(Clearwisdom.net) While preparing for the Melbourne 2002 Fa Conference, we discovered that there were four groups of 15 Western practitioners in Melbourne who had been to Tiananmen Square to peacefully appeal for Falun Gong. Although they have different individual cultivation paths, their experiences of going to Beijing are similar. Some practitioners had the idea of presenting their stories on the stage. This is the original motive behind the production of this six-act operatic play: "The Peaceful Journey of Falun Dafa."
Practitioners understand this from the Fa principle that all cultures in human history have been created for the purpose of spreading Falun Dafa. They should be used for the sake of Dafa at the present Fa-rectification period, and become an effective way of thoroughly clarifying the truth about Falun Dafa to the public. The artistic language has its unique performance ability that can directly function on the deeper level of life. In the modern society of quick rhythm, performances as direct and living as the stage play can attract people's attention in a short period of time and can be a very good way of explaining the truth.
After more than three weeks intense preparations, the operatic play was held at the end of Fa Conference.
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| 1. The dance: "Searching" | 2. A scene of group practice of the exercises in Act One: "The number of practitioners grows day by day." |
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3. Act Three: Female voice solo: "Mother, please listen to your child's words" | 4. Act Four: "A letter to Mother in Jail" |
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5.Act Five: "Coming for you" | 6.Act Six: "Before breaking through the cage of jail" | 7. Act Five: A scene of practitioners being dragged away by the police |
When the curtain pulls open, a huge portrait of Teacher on Lantou Island, [Hong Kong] appears on the large-scale projection screen on the stage, the voice-over is a resounding recitation in both English and Chinese: "Cherish it! The vows of Gods are being fulfilled; Cherish it! This is what you have been searching for; Cherish it! The Fa is right in front of you." ("Inscription for the Russian Version of Falun Dafa" Falun Dafa-Essential for Further Advancement II)
After a short period of music, three lovely young practitioners come out hand in hand on the stage, joyfully playing, as if in a heavenly paradise. Shortly after, young practitioners disappeared from the stage. The dance "Searching" starts. A life lost in the maze of ordinary human society is painstakingly searching for her lost homeland and the path to the original, true self, until she finds the huge book Zhuan Falun at the side of the stage. She is so happy that she sits on a chair at the desk and earnestly reads the book.
At this moment, the music "Be Saved" is played. An actor slowly enters from one end of the stage, and affectionately sings the song "Be Saved."
The exquisite music once more resounds, the actress who was reading the book stands up and walks to the middle of the stage and begins to practice the first set of the exercises "Buddha Showing A Thousand Hands." After that, practitioners, young and old, come out in two or three, and join her in the exercise. (Photo 2.) The exercise music and gentle and smooth movements filled the conference site with peace and harmony.
Act Two starts. In front of our eyes is a scene of a group of practitioners reading the book together at home. The host of the family is pouring tea for everyone. Suddenly, the police break into the house, seizing their books and driving them down the stage.
The curtain rises again. On the large-scale projection screen appear scenes of burning of the books, arresting and beating people. One picture after another, they are shocking to the sight. After that, a large prop "Tiananmen" is pushing out, the dance "Going to Beijing," that displays Dafa practitioners in China go to Beijing to safeguard the Fa starts, and it is followed by the song "Mother, please listen to your child's words." The practitioner sings, "Mother, I'll have to set off tomorrow to say a fair word for Dafa; from my childhood, you have taught me to speak the truth ... to safeguard the truth, I want to go to speak the truth ..." (Photo 3) The dancing practitioners' faces appear determined without any regret. The audience seemed to see the journey of Dafa practitioners in China who put down their concern for life and death, advance courageously wave upon wave to go to Beijing to safeguard Dafa without hesitation and regret. Many people in the audience were in tears.
Act Four is a static scene. (Photo 4) In the depth of the stage, three police officers in black uniform surround a practitioner who is sitting in lotus position, symbolizing the practitioner is in jail; The other side of the stage, a young practitioner gently sings, "In snow, in frost, Mother, do you have clothes to keep you from cold? ... The dark night will be over, my dear Mother, you should be firm. ..." The simple and elegant song touched the hearts of the audience.
