13 May 2019
On the morning of 13 May, the opening ceremony of the 2019 International Master Class on Directing (Central/Eastern Europe) was held as scheduled in the square in front of the Foxi Building. The opening ceremony was attended by Li Guoyi, Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation, Tobias Biancone, Director-General of the International Theatre Institute, Xie Wei, Party Secretary of the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA), Huang Changyong, President of STA,, and Lu Ang, Dean of the Department of Directing, STA. The ceremony was presided over by Yang Yang, Vice President of STA.
First of all, the representative of the instructors of the Master Class, Jaroslaw Fret, Director of the Grotowski Institute and a famous Polish director, gave a speech expressing that he had made full preparations for the busy work in the upcoming week, and hoped to take this opportunity to further establish a deeper and long-term cooperative relationship between the Grotowski Institute and STA in the field of experimental study of performance. He also presented a set of translations of masters’ methods on the exploration of contemporary experimental performing and directing arts and a huge portrait of Antonin Artaud, the theorist on Theatre of Cruelty, to Professor Lu Ang.
Then, Na Gang, Vice Dean of the Department of Dramatic Arts of the Zhejiang Vocational Academy of Art, and Dong Hong, a famous actress of the Zhangjiagang Xiju Opera Theater, spoke as the representatives of the trainees. Both of them have participated in the Master Class for a number of times, and are also artists with outstanding achievements in their respective artistic areas. They were deeply grateful for the learning opportunities offered to them by the Master Class and looked forward very much to the courses of this year’s Master Class.
The International Master Class on Directing has been strongly supported by the Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation for many years. As in the previous year, Li Guoyi, Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation, attended the opening ceremony and gave a speech, in which he spoke highly about the contribution made by the International Master Class on Directing over the years to the development of Shanghai's cultural undertakings, and expressed earnest expectations for this year’s International Master Class on Directing (Central/Eastern Europe). Professor Lu Ang expressed the gratitude to the Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation and presented the book on the International Master Class on Directing (South America) to the Secretary-General as a report of the outcomes.
Finally, on behalf of STA, Huang Changyong, President of STA, extended the warm welcome to all the artists and affirmed the significance of the International Master Class on Directing for the contemporary dramatic arts and urban cultural development from the perspective of urban cultural development in Shanghai.
Six top international directors from five countries with unique artistic charm and long tradition of theatre, namely, Poland, Serbia, Romania, Hungary and Czech Republic, were invited to teach at this year’s International Master Class on Directing (Central/Eastern Europe). They are: Jaroslaw Fret, famous Polish director and director of the Grotowski Institute; Maja Mitic, famous Serbian director and artistic director of the International Sir Nisvil Jazz Theatre Festival; Maria Adriana Hausvater, director of the Timisoara National Theatre, Romania; Tamas Ascher, famous Hungarian director and former president of the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest, and his assistant Anna Lengyel, famous Hungarian director; Michal Docekal, famous Czech director and artistic director of Prague City Theatres. These master directors will provide distinctive instructions on the art of theatre directing from the perspectives of physical potential and creation of theatre action, theatre laboratory and devised theatre on collective mind of the performance, transformation from literature to theatre, and modern stage interpretation of classical drama and literary works.
The courses of the 2009 International Master Class on Directing (Central/Eastern Europe) will formally commence on the afternoon of 13 May. In the following five weeks, performing and directing artists from all over the country will follow the top international directors from five Central and Eastern European countries to study, exchange and discuss the theater directing and performance skills.
