Huang Mei Opera Stage Design

The history of Huangmei Opera has been over two hundred years. Originally, Huangmei Opera served as an entertaining show which was highly localized. After two centuries of evolvement, Huangmei Opera has become one of the six Chinese operas, and it is still prospering. Public performances of famous repertoires including "The Best Match" "Picking Grass" "The Female Prince Consort" "The Story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl" have been held throughout the world. The ethereal ambience, natural performance and widely appealing performing style have been highly appreciated by international audience. Except the repertoires listed above, playwrights have brought some famous Chinese folk stories into Huangmei Theater in recent years. To synchronize with widening play themes, Huangmei stages need to be remodeled and redesigned based on different subjects.A stage with one table and two chairs, as the primitive performance props of Chinese theaters, was kept as simple as possible to be applicable to most of traditional theaters, and has been cherished as the representation of Oriental aesthetics. Though incapable to satisfy modern tastes, contemporary stage design was expanded from the very foundation of one table and two chairs, with application of new choreography technology, new stage settings, new design materials and methods. Novel theater stages have been developed, with fiercer conflicts between traditional and modern aesthetic tastes.What is the essence of Chinese aesthetics? What is the essence of Chinese stages? How to apply them into Huangmei choreography design? These are the three questions this article tries to answer with details.Based on field observations and analyses in Huangmei theaters and comparison among different stage styles, the writer selects applicable stage styles to the designing project. Due to complex designing process, the project has minimal flaws, but hopefully will set a good foundation for future studies.