An American lady's unbelievable journey of Peking Opera
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E-mail Xinhua, December 30, 2018
Nearly 100 performances across US each year
Feyerabend is one of the U.S. and Chinese artists from the Confucius Institute of Chinese Opera (CICO) at Binghamton University (BU) who were featured in the incredible show of the "Amazing Chinese Opera" in mid-November as the closing event of the university's International Education Week, an annual initiative to celebrate and promote international education and exchange.
Founded in 2009, the BU's CICO is the first such place in the United States to offer Chinese Opera lessons through cooperation with the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts (NACTA) in Beijing, while supplying tools and support for teaching Chinese language and culture.
Brought up in Skaneateles, a small town deeply locked in New York State, Feyerabend studied Peking Opera in Beijing and now serves as an assistant to CICO director and is the only U.S. member of CICO's eight-people troupe.
The 26-year-old soft-spoken lady described herself as "a Jack of all trades" because she played multiple roles of the Master of the Ceremony, Peking Opera performer and artistic director at almost each and every CICO show.
"I really enjoy playing that role," she told Xinhua. "I really like being behind the stage and helping people make sure that they have a good performance. I'm just so proud of the work that they do. It's fun to watch every single time they make it look effortless."
Apart from the on-stage work, Feyerabend helps in designing the troupe's repertoire. So far, the troupe has staged nearly 100 performances, leaving their footprints in more than 30 U.S. states since CICO was founded in 2009.
The troupe normally puts together three to five Peking Opera acts, and fills the space with the musicians, such as a vocalist, a flutist and/or a player of Guzheng, the Chinese zither.
In order to better entertain the local audience who have limited knowledge of Chinese culture, Feyerabend and her colleagues seek to do a good mix of music and Peking Opera, and give variations of different scenes from opera plays, while making an individual opera act no longer than 10 minutes.
"For example last year we had a Huayi (vivacious young female character), so we did some things like 'Mudan Tian', or 'The Peony Garden.' This time we have a Wudan (female character who specializes in fighting with ancient Chinese weapons), so we have 'Hujia Zhuang' (the Hu Village), because that's her specialty," she said.
Feyerabend has been working for CICO for more than three years. A large part of her job is preparation work to ensure that all is set for the troupe to perform across the country.
"It's an administrative role, so there's a lot of paperwork that goes on behind the scenes," she said. "But being able to help out backstage logistically is really great when everything flows and goes right. So I know that I've put that together and had a hand in that. It makes me feel like I've done a good job."
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