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When we get something, we lose something. Very often, people
consciously or unconsciously sacrifice something they have in order
to win something they do not have.
Four young performers interpret the truth through a three-act
play New York Kite which is running at the small theater
of Beijing People's Art Theater until August 6.
The play focuses on the story of Wang Bo, an ambitious young man
who shows great interest in making movies and aims to win an
Oscar.
By chance, he meets a famous Hollywood director and they hit it
off as they talk about movies. Soon afterwards, they sign a
contract to produce a movie. As Wang is looking forward to the
success of the movie as well as the rise of his career, the
Hollywood director dies in a car accident. Wang's dream crashes and
he loses all the funds.
At the crossroad of his life, two women suggest two very
different ways to proceed. Tingting, Wang's girl friend of seven
years, wishes to marry him and live a normal life together, while
Jenna, his English teacher who also loves Wang, encourages him to
further his study of film in New York.
Wang chooses New York where he suffers culture shock and failure
after failure before finally establishing himself as a successful
director. To Tingting, Wang has been a kite without thread lost in
the United States. She has to marry another man. Yet, Jenna still
stays in China to wait for his return.
Written by Miu Kejin, who just graduated from Central Academy of
Drama this summer, the story is somehow a cliche and not dramatic
enough to really catch the audience.
The first act of the 100-minute play moves along very
slowly.
It takes about 50 minutes to portray the development of Wang's
ambition, his meeting with the director and the crash of his dream
while Wang's failure and successes in Hollywood are shown quite
simply. The curtain closes with an open-ended conclusion, leaving
the audience wondering what will happen between Wang and Jenna.
Hou Kai, who plays Wang in the leading role, could not match the
three actresses. Obviously nervous in the first act, he stumbled on
quite a few lines.
Compared with Hou, the three actresses Chen Qiao, who played the
soft and sweet Tingting, Emily Spear, who played the kind and wise
Jenna and Cao Zhen, who played the snobbish Hollywood producer Lisa
all did well.
Spear did especially well, considering she is a Beijing-born
American girl who speaks very fluent Chinese.
The 18-year-old Spear, who is applying to the oil painting
department of Tsinghua Fine Arts College, discovered the play
needed a foreign actress on the Internet only two weeks ago. With
some experience on two Chinese TV series and perfect oral Chinese,
she passed the audition easily.
"At the beginning, they said I was too young for the role of
Jenna, who is supposed to be 25 in the play. Thanks to the skill of
the stylist Liu Min, I turn out as mature as the English teacher
Jenna," Spear said.
"I enjoy the days rehearsing the play and like the role I play.
Jenna is a nice American woman who loves Wang, loves China and
knows Chinese culture well."
(China Daily July 27, 2006)
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