Li Liuyi () is a Chinese director and playwright of

Beijing People's Art Theatre Beijing People's Art Theatre (北京人民艺术剧院/北京人民藝術劇院) is a theatre company that was founded in June 1952 by drama master Cao Yu. Since its founding, the company has produced nearly 300 dramas of different styles, from ...

. His theory "Pure Drama" and his related exploration in the field are known as "Li Liuyi Methodology", which is widely acclaimed and researched. Japanese modern theater master

Tadashi Suzuki is a Japanese avant-garde theatre director, writer, and philosopher. He is the founder and director of the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT), and organizer of Japan’s first international theatre festival (Toga Festival). With American director An ...

(Japanese: 鈴木忠志) calls him "The most influential stage artist of Asia in the new century".

Early life

Li Liuyi was born into an opera family in 1961. He did research in the

Chinese National Academy of Arts Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...

for eight years. He has directed numerous genres of drama with distinguished regional characteristics, including

Kunqu Opera Kunqu (), also known as Kunju (), K'un-ch'ü, Kun opera or Kunqu Opera, is one of the oldest extant forms of Chinese opera. Kunqu is one of the oldest traditional operas of the Han nationality, and is also a treasure of Chinese traditional cult ...

, Peking Opera, Sichuan opera, Henan Opera, Pingju Opera, Liu Opera, Liuqin tune and Meihu Opera.

Participation in international artistic events

Li Liuyi has been invited to different international art festivals and commissioned to create new productions. He was once invited by the City of Linz—the European Capital of Culture in 2009 to direct the opera '' The Land of Smiles'' in

Linz State Theatre The Linz State Theatre (german: Landestheater Linz) is a theatre in Linz, Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a ...

. He became the first Chinese director to set foot in the world of mainstream European opera. Li directed and put the "Heroine" trilogy on stage for the opening ceremony of

Holland Festival The Holland Festival () is the oldest and largest performing arts festival in the Netherlands. It takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theatre, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and archite ...

and was received by the Queen of the Netherlands. He cooperated with the National Ballet of China, adapted and directed the ballet '' The Peony Pavilion''. The ballet was one of the opening performances in the Edinburgh International Festival, which marked an important breakthrough for China's performing arts scene, as it meant Chinese performances were now being staged in major European art festivals.

Representative works of drama as a director

* '' Antigone'' and ''

Oedipus Rex ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' ( grc, Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Gr ...

'' ("Outstanding Director's Drama Series: Li Liuyi", April 2014, the National Grand Theater, Beijing) * '' The Savage Land'' (The fifth Beijing International Music Festival, October 29, 2012) * '' Death of a Salesman'' (People's Art Theatre, Beijing, April 2012) * ''

The Song of the Earth ''The Song of the Earth: A Natural History of Music'' is a BBC documentary presented by David Attenborough and written and directed by Grant Sonnex. It was first transmitted in 2000 and is part of the Attenborough in Paradise and Other Personal ...

'' (

Symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

originally written by Mahler; Cooperated with the China Philharmonic Orchestra, October 2012) * ''

The Family A family is a domestic or social group. Family or The Family may also refer to: Mathematics *Family of curves, a set of curves resulting from a function with variable parameters *Family of sets, a collection of sets *Indexed family, a family wh ...

'' (Originally written by Ba Jin and adapted by

Cao Yu Cao Yu (, September 24, 1910 — December 13, 1996) was a Chinese playwright, often regarded as one of China's most important of the 20th century. His best-known works are ''Thunderstorm'' (1933), ''Sunrise'' (1936) and ''Peking Man'' (1940). ...

; People's Art Theatre, Beijing, July 2011) * ''

The Golden Cangue ''The Golden Cangue'' (金鎖記) is a 1943 Chinese novella by Eileen Chang. The author's own English translation appeared in the anthology ''Modern Chinese Stories and Novellas: 1919–1949'' (1981) published by Columbia University Press. Fu Lei ...

