When Dostoevsky's 200th Birthday Meets the 60th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Department of Directing of Shanghai Theatre Academy
On 12 November, the online performance showcase of the 5th International Festival of Theatre Schools of the BRICS Countries, Russia was held. The work of MA Directing 2021 students of Shanghai Theatre Academy “White Night” and their workshop to explore and discover the inner world of characters participated in this event.
The International Festival of Theatre Schools of the BRICS Countries is a grand celebration for young people engaged in theatrical arts. It is hosted by the Institute of Theoretical Arts named after J. Kobzon in Russia. It has been successfully held for four times and has become more and more influential. This was the Department of Directing’s third participation in this festival after “Oedipus” in 2019 and “Mother Courage and Her Children” in 2020, and was also the second online participation since the pandemic. In addition to participating in the International Festival of Theatre School of the BRICS Countries, as this year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Department of Directing, the teachers and students of the Department of Directing also presented a gift to the anniversary celebration of the department with their hard work and creative achievements.
In addition, in terms of the distribution of work for all aspects of the play, except that the lighting design was taken charge by the students majoring in lighting, the roles of director, script adaptation, producer, actors, stage design and costume and makeup were all filled by the MA students of the Department of Directing. The instructor of the play was Chang Peiting, a teacher of the Directing Department, the movement supervisor was teacher Fan Jie, and the script adaptation supervisor was Zhou Qianyu, a doctoral student of the Department of Directing. In addition, in terms of the distribution of work for all aspects of the play, except that the lighting design was taken charge by the students majoring in lighting, the roles of director, script adaptation, producer, actors, stage design, costume and makeup were all filled by the MA students of the Department of Directing. The students involved performed their respective duties, and strengthened the understanding of the cooperation between the various units of the crew in practice.
In addition to the performance, teacher Zhang Jialei led the students to explore and discover the inner world of the characters in “White Night” in the form of a workshop. This process was also broadcast live online during the International Festival of Theatre Schools of the BRICS Countries. Teacher Zhang integrated the methods of social metrology, performance studies and psychology into the acting and directing practices, and guided students to split, integrate and reshape the inner world of the characters. Students not only had a more in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the characters, but also had a richer understanding of the inner world of their own through this process.
