The arts are a lighthouse that can guide people to the essentials of a fulfilling life - the true, the good, and the beautiful - said investment banker Li Feng.

He discovered a blueprint for his idealism after watching US playwright Thornton Wilder's 1938 Pulitzer Prize winner Our Town, performed by students at the Chinese Central Academy of Drama.

In 2007, he founded the amateur dramatics group Whisper in the hope that it would help spread his humanistic ideals.

"If people seldom read nowadays, we've got to find a way to make them patiently sit for a while to receive humanistic education," Li said.

Deviating from Chinese drama orthodoxy that values intense conflict, Our Town depicts the everyday lives of citizens in an average American town in the early 20th century, providing seemingly trivial details.

It is a consensus among the actors that Our Town powerfully conveys the message of how life should be valued "every minute".

"But it truly touches my heart," said Gao Yanzhen, 70, the oldest member of the group. "I didn't expect a play, which seems as insipid as water, to be so compelling."

Gao plays the character of the stage manager and in one scene he reads a list of names on tombstones.

"It reminded me how life should be cherished after seeing so many deaths," he said.

"I live burdened with a sense of self-protection," said one of the actors, Liu Zheng, who is a promising investment manager in his 20s.

He said he felt much more relaxed during acting, and "was touched by the purity of life" shown in the play.

Liu finds that acting helps him become more trusting and less self-protective.

"To better cooperate with the actress who plays my mother, I treat her like my mother off stage," Liu said. "I serve her tea and massage her back."

The rehearsal room is filled with a family atmosphere as the actors call each other by the titles in the play, such as "mother", "father" and "uncle".

The group of 20 people - largely made up of students, office workers and reporters - wants to spread that atmosphere of intimacy to the audience and they work hard to achieve that goal.

They've invited teachers from the Central Conservatory of Music, Central Academy of Fine Arts, and Central Academy of Drama to train them.

Their efforts are rewarded as audiences, with flowing tears, are often reluctant to leave after the curtain call, Gao said.

"I can see they are truly touched, as many Chinese audiences often leave a play even before it ends," Gao added.

Liu was even more encouraged when he heard a boy promise his girlfriend to review his life and to treat her "really well".

Positive responses from audiences have prompted Whisper to bravely go further. In addition to performing Our Town, they have started rehearsing another US play that focuses on aging.

Li wants to start a foundation to provide more opportunities for people to get in touch with art.

"As for the popularization of arts, I have my own 'Trinity' theory," Li said. "Namely, the artist, the art, and the audience, and each are indispensable in the process of making noble arts truly popular among ordinary people."

China Daily

(China Daily 09/29/2010)