Shanghai Drama Art Center on Anfu Road lights up again in August Photo courtesy of the organizer

On August 1st, we received a notice that we could officially resume production. The Shanghai Drama Art Center quickly kicked off the show on August 2nd. In order to wait for the lights to turn on again, many people in the theater have been waiting and preparing for nearly 4 months. Since March 7, 2022, offline performances have been suspended due to the epidemic. After being quiet for more than 100 days, the theater on Anfu Road finally became bright and lively again. That night, drama master Cao Yu's classic novel "The Wilderness" directed by He Nian became the first work of this round of comeback performances. Prior to this, the play had been rehearsed four times before and after the restart of the show for this round of epidemic.

The Wilderness poster

On the night of Qixi Festival on August 4, the Chinese version of the Broadway classic love musical "I LOVE YOU..." (full name "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change!") produced by Shanghua is also in the building. The D6 space on the opening of this round of premieres. Previously, the show was scheduled to start the show after the rehearsal, but on March 10, the performance was suspended before the newly rehearsed version could officially meet the audience. After a lapse of nearly 4 months, "I LOVE YOU..." finally appeared on the stage of Shanghai Drama Art Center again. It has been six years since the last performance of the play. Coinciding with the Qixi Festival, the scene of this romantic musical was filled with young audiences in pairs, and the beautiful atmosphere permeated the air of the theater.
It was exciting to return to the stage to meet the audience, and what was even more gratifying was that this weekend, tickets for both performances were sold out. Although there is still a 50% audience limit, and there are only a few days of ticket sales, the enthusiasm of the audience seems to be as high as the temperature this summer.

The audience came to the theater for the first time

"The Wilderness": Rehearse 4 times before and after, meet at the theater as scheduled
"The Wilderness" is a classic work by the drama master Mr. Cao Yu. The version directed by He Nian was produced. Since its premiere in 2017, it has been performed for many times after five years. The performances have been performed in many places, with more than 100 performances. He has also been invited to participate in domestic and foreign theater festivals many times, including the Tottori BeSeTo International Theater Festival in Japan, the first Xichang Daliangshan International Theater Festival, and the 8th Wuzhen Theater Festival. Received a lot of praise.
For this round of performances after the restart of the theater, the crew still rehearsed very seriously, and experienced a repetition of the performance plan during the period. Tickets issued at the limit speed, refunded at the limit speed, and ticket issuance at the limit again, the crew members have experienced a roller coaster test. In order to comfort the refunded audience who failed to enter the theater as they wished, the cast and crew also wrote postcards by hand, and made an appointment to meet at the theater.

Restart the premiere audience to take pictures

Cast members handwritten postcards to refund audience

And this week, "The Wilderness" returned as scheduled, and also kicked off the August performance. This round of performances was jointly presented by Xie Chengying, Zhu Ye, Yang Jingran, Gao Zepeng, Zhou Zhou, Feng Jiaye, Li Yuqing and Yang Jiaqi.

Stills of "The Wilderness"

"I LOVE YOU...": The Romantic Premiere of Tanabata Night
Like "The Wilderness", "I LOVE YOU..." is not easy to meet with the audience. After wrapping up internal rehearsals in early March, the show failed to premiere on schedule. Now, after a whole spring and half a summer of waiting, the play finally ushered in a romantic opening on the night of Qixi Festival.

"I LOVE YOU..." Poster

Stills of "I LOVE YOU..."

The musical "I LOVE YOU..." is a small theater musical with a very long continuous performance off Broadway in the United States. It has been translated into 14 languages and has been performed in more than 5,000 performances in more than 400 cities around the world. It has a variety of genres on Broadway from the 1930s to the present, and is also considered to be the most suitable small theater musical for dating.
16 years ago, the play was introduced by Shanghua, and it is also the "pioneer" of the domestic Chinese version of the musical. In this performance, the D6 space has been remodeled in an all-round way. The audience is divided into three areas and sits around two independent and interconnected stages. The whole stage is like a colorful world.
This round of "I LOVE YOU..." gathered the main creative team of that year, including the translation and adaptation of the play Yu Rongjun and director Zhou Xiaoqian, as well as musician Jiang Qinghua. The voice director and well-known musician Gao Yang of the first and second seasons of "China's Got Talent" was also invited to serve as the vocal director of the play, and Zhang Enshu, a senior musical actor and musical choreographer, served as the choreographer and physical director of the play.
The actor team also went through layers of selection. In the end, He Mengjie, Qian Anqi, Yu Siran, Chen Shuyue, Ding Ting, Zhang Mengyan, Zhang Zhongyi, Gao Yuchen, Xu Yiran, Qian Hairui, and Yuan Ye were selected from thousands of interviewees. Stand out and form the August performance team.
At the premiere performance, the crew carefully arranged different exhibition & check-in areas in the off-site hall. In the romantic "pink ocean", they shared the bits and pieces related to "love" with the audience. Limited postcards, badges, refrigerator magnets, ticket holders, ticket covers and other related derivatives and surprise lucky draws also give the performance more atmosphere.
It is reported that after the resumption of the show, the follow-up performances have been billed one after another, including the historical black comedy "Academy of Honor" and the single-person comedy "Every Wonderful Little Thing", which will be staged in August. In addition, the stage play "Awakening Age", based on the TV series of the same name and produced by the Shanghai Dramatic Art Center, has also been billed and will premiere in September. In addition, the full version of the drama "A Dream of Red Mansions", the two suspense drama "The Labyrinth of Heart" and the suspense drama "Abyss", the Chinese version of Agatha Christie's masterpiece "No Life", the classic reasoning drama "Accident" The Chinese version of "The Guest" will also go on a national tour in 2022, of which "Abyss" and "No One Survives" have already embarked on a national tour.