There have been new achievements in the construction of Shanghai Songjiang's "Drama Town", creating a sample room for the inheritance of theater art

A few days ago, the China Drama Association Small Theater Drama Creative Talent Training Class was opened in Songjiang District. Nearly 50 writers, directors, actors and managers from small theaters across the country participated in the training, focusing on the current development of drama and cutting-edge theories, theater traditions and innovation, script creation, director exploration, performance practice, professional ethics and rights protection and other related topics, learning and growing together, through training to broaden their horizons, increase insights, and improve the level of practical skills.

Why is the training site located in Songjiang, Shanghai?

Lu Jun, chairman of the Songjiang District Federation of Literary and Art Circles, said that songjiang, as the "root of Shanghai", not only has a deep historical and cultural heritage, but also a deep-rooted theater art. Of the four classic dramas of ancient China, three are related to Songjiang. Yu Sulu, the "Saint of Jiangnan Qu", and his son Yu Zhenfei, the "Master of Jingkun", both studied and developed Kunqu in Songjiang. Songjiang is also the birthplace of Shanghai opera, and has walked out of a group of outstanding playwrights such as Wen Mu and Xu Linxiang.

Drama in Songjiang is not only the accumulation of history, but also the inheritance of culture. Since entering the new era, China's first opera reflecting the rural contract responsibility system, "Reassuring Pills", China's first drama reflecting the chaos and singing "A Movie Ticket", and China's first drama reflecting the theme of fighting the epidemic, "Nurse's Diary", are all written by the people of Songjiang.

In order to let the theater inheritance be inherited, Songjiang also led the country to take the lead in establishing the first district and county-level children and adolescent dramatists association, and launched the "First G60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor Nine Cities Children and Adolescents Theme Micro Drama and Micro Film Festival".

There is inheritance, development, and innovation, which is based on Songjiang's efforts in the construction of theater culture. In August 2021, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism officially named Xinbang Town in Songjiang District as the "Hometown of Drama".

"The landing of the China Drama Association Small Theater Drama Creation Talent Training Class in Songjiang is not only an affirmation of Songjiang's construction as a 'drama town', but also a talent training and direction for the better construction of a 'drama town'." The army said that Songjiang dramatists will seize the opportunity to take the high-quality completion of this training work as an opportunity to actively explore the future development path of small theaters, so that Shanghai Songjiang, the "hometown of drama", will become a sample of theater art inheritance, a test field for artistic innovation, and the main front for disseminating socialist core values. "While adhering to tradition, we should explore new forms of expression and give more diversified vitality to theatrical art."

It is reported that the training is well-organized, the course design is diverse, the content is rich, four consecutive days of centralized teaching, set up a series of courses such as special lectures, theme salons, field style collection, etc., full of information and full of knowledge points. The "special lectures" led by heavyweight experts and scholars have both theoretical height and practical depth.

Focusing on the development of small theaters, cultivating new talents and promoting new works has become the meaning of this training. In recent years, small theater drama has received widespread attention with its bold spirit of exploration and novel forms of expression, and its role and influence on the theater stage have increased day by day. As an important town of Chinese theater, Shanghai has made bold attempts and active explorations in small theater drama, and Shanghai successfully established the Shanghai Small Theater Opera Festival, which was later upgraded to china small theater opera exhibition and performance, becoming an incubator for young opera creation and performance talents.

Column Editor-in-Chief: Huang Yongdi Text Editor: Li Chengdong

Source: Author: Li Chengdong