26 October 2017
At the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA), the graduation works of the graduating students in 2018 have recently entered the opening and rehearsal stage. On the morning of 24 October 2017, a working meeting on the Graduation Works Showcase 2018 was held in the conference of the Foxi Building. Chairman of STA Lou Wei participated in the meeting and gave an important speech. The meeting was chaired by President of STA Huang Changyong. Other participants of the meeting included the persons in charge from the Academic Affairs Office, Performance Centre, Graduate Department and Continuous Education College, as well as the persons in charge or representatives from various colleges and departments.
According to the preliminary arrangements for the graduation works showcase in 2018, STA intends to hold the graduation works showcase season in a focused way in May next year and launch a batch of outstanding graduation works. The various colleges and departments will focus on producing several outstanding works to participate in next year's graduation works showcase season. The Acting Department, Directing Department and Musical Theatre Centre will conclude the first round of the on-campus showcase of their respective graduation productions by the end of the current semester, from which the outstanding works will be selected for in-depth modification and then staged for public performances during the showcase season. The works of the graduate students in the design category and film and television category will join the showcase of the respective departments and, in the meantime, 20 MFA graduation works named under "Wisteria Blossom” will be presented for both on-campus and off-campus showcases from next month to May next year, from which several outstanding works will also be selected to face the test by the public during the graduation showcase season.
President Huang Changyong affirmed the achievements of the graduation works showcase in the recent years. He stressed that the professional quality of STA’s graduation works has improved steadily over the recent years, the time to showcase the individual works should be coordinated into a more concentrated period of time so as to create a scale effect like the “combination punch” in boxing, and an operational model featuring on internal and external cooperation and market-oriented operation of key productions should be adopted to create the influence of the STA brand in the society. He pointed out that the graduation works showcase is a key carrier of the export end of the talent cultivation and an important link of the talent cultivation chain of STA and that increased efforts should be made to further deepen the reform in the area of cross-disciplinary and integrated teaching and to build a comprehensive talent cultivation platform.
Chairman Lou Wei made a concluding speech, emphasizing that the graduation works should match the background of the era and deliver the mainstream values, and that all departments and offices of the university should make coordinated arrangements and overall planning to provide assurance and support to the graduation works showcase. In particular, he pointed out that in the course of talent cultivation, and in the context of credit system reform, we should break through the original system, break the class boundary and allow the cast of a production to recruit from the whole university. He also pointed out that we should aim high in terms of the artistic standards and that, on one hand, we should introduce artists from outside to create high-quality works of art during the showcase season and, on the other hand, we should select outstanding works from the teaching and promote them to the society. He asked that talent cultivation should be highlighted as the key point, and emphasis should be made in the selection of productions and works to highlight the requirements to “produce talents and produce outstanding works” as part of the guiding principles of STA in running the university, to highlight the strengths of the students, to produce good actors through good plays and to cultivate outstanding artistic talents for the society.
