7 November 2014
Recently, the 4th China Campus Theatre Festival was opened at the STA Theatre of the Shanghai Theatre Academy. The theme of this year’s festival is “Chinese Dream, Youth Dream”. During the festival from 3 to 12 November, the plays from 33 universities all over China will be staged in competition for the Campus Theatre Award of China Theatre Awards. On 5 and 6 of November, the play representing the Shanghai Theatre Academy, freehand drama “Chinese Dream” was staged at the STA Theatre. This was the second time that this play was staged after its debut in 1987.
The formal performance of “Chinese Dream” was on the evening of 6 November. Members of the STA leadership, including President Mr Han Sheng, Deputy Party Secretary Ms Hu Min and Vice President Mr Guo Yu, attended the performance. Also attending the performance were Mr Yang Shaolin, General Manager of Shanghai Drama Arts Centre, Vice President and Secretary-General of Shanghai Theatre Association, Mr Mao Shi’an, Member of Executive Council and Deputy Secretary-General of Shanghai Writer’s Association, Mr Gu Gongsheng, Secretary-General of Arts and Education Committee of Ministry of Education and other representatives of the judges, who all spoke very highly about the play and performance. The judges expressed that although the play was adapted from the script of 1987, it has been endowed with new meaning against the background of the new era of today and that the additional elements of zither and dance have highlighted the freehand characteristics of the whole play even further. The judge highly praised the performance of Li Qianqian, the leading actress in the play and commented that her performance has combined the internal and external and was truthful and touching.
The STA Theatre was a full house that evening with students from universities in Shanghai and other cities coming in groups to watch the play. Before the performance, STA also launched the free tickets promotion targeting the general public via the university’s official Weibo as well as the Yiban online platform. The promotion was enthusiastically responded and all free tickets were taken very quickly. The audience expressed that the play created resonance in them, transforming the poetic dream on the stage into the reality of their life.
