Qingyang is an actor, writer, movement practitioner, multi-disciplinary artist and creative producer. From Chengdu, southwestern China and now based in London, she has a bilingual literature background in Chinese and English while having performed and created for stage since a young age.
Her current performance practice features interdisciplinary and intercultural interest, creating a poetic space for personal connections and art as healing.
Before studying MA Theatre Practice at the University of Exeter (graduation with distinction, 2020), Qingyang read BA English Language and Literature at Sun Yat-sun University (Guangzhou, China) and The University of Manchester.
As a producer she has produced workshop projects with various groups through her company Waterway Workshop, from a movement & wellbeing series to workshops with international teenager groups. As for theatre productions, she is most recently the producer of Baklâ by Max Percy + Friends, now on tour.
Her movement approaches have received influences such as Anna Halprin, Jerzy Grotowski, Phillip Zarrilli, Laban technique, Contemporary dance and Chinese traditional dances.
She has written performance texts, plays, immersive real-time game scripts, as well as poems, bilingually in Chinese and English.
Selected Works
Journey of Whispering Dreams
2023 - ongoing
Performer, Writer & Lead Artist
FUSE International Festival, July 2023
Etcetera Theatre, May 2024
currently in further development
Waves and dreams return… When a young woman left her hometown in southwestern China, went across to the very south of China and then to the UK, crossing cultures and borders, this journey is interwoven with an inner one of healing and growing out of a period of mental turmoil and depression in adolescence. As the journey of ups and downs travels through tropical waves and comes to a northern snow land, it inevitably falls onto a stage in ancient China, where a Ge Ji 歌伎 (professional female performer and courtesans in ancient China) is about to perform the melancholic maiden character from the classic Chinese Opera, Peony Pavilion. With their pleasures, melancholy and strength, where is the healing ultimately found?
A one-woman physical theatre piece blending spoken word, movement, Chinese Classical dance, soundscape and ancient Chinese folklore, encompassing the intersectional themes of mental health, women’s coming-of-age, sexual harassment, oppression in education systems, cultural diaspora and immigration. An embodied combination of scattered personal expression and cultural stories that creates a poetic space of healing and contemplation.
Performer, Writer & Lead Artist: Qingyang Wang
Music: John Pierce O'Reilly
Choreography for Water-sleeve Dance: Yuan Feng
Stage Manager: Bri Wong
Voice Participation: Ruobing Zhao
Dramaturg (from April 2024): Max Percy
Liu Rushi's Moon Poetry Party
09/2023, Kingston, London
Autumn Moon Festival/ ESEA Cultural Festival
Invited by Korean British Cultural Exchange
Short performance, a mix of mime, poetic text, monologue, physical movement and Chinese Classical/Contemporary dance fusion.
Embodied 柳如是Liu Rushi, the first of the historically 'Eight Beauties of Qinhuai' (秦淮八艳）, one of the most famous courtesans/Ge Ji (female entertainers in some dynasties of ancient China), also a great poet.
我见青山多妩媚，料青山见我应如是。”When I see the green mountain I see charm, green mountain looks at me and should be seeing the same.” She named herself after this classic poem, Rushi (“The Same”).
In the chilly moonlight she stands on the deck of her own Painted Boat (画舫 Hua Fang). On the contrary to misery, does she have a glorious badge of freedom?
Desire under the Elms | Live-action role play game/immersive theatre
Writer
10/2021 - 01/2022, China
Wrote the script, Desire under the Elms, a piece of live-action role play game/immersive theatre, booked for distribution in 2022, which tells the story of a group of six people with complicated relations with each other and secret stories across different ages coming together for an experimental production of Eugene O'Neill's Desire under the Elms in 90s' Beijing, the past of each of them somehow echoing with the theme of the play.
The Good Woman of Sichuan | Film, Interdisciplinary
Performer (as role of 'Theatre Director'), Deviser and Theatre Facilitator
Film by Sabrina Ruobing Zhao 2020 - 2021
Selected to premiere as part of Forum, Berlin International Film Festival, presented at Seoul International Women’s Film Festival, Mulan International Film Festival among others
Provided theatre consultation on Brecht's play (The Good Person of Szechwan) and methods as creative input for the experimental interdisciplinary filmmaking process. Led an improvisation workshop with director Sabrina and lead actress Weihang which became part of the film. Performed the role of 'Theatre Director' in the film.
Reviews:
“The new staging of the play that the actress in Zhao’s film discusses is supposed to be abstract and fluid. The director
works with improvisation. The performers have been asked to depict an animal in the first rehearsal.' -- 'Essay: Between Wakefulness and Sleep' by Nicolas Wackerbarth, Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video
Art E.V
'Of the women we hear in voiceover, one is an actress, she talks about the play she’s working on, an abstract, fluid staging of Brecht’s “The Good Person of Szechwan” being put on by a female director that’s also set in Leshan. What’s fluidity anyway? If it weren’t for the intertitle saying this isn’t an adaptation, the actress could be talking about this film too, it shares those qualities as well as others from the play.' -- James Lattimer, Cinema Scope Magazine
Flowing Poetry Radio
05-08/2020
Creator & Voice Performance
Born in the midth of Covid lockdown, Flowing Poetry Radio are tiny voice pieces featuring fragmented poetry, sometimes featuring a monologue, or, images, aired via online platforms
Coming back soon!
Training on MA Theatre Practice (with distinction), University of Exeter 09/2019 - 09/2020
Modules include Contemporary Performance Practices and Performance Projects with Dr. Konstantinos Thomaidis and Prof. Rebecca Loukes. Dissertation titiled ‘The Director and the Actor in Process: Women and Approaches to Actor-Centric Directing’ was supervised by Prof. Rebecca Loukes and included an interview with renown theatre director Julia Pascal.
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Trained in advanced approaches to performing and directing as well as advanced methodologies in performance research
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Studied devising, embodied acting, dramaturgy and immersive theatre
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Made two full-length performances as part of modules
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Residency at Shakespeare Globe with training in voice, movement, stage combat and classical acting
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Created and performed a digital scratch of solo show Your Whispers Fly at Exeter T3 Festival 2020
 Role: Emma Lee (Lead) Director: Sieun Lee 2023 Short Film |  Assistant Director, The Fear the musical Manchester & Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018 (sellout runs and 5-star media reception) |
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Forest of Adolescence | Play Guangzhou, China 2018
Writer, Director, Producer, Performer
Guangzhou Drama Festival for University Students
Rouge of the North 怨女 | Play Guangzhou, China 2016
Performer (Lead)
Second-prize winner of Sun Yat-sen University Drama Festival
Director: Jiajie Ni
An adaptation of short story by Eileen Chang
