Life-changing experience

At the China National Theater for Children, cast members put on tailor-made costumes and began nine days of rehearsals under the direction of Liao Wei, a veteran actor and executive director of the 2015 production.

"I was impressed that they arrived so prepared regarding lines and movements," Liao recalls.

"I had some qualms about working with a group of teenage American girls, but despite some difficulty communicating at first, we gradually developed a rapport," he says.

Training every day from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, both Liao and Chen say the cast worked well and hard, giving the play their full attention.

Liao says the difficulty of working with the US cast lay in making their interpretation of a Chinese play more convincing to a Beijing audience.

"Chinese Mermaid is usually performed by adult Chinese professionals who are more reserved by nature. But the girls have been trained in ballet and their performance radiated the freedom and spontaneity typical of American teens," says Liao.

The director tried to retain the free, spontaneous spirit of the performances, while focusing on helping the actors master their lines and the key movements in each act.

What impressed Liao the most were the thank-you letters he and his colleagues received toward the end of the rehearsals.

"Getting those letters, handwritten in English, pinyin and even Chinese, some even illustrated with sketches, meant the world to me and made all the work I did worthwhile," Liao says.

"The letters showed their appreciation not only of my work, but also of the China National Theater for Children and Chinese culture."

On July 15 and 16, the play was performed twice to a packed theater.

"Their performance was incredible! They spoke Chinese so well. It's no easy task that they memorized all the lines. The play is more than an hour long," commented one Beijing middle school student after the show.

Nearly 500 primary and middle school and university students attended the matinee on July 16 and met the cast to talk and exchange ideas on a number of topics, including learning foreign languages, acting and career plans.

Meilin Jokela, who plays Jin Zhuzi, says practicing her lines and rehearsing in the US always felt a bit unreal.