About Dr. Dennis Law

Dr. Dennis Law retired from a career as a well-known surgeon in Denver, Colorado in 2001.  Dr. Law started in the field of entertainment by producing Warriors of Virtue in 1996, a high budget family feature film distributed by MGM, Warner Brothers and Columbia Artist worldwide.  In China, he also produced a prize-winning CCTV children’s film Xiwa as well as the acclaimed television series April Rhapsody.  After the acquisition of The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts in 2002, Dr. Law became the C.E.O. and President of The Centre and its associated production company Sight, Sound & Action.  Dr. Law has utilized The Centre to act as a launching site for a new genre of musical theater known as Action-Musical.  In order to support these unique productions, he owns the theatrical production company in Beijing, Law Brothers Chinese Performing Arts International.  Since 2002, nine Action-Musicals (Of Heaven & Earth, Terracotta Warriors, Senses, Heartbeat, Tang Concubines, Phoenixia, Heartbeat Hawaii, Monkey King and Senses, Las Vegas Ed.) have been performed nearly a thousand times in major venues of many cities of North America and China, a feat that is without equal in the history of Chinese performing arts abroad.  In 2005, Dr. Law was nominated for a Toronto Dora Award for Best Direction of a Musical for the show Heartbeat.  In addition, among three shows that were entered into competition for these Dora Awards, the productions gathered a total of seven nominations, while Tang Concubines won Dora Awards for Best Costume Design and Best Choreography in 2007 and Monkey King won for Best Choreography in 2010.   During the summer of 2008, three Sight, Sound & Action productions were mounted in thirty-seven performances as an Action-Musical Festival to celebrate the occasion of the Beijing Olympic Games.   The world premiere of the first Chinese Rock-Musical, Monkey King, was history making for Chinese musical theater both in Beijing and worldwide.  In 2011, Monkey King became the first theatrical work ever to be shot and produced as a 3D high-definition movie and Blue-Ray DVD, and this 3D cinematic version went on to win the Best Foreign Film Award at the Korean 3D Film Festival in 2012.  Dr. Law continues to dedicate himself to giving Chinese performing arts a proud legacy in the international marketplace.  His current production of Terracotta Warriors 3D truly makes entertainment history by being the first 3D theatrical show ever.  

DIRECTOR’SNOTES for Terracotta Warriors World first 3D Stage Show

Using an unprecedented 3D LED video wall as the basis of its art direction, Terracotta Warriors 3D becomes the world’s most unique musical theater production.  The world’s first true 3D show puts the audience in an impressive 3D environment in order to enjoy a moving story of transformational love and sacrifice involving the legendary First Emperor of China, 200 BC.

This show makes entertainment history by combining two factors in a manner never achieved before: the realness, spontaneity and risks of real live-action on stage together with the thrill and visual impact of high-definition 3D grand cinema.  Traditional theater has always depended on complicated “fly-systems” with hanging and painted backdrops and more recently on projected digital images.  Terracotta Warriors 3D’s first use of this new and patented 3D LED video wall technology allows the audience to be fully engaged by being part of a three dimensional set where not only does the background truly recess back into space but at times certain stage elements would invade forwards into the audience’s personal space.  This kind of spatial participation with the story and its characters is heretofore unknown in conventional theater. 

It is rare indeed for anyone or any entity to have the opportunity to create something that is truly the first in humankind.  Terracotta Warriors 3D is such a production because it is the very first time in entertainment history that a true high-definition 3D video wall is used as a backdrop for a live-action theatrical dance drama.  The fact that the most famous Chinese story involving one of the “Ancient Wonders of the World” is combined with uniquely spectacular high-tech art direction will certainly make for a compelling theater-going experience.

This Action-Musical is not merely a high-tech theatrical production; it is also a meaningful and engaging story of love and power and transformation.  Although the story of China’s First Emperor is an important part of its history of thousands of years, Terracotta Warriors 3D tells this tale of Emperor Qin Shi Huang differently by letting the audience see this most influential monarch through the eyes of his loyal eunuch, Zhao Gao.  Castrated by the Emperor who was his childhood best friend, Zhao Gao nevertheless served his master faithfully albeit in a conflicted manner; he eye-witnessed the Qin Emperor’s powers and weaknesses, his loves and his fears, his cruelty and his human frailties.  Finally, it was the Emperor’s sudden and unexpected death that allows Zhao Gao to be freed from his emotional conflict and spiritual bondage and be transformed into a new man.  

Welcome to Terracotta Warriors 3D.  I hope this would become for you a thrilling and satisfying journey through musical theater of unprecedented proportions!

