A Monumental Undertaking with Monumental Results: Keystone Student-Led Chinese Drama
For thousands of years, drama has been an integral part of the human experience. Whether exposing the inner emotions of the soul, or simply providing a brief comedic escape from reality, the stage has offered mesmerizing experiences to audiences all over the globe. As performative art grew, it morphed into many unique forms such as educational drama, which aspires to go beyond pure entertainment by giving the audience valuable knowledge to influence opinions or even behavior. It was this lofty goal that several Keystone students rallied around when they began to plan their Chinese drama last September – to create a play serving as a mirror for the audience, inspiring introspection and reflection through a unique story that played with space and time as plot devices. On May 23, their vision came true, as A Monumental Journey (Zhu Ding in Chinese) opened on the stage of the Keystone Performing Arts Center (PAC).
After three nights of amazing performances, the Keystone community was buzzing with praise for A Monumental Journey. With such profound and professional stage work, it was hard to believe that this project was entirely student-led. About 70 students from Grades 6 to 11 all joined in the Chinese Drama, helping create a completely original story and script from scratch. The drama also had several teacher supervisors: Dr. Yang Wang, Mr. John Han, Ms. Celina Li, Ms. Iris Zheng, Ms. Cynthia Lee, and Mr. Chris Reid. As directors Lisa Li (Grade 11) and Angel Hua (Grade 10) explained, they started with just an idea for the title of the performance, then built up an entire script and world, before conducting auditions and getting a crew together to make the play come to life. Although it took the students over 600 hours of hard work both inside and outside of KAP time, sometimes even late into the night, their dedication to the project paid off with monumental results!
The secret of how the students put on such an astounding show – collaboration. Although the students worked in different teams (directors, actors, script writers, stage and prop designers, backstage managers, costume and makeup specialists, marketing managers, lighting managers, and original music creators) each team relied on the others for success. When reflecting on their performance, the students are quick to heap praises on their peers in other groups, as this truly was a team effort. As one of the backstage managers, Marta Chen (Grade 10), explained, had the backstage crew not put down tape in the just the right spots, the prop crew wouldn’t be able to find the right position for each prop in the dark during a quick transition, the light crew would not be able to place the lights on the props, and the actors’ blocking would be disturbed. But, when the lights shone brightest, the Chinese drama team came through with a perfect performance!
As great as the production looked and sounded, it was the critical meaning lurking just below the surface in expertly veiled metaphors that truly shone through. By writing a story that involved both ancient and current times, the students were able to demonstrate universal themes about society and personal choices that resonate as strongly today as they did in the past, creating a commentary on both the current state of education and society. The directors and script writers used characters to convey their messages, with actors bringing each one to life in this deeply insightful story.
One character with a tragic lesson for audience members to ponder was Laixi, daughter of the high priest Lai Chang in the Yin-Shang era, and a priestess herself. Her role serves as a metaphor for the predestined fate that society and family often attempt to impose on individuals. As Phoebe Xing (Grade 10), one of the actors who portrays Laixi explains, “we’re always limited by different things, and we tend to be influenced by surroundings and external factors. So, we should try to maintain a good state of mind, and to continue with what we think is correct and what we think is best for ourselves; basically, be ourselves.” Eric Zhang (Grade 10), who played Laixi’s father, explained the conflicts of his role, stating, “my character had very high expectations of her, my expectation however turned out to be the factor that limited her from what she wants to do, the kind of person she wants to be. Those expectations were from my understanding of the culture and the society.” Interestingly, according to Sydney Zhang from the marketing team, Laixi was the most popular character with audiences, perhaps thanks to many identifying with the various external pressures placed on her.
On the flip side, one of the most controversial characters turned out to be Xuexi, a girl from the current era constantly worried about exam scores (and with a name reminiscent of the words “to study” in Chinese). Although Sally Xue, who portrays Xuexi, holds quite different beliefs from the character, she still found herself empathizing with Xuexi, saying, “I do identify with the need to overachieve, and I feel like that’s a problem for a lot of people who have had excellent grades growing up.” The whole play functioned as somewhat of an analogy for internal struggles, as many characters wanted to push back against societal norms, but, in the end, still internalized many of the pressures and problems they faced. According to the data, Xuexi was the most relatable character for the audience. Perhaps many audience members saw a piece of themselves in Xuexi, a piece that they may not fully embrace.
Such metaphors, intertwined in the two temporal tendrils of past and present, gave A Monumental Journey a gravitas that stuck with audiences long after the final curtain call. Based on the reflections of the cast and crew, this educational drama truly had an impact on thinking at Keystone. Furthermore, the massive process of creating this piece left a lasting impression on everyone involved. The cast agreed that, when they put on the show, the results didn’t matter, the process of working together, the things they learned, and the effort they gave was the most precious part. “Their work ethic is very admirable,” explains Dr. Yang Wang, teacher leader for the Chinese drama this year. “I admire their passion and continuous commitment to Chinese drama.”
Even after all the long hours of hard work, the last-minute edits to the script and music (even in-between performances), the rush to meet deadlines, the nerves of first-time and well-established actors, as soon as the lights of the PAC shone down on the stage, the production went off perfectly. The leadership displayed by the students, coupled with their impressive creativity made this a monumental performance at Keystone. “As the community reflects on the important lessons veiled within A Monumental Journey, we look forward to the amazing productions our talented students will create next!
Special thanks to Dr. Yang Wang and the students from Chinese drama for providing information for the article!
