Actor brings to life legendary Chinese figure

• A short study guide for Peking Opera 101

Director Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak checks on Joshua Fanene, who plays Judge Bao in Kennedy Theatre's production of "Judge Bao and the Case of Qin Xianglian," a Chinese opera performed in English. Photos by Gregory Yamamoto The Honolulu Advertiser Judge Bao and the Case of Qin Xianglian' A Jingju (Peking opera), performed in English Premieres at 8 p.m. today Kennedy Theatre, UH-Manoa Repeats at 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, and at 8 p.m. Feb. 13-16 and 2 p.m. Feb. 17 $15 general, $12 seniors, military and UH faculty and staff, $9 non-UH students, $4 UH-Manoa students with ID; group rates (10 or more) available; at the box office or Ticket Plus outlets 956-7655 (box office) or 526-4400 (Ticket Plus)

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

For his role as the imposing figure of Judge Bao in “Judge Bao and the Case of Qin Xianglian,” Joshua Fanene takes great care in applying his own makeup.

And he waits, dressed and ready, for a couple of hours before taking the stage in the opera's final 30 minutes.

"It's been a dream of mine to come back to Hawai'i to do a Peking opera," said the Honolulu-born actor who still has family here. He lived for about 15 years in Tacoma, Wash., before pursuing a theatrical degree at UH.

At 6 feet and 230 pounds, Fanene — who is Samoan, Chinese and Hawaiian — is an imposing figure, right for the Bao character, one of the revered, upright officials in Chinese history, and a character portrayed in several operas.

According to Chinese tradition, to worship Bao is to uphold a just and fair society, and to advocate honesty in government and justice for the people.

But creating Bao's "look" — a stark black-and-white face, with towering headgear and a flowing brocade robe tucked with a jade belt — is a lesson in consistency and patience, said Fanene, as he prepped his face for the transformation backstage at Kennedy Theatre earlier this week.

"It's pretty much identical," he said of the strokes of white and black on his face. "Bao's patterns are not so complex, and I've learned to do the makeup myself."

With the savvy of an artist, he rubs a black substance, with the texture of charcoal, around his eyes and mouth.

He mixes oil-based white and black paint, theatrical makeup from China, with sesame seed oil and honey, respectively.

"Smells good enough to eat, but sticky," he grins, as he applies white swirls resembling oversized brows that travel from his eyes to the sides of his head. "It stings if it gets in the eyes, and yes, I can smell the sesame oil and the honey."

Fanene shaved off his longish hair to ease the business of getting all that makeup on, extending the scope of his face in the process.

He said that as his physical looks change from mundane to theatrical figure, he starts feeling the strength and breadth of the character. Bao, he said, is "legendary, with the stature of King Arthur," and he begins to take on a whole new personality as he completes his face.

Bao is all about balance, said Fanene, and the face reflects a yin and yang equilibrium, with the black and white coloration and a diagonal black line across his nose.

The black represents power, the white death, he said.

He paints a stylized white crescent moon in the middle of his forehead.

He occasionally wiggles his brows, to see how the makeup is settling, and dabs on more white or black, as needed.

"You can't scratch, or you ruin the makeup," he said.

"And it gets hot, under the lights."

He adds a reddish paint to the black, to create a purplish hue that covers his cheeks. The only exposed skin on his face is a strip on his nose, between the eyes, and the lower chin, which will be shielded by a beard.

While most of the performing cast is double-cast, Fanene is the sole actor portraying Bao, because the other actor bowed out.

He's having fun in a serious role, wise-cracking about how he looks like the Black Power Ranger, one of the KISS band members, or a renegade from the World Wrestling Federation.

Workers help him with his wig, headdress, a beard that's clipped to his upper lip, and gown. Platform shoes give him additional height, and he's mastered the movements of the flowing sleeves traditional in Peking opera.

"You have to move with broad strokes," he said, demonstrating the choreography of Jingju, "to avoid getting the costumes onto your makeup. It stains badly."

A short study guide for Peking Opera 101

Everything you need to know about Jingju (Peking opera) but were afraid to ask, or didn't think of asking:

Storyline: "Judge Bao" is about a judge who saves a common woman, Qin Xianglian, from the murderous ambitions of her power-hungry husband, Chen Shimei. The plot includes an assassin, a suicide, and a beheading — with music, singing and gorgeous costumes.

Acting style: Stylized, each of the six main roles with its own distinctive patterns of stylization.

Voice styles: Young female characters speak and sing in falsetto; young male characters (none appears in this opera) use both falsetto and natural voice; older male and female characters use different versions of the "natural" voice as opposed to the falsetto voice.

Casting and performances: The stylized quality of Jingju, when recited or sung in Chinese, often makes comprehension difficult; in the current production, this style is preserved by projecting the translated verse on both sides of the stage. Leading roles are shared by two or more characters, so different players appear in Act I and II in certain roles.

Facial hair: Older male characters don beards; those between 30 and 45 wear black, those from 45 to 60 wear gray, those over 60 wear white beards.

Painted faces: Men of strength appear with fully painted faces, from the top of the head to the chin, from ear to ear, with designs and color to denote character traits; clown characters, predominately male, wear white makeup in the center of their faces and engage in ad-libs about contemporary topical allusions.

Gender bender: Traditionally, Jingju utilized asexual casting, with voice types often determining roles, regardless of gender. Since 1949, women have been trained to play female, men to portray male roles, but in Jingju today, some of the respected performers are males playing females, and vice versa.

That sleeve thing: "Water sleeves" — lengths of white silk, attached to the wrists of many costumes — conventionally signal the orchestra that a performer is ready to sing, and are dropped and picked up on entrance, to indicate that the character is taking care of his or her appearance. Primarily, they are used expressively — tossed, fluttered, thrown in delight or anger or sadness — to punctuate an emotion.

Musical instruments: A percussion ensemble features the danpigu (single-skin drum), the ban (clapper), the tanggu (hall drum), the daluo (large gong), the naobo (cymbals) and the xiaoluo (small gong); a melodic ensemble features the jinghu (small two-string spike fiddle), the erhu (larger two-string spike fiddle), the yueqin (moon lute), the sanxian (three-string lute), the zhongruan (larger round-bodied lute), the suona (double-reed wind instrument) and the dizi (horizontal bamboo flute).