Narrator: Listen to a conversation between a student and the professor of her theater class.

旁白：请听一段学生和教授关于戏剧课的对话。

Female student: So, Professor Baker...about our next assignment you talked about in class.

女学生：所以，贝克教授……（想问一下）关于你在课堂上提到的下次的作业。

Male professor: Yes, this time you’ll be in groups of three.

男教授：是的，这次你们会三人一组。

Each of you will have a chance to direct the other two in a short scene from a play you’ve chosen yourself.

你们每个人都有机会在你们自选的戏剧中的某一幕里指导另外两个人表演。

Female student: Right, and, well, I’ve been reading about story theatre, and...

女学生：是的，呃，我最近在读故事戏剧，而且……

Male professor: Ah, story theatre. Tell me about what you’ve read.

男教授：噢，故事戏剧，告诉我你都读了什么。

Female student: Well...it’s a form of theater where folk or fairy tales are acted out.

女学生：嗯……故事戏剧是一种演绎民间故事或童话故事的戏剧形式。

It was, uh...introduced by the director Paul Sills, in the 1960s.

它是被……呃，保罗·西尔斯导演于20世纪60年代推行的。

In Sills’s approach, an actor both narrates and acts out a tale.

在西尔斯的方法中，一位演员既是旁白，也参演故事。

So, like someone will appear on stage, and then they’ll start narrating a tale about, say, a king.

所以，就像一个人会出现在台上，然后会开始讲述一个故事，关于，比如说一个国王。

And then the same person will immediately switch to and start acting out the role of the king. With no props or scenery.

然后同一个人就会马上变身开始演国王的角色，没有道具或布景。

Male professor: Sills. You know, I actually saw his first story theatre production, in 1968.

男教授：西尔斯，你知道吗，我其实在1968年看过他的第一部故事戏剧作品。

He did the fairy tale “The Blue Light.”

他导演了童话《蓝色的光》。

Female student: Really? So, whatever gave him the idea to produce that?

女学生：真的吗？到底是什么给了他灵感去做出这样的作品呢？

Male professor: Well...as you know, back in the late 1960s lots of people in the United States were disillusioned with the government.

男教授：嗯……如你所知，在20世纪60年代末期，在美国有很多人对政府大失所望。

Sills was grappling with how to produce theater that was...relevant in such times.

西尔斯绞尽脑汁想如何创作出与那个时代……有关联的戏剧作品。

Then he happened to read “The Blue Light,” and he realized it had just the message he wanted.

然后他刚好读到了《蓝光》，而且他意识到这里恰好有他想要传达的信息。

See, in the story, a man who’s lost all hope as a result of the unfortunate events in his life completely turns his life around...with the help of a magical blue light.

看，在这个故事里，一个因生命中的不幸而失去了所有希望的男子，在有魔力的蓝光的帮助下，完全反转了人生。

So, the blue light in the story symbolizes a way out of seemingly unsolvable human problems.

所以，故事中的蓝光象征了一种解决方案，解决看似无法解决的人类问题。

And for Sills, that light symbolized an answer to the political turmoil in the U.S.

而对于西尔斯来说，这光象征了一种对于美国政治动乱的解决方案 。

Female student: But weren't you... um, audiences bothered that the actors were performing on a bare stage?

女学生：但是，你难道不……呃，那些观众难道不会对演员在空荡荡的舞台上表演感到不自在吗？

Male professor: Well, story theatre is a departure from traditional dramatic theater...with its realistic, elaborate props and scenery.

男教授：嗯，故事戏剧是不同于传统戏剧的那些逼真精致的道具布景的。

But Sills could make us "see", say, a big, tall mountain, through the facial expressions and body movements of the actors, and their telling of the story.

但是Sills可以通过演员的面部表情和肢体动作以及他们讲述故事的方式让我们“看”到一座高大的山。

We were all swept up, energized by such an innovative approach to theater. Even if one or two of the critics weren’t as enthusiastic.

我们都被这种创新的戏剧方法所震惊、鼓舞，尽管有一两个批评家对此并不那么热情。

Female student: Cool. So, uh, anyway...What I really wanted to ask, I’d love to try doing story theatre for my project, instead of just a scene from a traditional play.

女学生：酷，不管怎样。我真正想要问的是，我想要试试故事戏剧，而不是从传统戏剧中选择一幕作为我的项目。

Male professor: Hmmm...That’s possible, a short tale can be about the same length as a single scene...Which fairy tale would you do?

男教授：嗯……是可以的。一个短故事和单独的一幕时长差不多。你想讲什么童话故事？

Female student: Actually, I was reading about another director of story theatre? Rex Stephenson?

女学生：事实上，我正在读故事戏剧的另一个相关导演，拉克·史蒂文森。

You know, he produces plays based on folk tales as well. Maybe I could direct one of those?

你知道，他导演的戏剧也基于民间故事。或许我可以导演其中的一部？

Male professor: Okay, yes, Rex Stephenson.

男教授：可以，是的，拉克·史蒂文森。

Now, Stephenson’s style of story theatre is a little different from Sills’s. He’ll use simple props...a chair will represent a mountain...but the significant difference is with the narrator, the narrator will play only that role.

现在，史蒂文森形式的故事戏剧和西尔斯的有一点不同。他会用一些简单的道具，一把椅子来代表山，但明显的不同在于旁白，旁白就只担任旁白的角色。

Let’s talk about why...

我们来说一说为什么……