20 October 2018

On the evening of 15 October, the Black Box Theatre of the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) was fully packed. Professor Nicholas Barter, a famous British director and former Principal of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, was invited by the STA Directing Department to direct a teaching production with the third year directing students, which was staged for five days. The play staged this time was Lover’s Labour’s Lost, a play of William Shakespeare, and it was also the first time that the play had ever been staged in China.

The production and performance of this play also received wide attention and strong support from leaders, teachers and students of STA. More than 20 experts and scholars attending the International Symposium on the Impact of Polish Theatre on Contemporary World Theatre attended the performance on 14 October. Lou Wei, Party Secretary of STA, Huang Changyong, President of STA, and Yang Yang, Vice President of STA attended the performance on 15 October together with some of the department heads and professors of STA, and spoke very highly about it. After the performance, director Nicholas Barter said affectionately, "This is the seventh play that I have directed at the STA Directing Department, and it is also one of Shakespeare's most difficult works, but I am honored to work with such an excellent group of students who have re-interpreted this play with their enthusiasm and creativity and added new vitality to it.” Teachers and students of the third year directing class also thanked Mr Barter for his teaching and directing over the past one month or so, and expressed that they would continue to work hard, study conscientiously and create even better works in the future.