22 December 2017
On the evening of 16 December, the teaching result showcase of the Playwriting Workshop on "Hundred-Character, Thousand-Character and Ten-Thousand-Character Plays" was held at the New Space Theatre of the Shanghai Theatre Academy staging the "Thousand-Character Plays" special performance of the 3rd season. With the support of the Shanghai Culture and Education Integration Office and the Sports, Health, Arts and Science Department of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, the showcase was jointly sponsored by the Shanghai Campus Dramatic Text Incubation Centre, Shanghai Theatre Academy Dramaturgy Studies Centre and Lu Jun Dramaturgy Innovation Studio (a model worker innovation studio accredited by the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission) and was co-organized by the Shangyi Drama Association.
All of the seven plays participating in the showcase were the classroom assignments at this year’s Closed Playwriting Workshop on "Hundred-Character, Thousand-Character and Ten-Thousand-Character Plays" for Schools in Shanghai. From 11 to 25 July this year, the teaching team led by Professor Lu Jun provided closed training for over 30 teachers of middle and primary schools in Shanghai. During this period of 15 days, under the instruction of the teaching team, those trainees without any prior playwriting experience learnt the playwriting techniques, tried with playwriting and managed the transformation from a layman for drama to an apprentice for drama. After the conclusion of the summer workshop, the trainers continued to modify the scripts and carried out the rehearsals elaborately in their spare time outside of daily teaching and, finally, made their debut on the stage.
After the showcase, Professor Lu Jun, the founder of the Playwriting Workshop on “Hundred-Character, Thousand-Character and Ten-Thousand-Character Plays”, provided the comments. Then, Professor Sun Chen, Secretary-General of the Shanghai Education Association, and Professor Yao Kougen, Professor Zhang Shengquan of the Shanghai Theatre Academy also provided their respective comments. They encouraged the trainees to continue to pursue their dreams in drama, accumulate experience of drama creation through practice, and actively spread the sees of drama to the minds of middle school students after returning to their respective schools. Huang Xi and Li Shitao, two of the instructors of the workshop, as well as Professor Xu Yu, Deputy Dean of Shanghai Theatre Academy’s Department of Dramatic Literature, and Yin Yonghua, Party Branch Secretary of Shanghai Theatre Academy’s College of Further Education, were also present to watch the showcase.
The Playwriting Workshop on “Hundred-Character, Thousand-Character and Ten-Thousand-Character Plays” is a new teaching method established by Professor Lu Jun based on his decades of practice, teaching and studies in playwriting. Since the establishment, the workshop has been run for 11 rounds within and outside of the Shanghai Theatre Academy benefiting more than 500 people. Open to all students at the Shanghai Theatre Academy as an elective course, it was selected by over 100 students in this semester. In recent years, Professor Lu Jun was frequently invited to teach this course in other provinces like Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hunan, Chongqing and Fujian to assist in the training and development of young playwrights in those places. Reportedly, as a project supported by the Sports, Health, Arts and Science Department of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, the Playwriting Workshop on "Hundred-Character, Thousand-Character and Ten-Thousand-Character Plays" has got the listing approval for the 2018 Shanghai Higher Education Key Project of Undergraduate Teaching Reform and for the Postgraduate Curriculum Construction Project of Shanghai Postgraduate Education Comprehensive Reform, and the workshop will continue to be held next year for the fourth season.
