Day Jobs, Opera Dreams
| Original Productions | Chinese Opera | Instrumental Music | Arts in Education |
| Exhibitions | Publications | ||
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Songs from the Yellow Earth |
| Songs from the Yellow Earth is a collaboration between Chinese Theatre Works and world-famous theater artist Peter Schumann, founder and director of the Bread & Puppet Theater. It incorporates literary and operatic ruminations on war from classic Chinese opera and poetic works from the "Book of Songs," and blends Western and Asian shadow puppetry and mask work with traditional Chinese opera vocal techniques and choreography. | |
| For the full factsheet and more images, click here. | |
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Ti-Oh-Oh |
| Chinese Theatre Works' first glove puppetry production, Ti-Oh-Oh, showcases the Taiwanese hand puppet tradition´s range - humorous to romantic to heroic - in three scenes performed in English and accompanied by traditional Chinese music. This art form, rarely seen outside China, is a perfect introduction to Chinese arts and culture for audiences of all ages. | |
| For the full factsheet and more images, click here. | |
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Book of Songs |
| Book of Songs presents poetry from across the span of China's 3000-year literary history, interpreted through traditional Chinese and contemporary Western performing arts. Poems exploring the tensions between ancient and modern, war and peace, sacred and profane, city and nature are woven into a visual and musical score that slides freely between genres of puppetry and performance as it turns smoothly from humorous to serious subjects. | |
| For the full factsheet and more images, click here. | |
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Three Women, Many Plays |
| A popular Chinese proverb says that wherever there are three women, there will be drama. In America however, there have been three women who have created many dramas out of their shared passion for Chinese culture and shadow theater. Three Women, Many Plays tells the story of how from the 1920s to the present, Pauline Benton, Jo Humphrey and Kuang-Yu Fong have created three theater companies - the Red Gate Players, Yueh Lung Shadow Theater, and Chinese Theatre Works - which have performed Chinese shadow plays across the U.S. and around the world. | |
| For the full factsheet and more images, click here. | |
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Zodiac! |
| Just as European astrology says your birth-month shapes your personality, the Chinese Zodiac says your character depends on the year you were born. Zodiac!, Chinese Theatre Works´ latest shadow puppet production, is an entertaining introduction to Chinese culture through this ancient tradition, telling the stories behind its twelve-year cycle of animals. | |
| For the full factsheet and more images, click here. | |
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Monkey King in America: Day Jobs, Opera Dreams |
| Chinese Theatre Works' latest production blends Peking opera and shadow performance to tell the classic tale of Monkey King´s battle with the White-Boned Demon (from Journey to the West), with a moving contemporary counterpoint from the immigrant Chinese opera artists´ stories of their own Westward journeys. | |
| For the full factsheet and more images, click here. | |
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The Birth of Monkey King |
| In our shadow theater adaptation of the Chinese classic Journey to the West, the fantastic simian troublemaker Sun Wu Kung - a.k.a. Handsome Monkey King - gathers superpowers and shakes the foundations of Heaven, causing such a cosmic ruckus that Buddha eventually intervenes to take him down. Our retelling features a lively and topical original script, and figures based on antiques from our collection. | |
| For the full factsheet and more images, click here. | |
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Little Red Riding Hood: The Chinese Opera |
| This timeless fable of a young girl's journey to Grandma's house is transformed into a cross-cultural journey for audiences of all ages. Chinese opera archetypes assume every role: Coquettes (Little Red and Mother); Martial Arts Clown (the Wolf); and Painted Face (the Hunter). | |
| For the full factsheet and more images, click here. | |
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Tiger Tales |
| A wise old rabbit tells her grand-daughter some of her adventures, recounting with verve and a sly, subversive humor some of the episodes surrounding Tiger´s rise to power, his abusive rule and ultimate downfall. This shadow theater piece, using figures modeled on antiques from our collection, deals humorously with issues of power and survival of the small and powerless in today´s modern jungle. | |
| For the full factsheet and more images, click here. | |
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Toy Theater Peony Pavilion |