'' (Modern Peking opera, December 2010; won Outstanding Director Award and Outstanding Drama Award in the Twelfth Chinese Opera Festival) * ''Mei Lanfang Classics'' (Peking opera;

Zhengyici Peking Opera Theatre The Zhengyici Peking Opera Theatre (), located on a hutong in the Xuanwu District of Beijing, is one of the best-known Beijing opera theatres. It is also one of the oldest wooden theatres in China. Zhengyici means a temple (''ci'') for Zhengyi ...

(), May 2010) * '' The Peony Pavilion'' (invited by The Corps de Ballet of China to direct this ballet and cooperated with Japanese costume designer Emi Wada apanese: ワダ・エミ or 和田恵美子 * ''The Story of Puppets'' (

; cooperated with Japanese director Hideo Kanze apanese: 観世栄夫 * ''The "Heroine" Trilogy'' ''

Mu Guiying Mu Guiying (穆桂英) is a legendary heroine from ancient China's Northern Song Dynasty and a prominent figure in the ''Generals of the Yang Family'' legends. She is the wife of Yang Zongbao and mother of Yang Wenguang. Brave, resolute and loyal ...

'', '' Hua Mulan'', '' Liang Hongyu'' (New Peking Opera, 2003) * ''

The Good Person of Szechwan ''The Good Person of Szechwan'' (german: Der gute Mensch von Sezuan, first translated less literally as ''The Good Man of Setzuan'') is a play written by the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, in collaboration with Margarete Steffin and Ruth Berlau ...

'' (Originally written by

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

; a Chinese Sichuan opera, 1987)

Representative works of drama as a playwright

Critics consider Li Liuyi a playwright with lasting literary creativity. His works of drama include: three small theatre works -- ''Blue Sky After Rain'', ''Mahjong'', and ''Songat Midnight''; the "Heroine" Trilogy ''

'', '' Hua Mulan'', '' Liang Hongyu''; ''See Lu Xun Again'', 2003, ''Time Passed by''; ''The Life of a Peking Policeman'' (adapted from Lao She's novel); ''Fortress Besieged'' (adapted from Qian Zhongshu's novel); ''Spring in a Small Town'' (adapted from Fei Mu's film); Ballet '' The Peony Pavilion'' (adapted from Tang Xianzu's Kunqun Opera). His book ''Li Liuyi's Pure Drama· Collection of Dramas'' has been published by the People 's Literature Publishing House in China, translated into many languages and published worldwide.

Drama project "Li Liuyi • China Made" (2012-2015)

In 2012, Li Liuyi launched the drama project "Li Liuyi • China Made". The project includes three works of ancient Greek tragedy, '' Antigone'', ''

'', and '' Prometheus Bound'', and the Chinese epic ''King Gesar (I,II and III)''. '' Antigone'' and ''

'' have been performed in public. '' Prometheus Bound'' will be launched early next year in 2015. As stated in its programme note, "Re-assuming the responsibility of being a practitioner of drama", Li Liuyi's '' Antigone'' has realized a kind of "self-awareness"—it stands at the crossroad of Chinese experience and Western classics and has completed a conversation with the times and the world. As a contemporary Chinese director, Li Liuyi has successfully caught the soul of the Ancient Greek classic drama through his "translated" work of drama -- ''

''. He broke through the high wall between the Oriental and Occidental cultures and civilizations, and seamlessly joined the thoughts and emotions of the people from the ancient and distant foreign land, and of the local people in the contemporary times."Black Spell -- On Viewing 'Oedipus the King' Directed by Li Liuyi", Peng Li, ''Qun Yan'' (magazine; Chinese: 《群言》), July 7, 2013, pp.40-42.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liuyi, Li Chinese theatre directors Central Academy of Drama alumni Writers from Chengdu Chinese dramatists and playwrights People's Republic of China writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)