16 December 2019
The awards of the 2019 Shanghai Stage Art Works Selection and Performance (Large-scale Works) were announced on 12 December. The original large-scale drama Military Song (a China National Arts Fund project in 2018) of the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) won the Outstanding Works Award (ranking the first in the drama category. Xu Wei, a Class of 2016 postgraduate student of the Department of Directing who acted the leading role Zheng Lucheng in the play “Military Song”, was honored with the “Rising Star Award”.
As one of STA’s productions paying tribute to the National Day of the People’s Republic of China, the large-scale original drama Military Song has brought together the remarkable main creative team and professional cast team of STA to make it. The playwright of the play is Professor Sun Zuping, the chief director is Lu Ang, Dean of the STA Department of Directing and title-winner of Outstanding Director of the New Century, the director is Wang Jiajian, a young teacher of the Department of Directing, the producer is Weng Zenghui, General Manager of the STA Theatre, and Zhou Shanghua, and the chief stage designer is Hu Zuo, Deputy Dean of the STA Department of Stage Design. In addition, the lighting designer Shen Qian, character modeling designer Feng Yanrong, and multimedia designer Guo Jinxin etc are all highly accomplished professionals of the industry. The strong main creative team has laid a solid foundation for the successful performance of the play. In terms of the actors, the professional cast team has brought together teachers and alumni of STA, undergraduate, master’s degree and doctoral students of the STA Department of Directing, and excellent actors from the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center and the Jiangsu Dramatic Arts Theatre. Xu Wei, a student of STA’s MFA Directing 2016, won the Rising Star Award of the 2019 Shanghai Stage Art Works Selection and Performance for his brilliant performance in acting the role of Zheng Lucheng in the play.
In addition, this play received the funding support as a listed project of the China National Arts Fund in 2018, and also received the funding support as a major artistic creation project of the Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation. The play premiered in June 2019 winning wide acclaim from the society. Subsequently, the whole play was further polished and upgraded in an all-round way. From 25 to 30 September, as the only one production selected for the 2019 Shanghai Stage Art Works Selection and Performance, it was staged again in a high profile, and won a strong response.
For STA, Military Song is very worthy of preservation and reproduction. It should not only be used as a repertoire, but also as a three-dimensional course and a special course. All new students should watch it once, and all students of directing and students of acting should perform it once before graduation, so as to let the students feel the relationship between art and their life.
