16 November 2017
The First STA International Forum on Actor Training and Education opened successfully on 11 November. The enthusiasm of all participants remained high during the forum on 12 November. On the day, a total of 11 experts shared their views on actor training and education in succession.
The first session of the forum started on time at 9 am, and the meeting was chaired by Dominiquel Lecoyer, Director of Teaching, L'Ecole supérieure d'art dramatique du Théâtre national de Strasbourg. The firs speaker was Brian Kite, Dean of Theatre Department, University of California Los Angeles, who said that we should cultivate all-round and versatile artists from the point view of directors although it is not possible to cultivate versatile artists at once and it requires the integration of various parts thus working collectively towards the goals. The second speaker was Zhang Hui, President of Beijing Film Academy, who introduced the BFA’s philosophy of talent cultivation which is “Performing art is the art of people and the aim of talent cultivation is the liberalization of the actor his/herself”. The third speaker was Professor Marike Splint from University of California Los Angeles, who pointed out that a good acting school should combine theory with practice and it should be like a laboratory where the students can fail and take risks. Alexey Astakhov, Manager of International Affairs, Russian State Institute of Performing Arts, spoke on behalf of Professor Ury, Dean of Acting Department, RSIPA. Professor Agnes Devitte from L'École nationale supérieure des arts ettechniques du theater pointed out that the road of actors is to provide different ways for actors, not for different actors. Associate Professor Chang Lien-Chiang from National Taiwan University of Arts was the last one to speak and said that the world of today is ever changing and one needs to become a T type person in order to be competitive in the future and as such should not only deepen the professional acting capability but also widen the scope of specialties and connect with other fields.
After an excellent academic forum in the morning, the second session of the forum was held in the afternoon and chaired by David Bridel, Dean of School of Dramatic Arts, University of Southern California. The first speaker was He Yan, Dean of Acting Department, STA, who started with analyzing the current situation of actor training and education in China and raising the questions, then put forward the solutions which included the globalization of teaching resources, forward-positioning of disciplines, scientific development of majors and elite training of talents. Next, John Bashford, Dean of Acting Department, National Institute of Dramatic Art, Australia, Dominique Lecoyer, Director of Teaching, L'Ecole supérieure d'art dramatique du Théâtre national de Strasbourg, Blandine Savetier, and Soogi Kim, acting teacher of Korea National University of Arts, gave special talks with reference to the situation of their respective schools on how to carry out actor training and education.
At the end of the forum on the day, under the auspices of Professor He Yan, Mr Sergei Tcherkasski from Russian State Institute of Performing Arts screened his classic documentary “Stanislavski and Yoga”, which was well received by the audience. After the conclusion of the activities during the day and a brief break, two experts conducted the workshop of 12 November in the No.1 Physical Training Studio.
