From 22 to 29 October 2021, Shanghai Theatre Academy and Sichuan Conservatory of Music jointly hosted the 14th Asia-pacific Bond of Theatre Schools (APB) Directors' Conference and Festival in Shanghai and Chengdu.
On 25 and 26 October, the APB Directors' Conference and International Symposium were held with Sichuan Conservatory of Music being the main venue. Leaders and representatives of 23 member schools gathered online to discuss the future of education. Professor Gong Baorong, Secretary-General of APB and Director of the Center for International Theatre Studies of Shanghai Theatre Academy, co-chaired the meeting with Professor Ricardo Abad, President of APB, from Ateneo de Manila University. Professor Yang Yang, Vice President of APB and Vice President of Shanghai Theatre Academy, Professor Wen Yunying, Party Secretary of Sichuan Conservatory of Music, Professor Mou Wenhu, Vice President of Sichuan Conservatory of Music, Professor Wang Yan, Vice President of Sichuan Conservatory of Music, and Tobias Biancone, Director-General of International Theatre Institute, attended and spoke at the conference.
At the Directors' meeting, representatives of APB schools adopted “The Statutes of the Asia-pacific Bond of Theatre Schools” and discussed how member schools would jointly take on the work of organizing the activities of APB during the pandemic. Professor Wang Yan, Vice President of Sichuan Conservatory of Music, which was specially invited to participate in APB activities for the first time, provided a comprehensive introduction about the history and development of Sichuan Conservatory of Music to the experts and guests from the Asia-pacific region. It was expected that through this conference and festival, Sichuan Conservatory of Music would be able to have in-depth exchanges with many world-renowned schools and well-known scholars on the new progress and new thinking in professional and academic areas and stage practice.
The symposium was themed on “Multimedia and Shakespeare”, and was also chaired by Professor Gong Baorong. 13 scholars from APB member schools from the Philippines, South Korea, India, Iran, Australia and China exchanged their understanding, research and practice on "Multimedia and Shakespeare" through remote online connection and video sharing. From our university, Professor Lu Ang, Vice Dean of the Department of Directing, Associate Professor Yang Jia of the Department of Acting, and Teacher Chen Ying of the Department of Dramatic Literature, participated in the symposium as keynote speakers, and the topics of their respective speeches were: “The Creative Integration of Beijing International and National”, “Hamlet - Tibetan Students and Shakespeare” and “Surveillance, Camera and Shakespeare”. Their speeches were rich and profound in content, and were well received by all participating APB schools.
During the event, member schools shared their students’ works on the APB website, including “Hamlet” and “Much Ado about Nothing” from Shanghai Theatre Academy. In these works, students performed in different styles and explored from different angles, sharing their respective focuses of creation in the current stage.
In addition, teachers of each school also contributed gratis their own performance workshops and lectures with ethnic characteristics to APB, for everyone to watch and learn online.
Just as Vice President Yang Yang and Professor Gong Baorong of our university said, in face of the pandemic , new media and new technology bring new hope to the spread of theatrical art and brings a bright future, just as Shakespeare who is respected as a shining beacon in human history. It is very meaningful to explore the relationship between Shakespeare and multimedia through cloud technologies. Although separated from time, space and screen, the members of APB still talked about theatre with passion and enthusiasm. We hope that in the near future, we can have face-to-face artistic exchanges and make theatrical art even more brilliant.
