In the upcoming 2023 Shanghai Jing'an Modern Drama Valley Showcase,
STA’s academic style of the Shanghai Theatre Academy will be brilliantly presented once again
"Death Variations", directed by Professor He Yan and performed by teachers and students of the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA), is scheduled to be staged at the STA Experimental Theatre in late April and early May as a special invited play for the 2023 Shanghai Jing'an Modern Drama Valley Showcase.
The play is another masterpiece of Jon Fosse, a national treasure-level contemporary Norwegian writer. The re-production of this classic play, which combines betrayal and loneliness, tense intergenerational relationships, and alienated interpersonal relationships, will bring the audience philosophical and artistic reflections on life and death.
In 2010, Zou Lulu, a teacher at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, translated and published "Selected Plays of Jon Fosse". Before that, the domestic theater community had little understanding of the works of Jon Fosse. Fosse hence became indissoluble bound to STA, and his stage debut "Someone is Going to Come" was also staged at STA in 2010, for which He Yan was the director. That performance was the first time that Fosse's work was performed in public in China, and Mr Fosse flew from Norway to Shanghai especially for it, and after watching the performance, he spoke very highly of it.
Today, Fosse's works have become known to domestic theatre professionals and ordinary audiences. His other representative play, "Death Variations on Death", will also be staged as a graduation production of the Class of 2017 students of STA’s Department of Acting and Department of Stage Design, with He Yan as the director once again.
In order to participate in this year's Modern Drama Valley performance, the crew of "Death Variations" has been officially set up. A team composed of teachers and students from the Department of Acting, the Department of Stage Design, and the College of Creative Studies’ Art Management Major will focus on comprehensively displaying the unique artistic charm and stage expression of the play, and constantly make new attempts on art universities’ interpretation of the world’s leading contemporary dramatic works.
In the process of directing the play, Professor He Yan pays attention to the reproduction, imagination and creation of actors' body, voice, language, feelings and physical memory, allowing them to explore their own acting and expression methods, and giving them sufficient space for creation. The process of rehearsal is also a deep interpretation of the toughness and connotation of life, thereby exploring a higher level of understanding, asking questions in performance, and exploring in dialogue.
The Play:
2023 Shanghai Jing'an Modern Drama Valley Showcase Project
"Death Variations" produced by Shanghai Theatre Academy and presented by STA teachers and students
Time:
19:30, April 27th (STA internal performance)
19:30, April 28th (tickets for sale)
19:30, April 29th (ticket for sale)
19:30, April 30th (ticket for sale)
19:30, May 1st (ticket for sale)
Venue:
STA Experimental Theatre
(No. 630, Huashan Road, Jing'an District, Shanghai)