Act Five tells the story of western practitioners going to Tiananmen Square to validate Dafa. When the curtain rises, one after another photos showing practitioners validating Dafa at the Tiananmen Square, being arrested and beaten are flashing on the big projection screen. In the end, the flashing pictures are fixed at two photos, one displaying the great scene that the 36 western practitioners who sit in the lotus position, are unfurling a huge banner that reads, "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance", and the other one displaying the scene that a Canadian practitioner is holding a banner above his head that reads, "Falun Dafa Is Good" while he calls out his earth-shaking words. At that moment, a young practitioner's pure voice sounds behind the curtain, "With my deepest desire, I set foot on the soil of your country to uphold the truth for you. I wish that my Caucasian face and my pure heart could arouse the kindness that is still embedded in your heart...." Accompanied with the reciting, a western practitioner who had been to Tiananmen to appeal for Falun Gong and a Chinese practitioner walk to a corner of the stage and start to sing a female duet, "Coming for you": "Stride across ten thousand torrents and a thousand crags, I come for you again and again..." In the meantime while they are singing, one after another practitioners silently walked on the stage where the setting displays the scene of Tiananmen Square. Some of the practitioners sit in lotus position, some embrace the wheel in front of the head (one of the postures of the second exercise of Falun Gong), and some unfurl a Dafa banner. Policemen come again and again to forcibly pull or carry them away. The violence goes along soundlessly. Occasionally, practitioners shout loudly when they were dragged away, "The Entire world knows that Falun Dafa is good!" At the other corner of the stage, the singers are not affected, they continue singing querulously and plaintively, "In the face of violence and danger, I come for you again and again...." The striking and direct contrast between sound and silence, violence and peacefulness, beauty and filth strongly shake and move the audience's hearts. In addition, the western practitioner's accurate tones and pronunciation of Chinese words seems to interpret the lyric, "Precious Chinese people, do you know that the entire world is praising that Falun Dafa is good. Falun Gong is good, be sure not to miss this fortune that occurs in millions of years...." (photo 5)
The last act is "Heaven and Earth are Celebrating". Practitioners who are imprisoned remove their prison uniforms and walk out of the cage while singing the song, "Falun Dafa is good". All practitioners participating in the performance walk onto the stage and join the singing. Even the policemen tear off their badges and sing together with the practitioners. The audience also joins the singing. The song "Falun Dafa is good" resounds in the entire hall and pushes the stage play to a climax.
The performance found an echo in the hearts of both practitioners and their family members and friends who came to watch the play. Many people were moved to tears all throughout the performance.
After the Fa conference concluded, some newcomers who just began practicing Falun Gong and were not willing to openly admit it were strongly moved and encouraged. They expressed that they would not only to openly and nobly tell the people around them that they practice Falun Gong but will also join the veteran practitioners to participate in the process of Fa rectification. Some people who previously read Dafa books but did not decide to practice the cultivation once again held in hands the book Zhuan Falun. Some practitioners who had experienced the tribulation that their family opposes their cultivation for as long as a year and almost wanted to give up their practice finally made up their minds to break through this hardship. Some everyday people wondered what made it possible for the few dozens of practitioners in the play including the elderly, the young, westerners and Chinese, to cooperate together and who was the director. All practitioners who attended this Fa conference and joined the performance furthermore experienced mighty power of Dafa and the wonderfulness that Dafa disciples make a concerted effort without being attached to one's own opinions and are able to melt into one integrated entity. When we pack up the photos of the performance, we discovered a few clearly visible big and small Falun appearing on the dark green curtain. (Photo 7)
This is our first attempt to clarify the truth and display the beauty of Dafa through the form of stage play. Our plot of the play is fairly simple and there are still many places to improve in the actual performance. Now practitioners have some ideas to improve it. For example, we can adapt this play into a fairly independent one-act play suitable for open-air performance and give free performance at public sites. In the modern society, people live with a fast tempo of life and therefore it would be hard for them to sit down calmly to read flyers with too many words. Hence, they would consider the persecution of Falun Gong is fairly abstract and remote and have nothing to do with them. While art performances are able to provide people direct percept and therefore can draw people's attention in a short period of time and allow them to understand the facts in their hearts.
In the end, we would like to especially mention that practitioners from South Australia composed another version of the song, "Falun Dafa is good". This song carries a sprightly rhythm, easy to learn and easy to sing. We believe when the song is introduced, it will achieve the effect that people would love to hear and learn in a widespread way that no one is able to block. Because of the tight schedule, despite the fatigue after an 8-hour drive to Melbourne, the twenty practitioners who participated in the singing performance repeatedly rehearsed and ensured the success of the performance.
