11 July 2018
On the morning of 21 June, the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) held the academic symposium on the drama "Confucius" in the conference room on the 2 floor of the Foxi Building. Liu Qing, Vice President of STA, attended and presided over the symposium. Chen Jialin, playwright and, chief director of the play, Kong Xianghua, Confucius expert and professor at the East China Normal University, Li Wei, Editor-in-Chief of STA’s Dramatic Arts Magazine, Zhang Xiaoou, teacher at the STA College of Film and Television, Lv Yan and Wang Yang, teachers at the STA Acting Department, Zhang Wenjun, former editor-in-chief of the Shanghai Drama Magazine and STA alumnus and other key members of “Confucius” creation team and some Confucius research experts and scholars participated in the symposium.
The drama "Confucius" was rehearsed for several years and was premiered on 27 April this year. According to the director Professor Chen Jialin, many famous experts, young teachers, alumni and students of STA were involved in the creation and performance of the play, in response to STA’s education concept of cultivating qualified talents and creating high quality plays. With regard to the creation concept, Professor Chen Jialin said that he has been greatly inspired and enlightened by CPC General-Secretary Xi Jinping’s speech at the conference commemorating the 2565th anniversary of the birthday of Confucius as to how to treat and inherit the Confucianism. We should aim for the innovative conversion and creative development of the traditional culture. We should correctly evaluate Confucius and the Confucianism as well as the excellent traditional culture of China. It is of great significance to strengthening cultural confidence and promoting the prosperity and development of socialist culture.
The drama "Confucius" tells the main experience of Confucius's life in the form of epic drama. The plot is full of ups and downs, and the characters are vivid and lively. At the symposium, Vice President Liu Qing of STA said that STA has attached great importance to the rehearsal and performance work of "Confucius". From the initial project listing of the play through to the performance on the stage in the end, many meetings were held within STA to discuss, and strong support was rendered to the play by the Shanghai Culture Development Foundation and STA. The premiere of the play has achieved very good results. It is hoped that through further deliberation and refining, the play can be further upgraded with constantly improved quality, and that there would be opportunities for reproduction and off-campus performance.
From their respective professional angle, the experts and scholars participating in the symposium spoke highly about the play, and also put forward constructive opinions and suggestions, hoping that the play would be continuously refined and improved, and able to present even richer ideological connotation to the audience after the reproduction.
