15 October 2014
On the morning of 15 October, the press conference of the Rising Artists’ Works 2014 (RAW 2014) was held at the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA). STA Vice President Huang Changyong, Director of Publicity Zhang Shengquan and Director of Executive Office Zhang Jun, as well as reporters of Xinhua News Agency, China News, Jiefang Daily and Xinmin Evening News, attended the press conference.
China Shanghai International Arts Festival will open soon in the golden autumn season of October. Having been held successfully twice and now as a permanent component of the art festival, the Rising Artists’ Works will be held again during the arts festival from 18 to 24 October. RAW 2014 will present 14 "contracted works” and 160 “invited events” to the guests from the international entertainment industry as well as the art lovers from the general public. The performing spaces at SAT and all satellite venues will open the door to the art lovers from all walks of life.
Following on from the successful experience of hosting the week-long activities last year as the main venue of RAW 2013, STA will play host again this year and strive to do an even better job to present a wonderful RAW 2014 with more highlights and unique features.
During RAW 2014, STA will open its door to people from all walks of life and make all of its performing spaces available for activities including theatres, classrooms, lawns, gyms, libraries and conference rooms. This year, the activity venues will expand from what were available on STA’s Huashan Road campus last year to include the Black Box Theatre and East Rehearsal Theatre on the same campus and also reach out to include such satellite venues as STA’s Lianhua Road campus, Malanhua Theatre, Heluting Concert Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall, allowing even larger scale and even bigger exhibition and performing spaces.
During RAW this year, the program for each theatre, classroom and outdoor performing venue will have contracted works from STA students or STA alumni, which account for a considerable proportion of all performances highlighting the strong comprehensive teaching capacity of STA.
In terms of the lectures and salons, apart from those to be given by such world renowned masters as Lin Huaimin, Rong Nianzeng and Ye Jintian, those to be given by the professors of STA will be one of the highlights of RAW this year. There will be 35 lectures in total and 13 of them will be given by STA professors, with the topics ranging widely from international exchange to stage design, from Aesthetic critics to role culture, from digital media to Chinese theatrical art. Such a rich program will supply the audience with abundant intellectual food, as well as demonstrate to the society STA’s strong and resourceful faculty.
STA will always put on its shoulders the task of contributing to the cultural undertaking of China and Shanghai. Especially at this time when Shanghai as a city is undergoing an economic and social transition, the role of culture and art become more prominent. It is against this background, STA will carry forward its fine traditions of serving the society and, at the same time, work proactively in building up the integrated teaching platform of “industry, study and research” and thereby injecting fresh vitality into the enrichment of the city’s cultural connotations. We believe, with STA becoming the main venue of RAW this year once again, the young artists will have a broader stage to demonstrate their capabilities fully. This is a reflection of STA’s overall educational strength. It also provides the general public an experience of aesthetic appreciation filled with campus atmosphere.
