24 November 2019
How to educate a happy and free bird? Tagore, the great Indian poet, wrote this tale about educating a bird in 1918. This tale profoundly examines the education system of India at that time and depicts the dark side of the education system. In 100 years' time in China, Subesh Poddar, an Indian drama performer, will put the tale to the stage once again. “Story of a Bird” contains not only the reflection on education, but also the gaze and pressure from the prejudiced and silent individuals and groups. And, this kind of reflection is what China, India and all countries in the world need.
The stage show “Story of a Bird is an outcome of the Shanghai First-class Postgraduate Education Leading Program and an outcome of the Shanghai Theatre Academy Postgraduate Education Innovation Program. The first round of performances was completed in Shanghai Changjiang Theater from 24 to 25 October 2019. The theatre was fully seated for each performance with overwhelming audience.
At the same time, it is worth mentioning that “Story of a Bird” is a collaboration between postgraduate students and undergraduate students of Shanghai Theatre Academy, with the creative team mainly being postgraduate students and the production team mainly being undergraduate students. Equally important, it is a collaboration between foreign students and Chinese students, a wonderful collision of an Indian classic tale with Chinese theater, and also a crossover collaboration between students of Shanghai Theatre Academy and deaf people, with one of the leading role being acted by a deaf actor.
“Story of a Bird” makes a breakthrough attempt and exploration in drama for deaf people in Shanghai and even in China. It uses Asian drama elements (shadow puppets, masks, puppets etc) to evoke the re-presentation of Asian style drama, and builds a bridge between deaf people and drama, and provides a new way of communication between the two. Shanghai Theatre Academy will carry out more collaborations with deaf people in the field of drama.
After the performances, “Story of a Bird” has attracted the attention of a large number of people, and received strongly acclaimed reviews from deaf people. The performances have also attracted the attention of professionals and researchers in the field of drama, as well as the attention and research interest of experts of linguistics. At the present, “Story of a Bird” has been invited by Kunming South Asia Forum, Peking University, Beijing Penghao Theater, Silent Drama Festival, Macau etc to give performances, and the crew is making the preparations for the touring performances in the next stage.
