The First Western Drama Staged In China

Mrs. Warren ’s profession, a famous play of British dramatist George Bernard Shaw in the20thCentury, was translated into Chinese by Pan Jiaxun and printed in “The Renaissance” No.1, Volume2,1919.“Modern Drama” actor Wang Youyou keenly felt the decline of modern drama. Being inspired bythe "May4th" intellectuals’ reformed dramas, he rose to involve himself in the new drama constructionpractice. He chose the play for its conformity to China’s women’s liberation trend at that time, adapted intoa play which is suitable with the public customs and named it Granny Hua’s Profession staged by ShanghaiNew stage. This is not only the first multi-act new drama to be played by China’s old opera house, but alsothe first time for China’s New stage to stage a modern realist pure play. The New stage players especiallyWang Youyou made great efforts for the play. Besides, New stage invested1,000RMB for the newsettings, the unprecedented advertising and the issuing of tickets and playbills. However, these enormoushuman, material and financial inputs did not gain the expected harvest: The first performance had a dismalbox office receipt, and the following three auditions were also unsatisfactory. Regarding the failure, WangYouyou analyzed the causes seriously to summarize lessons from such aspects as society, Chinese theatertradition, adapted play, actors, audience, the quality of capitalist and theater, etc. With these experiencesand lessons, Mr. Wang involved himself into the new drama construction again. He set up ShanghaiPeople’s Theatre Club and founded Modern China’s first professional drama research Journal—“DramaMonthly”. The new drama colleagues published many research theories relating to the new dramaconstruction, showing that their thought for new drama became mature gradually and much more practicalfor the Chinese society. It promoted the further development of Chinese Modern Drama. For instance:theories like public theater,‘Beauty-loving’ Dramas were put forward; the importance of play creating andaudience was recognized. It is therefore put here: although the performance of Mrs. Warren’s professionwas thought as a failure not only at that time but also by literature history books unanimously later.Whereas, looking from the drama development progress, this performance can be regarded as a landmarkbig event.Hence there are still no detailed descriptive theory works on this big historical event, only some articles have simple descriptions on the rehearsal of the first performance, investment and the response ofaudience in the performing process. Moreover, most articles are repetitions without actual check. At thesame time, existing discussions have faults about rehearsal time, the time of first stage, the number ofperformance times and the set up time of Public Theater. So, it is necessary to have a thorough analysis onwhole process to restore the historical picture and to correct errors and make objective evaluations on theperformance.This thesis falls into three parts: Iintroduction, body and Conclusion.Introduction is the elaborate explanation on the research significance and research status regarding thestage of Mrs. Warren’s profession on New stage.The body includes five chapters:Chapter One will have a narration and explanation on the important elements related to the stage ofMrs. Warren’s profession. Firstly, it will introduce respectively the character, plot and theme in Mr. Pan’stranslated Mrs. Warren’s profession and Mr. Wang’s adapted Granny Hua’s Profession. At the same timeit will analyze their connection and difference during the descriptions. Secondly, it will introduce theimportant contributor for the theory and practice on the performance of Mrs. Warren’sprofession—“Modern Drama” actor Wang Youyou. Lastly, it will introduce the stage place Shanghai Newstage.Chapter Two will have detailed description on the preparation of performance of Mrs. Warren’sprofession. It will introduce the historical background, the theatrical preparation before the performance(including new drama advocator’s criticism on old drama, their views on new drama construct, specificoperational plans and comments on the rehearsal script) and the preparation before the formal performance,such as the rehearsal time, advertising and so on.Chapter Three introduces the actual performance situation, including the four performances and theevaluations given by the drama circle.Chapter Four elaborately analyzes the causes of the “failure”. On the basis of Wang Youyou’sanalyzing, other reasons will be analyzed and complemented.Chapter Five discusses the influence of the performance of Mrs. Warren’s profession. It promoted theset up the Shanghai People’s Theater Club and founded the first professional drama research magazine– Drama Monthly since “May4th”.The conclusion part deeply explains the significant influence of the performance of Mrs. Warren’sprofession on China’s Modern Drama development.