5 December 2019
As a project supported by the 2019 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program for University Students of the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA), the musical “Romantic Misadventures of Ah Q” landed at the Theatre Row of Off-Broadway in New York and the New York Film Academy in November 2019 during the “Class of 2016 Blossoming” performance season. Romantic Misadventures of Ah Q had five performances on 20-24 November at Theatre Row of Off-Broadway next to Times Square, and had one performance on 26 November at the New York Film Academy.
The performances were reported by “Broadway World”, “Beyond Chinatown”, “World Journal”, “Sing Tao Daily”, “The China Press” and other media organizations in New York. Professor Sun Huizhu, chief director of “Romantic Misadventures of Ah Q”, also received an interview with “Sing Tao Daily”, which carried an article about him promoting the popularization of Chinese drama on 26 November 2019. The performances attracted a large number of enthusiastic audiences from New York and surrounding cities, including professors of drama and other professionals, as well as ordinary citizens who spontaneously bought tickets to watch the performances. Each performance achieved a seating rate of more than 70%, with a warm atmosphere on-site.
On November 23, after the performance, Mr. Sun talked with members of the cast about the questions of the enthusiastic audience for more than 40 minutes. Professor Shechner of New York University highly praised the performance, and he also put forward his personal thoughts on the practical significance of this old story more than 100 years ago. Professor Diamond, Chair, Directing Department, Yale School of Drama, expressed her fondness of and congratulations on the performance. Professor Sun Huizhu, the playwright and chief director, Zhang Yinglun, the director, and members of the cast respectively answered the different questions raised by the audience. Professor Schechner and Professor Diamond also cited the examples of the world literature to illustrate the universal significance of the character “Ah Q”.
STA’s innovation and entrepreneurship training program for university students adheres to the educational concept of students' development as the fundamental base. follows the principle of interest driven, independent practice, and process focused, integrates the requirements of innovation and entrepreneurship abilities into the talent training plans, promotes the transformation from skilled personality training to comprehensive personality training, explores to establish the personalized and independent student learning menu, and pushes the works of students’ innovation and entrepreneurship to go from campus to market and go from China to overseas. STA hopes to continuously select high-quality works of students innovation and entrepreneurship through the “Blossoming” performance season series for commercial public performances outside of the school, so as to receive the testing by the market and audiences from general public, complete the transformation from works to products, from blooming to bearing fruit, and provides a stage of demonstration and practice for students’ original works. The overseas practical experience of giving performances in the USA this time will guide students to improve their professional ability and artistic accomplishments in the course of immersive and in-depth cultural exchange, spread and promote traditional Chinese culture, and enhance STA's overseas influence.
