From 12 to 15 October 2020, the second phase of “Playwriting Teaching Workshop” of Meng Bing’s Art Studio for Drama Creation, a project of the Culture-Education Integration Studios Program 2020 of Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA), was successfully carried out in STA.
Mr Meng Bing, vice chairman of China Theatre Association, national first-class playwright and part-time professor of STA, continued to provide teaching guidance for students. This course still adopted the mode of targeted analysis of scripts created by individual students plus summarization provided by way of classroom lecture on theories. Mr Meng further guided the students to master the essentials of playwriting skills.
The theme of the classroom lecture on theory was "Thematic Drama Theory Class". In the class, the students listened attentively to the cases shared by Mr Meng and his valuable creative experience, took notes carefully, and engaged in active discussion with Mr Meng in the group work.
Among all the submitted scripts, Mr Meng Bing, through comprehensive evaluation, plans to select the script created by one of the students, that is, “Wall” by Zhang Xin, as the script for the students’ play incubated from the outcome of this project, and provided targeted guidance for it, so as to constantly improve and polish the script. The studio is also actively setting up a performance team to prepare for the show. After the course, Mr Meng communicated with the director for the rehearsal of the play. The director said that he would also submit the director's plan as soon as possible, and strive to ensure that the play has a good stage presentation.
Under the professional guidance of Mr Meng Bing, this course has once again enabled the students to gain a lot in both playwriting theory and practical writing. It has broadened their thinking and imagination and, at the same time, laid a solid theoretical foundation for playwrights’ creation. The drama is created for the stage. We hope that all script texts discussed by Mr Meng and the students in the classroom would be put on the stage as soon as possible.