| The classical 16th century Kun Opera, The Peony Pavilion, tells the story of a young maiden's efforts to find her love across the barrier between Life and Death. Our version blends the traditional techniques of Kun Opera with European-style toy theater puppetry. Winner of an UNIMA-USA Citation of Excellence in Puppetry Arts, the highest honor in U.S. puppetry. | |
| For the full factsheet and more images, click here. | |
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Kun/Shadow White Snake |
| The White Snake, a well-known and beloved Chinese fairy tale, tells of an immortal snake-spirit who weds a young man, much to the consternation of a nosy, opinionated monk. Our production retells their exciting romance using a blend of Kun Opera and shadow theater. | |
| For the full factsheet and more images, click here. | |
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Border of Womanhood |
| In traditional Chinese society, women are expected to step into tightly defined roles as they grow and mature. This theater/dance piece expresses the strivings of a young Chinese immigrant, an artist who struggles to break past her own borders and balance her cultural traditions with those of the West. | |
| For the full factsheet and more images, click here. | |
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Kasper as a Banana |
| In 1993, The Golden Adventure, a ship crammed with illegal immigrants from China, ran aground off New York City. In this piece - a serio-comic social commentary about immigrants - we tell their stories through object theater, portraying the characters with found objects, food items and kitchen utensils. | |
| For the full factsheet and more images, click here. |
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Chinese Theatre Works presents programs of Peking and Kun opera, as well as incorporating these centuries-old art forms into our original productions. For more information about Peking opera, and Chinese theater in general, click here. Our Chinese opera programs present a wide selection of scenes and episodes from the classical Peking and Kunqu repertoire, designed to hold the interest of both Chinese opera connoisseurs and Western audiences less familiar with this art form. All programs include an explanatory talk in English, and are sung in the original Chinese by our company of classically trained performers in full stage makeup and exquisitely embroidered silk costumes, with traditional musical accompaniment. Our programs include classic scenes from the best-known operas, including "Monkey King Steals the Heavenly Peaches", "Fighting in the Dark", "The Peony Pavilion", "Farewell My Concubine", and many others. As well as these programs presenting a general overview of Chinese opera, we also design programs focusing on specific aspects of the tradition, such as The Art of the Coquette, Dancing Swords: The Art of Stage Combat in Peking Opera and The Art and Life of Mei Lang Fang. |
| For the full factsheet and more images, click here. |
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Chinese Theatre Works offers a range of instrumental music programs, featuring some of the most talented Chinese classical and folk musicians in the U.S. These programs present gems of Chinese music performed on the shen (Chinese mouth organ), guzheng (zither), pipa (lute), flute, erhu (two-string fiddle), and other traditional Chinese instruments. All programs include an introduction to Chinese folk and classical music, as well as the lore and mythology of the featured instruments. |
| Chinese Theatre Works´ musicians are classically trained artists who have performed with some of China´s best ensembles. In many cases they come from families which have histories of up to ten generations of devotion to their instrument. Many have won awards as soloists, and several serve on the Chinese National Evaluation Teams for their instruments, extremely selective groups responsible for assessing the skill of the country´s top musicians. | |
    
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Chinese Theatre Works carries forward the long-standing relationship with New York City´s public schools begun by our predecessor organizations. CTW teaching artists conduct a range of Arts in Education programs which introduce students and youth to Chinese culture and help them to build self-esteem, develop teamwork skills and discover their own artistic potential. We offer a wide variety of long term residencies, workshops, lecture-performances, and seminars in Chinese opera and shadow theater, which we present in schools, museums and libraries around the city and state. |
| Our Chinese opera AIE programs are designed to help participants understand the performance skills, production methods, history and aesthetics of Chinese Opera. They use practical demonstration, slides and video lectures to introduce the art form and its key elements and concepts. We follow this with hands-on training - adjusted for the age of the students - in which the participants can learn not only with their minds, but also with their bodies. Learning with the body is key to the transmission of this performing art. For more information, click here. | |
