From 15 to 19 November 2023 in Moscow, Russia, the Master of Arts in Theatre Directing Class 2022 of the Department of Directing of Shanghai Theatre Academy was invited to participate in the 43rd VGIK International Student Festival and the 19th Theatre Competition with the Department's original play "The Brothers Karamazov", which was unanimously praised at the recently concluded "Silk Road" Traditional Performing Arts Festival and International Symposium. On 17 November, The Brothers Karamazov, as the closing performance of the festival, was awarded the "World Prize for Deep Understanding of Russian Classics" after the final evaluation by an international jury, and was fully recognized and appreciated by local theatre artists as well as artists and scholars from all over the world.
The Brothers Karamazov was an original play created and produced by the Department of Directing of Shanghai Theatre Academy, of which the core creators were all the 11 master’s students of the Theatre Directing Class 2022 of the Department of Directing. Since February 2023, under the guidance and leadership of Professor Lu Ang and Associate Professor He Hao of the Department of Directing, the students have worked through a process of many months of overturning and rebuilding from the initial stage of reading the original work, collecting materials, literature research, observing and studying, through the middle stage of technique training, analysis and discussion, auditioning clips and adapting the script, to the late stage of deconstructing the structure, searching for vocabulary, going out for observation and study, designing and producing, until the completion of the creation and production, and have finally staged and presented this masterpiece in the history of literature in front of the audience.
Professor Yelena Makar, Head of the Acting Department of the Russian State Institute of Cinematography, was full of praise: This is the first time I have seen the Chinese version of The Brothers Karamazov and it is simply incredible. In the adaptation, the narrative structure is complete and the directorial style is unified, with both the sense of action of the characters of psychological realism and the characteristics of the style of modernity. All the characters portrayed by the Chinese students were "Russian" to me, and even I did not need to read any subtitles at all to know exactly what was going on and the physical and psychological actions of the characters in the given situation. I was amazed by the show!
During this period of time, the team from the Shanghai Theatre Academy engaged in exchange and exploration with artists from all over the world in both academic field and professional practice. The whole team gained specialty awareness and perceptivity from different cultural backgrounds in the process of participating in the festival, and observed and enjoyed the works of delegations from specialty schools in many countries.
On 1 December 2023, on the occasion of the 78th anniversary of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, The Brothers Karamazov will be staged again for two performances in the afternoon and evening at the Black Box Theatre, and you are all cordially welcome to come and watch.
