Event hosted by Illuminations: The Chancellor's Arts & Culture Initiative of UC Irvine
Event Time: 5:30 PM – 7 PM, Wed, Oct 18, 2023
Wei Hai Min is a prominent award-winning jingju actress from Taiwan. Jingju or Beijing opera, the best known genre of Chinese opera, is a form of classical Chinese theatre that integrates singing, speaking, dancing, and acrobatics--what the West calls “total theatre.” As an Asian Cultural Council fellow, Master Wei is on a multi-city North America trip in fall, 2023. In her lecture at UCI, Wei will share her knowledge and expertise of jingju, her negotiation between traditional training and daring experimentations of the art. Her lecture will also include a series of demonstrations: the aria and movements from The Drunken Concubine, a masterpiece perfected by Mei Lanfang, speech and movement as Lady Macbeth from The Kingdom of Desire (Macbeth), and an aria from Medea to show her amazing vocal virtuosity.
Jingju, one of the popular regional forms developed in the late 18th century, became the esteemed “national opera” in the 20th century. Nearly a century ago, Mei Lanfang, a jingju star famous for his exquisite female impersonation, visited the US and met with Hollywood celebrities such as Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin (1930). His 1935 trip to Moscow, meeting Konstantin Stanislavski and Bertold Brecht, had a tremendous impact on Western theatre history. Brecht credited Mei Lanfang as the inspiration for his theory of alienation effect. Wei Hai Min, a child prodigy, started her training in Taiwan in early age and became a star actor of the National GuoGuang Opera Company; she later studied under Mei Baojiu, the son of Mei Lanfang and heir of Mei School acting. Wei is one of the most distinguished Mei School actors in Sinophone world today.
Wei has also devoted herself in jingju innovation in Taiwan since 1980s. She has collaborated with Taiwan’s Contemporary Legend Theater and other groups, as well as renowned directors such as Richard Schechner (Oresteia, 1995) and Robert Wilson (Orlando, 2009).
知名京劇表演藝術家、梅派傳人魏海敏應邀在爾灣加大舉行難得一見的專題演講，將示範梅派名劇《貴妃醉酒》及創新京劇《慾望城國》與《樓蘭女》的精采片段，講座時間是10月18日(星期三）下午五時半起，地點在爾灣加大藝術學院的Winifred Smith Hall表演廳。
生長於台灣的魏海敏，1978年畢業於海光劇校，初學刀馬旦、後習青衣。畢業後即任海光國劇隊當家青衣花旦。1991年正式拜大陸京劇表演藝術家梅葆玖為師，專攻梅派藝術。其後多次在兩岸演出。曾獲台灣多項最佳演員獎，並榮獲大陸梅花獎。曾隨國光劇團到北京長安大劇院演出。在現代京劇《慾望城國》《樓蘭女》《奧瑞斯提亞》等一系列莎翁劇作改編劇碼中的表演，給京劇界帶來震撼。現任魏海敏京劇藝術文教基金會理事長和國光劇團主演。
魏海敏今年獲亞洲文化協會台灣基金會獎助，來美國13所大學巡迴演講。魏海敏在爾灣加大的講座以華語主講，由爾灣加大戲劇系教授雷碧瑋英語翻譯。講座對外開放，有意參加者請先註冊。