2019 Teaching Results Showcase of Shanghai Theatre Academy-Columbia University Cooperative Training Program for Postgraduate Playwriting Students is held successfully

Publisher:主页英文版Time:2019-12-22Views:132

20 December 2019

 

From 18 to 20 December, the annual teaching results showcase of the cooperative training program for postgraduate playwriting students between Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) and Columbia University of the United States, i.e. the performances of original plays written by the postgraduate students from Columbia University, was successfully held in the New Space Theatre of STA.

The performances this time were produced by the STA Playwriting Research Center and the STA Performing Arts Center, including “April Twenty Nineteen”, “360°Owl's Head” and “Lucha Libre”, which were respectively written by Daniel Rattner, Marty Murray and Paola Alexandra Soto, the postgraduate students from Columbia University, and put on the stage under the guidance of their Chinese tutors Professor Lu Jun and Professor Huang Xi, with Professor Yi Tianfu acting as the director. The translators of the plays were Gu Xiaoyang, a master’s degree student of playwriting, Liu Caihua, a doctoral student of playwriting, and Yu Wen, a master’s degree student of playwriting, from STA

As far as the way of presentation for the performances this time, the settings were simple and clear, the lightings were beautiful, and the costumes were distinctive in style. The performances this time provided a theatre for playwrights. Most of the performers this time were postgraduate students of playwriting from STA. Once again, this echoed Professor Lu Jun’s proposition for theatre, i.e. please return the stage to the playwrighs. It was on this stage that we once again felt the power of theatrical literature.

Up to now, the cooperative training program for postgraduate students majoring in playwriting between STA and Columbia University has been successfully carried out for five rounds by way of Professor Lu Jun, chairman of STA’s Academic Committee and director of STA Playwriting Research Centre exchanging postgraduate students with Professor David Henry Hwang, chairman of the Dramatists Guild of America, head of playwriting at Columbia University School of the Arts and author of “M. Butterfly” for cooperative training, i.e. every year the two universities sending two to three students to each other for training. To date, both the exchange students and teachers of Columbia University have been very satisfied with the STA program. This year, the STA-Columbia University joint course there includes, once again, the “Short Play Writing in English” derived from the “Short Play Festival” founded by Professor Lu Jun. With the assistance of the three students from Columbia University, this unit brings in the writing training of Columbia University and combines it with STA’s own method of short play writing for guiding the students’ play writing. This is of great significance to broadening the theatre way of thinking of playwriting students. And, as part of the Short Play Festival, a reading of the plays written in English was also successfully held at the Jing'an District Cultural Centre on 20 December.

These three performances of original plays written by postgraduate students from Columbia University and one reading session of the short plays written in English were not only the exchange between playwriting students of Columbia University and STA, but also a cross-cultural and trans-regional dialogue on drama, which also witnessed another success of the joint training program in playwriting between STA and Columbia University.