Campus Drama: A core player in the drama of the future

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On October 18th, the 2021 5th Lao She Drama Festival "Campus Drama , Life" theme forum was held as scheduled at Beijing Tianqiao Art Center. Aiming at the sustainable development of the drama industry, with the theme of "Campus Drama and Life", the Lao She Drama Festival invites professional scholars, well-known directors, screenwriters, drama educators, famous young dramatists and representatives of the participating theater troupes to talk about the development status of today's youth drama, understand the inner needs and ideological core of the new generation of theater, and jointly discuss the direction and trend of the future development of theater.

The soil for future Chinese drama

The theme of the first half of the forum was "Aesthetic Education, Drama, Life", and Peng Tao, Chairman of the Center of the International Association of Theater Critics and Director of the Department of Drama and Literature of the Central Academy of Drama, served as the moderator. Sun Huizhu, professor and doctoral supervisor of Shanghai Theater Academy, discussed the distinction between "big" and "small" in campus drama. Starting from his own experience, he pointed out that the development of drama education is not enough to rely on Chinese drama and drama, most of the more than 3,000 universities in the United States have drama majors, if the domestic comprehensive universities can be like Nanjing University, set up drama majors, establish drama clubs, and arrange more plays, drama talents will not be so young. Even if the method of double major and three majors is used to let students experience which major they prefer in four years, the job market of drama will be much better after three or four years. Some micro-theaters can also be added everywhere, and universities must have them first. He appealed for the support of professional theaters, and also especially called on the administrative departments of education and culture to see the trend of the development of theater in the world and attach importance to drama in the direction of university education.

Gu Chunfang, professor and doctoral supervisor of Peking University School of Arts, shared peking university's tradition of adhering to theater practice under "poverty" conditions – more than 20 societies spontaneously do drama festivals every year. Peking University campus drama is characterized by a high degree of independence, freedom and autonomy, compatible with arts and sciences, and a sense of classicism and modernity. Although there are many clubs, it has always been a condition of "poor drama", which confirms the students' natural passion and love for drama. Campus drama is like a weed on the wasteland, you don't have to trim it with a professional eye, you can appreciate it a little more. Campus drama is precisely the most core participant in the future of Chinese drama and the soil for future Chinese drama. Even if the comprehensive university cannot train professional dramatists, it can cultivate a group of very high-quality Chinese theater audiences.

Tian Huiqun, a professor at the School of Arts and Media of Beijing Normal University, said that they have contacted teachers from more than 100 primary and secondary schools across the country, and their extremely strong demand is to do campus drama, but they will write scripts instead of directing plays, and they are very eager to set curriculum standards for them, have a script library suitable for primary and secondary school students, and regularly train students and teachers.

Yan Quanyi, director of the Department of Drama and Literature of the China Academy of Performing Arts, believes that the small theater opera that has emerged in the new century has provided a good platform for young people to create and grow. Xiqu film and television literature education is facing unprecedented challenges, canceled the art examination, from high school students to plan enrollment in different provinces, "the students facing are different, we are under great pressure." The previous few talked about doing drama at the comprehensive university, and then the blue wisps of the road were all done with interest, but we were holding a job. The opera industry is so cruel that if he stays up until the age of 45 and has the opportunity to become a young playwright, he is likely not to survive this day. We need to give students the confidence to do whatever it takes to do practical exercises and opportunities on campus, even if it is an immature play, he may find himself. ”

From campus drama to professional drama

The second half of the forum was entitled "Campus Drama Moisturizing Growth Road", with drama director Shao Zehui as the host, drama screenwriter and director Zu Jiyan, screenwriter and director He Yufan, director Shao Sifan and other young dramatists with audience appeal and creative influence as guests, to discuss the growth path from campus to professional theater people.

Zhu Hongxuan and Wen Fangyi, two outstanding screenwriters who are hot at the moment, shared the same stage for the first time and shared their mental journey since they started their careers. Zhu Hongxuan resigned in November 2019, and a month later, the epidemic broke out and the performance venues were closed one by one. In 2018, she began to work as a director herself, because she couldn't find a director, "My first year as a director had a problem: I couldn't do subtraction, let the actresses go up to dance swords, sprinkle snowflakes, play, shadow puppetry, and all the bells and whistles were piled up." We lost more than a hundred thousand that year. We don't have investors, we don't have any official background, we don't have any corporate background, my producer is my good friend, and each of us pays out of the accumulated salary. The teacher of the prop group, with glasses to Pan Jiayuan, is ten pieces of ten yuan to bargain with others. I used to write plays first, especially like writing essays, not writing about living people, and I would only put more brushstrokes on people at the beginning of "Spring Death". ”

Wen Fangyi feels that life is not actually grasped by himself, but is affected by the external environment. If she hadn't written "Jiang Gong's Face" and not performed so many times, she might have found a career sitting in the office after graduation and lived as a theater lover. She said that she was fortunate to have a mentor who loved to toss and turn during a period of change of concept, and there was a black box theater like a fish. With so much help, we can have the confidence to continue to do this business in the future.

Starting from their own experiences, the professional guests shared the similarities and differences of drama on and off campus, providing valuable experience and suggestions for young theater people on how to enter the role and find a career development path. The guests pointed out that how to face the complex market environment, solve practical problems such as venue and stage, and how to promote their own works is the only way for every young creator who is about to go out of school. In addition to promoting the reform of the concept of drama education, calling on the whole industry and the whole society to pay attention to and support the development of young theater, young creators also use market-oriented thinking to arm their minds, improve their skills, and create more excellent works that meet the needs of the times.

Mr. Lao She's daughter Shu Ji sent a four-word message to this year's drama festival "Ben Gu Zhi Rong", which is in line with the intention of the theater festival to directly attack the fundamental development of the industry: to be the trumpeter of the youth theater industry, call on all walks of life to pay attention to the development of the theater education industry, promote the innovation of educational concepts, send outstanding talents, jointly promote the theater industry to "strengthen the fundamentals, develop and prosper", and accumulate reserve strength for "big drama to see Beijing".

【Source: Beijing Daily】

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