Encore Wutai Mountain, a cultural play presentation held at the Campanula Palace in Wutai, drives audience into an interesting experience of self-discovery.
Wang Chaoge, director of the production, said that the show provides a unique entrance or opening for the audience. Encore Wutai Mountain sends people into a fit of nostalgia as they traverse through the theater seeing presentations of their childhood, high school, and college lives, with some evoking images of teachers, parents, and even first love experiences.
In another part of the theater, the audience will stumble upon a busy community so full of life because of the everyday scenarios being played out. These scenes include quarreling husbands and wives, difficult conversations with a boss, kids being scolded by parents, and even people trying to cope with dying loved ones in a hospice.
Once the bright lights turn on, the audience will find themselves in the center of the theater's stage, where they will be surrounded by the different scenes and play performers. The audience will then be escorted out of the stage and into the auditorium.
"You walk through your life with hundreds of problems, and now you come to Wutai Mountain and wish the Buddha would give you some answers or inspiration," said Wang, hinting that people's real-life experiences are the inspiration for the show.
But building the theater was a definite challenge. Wang had to stay in the mountain for nine months to study its story. She also solicited advice from the head monks before approaching architects, who, unfortunately, thought she was crazy for wanting to construct a theater with an impossible design.
"All the architects I talked with thought I was crazy, that I knew nothing about architecture. But when I explained my idea to Zhu, in just 10 minutes, he sketched out a building and said to me, 'This is maybe what you want'," she recalled.
Zhu Xiaodi, head of Beijing Institute of Architectural Design, said that he designed Encore as "contemporary" without looking "bizarre in the environment."
Done to promote the culture of Shanxi Province, Encore Wutai Mountain is Wang's project after Encore Pingyao. Wang has already contracted Zhu for her next and first project abroad, Encore Malacca.