Reaching out through theater

Long-standing ties

Chen's choice of working with the Rocky Mountain Ballet Theater in Montana, the US host of this project, led to the decision to incorporate ballet into the US version.

Founded in 1998 by Charlene Carey, the RMBT offers young people training in ballet and performance, and organizes cultural exchanges. The company has long-standing ties with China and, in 2008, it visited for the first time, bringing a group of 48 dancers and students on a two-week tour to China. It has since visited many times, participating in art festivals in a number of cities, including Xi'an, Shaanxi province, Shanghai and Chongqing.

"This was a great collaborative project, specifically designed for our group of young American artists and academics. We were very pleased with the results," says Carey, artistic director of the play.

Chen and the company began auditioning actors in California and Montana three years ago.

"Our first audition in Los Angeles attracted nearly 200 students. Then we held two more auditions in San Francisco and Montana," Chen says.

Around 30 students were cast, most of them interested in dance and theater, but only 15 made the cut after eight rounds of training and selection, according to Chen.

As most of the actors did not speak Chinese, learning to understand their lines and roles was the first challenge. That was the case for Amare Swierc, the show's lead. The 17-year-old says she practiced the script for over a year.

"I started with the pronunciations after reading the translated version. Then I practiced pronouncing the lines.

"Over time, I was able to add meaning to the words and eventually, I knew what I was saying," Swierc says.

"It was really just repetition and listening to the recordings of people saying the lines, over and over."

Charlotte McCarty who, at age 12, is the youngest member of the cast, found a tutor to help her practice her lines. In 2021, the girl started taking an online course in Chinese language and culture.

Authorized by the China National Theater for Children, Chen and her team condensed the script and made the lines shorter and simpler, and Walter Barrera, a dancer and choreographer at the RMBT, choreographed the play.

COVID-19 was the biggest obstacle preventing cast members, who are from the four cities of Missoula, Los Angeles, Berkeley and Sacramento, from rehearsing together.

Even though most of the training and language learning had to be done online, the cast still managed to hold three in-person rehearsals.

"In 2022, running the risk of contracting COVID, the girls flew to Los Angeles to rehearse together with masks on. Their perseverance and effort greatly moved me," Feng says.

Shortly after their last full-cast rehearsal in Missoula in June, the 15 girls and their teachers arrived in Beijing on July 5.