THEATER
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Widows and unwed daughters of Matriarch She prepare for battle in "Women Generals of the Yang Family."
|
|
'A feast for the eyes'
Chinese opera springs to life on the UH stage
By Stacy Stout
Special to the Star-Bulletin
CHINESE opera returns to the Kennedy Theatre this weekend with "Women Generals of the Yang Family," directed by faculty member and Chinese theater veteran Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak.
Article not available for online publication
We do not have permission from the freelance author to publish this article on Starbulletin.com.
We require a signed NY Times vs. Tasini Permission Form on file in our offices before we can release this article for public consumption online.
If you are the author of this article and desire it to be available, please download, fill in and submit the form, then contact webmasters@starbulletin.com to make arrangements to get the article published.
We regret any inconvenience to our readers.
Sincerely,
|
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Annie Lokomaika'i Lipscomb plays Mu Guiying in the University of Hawaii production. The Chinese opera, called jingju, is performed in English.
|
|
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Dusty Behner plays Yang Qiniang, a widow and retired general who teaches martial arts.
|
|
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII
Madame Shen Xiaomei has made contributions both on and off the jingju stage.
|
|
Shen wins honorary doctorate
For her guidance in internationalizing jingju, Madame Shen Xiaomei will be honored at Friday night's premiere of Kennedy Theatre's production of "Women Generals of the Yang Family."
'Women Generals of the Yang Family'
» Place: Kennedy Theatre, University of Hawaii at Manoa
» Time: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and Feb. 15 to 18; and 2 p.m. Feb. 19; with free pre-show events at 7 p.m. Saturday and Feb. 18
» Tickets: $18 general; $16 seniors, military and UH faculty/staff; $12 students; and $4 UHM students
» Call: 956-7655
|
University of Hawaii-Manoa administrators will award Shen an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in a pre-show ceremony.
Shen and professor Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak have worked together on the school's well-recognized Asian Theatre Program, mentoring students in jingju for more than two dozen years.
Shen has performed, directed and taught jingju in China for more than a half-century with the Jiangsu Province Jingju Company, taking the art form abroad in the 1980s. After retiring in 1995, Shen created the Jiangsu Province Program for Promoting Jingju Appreciation in Education, essentially China's first artist-in-the-schools program. The program was inspired by similar programs she experienced in Hawaii schools.
Shen also had a key advisory role in the new production of "Women Generals of the Yang Family."
According to the UH music department, the last time a Chinese opera artist received a doctorate from an American university was in 1930, when Master Mei Lanfang was called on stage at Pomona College by Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and Paul Robeson.
As it turns out, Mei also performed in Honolulu that year, and Shen was one of his private students.
Burl Burlingame, Star-Bulletin