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22 Years after Arthur Miller, American Director Elena Araoz Reclaims Beijing Stage

Fri, 27 May 2005, 11:47:00 EDT

Edited by Christopher Simmons

NEW YORK, NY and BEIJING, China - May 27 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Beijing, China will experience a dramatic transformation this summer when, twenty-two years after Arthur Miller, American theater director Elena Araoz will reclaim Beijing's stage with the English play "The Power," it was announced today by Noble Theater Bridge Co. LLC.



Photo Caption: Theater poster for "The Power" directed by Elena Araor.

In 1983, Arthur Miller was invited to Beijing by People's Art Theater to direct one of his quintessential American plays, "The Death of a Salesman," in Chinese. It took Miller two months of dedicated rehearsal to help the Chinese actors understand such American concepts as life insurance, traveling salesmen, football, gas heaters, and casual love affairs.

Today, China has McDonalds, Starbucks and Wal-Mart, but as the Chinese economy has grown rapidly during the past two decades, the central government's tight grip has stifled the progress of its theaters.

Since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, its theaters have been opened to private enterprises, though slowly and cautiously. Broadway tours, such as "Cats," "Chicago" and "Phantom of Opera" have all found their way to Chinese theaters, but there exists no native English speaking theatre scene catering to the annual influx of three million foreign tourists, nor the increasing number of foreign residents.

A dramatic change will begin with Noble Theater Bridge Co LLC as it welcomes Elena Manuela Araoz to Beijing. Ms. Araoz is a New York based theater and opera director whose credits span Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Austin Shakespeare Festival. Most recently she has directed such plays as Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus" and Euripides' "Medea" and such operas as Mozart's "Cosi Fan Tutte" and Verdi's "Falstaff" starring Sir Thomas Allen. She was the assistant director on Sir Jonathan Miller's Broadway production of "King Lear," starring Christopher Plummer, which received two Tony Award nominations.

"She was selected from thirty-five American directors who applied for the job because of her colorful and transparently clear understanding of the script and her experience as a voice and text coach for numerous classical plays. We are excited about how she will work with Chinese actors who will be speaking in English," said Tong Li, the President of Noble Theater Bridge Co. LLC.

The company will produce "The Power" in Beijing, an English play based on an ancient Chinese story of a prince who falls in love with his father's talent lady. (In 600 AD, the Chinese Emperor had one Empress, four concubines and one hundred and twenty-one talent ladies.)

Tong Li said, "We are targeting tourists and Chinese English speaking audiences, directly adopting the American model of theatrical production. We will provide employment for Western artists who will bring their talent and production know-how to help create a vital contemporary theatre scene in Beijing. Elena Araoz and 'The Power' will mark the beginning of English theaters in the largest country of the world. That's very exciting!"

Ms. Araoz is a Drama League Directing Fellow and received her M.F.A in Acting from the University of Texas at Austin. After returning from China, she will be staging her own adaptation of Christopher Logue's book "War Music," and co-directing her adaptation of "Hansel and Gretel" titled "House of Sweets."

She will serve as Assistant Director for the third time on Jonathan Miller's production of "Cosi Fan Tutte," this time at Seattle Opera, as well as his production of Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Noble Theater Bridge Co. LLC, 1305 S. Cedar St. Suite 604, Lansing, MI 48910, USA. Tel: 517-371-3063 Fax: 517-371-3028, Email: admin @ theaterbridge.com.

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