From November 2023 to January 2024, Associate Professor Li Minyuan of the Dramatic Literature Department of the Shanghai Theatre Academy conducted a nine-week course, "Theatre Theory and Practice," for graduate students. This was Li Minyuan's third time offering this course and the second time collaborating with the West Bund Museum. The course concluded with a performance at the museum.
In this unique venue, students experienced an entirely different artistic atmosphere from that of a traditional classroom. Li Minyuan stressed in class that this course was not an ordinary theatre theory or drama class. As drama is an integrated art form, to study drama, one must have their own understanding of various artistic categories, all of which are interconnected. Therefore, the teacher chose to conduct the course in the artistic atmosphere of the West Bund Museum.
The course revolved around the permanent exhibition "Portrait of the Mirror" at the West Bund Museum which is part of the five-year display cooperation project between the museum and the Centre Pompidou. To guide students in opening up their creative thinking and direction, Li Minyuan added the subtitle "Time-Space Marks" to the original theme. Students were free to choose works that impressed them at the exhibition, incorporating various artistic processing and fusion, as well as utilizing their different professional characteristics, ultimately forming seven performance pieces.
Throughout the course, Li Minyuan combined theory and practice, arranging both theoretical teaching and student practice in each class. Li Minyuan invited two other teachers to collaborate with him in teaching different course focuses. Li Minyuan explained the current situation and development of contemporary European drama, while Wu Hanyuan discussed the relationship between traditional Chinese opera and modern drama, and Zheng Sisi introduced the interdisciplinary educational methods in contemporary Norwegian drama and art. Under the guidance of three teachers, students gained a new understanding of "drama," "theatre," and "performance," emphasizing the breakdown of traditional theatrical limitations and the fusion of artistic cross-border innovation.
Theatre is not devoid of literary nature but does not require a script with complete characters and plots like traditional plays. Therefore, the final performances created by the students did not resemble traditional drama but were more like a collection of various artistic forms of performance. In addition to the theory, the teacher leads everyone in conducting theatre performance training during each class, enabling students to perceive their bodies, explore different parts of their bodies, thus maximize the development of participants' physical abilities and helping students build a new understanding of performance.
On December 28, 2023, seven groups of students successfully completed their final performances at the West Bund Museum under the theme of "Portrait of the Mirror - Time-Space Marks." This innovative practice of breaking traditional theatrical limitations within the museum's venue was an interesting challenge for the students, as well as a fulfilling journey. It is believed that the artistic cross-border integration and innovative performance thinking learned in this course will be applied to their future artistic creations.
