An Oral History Theatrical Work - A Brief Herstory of Beauty Oct. 22-23 19:30 Venue New Space Theater, STA
"All history is the history of individuals." A Brief History of Beauty is an oral history theatrical production combining elements of stage performance, live music, videography, and other theatrical tricks and techniques to portray an ordinary woman's memory of youth and her compelling life story. In the year of 1952, protagonist in the story, Huang Yueping, was born at No. 50 Changle Road, Luwan District, Shanghai. She was admitted to the Dance Department of People's Liberation Army Art Academy at a young age of 13, and shortly after, she was assigned to the famous North Sea Fleet Art Troupe during the Cultural Revolution. Huang Yueping did not return to Shanghai until the early 1980s. After being transferred to civilianwork, she helped create the fashion modeling team of Shanghai Garment Company, which was China’s first fashion modeling team. Huang Yueping pursues beauty and has been seeking something different and unique all her life. The play follows her from the 1950s to the Reform and the Opening up and with each step she takes, she was at the forefront of China's beauty scene. This cutting age woman walks calmly, composedly, sincerely and bravely. It is her courage that has awakened a new sense of beauty in contemporary China. And the awakening of beauty, in essence, means the revival of the "truth" in China. The play is centered around restoring a venue that has disappeared from the physical world on the theatrical stage, and recovering a real but delicate piece of memory, demonstrating the defiance to oblivion. After all, memory is the most precious treasure individuals have. As time goes by, memory deposits into history and extends into culture. Urban and technological progresses, in each and every second, seem to force us to forget about the past and forge ahead, and the mission of theatres, is to tell us that we shall never forget.
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Bao Han
Theater curator, freelance writer, member of Shanghai Youth Literature and Art Federation, program director of Shanghai Young Theatre. Bao Han was the creative consultant of the play Blossoms, screenwriter of the film The Operation at Dawn which won the 11th the Best Works Award, producer of Tennessee Williams's play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton which was specially commissioned by the Asian Director's Theatre Festival, producer of Jean-Genet's work The Ba/cony which was presented at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, curator of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Theatre Exchange Project under the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, cura-tor-in-chief of the "Drama Theory" lecture series of the Shanghai Mass Art Institute, producer of V+ Theatre. Bao Han won the title of Best author of Xinmin Evening News in 2003. She has published more than 100 articles in periodicals and magazines such as Book Town, Fiction World, Shanghai Theatre, Xinmin Evening News, The Opera, Dance Gazette etc.
