Program Overview
WHO: Shanghai Theater Academy (STA), co-sponsored by Brown, NYU, Princeton & Yale Universities,
WHAT: A two-week intensive program which aims to explore, exhibit, and define how creativity, theatre, and the modern metropolis interact with one another, and what outcomes are possible with such international cross-fertilization of ideas and traditions.
WHERE: Shanghai Theater Institute, Shanghai, China.
WHEN: January 5 – January 20, 2012
American and Chinese students will learn together and from one another at the Winter Institute
Shanghai Theater Academy, China’s leading performing arts institution, invites students from America’s top universities to take part in a groundbreaking program, the first of its kind anywhere in China, to bring about fruitful collaboration among student artists and leading arts educators in the US and China.
At the Winter Institute, renowned faculty from Yale, Princeton, Brown, NYU, and STA will teach courses exploring the creative process in the theatre, community culture, urban planning and event planning, and intercultural performance, while they get acquainted with the exciting city of Shanghai.
In addition to coursework, STA will offer two guided cultural explorations during the weekends:
Hangzhou, China
- Beyond the Big Cities- Two Rural Towns (Weekend 1): Students will visit Jinze, an anthropologically experimental site recognized for its revival of and innovation in green living, where they will observe reconstructed ritual performances. Then they will be taken to the ancient canal town of Zhujiazhao, where they will see the performance piece “Water Music,” composed and designed by world-renowned composer, conductor, and director Tan Dun. We will also be able to chat with him after the performance.
- A Day at the Lake- Hangzhou (Weekend 2): Students will also travel to Hangzhou, a past Chinese capital, cultural center, modern tourist attraction, and the city that Marco Polo declared “beyond dispute the finest and noblest in the world,” where they will see Beijing Opera, Oedipus Rex, and Hedda Gabler.
By the end of the program, students will have not only learned more about their craft, but also about the possibilities that their craft represents in a modern world. They will see in action how international collaboration might broaden the theory, deepen the tradition, and expand the ideas that compose our artistic and cultural landscape. This event is not just about Shanghai. It’s about the macrocosmic shifts and potentials coming to light here on this unusual stage.
