7 November 2017
(Forum in progress)
(Chairman of STA Lou Wei giving a speech)
(Group photo of participants)
From 1 to 5 November 2017, sponsored by the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) and organized by STA's Department of Dramatic Literature, Centre for International Theatre Studies and Tian Mansha Xiqu Innovation Studio, the “Academic Forum on Theatre in International View” was held successfully at STA.
The international academic forum and expert workshops on this occasion covered two themes, namely, “Between Innovation and Preservation” and “The Discipline of Theatre Studies and Its Development”. There were more than 80 participants to the forum, including experts from USA, Germany, Holland, Italy, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Australia, India, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, as well as leading artists and scholars from the theatre and performing arts circles in Beijing, Tianjin, Yangzhou, Shandong, Liaoning, Nanjing and Shanghai.
After two days of international expert workshops from 1 to 2 November, the opening ceremony of the academic forum was held at the New Space Theatre of STA on the morning of 3 November. Lou Wei, Chairman of STA, Jean Graham-Jones, Chairman of International Federation for Theatre Research（IFTR）, Luo Huaizhen, Vice President of China Theatre Association, and Christopher Balme, Professor at Munich University, Chair of Theater Studies at Munich University delivered the opening remarks. The opening ceremony was moderated by Gong Baorang, Vice President of STA. The following foreign experts attended the opening ceremony, as well as the responsible persons of the relevant colleges, departments and functional offices of STA.
Hans-Thies Lehmann, Professor of Theatre Studies at the Johan Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
Marvin Carlson, Professor at Graduate Center of City University of New York, former Dean of Theatre Department of Cornell University, Honorary Professor of Shanghai Theatre Academy
Hans-Georg Knopp, Honorary Professor and Senior Consultant of International Strategic Development at Shanghai Theatre Academy
Stefan Kimmig and Katja Hass, Director/Stage Designer
Peter Eckarsall, Professor and Executive Officer of the PhD Program in Theatre at the Graduate Centre, City University of New York
Jayachandran Pallazhy, Artist/Director/Choreographer
After the opening ceremony, at the venue for the theme of “Between Innovation and Preservation”, the topics were explored in form of a three-party dialogue between the moderator, the speaker and the dialogue guest. Experts from home and abroad carried out in-depth academic exchange and discussion on and around the topics of “The Role of Art Institutions”, “Traditional Performances”, "Reconstruction of Tradition” and “Impact of Technology”. Professor Christopher Balme and Professor Marijke Hoogenboom spoke on the topic of “Institutional Aesthetics”. Professor Marvin Carlson spoke on the topic of “The Heritage of Theatre: What is (a) Theatre”. Professor Luo Huaizhen spoken on the topic of “Re-localization of Local Opera”. Mr Wang Renjie shared his experience in the preservation and innovation of Liyuan Opera, the local opera of Quanzhou in China’s Fujian Province. In his capacity as a Kunqu Opera performing artist, Mr Ke Jun referred to two of his own experimental Kunqu Opera productions and talked about his exploration in transforming the art of Kunqu Opera from the most traditional to the most avant-garde. Mr Yu Rongjun, Vice President of SMG, spoke on the topic of “The Foundation of a Troupe” drawing on the experience of the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre over the past 20 years. As a director, Wang Xiaoying took his productions “Richard III” and “The Prince of Lanling” as the examples and talked about the “Modern Expression of Chinese Imagery” sharing his directing concept of the “cross-cultural” expression in artistic creation. Professor Lu Xiaoping spoke on the topic of “The Direction of Theatrical Innovation and The Way of Preservation”. Mr Ong Kengsen took Singapore as the example and gave a detailed talk about the organization of a successful city art festival from the aspects of theme, public relations and content framework etc. Stefan Kimmig and Katja Hass spoke on the topic of “What Can We Learn from Old Pieces for the Present”.
There was a dedicated “Youth Forum” at the academic forum this time. Eight young and very active scholars and artists in theatre practice were invited to join the discussion. They shared their respective academic achievements and experiences in artistic creation from different perspectives and added the fresh and young voices to the forum reflecting truthfully their practical thinking towards the theatre studies and creation.
At the venue for the theme of “The Discipline of Theatre Studies and Its Development”, Hans-Thies Lehmann, Professor of Theatre Studies at the Johan Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, first made a keynote presentation on the topic of “The Origin and Development of Theatre Discipline”. Then, scholars from different countries and regions had a sharing session during which they gave reports based on their respective papers. The papers of Wei Mei, Associated Professor of STA, and the papers of Li Jiaying and Wang Lintong, PhD students of STA, introduced the achievements in many aspects of the development of the theatre discipline in Germany, UK, USA and Taiwan of China. Professor Kalina Stefanova of Bulgaria’s National Academy for Theatre and Film Art and Professor Artur Duda of Poland’s Nicolaus Copernicus University introduced the history and current situation of the development of theatre discipline in Bulgaria and Poland respectively. The participating experts had a heated discussion about the current status and future trends of the development of the theatre discipline in Chinese and internationally. Professor Ding Jianjun of Shandong University of Arts, Professor Liu Zhenhua of Jilin College of Arts and Associate Professor Liu Hongwei of Shenzhen Universitgy shared the experiences and issues in the teaching for postgraduate students in theatre related majors.
The presentations in the second part of the session were on the topic of “Theatre Studies”. The speakers were Professor Chen Jun of Yang Zhou University, PhD candidate Yang Guang of Nanjing University and Associate Professor Wang Tairui of Chinese Culture University. Also, foreign scholars shared and introduced the forms and styles of local theatre in Malaysia, India and Australia, which added diversified information for theatre studies to the forum and broadened the participants’ vision of studies.
On the afternoon of 5 November, the closing ceremony of the “Academic Forum on Theatre in International View” was held. The closing ceremony was moderated by Professor Liu Qing, Dean of Department of Dramatic Literature, STA. Professor Hans-Thies Lehmann delivered the concluding remarks to wrap up the academic forum.
The success of this “Academic Forum on Theatre in International View” will serve as the starting point for more international sharing and collision to bring together ideas and theoretical achievements at the most leading edge in the field of theatre and to build a flourishing future for theatre studies and theatre practice.
