Winter Institute 2012: Performing Shanghai

January 5th through 20th

Hosted by Shanghai Theatre Academy and

Co-sponsored by Brown, NYU, Princeton & Yale Universities

Scholars, practitioners, and students from the US and China will be gathering in Shanghai to explore the physical, theoretical, and theatrical geographies of contemporary performance, and to contribute to this city's ongoing transformation, sharing experiences from other metropolises and other traditions. This event is not just about Shanghai. It's about the macrocosmic shifts and potentials coming to light here on this unusual stage.

Topics of lectures, seminars, and workshops will cover:

  • the creative process in the theatre
  • community culture
  • urban planning and event planning
  • intercultural performance

Faculty will include :

  • Rebecca Schneider (Chair, Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, Brown), Jill Dolan (Director, Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies and Professor, English and Theater, Princeton), and Stacy Wolf (Professor, Theater, Princeton) on Feminist Theatre/Performance Studies
  • Other Brown faculty: Erik Ehn on Writing for Performance Across Media; Eng-Beng Lim on Lost in Translation: Asian American Texts in Intercultural Perspective; Kym Moore on Stage Movement: Presence in Performance; Michelle Bach-Coulibaly on Inner Necessities: Movement-Based Improvisation
  • Richard Schechner (University Professor, NYU; editor, TDR: The Drama Review, a Journal of Performance Studies) on Rasabox
  • Other NYU faculty: Carol Martin on Documentary Theatre
  • James Bundy (Dean, Yale School of Drama; Artistic Director, Yale Repertory Theatre) on Acting Checkhov
  • Other Yale faculty: Wendall Harrington on Projection Design; Catherine Sheehy on Comic Theories and How Dramaturgs Work with Playwrights; Jessica Wolf on Alexander Technique
  • Wu Zhiqiang (General Architect, 2010 World Expo Park; Vice President, Tongji University) on Designing World Expo
  • Li Tiangang (Professor, Fudan University) on The Intercultural History of Shanghai
  • Ye Changhai (China's foremost scholar of the history of Chinese opera, Chair of STA's Academic Committee) on Chinese Opera Today and Beyond
  • Guo Yu (Dean of STA's Chinese Opera College) on Community Performative Culture.
  • Weng Minhua (Professor, Shanghai Normal University) on An Ancient Women’s Festival Revisited/Revived

Selected lectures and presentations will be published in the STA issue of TDR, to be edited by TDR Consortium Editor William Huizhu Sun.

During both weekends, STA will offer guided site-specific events:

  • A visit to two rural towns near Shanghai. 1. Jinze, an anthropologically experimental site recognized for its revival of and innovation in green living, where we will observe reconstructed ritual performances. 2. the canal town Zhujiazhao, where we will see performance art "Water Music," composed and designed by the world-renowned composer/conductor/director Tan Dun, including a talk with him.
  • A trip to the historical city of culture, Hangzhou, where we will see Beijing opera Oedipus Rex, and/or the Yue opera Hedda Gabler, with an all-female cast.

Scheduling will be flexible so as to provide opportunities for international and Chinese professors and students to share their experiences informally and explore possibilities for future joint projects and collaboration.

Students can participate for course credit if they choose. There is enrolment capacity for up to 60 students, international and Chinese. Tuition fees for students from the five sponsoring universities will be waived. Students from other universities can participate for a nominal tuition fee of US $2,000 and outstanding students may apply for scholarship support from the Academy. Hotel stays can be arranged for students by STA staff at a cost of approximately $25 per person per day in a double room. Meal subsidy will be provided for students.

Deadline of application: November 15, 2011

Contact person:
Karen Wang
Email:staiso@hotmail.com; Tel: 86-21-6248-5215; Fax: 86-21-6248-5596
Richard Schechner Center for Performance Studies
Shanghai Theatre Academy
630 Huashan Road
Shanghai 200040
China