanity of prosperity and wealth, the ignorance in the world, and express love and desire beyond the confusion of life and death.
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