| Our shadow theatre AIE programs focus on overhead projector shadow puppetry, guiding participants through the entire process of planning, designing, building and performing a 2-5 minute puppet production. We will demonstrate performance and building methods using puppets from recent shows (including two-projector techniques), and help participants develop their own ideas. The participants will create their brief shadow performances using a range of materials (cardstock, acetate, wire, fabric scraps, gel, found objects, kitchen utensils, toys, and more). For more information, click here. | |
| In recent years we have conducted long term residences at P.S. 261 (Jackson Heights, Queens), P.S. 11 (Woodside, Queens), and La Guardia Community College´s College Now program. We have recently presented workshops and lecture-performances at Riverdale Country Day School (Riverdale, Bronx), Emerson College (Boston, MA), Transfiguration School (Chinatown, Manhattan), the DALA Festival (Seoul, Korea), the National Puppetry Festival (Talequah, OK), Puppet Power Symposium (Calgary, Canada), and many other schools and institutions. | |
| For more information on our Arts in Education work, or to enquire about bringing Chinese Theatre Works to your school or institution, please email Stephen Kaplin at stephen[at]chinesetheatreworks. |
  
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Chinese Theatre Works is also a resource for scholars and other individuals interested in Chinese shadow theatre and Chinese opera. We maintain an extensive library, as well as one of the largest private collections of Chinese shadow figures in the United States. At the core of our collection are the hundreds of unique and historic Chinese shadow figures collected by Pauline Benton in the 1920s and 1930s, representing many styles of traditional Chinese shadow theater. Alongside the Pauline Benton Collection, the Jo Humphrey Collection (assembled by the founder of the Gold Mountain Institute for Traditional Shadow Theater) adds an array of shadow figures from other traditions - Turkey´s karagöz, Thailand´s nang yai, Indonesia´s wayang kulit, and more. |
| Figures from the Pauline Benton and Jo Humphrey Collections have been shown in major puppetry exhibits in the United States, Greece and Hong Kong, and are available for research and public exhibition. Most recently, figures from our collections have appeared at the Bruce Museum (Greenwich, CT), the University of Connecticut at Storrs, and in the "Puppetry of Shadows and Light" exhibition at New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, which we co-curated. | |
| For more information about the Pauline Benton Collection, click here. |
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Chinese Theatre Works´ Artistic Directors, Kuang-Yu Fong and Stephen Kaplin, are frequent contributors to Puppetry International, the journal of UNIMA-USA (the U.S. branch of UNESCO´s international puppetry organization) and other theatrical periodicals. Three of their essays for Puppetry International are reprinted here; click on the title to read them. "Indelible Spirits: The Survival of Chinese Shadow Theatre in the 20th Century" deals with the art form´s difficult history and the frequent rumors of its imminent demise; "Pauline Benton: A Life in the Shadows" discusses the life and work of the pioneer of Chinese shadow puppetry in the U.S.; and "Bridges and Shadows" muses on puppetry and cultural motions. Kuang-Yu Fong and Stephen Kaplin released their first book in 2003. Theatre on a Tabletop: Puppetry for Small Spaces, published by New Plays Inc., is a comprehensive guide to making and teaching theatre through toy theatre, object theatre, and overhead projector shadow puppetry. Its 122 pages are richly illustrated with photos, diagrams and scripts of puppet plays, many of them from CTW´s repertoire. Theatre on a Tabletop is introduced by the Bread & Puppet Theatre´s Peter Schumann, theatre educator Dr. Nellie McCaslin, and theatre artist and scholar John Bell. For a preview of the book through Dr. McCaslin´s Forward, click here. Theatre on a Tabletop: Puppetry for Small Spaces can be ordered directly from Chinese Theatre Works if your local bookstore does not yet carry it. Just send a request to us, enclosing a check or money order for $18.25 per book (including shipping and handling), at: Chinese Theatre Works For bulk orders, or if you wish to carry Theatre on a Tabletop in a bookstore, contact New Plays Inc. by email, phone, fax or postal mail for rates and order forms:
Patricia Whitton Forrest |
| All original images, characters & content on this site © 2001-2006 Chinese Theatre Works, Inc. design © 2006 boychic aka d. lang/levitsky |
Last update: 11/30/2006 |