Alex and Catherine's group discussion
abox
May 14, 2008, 08:15 AM posted in General DiscussionHi Catherine, I just finished going through all the other dialogues which helped to put our own into context. "Growing Affections" is just after they meet, hence the constant complimenting. "Scheming Girls" refers back to "The Jealous Friend" - Chen Jing is encouraging Fei Fei to go out with Zhang Liang, even though she's Li Li's friend, because she feels like a third wheel since the last two started dating and is jealous of the time they spend together. Given that, it's a bit ironic when she asks Fei Fei if she's envious (it's all getting very complicated!) I think this'll help when we present the dialogues - "GA" could be very flirty and over-the-top because Zhang is still in the process of trying to impress LiLi. What do you think?
abox
May 27, 2008, 11:30 AMHey! So as we were talking about today (and now that we've finally worked 88groups out...!) here's a summary of what we've been talking about in our meetings over the past couple of weeks.
It's really interesting in "The Come On" to see the role reversal. Rather than Zhang Liang being the one paying the compliments, it is his turn to receive them. And you definitely get the impression that he's enjoying this change of situation. In "Growing Affections" Li Li downplays Zhang Liang's compliments e.g. "Because I use mascara". Zhang Liang starts off doing the same thing e.g "Oh I'm nothing special" but then begins to enjoy it e.g. "I really have to thank you for your praise". It's a big change from in all the other dialogues e.g. "Love Letter" where Zhang Liang is constantly flattering Li Li to little effect or in "The Jealous Friend" where he has to be polite to an obviously hostile Chen Jing.
Fei Fei has obviously taken Chen Jing's advice in "Scheming Girls" seriously - it's hard to decide whether she's a 'baddie' like Chen Jing or more innocent?? From talking it over, come to the conclusion it's the influence of Chen Jing. In "Scheming Girls", although Fei Fei has a crush on Zhang Liang, she doesn't seem to have thought about acting on it. It is only after Chen Jing tells her it's okay that she decides to flirt. So as was mentioned before, definitely have to emphasise Chen Jing's "schemingness" and manipulativeness.
Also, Zhang Liang agrees with Fei Fei when she mentions that people place too much importance on money and material objects and what's really important is how two people feel about each other. His wholehearted agreement suggests he is feeling insecure about Li Li and the reappearance of her millionaire ex-boyfriend (as seen in "An Old Flame" and "A Guy's Advice on Women")
Don't think that Li Li isn't interested in Zhang Liang but there's obviously some tension in their relationship - e.g. "The Lover's Spat" (even though it's not a really serious fight). Perhaps it's harder for Li Li to respond to Zhang Liang in the way he wants her to because of Chen Jing's negative influence and, of course, her now incredibly rich ex!
With the performance itself, it's really just working out how to portray all this background information whilst not forgetting pronunciation etc. But I think it's all coming along well...
Anything I've left out?
cmar
May 27, 2008, 11:05 PMGood we can finally do this! Well, I might look more closely at the language that is used. In "Scheming girls" we can really see how particularly manipulative Chen Jing is. As you said, the main reason that Feifei decides to make an attempt at Zhang Liang is mainly because of Chen Jing, and we can see this thorough her use of language. Her constant questioning changes the meaning of what Fei Fei is saying. For example, Feifei says "lili zhen you yanguanga", meaning that Feifei is lucky to have such a nice boy, after saying that he is overall a good person. ChenJing's questioning, "xianmule?", is an attempt to change the context of the situation. Where Feifei was simply expressing her sadness about the lack of men in her life,and how lucky lili is to find true love, Chen Jing brings up the idea that perhaps lili and zhanglian aren't a definite couple, and Chen Jing plants the idea in Feifei's mind. So yes, its definitely a good idea to contrast the innocence/good nature of Feifei to the schemingness of Chen Jing. Also, by saying "tamenmeijiehun", Chen jing implies that the relationship isn't a permanent one, and that Feifei should have a go. So we should really work on trying to portray this when we do our play.
cmar
May 27, 2008, 11:16 PMAnd I'll also look more closely at "Growing Affections". So, as growing affections happens at the beginning, not much has happened so far yet, and we can portray the "growing affections". There is a lot of subtlety going on in this section. Lili attempts to play herself down throuought the play. "yinweiwoyong jiemaogaoya" when Zhang Lian says that her eyelashes are pretty, to kind of pretend she isn't all that special. She also tries not to seem too keen, saying "biemafanle" not to trouble you, and "haoba", ok, you can walk me home when actually she is super keen! Her last line "zhentaoyan", which literally means, your really repulsive, actually here is similar to the English "oh, stop it", meaning don't stop it. So although Lili is keen, she is trying to stay cool, and seem like she's only a little interested, to kind of lead him on a bit.
Zhangliang is the total opposite. There is no subtlety here. Lines like "qishi, zheshiwoyitianzhongzui kuailedeshihou", express his honest total feelings towards Lili.
So here again we have a contrast of characters, one who is shy and subtle, and Zhangliang, who wears his heart on his sleeve. So we need to show Zhangliangs keenness, and perhaps express Lili's keenness, but a little more quietly.
cmar
May 15, 2008, 01:19 AMThe context makes more sense now. So we need to make sure we bring out Chen Jing's "schemingness", and perhaps Fei Fei's obliviousness to the situation. It was good to practice with you the other day. Now we just need to work on getting the pronounciation and the flow of the conversation right. Once we do that we can practice our staging.