On 4 November, an 18-member delegation of the Beijing People's Art Theatre led by Feng Yuanzheng, president and famous performing artist, came to the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) for research and in-depth exchanges with STA leaders, heads of various functional offices and faculties, as well as teachers and students.
On behalf of the university, Xie Wei, Party Secretary of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, extended a warm welcomed to the visit by the Beijing People's Art Theatre. The Shanghai Theatre Academy and the Beijing People’s Art Theatre have been actively carrying out multi-faceted cooperation for many years, and signed a strategic cooperation agreement in May this year, laying a more solid foundation for both sides to further expand and deepen their cooperation. In the context of building a new liberal arts and integrating science and art, the STA looks forward to working with the Beijing People’s Art Theatre to continuously achieve new results of cooperation in teaching practice, artistic creation, academic research and industry-education integration.
Feng Yuanzheng said that from the point of view of the current mix of performers at the Beijing People's Art Theatre, the Shanghai Theatre has long been one of the main forces in training and nurturing talent, and its open and inclusive teaching mode is more importantly a guarantee of the quality of talent training. He said that under the background of industry-education integration, the Beijing People's Art Theatre looked forward to working with the Shanghai Theatre Academy to carry out the exploration of Chinese genre of performance and come up with more cooperation projects with feelings, warmth and fruitful results.
Shen Liang, Director of the Academic Affairs Office and Director of the Graduate School, introduced the specialties offered at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, especially the examination and evaluation system and professional practice.
Guo Chenyan, Director of the Admissions Office, introduced the guiding principles and goals of STA's recruitment work under the new examination policy for art majors and the enrolment situation in the recent years.
Xiao Ying, Dean of the Acting Department, Hu Zuo, Dean of the Stage Design Department, Chen Jun, Dean of the Dramatic Literature Department, Lu Ang, Deputy Dean of the Directing Department, and Tie Zhong, Deputy Dean of the College of Creative Studies, introduced the situation of curriculum set-up, talent cultivation mode and professional practice in the context of the specialty construction of their respective department/college.
Jia Bo, Director of the Personnel Office of Beijing People’s Art Theatre, said that with the increase in the number of theatres at the Beijing People’s Art Theatre and the expansion of the scale of performances, the demand for talents has greatly increased, so there is a pressing need to deepen strategic cooperation with colleges and universities and explore a more effective talent co-training mode. This visit to Shanghai has further deepened the mutual understanding between the Beijing People's Art and the Shanghai Theatre Academy, and further clarified the direction of strategic cooperation in the future.
After the research meeting, representatives from the Beijing People’s Art Theatre held interactive exchanges with teachers and students from various colleges and departments. Feng Yuanzheng, in his capacity as a PT expert of Shanghai Theatre Academy, gave a special lecture entitled "What is Acting" to the Acting Department. The teaching demonstrations of "Directing Element Exercises" by the Acting Department, "Stage Design Techniques and Methods" by the Stage Design Department, "Adaptation of Novels and Structure of Full Plays" by the Dramatic Literature Department, and "Interdepartmental Performance Collaboration" by the College of Creative Studies all enabled the visitors from the Beijing People's Art to have an intuitive understanding of the teaching characteristics of the various majors at the Shanghai Theatre Academy.
Tang Ye, a National Grade A director and head of the Creation Office of Beijing People's Art Theatre, on the basis of his own career experience, shared his working experience in the first-line theatres and suggested that students should learn more and observe more, always stay in awe of the classics, and continue to study hard and refine their skills.
The delegation of the Beijing People's Art Theatre also included Sun Xuemei, Deputy Leader of the Performers’ Team, Meng Bin, a National Grade A stage designer, and some of the young performers and art management staff.
