26 August 2014
After five months’ preparation, the students of the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA)’s Traditional Chinese Opera College went to Beijing at the end of July and participated in the 2nd All China Traditional Chinese Opera Colleges and Schools Peking Opera Students TV Competition organized by the China Central Television Station (CCTV). The competition lasted for nearly one month and attracted Chinese traditional opera colleges and schools from all over China to attend, making itself a grand event for the Chinese traditional opera cycles, in particular, the Peking opera cycles, in the recent period of time.
From 1 August, the CCTV Chinese Traditional Opera Channel made live broadcasting of the semi-finals and grand final of the competitions totaling 19 sessions including the college division and vocational high school division. University and college students from the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Acts, STA Traditional Chinese Opera College, Tianjin Art Vocational College, College of Theatre Arts of Shenyang Normal University Beijing Opera Arts College and Shandong University of Arts entertained the audiences all over China with the classic works of the all four major roles in Peking opera including male role, female role, supporting male role and jester role.
Altogether 17 students qualified for the semi-finals in both the college division and vocational high school division. After further competitions in performance demonstration and opera knowledge contest, eight STA students qualified for the grand final. By the time of the grand final live broadcasting on the evening of 23 August, STA students have gratifying results with two gold prizes, four silver prizes, five bronze prizes and six special prizes.
