Sattva, a production co-created by students from the University of Chicago, won the Special Recognition Award at the 11th Wuzhen Theatre Festival. Among the team members of Sattva, two are from the University of Chicago: Yiwen WU, the director and playwright, and Aaron Yike HUANG, the composer and musician.
Sattva explores the intricate relationship between identities and the self. The story begins at a museum gallery: Annie encounters an image of Bodhisattva––one that is curiously created by a 13th century female artist using ink and her own hair. As Annie looks into the artwork in its finest details, the image starts to slowly come to life, revealing the story of its creator. As the exploration continues, Annie’s personal struggles as a young woman also start to unravel. It is through the animated image that Annie discovers new possibilities for herself. The production brings together traditional Chinese shadow performances and new animation technology, and the juxtaposition of these two media echoes the dialogue between the two women from different eras.
The performance draws inspiration from another UChicago Alum’s work: Li Yuhang’s (Ph.D. The Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, The University of Chicago, 2011, now University of Wisconsin Madison’s tenured professor in art history) award-winning book Becoming Guanyin: Artistic Devotion of Buddhist Women in Late Imperial China (New York:Columbia University Press, 2020). Through animation, shadow play, and live performance, the play brings Li’s academic research to the stage, breathing life into the often forgotten women artists.
Sattva Creative Team
Director and Playwright: Yiwen WU
Producer and Co-playwright: Yue WU
Composer and Musician: Aaron Yike HUANG
Actor: Xi LUO & Linjie LI
Artistic Director and Puppet Designer: Yimei ZHU
Animation Designer: Rudradutt Ranade
Costume Designer: Nico Yu
Movement Consultant: Yunqi ZHANG
Puppet Designer and Builder: Xintong SHEN
Public Relations: Tongqian LI & Shiyao JIN
About Wuzhen Theatre Festival
The Wuzhen Theatre Festival is an annual theater event in Wuzhen, a historical water town located in east China’s Zhejiang Province. The festival is one of the leading theater festivals in China and Asia. It is jointly sponsored by Stan Lai, Meng Jinghu, Huang Lei, Chen Xianghong, and organized by Culture Wuzhen Co., Ltd. The event features a series of theatrical performances, a theater market, an emerging theater artists' competition, outdoor carnivals and many other interesting activities.
The Emerging Theatre Artists’ Competition––previously known as the “Youth Competition”––is a major component of the Wuzhen Festival. Its purpose is to establish a platform on which promising young artists can develop original theatre works. Eighteen creative groups are chosen from hundreds of applicants to come to Wuzhen to perform a newly created 30-minute work devised from the annual Festival theme plus three elements designated by the Festival.
