27 January 2015
In the evening of 22 January 2015, after one month’s preparation, the two originally created plays of the students of the Shanghai Theatre Academy-Columbia University joint MFA program as their assignments, i.e. Family Teacher and Country of Dream, were staged successfully at the Black Box Theatre of Shanghai Theatre Academy’s Lianhua Road campus.
The performance of these two plays marked the conclusion of the Shanghai Theatre Academy-Columbia University joint MFA program. The plays were written by the two MFA students from Columbia University under the guidance of Prof Lu Jun and Prof Sun Zuping of Shanghai Theatre Academy and directed by Prof Song Jie and Teacher Xu Yang of Shanghai Theatre Academy. Nearly 20 teachers and students of Shanghai Theatre Academy participated in the performance. The performance featured the selected sections of the original scripts and creatively combined the spirit of Chinese art into the originally created American plays. With the bold application of multi-media, dance and Chinese traditional theatre styles, the performance made a perfect on-stage presentation of the collision of fusion between the Chinese and American drama cultures, which were well received and highly appraised by the audiences.
The Shanghai Theatre Academy-Columbia University joint MFA program attributes to the introduction of Prof Ye Changhai, Chair of Shanghai Theatre Academy’s Academic Affairs Committee. The two MFA students coming from the USA to study at Shanghai Theatre Academy are students of Prof David Henry Hwang, Dean of Columbia University’s Department of Drama and famous Chinese-American playwright. Their supervisor at Shanghai Theatre Academy is Prof Lu Jun, Dean of Theatrical Literature Department, who is highly experienced in playwriting and teaching. To best fulfil the teaching requirements, Prof Lu Jun not only devoted fully to the teaching, but also developed a complete teaching plan including classroom teaching, observation opportunities and social field trips. He also organized the leading professors of Shanghai Theatre Academy, such as Ye Changhai, Gong Baorong, Sun Zuping, Yao Kougen, Song Jie, Zhang Fuhai and Liu Qing, to give courses on Spirit of Chinese Art, Comparative Study of Chinese and Foreign Theatres, Study of Chinese Stage Art Classics, Scriptwriting, Chinese Narration, Brief History of Chinese Traditional Opera, Guided Reading of Chinese Traditional Opera Classics and Chinese Traditional Opera Directing etc. At the same time, Prof Lu Jun organized the participation of 14 visiting scholars, doctor’s degree students and master’s degree students with good English proficiency throughout the program. With the entirely new perception of the Chinese art spirit and Chinese theatre art and with detailed analysis and focused guidance of the supervisor, the two students from Columbia University revised the original scripts significantly. Through the joint translation by the Chinese teachers and students as well as the coordination with the performing team, they finally selected the finest sections of the two plays and presented a 90 minutes performance on the stage.
After the performance, Prof Lu Jun chaired a roundtable meeting to wrap up the joint MFA program. He said that the on-stage performance this evening achieved unexpected effect and this result was harvested through the enthusiastic and painstaking efforts of all teachers and students involved. Everyone who participated in this program and the performance made their best efforts. The postgraduate students who acted as the teaching assistants and “accompanying tutors” not only helped answer and clarify the questions and queries of the students from Columbia University on a daily basis and in a timely manner, but also studies conscientiously and participated actively in all activities of the teaching plan. What was especially commendable was that during the winter vacation, all of them gave up the time for family reunion and stayed on until the conclusion of the program. Prof Lu Jun made a comparison of the different ways of thinking in playwriting between the Chinese and American postgraduate students of playwriting and commented that the imagination of the students of Columbia University is worthy learning, while the technique-focused strength of the students of Shanghai Theatre Academy also deserves recognition. While warmly commending the students for the quality of playwriting and performance, Prof Ye Changhai spoke highly about this teaching and practical activity and thought it could get the full mark. Prof Song Jie expressed that he felt honoured to be part of this excellent team and that it was an unforgettable experience of teaching and creation. The two MFA students from Columbia University said that they had never been to China before and never imagined their plays could be staged in China. They said that it was this program that has realized all these for them in a perfect way and also enabled them to appreciate the beauty of the Chinese culture which is different from that of the US and experience warmth and sincerity of the Chinese teachers and students and that they would remember this journey of theatre forever.
