Thursday, February 19, 2009

Zhang Ruihong

Ruihong came in to the workshop today. She was around for the last part of the afternoon, when we were sharing the results of the day's work. Some interesting material from the Indian storylines in particular, with a bond being found between Marie and the fisherman. We've also been looking at night journeys in the Chinese story - but that remains bogged down in the representational. I need to find ways of breaking out of this. It's constantly proving tricky to get people to perform the dream world of the play. In Dis-Orientations, this was easier, because Ruihong and the Yueju provided an alternative reality - we did not have to invent one. I feel the key this time may be the Nack and Swedish folk myth - but I've not yet made the links work in practice.

Ruihong has said that we will go for dinner - what I didn't realise was that "we" would mean the entire company, in the VIP suite of one of Shanghai's most exclusive restaurants, and that she would pre-order the meal with incredible care and pay for the entire party. She is quite unbelievably generous and very charming. My already huge admiration for her grows again....

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