Elements of the First 3D Show

World’s first 3D LED video wall for theatrical application by:  Central China Display Laboratories, Ltd.

Visual & Sound Effects by:  Beijing Sky Fire Culture & Communication Co. Ltd

Music Recording and Sound Effects Design by:  Duan Xiaozhou

Visual Effects & Film Editor and Special Effects Supervisor:  Wei Yong

3D Production & Animation by:  Soaring Dragon Culture & Communication Co. Ltd

Project Supervisor:  Wang Zhen

Visual and Sound Effects Director:  Zhang Chao, Zhang Chunmiao

Terracotta Warriors 3D is most grateful for these companies and their talented artists for their expertise and hard work.   Their combined efforts allow the production to truly push the horizons of modern musical theater in a manner never achieved before.

                Jin Tao, 3D and Digital Effects Supervisor, Sight, Sound & Action

Terracotta Warriors 3D Makeup Design

For the purposes of combining a story of antiquity with futuristic art direction, Mr. Jia Lei, one of the youngest and most recognized makeup designers of his generation, provides totally new designs for this 3D edition.  He has artistic license to be more surreal, dramatic and non-traditional in his approach.  In this manner, the audience can more readily feel the impact of the mysterious culture of ancient China. 

Jia Lei, Makeup Designer

Born in 1983, Mr. Jia has become one of China’s most sought-after and most decorated theatrical makeup designers.  He has served in the capacity of Makeup Art Director for over thirty dance dramas, ten musicals, six acrobatic circuses and nine large-scale tourist galas.  In addition to this large body of work, Jia Lei has won numerous accolades, including “China’s Top Ten Makeup Art Directors” in 2003 and “Asia’s Top 100 Makeup Designers” in 2004.  In 2008, he was the Makeup Art Director for both the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Paralympic Games.  In 2010, he was in charge of all makeup art direction for the opening ceremonies of the Guangzhou Asian Games and was designer-in-charge for the Shanghai World Expo show segment, “The Attraction of Beijing”.  For Sight, Sound & Action, Jia Lei created spectacular makeup and body painting designs for the show, Senses – Las Vegas in 2012. 

Music

The music score for Terracotta Warriors 3D is based on the original orchestral score composed by noted Chinese composer, Hao Weiya, in Beijing.  Laced by passages of Qin Qiang, the oldest recorded form of opera in world history created in Xian, the capital city of the Qin Dynasty, the music provides a memorable impact for the audience as they are brought back to the second century BC.  Yet for this historical subject to be brought to life with this kind of futuristic art direction, it is necessary to add new music, percussion music and surround sound effects in order to be fully appreciated by modern audiences.    

                            Jin Tao, Music Supervisor, Sight, Sound & Action Ltd.

Jin Tao --- Digital Effects Supervisor, Sound Designer, New Music Composer

Mr. Jin Tao has been associated with the North American production company Sight, Sound & Action for over ten years, serving as its sound designer and percussionist.  In more recent times, his expertise have shifted towards both creating modern music and sound designs as well as new digital effects as they apply to 3D applications in a theatrical setting.  Having had extensive experience touring as a performing artist in North America for a decade, Jin Tao’s expertise is invaluable for creating artistic elements that suit the taste of international audiences.   

Beijing Entertainment : Blog

Beijing Entertainment : Blog

Terracotta Warriors 3D Stage Show Production Credits

Terracotta Warriors 3D --- Production Credits

Sight, Sound & Action and Guanchen Media present

       

Terracotta Warriors 3D

Written, Produced & Directed by:  Dennis K. Law MD

Executive Producers:  Joseph & Loretta Law

                                    Alyssa Xiaoli Wang Law

 Liu Bing

Art Direction by: Dennis K. Law MD

Original Scenic Design by: Tu Juhua

Digital Effects Supervision by:  Jin Tao

Visual & Sound Effects by: Beijing Sky Fire Culture & Communication Co. Ltd

3D Production & Animation by: Soaring Dragon Culture & Communication Co. Ltd

Original Music by: Hao Weiya

New Music & Sound Supervision by: Jin Tao

Sound Design by: Duan Xiaozhou, Zhang Haikun

Costume Design by: Mo Xiaomin

Supplemental Costumes Designed by: Ah Kuan

Choreography by:  Jonathon Feng Han

Supplemental Choreography by: Chen Jiao, Sun Chenxue, Gao Shiqi

Martial Arts Choreography by: Wang Xiaolei

Makeup Design by: Jia Lei

Lighting Design by:  Dennis K. Law MD

         

A production by:

Law Brothers Chinese Performing Arts International, Beijing