8 January 2015
In the afternoon of 6 January, the plague conferring ceremony of the Shanghai Theatre Academy Student Off-Campus Practice and Education Base was held at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, during which the Shanghai Theatre Academy formally signed the cooperation agreement with the Shanghai Centre of Dramatic Arts for in-depth exchange and cooperation between the two parties in the cultivation and supply of drama talents. Mr Lu Jing, Deputy Director-General of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, Mr Han Sheng, President of Shanghai Theatre Academy, Mr Yang Shaolin, Vice President of SMG Performing Arts Group and General Manager of Shanghai Centre of Dramatic Arts, Ms Zhen Lei, Official of Culture and Education Division of CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee’s Publicity Department and Mr Zhang Huiqing, Deputy Party Secretary of Shanghai Centre of Dramatic Arts attended the ceremony. The ceremony was chaired by Mr Huang Changyong, Vice President of Shanghai Theatre Academy. Attendees from the Shanghai Theatre Academy also included Mr Zhang Jun, Director of President’s Office, Mr Li Zhenglin, Academic Affairs Division, Mr Long Junjie, Dean of Acting Department, Ms Han Xuesong, Party Secretary of Directing Department and Mr Liu Zhixin, Deputy Dean of Creative Studies College.
Mr Zhang Huiqing introduced the main facts about the base. As a national level practice and education base, the Shanghai Centre of Dramatic Arts has a resourceful creation, performance and international exchange platform for stage arts and will provide the students of the Shanghai Theatre Academy with a platform for practical training. The main direction of the cooperation is the provision of internship opportunities. In the next 12 months, the Shanghai Theatre Academy will send its students to the Shanghai Centre of Dramatic Arts for internship in a number of departments. During the internship, a dual supervisor system will be adopted with which the students will work under the joint guidance of the specialized teachers of the Shanghai Theatre Academy and the industry supervisors of the Shanghai Centre of Dramatic Arts. The internship program will involve a large amount of work contents covering almost each and every major taught at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. The internship program will focus on cultivating the practical, research and innovative abilities of the students of art majors, with the objectives to increase their practical experience, shorten their employment adaptation period and improve their professional competence as well as their employability and entrepreneurship.
On behalf of the Shanghai Centre of Dramatic Arts, Mr Yang Shaolin expressed that the Shanghai Centre of Dramatic Arts has always had close ties with the Shanghai Theatre Academy with 80% of its professional staff being graduates of the latter. He said that the Shanghai Theatre Academy is a famous art university in China and its graduates are extremely active in the cultural circle, for example, Mr Jiao Huang and Ms Xi Meijun, who won the Lifetime Achievement Award and Outstanding Contribution Award respectively at the recent awards ceremony of the Shanghai Culture and Art Award, are both alumni of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, who have made their valuable contribution to the art industry. He went on to say that the new collaborative initiative will make the cooperation between the two sides more transparent and guaranteed on original basis and that it will not only have impact on the self-development of the two organizations, but also be of great importance to the cultural development of Shanghai in the future.
Mr Han Sheng expressed that the Shanghai Centre of Dramatic Arts and Shanghai Theatre Academy has enjoyed profound connection historically and are also highly complementary in demand and, therefore, the new collaboration is a matter of course. The Shanghai Centre of Dramatic Arts is star-studded and its actors and actresses are seen in almost all hot movies and TV series. Moreover, its successful incorporation in 2013 has been a classic example in the industry. The cooperation between the two organizations is mutually beneficial and creates a win-win situation.
Mr Lu Jing gave his opinions on how to implement the new collaborative initiative. He pointed out that the new collaborative initiative of the two organizations truly reflects the student-oriented concept; however, how to take a good care of the real interests of the students and put in place a sound cooperation mechanism in the course of the implementation needs to be further explored and taken seriously. He hoped that both organizations would make their best efforts in the effective development of the practice and education base and set the winning of the next national-level teaching achievement award as the target.
