The 2022 Guilin Art Festival will be held in Guilin from Dec 10 to 18, the organizing committee of the Guilin Art Festival announced on Dec 4. The first Guilin Art Festival consists of four sections: Drama performance, Street Tour, Music scene and art lecture. It will bring 29 plays to 10 different performance venues inside and outside the theater, with a total of 128 performances.
Adapted from Ma Boyong's bestselling novel, the 2022 edition of "15 Days of Two Capitals" will be the opening performance of the festival. In addition, the Guangxi Provincial Art Museum's drama "Searching for Spring Willow Society" and Guilin Grand Theater's "William and I" will also be staged at the festival. The former tells the story of Ouyang Yuqian, the originator of the Southwest Opera Exhibition. The play shows a group of Chinese theater pioneers rehearsing "Tom's Cabin". The latter is the story of William Shakespeare, the master of Western theater, which integrates the expression techniques of contemporary theater, flexibly using time and space, and changing the identity of the characters at any time. "That Child", "Classic of Mountains and Seas" and "The Mysterious Milk Bottle" are plays that children and adults can watch together. The Classic of Mountains and Seas, presented by QFUN Troupe, is the first confirmed play of the festival. When the artist visited Qixing Rock Cave for the first time, he saw the extraordinary workmanship of nature and could not help but feel that this place is just a natural stage for fairy tales.
The one-man show in the part of the drama is a chapter with great performance charm, and also an important link to let the audience experience the unique charm of the theater. The Chinese premiere of The Human Voice, starring film and television actress Gao Xiaofei, took place at the Guilin Art Festival. It was written in 1930 by Jean Cocteau, the most famous French playwright of the 20th century. It was once a benchmark for many famous actresses at home and abroad to challenge their acting skills. The Story of Chess, starring actor Guo Xiao, is a collection of editing, directing and acting. In addition, the 2022 Guilin Art Festival has invited different types of performances, including New Comedy Live Show by Yafuzi Comedy, a label of Singman Comedy, and barrier-free performance theater Midnight Movie by Berlin Script Project, a show co-created by hearing-impaired actors to create an inclusive theater experience.
Guilin is located at the junction of Hunan and Guangxi. "A basin of mountains and rivers" is the red carpet of Hunan and Guangxi corridor, and also the stage for drama, which is one of the characteristics of Guilin Art Festival. The Kunqu opera "Six Stories of Floating Life" (hall version), the form and mask play "Aquatic", and the experimental opera "Who is Macbeth" all break through the traditional framework. "Six Stories of Floating Life" and "Aquatic", which were originally on the theater stage, will be performed in real scenes in Guilin landscape such as the island in the middle of a lake and Xiangshan Scenic spot. In addition to bringing theatrical works to the audience, artists and scholars from various fields, including literature and drama, will visit four universities and two middle schools in Guilin to discuss with art students and members of student drama groups about artistic creation, cross-cultural artistic exchange, technology and art. Walking through the streets of Guilin during the festival, you may also become a participant in the interactive street performances.
Guilin is home to 28 ethnic groups, including Zhuang, Miao, Yao and Dong. Singing and dancing are ingrained in the genes of these southern minorities. In the music section of the 2022 Guilin Festival, internationally established musicians are invited, in particular, Israeli disc master Liron Man, French chanson singer Anne Evenou, and Nguyen Chang Si 'an (Jean-Sebastien Alli), who plays Chinese instruments. They have been using music to cross national and cultural boundaries for years. "Shanshui Live· Kwai Haiqinglan Music Party" is composed of 8 groups of outstanding and cutting-edge musicians, who will perform the coolest current trend music live, including urban folk, art rock, art folk, fusion electronic, alternative rock, soul jazz, etc. The festival will also invite electronic musicians to combine popular folk songs and trend elements to create a second time, paying tribute to national culture and art.