Now entering its second decade, the College Drama Festival of Shanghai has become the premier showcase for the city’s numerous college drama clubs. Over 60 groups are vying for one of the coveted 15 spots to perform on the stage of the city’s only national drama center, the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center.
Organized by the venue in partnership with the Shanghai Youth League and Dramatists Association, the festival provides a valuable incubator for young theatrical talent. While the festival starts on April 7, it’s a multi-month process with many of the participants taking lectures, workshops and training courses offered by the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center to prepare their pieces.
“We believe the continued success of the College Drama Festival is due to its competitive format,” explains the festival’s producer, Zhang Yi. “The trick is that it’s easier to attract attention for a competition compared to a pure performance.”
“Unlike Western education, drama is never included in our curriculum. Some clubs don’t even have their own rehearsal space. By joining hands with groups like the Shanghai Youth League, we’re able to entice more people to participate due to how prestigious winning the championship is.”
With no professional training and sometimes lacking any prior drama experience, the festival’s participants must balance a passion for theater with the reality of future job opportunities.
It’s a plight that Zhang empathizes with. “Once I joined a college drama club, I thought about it all the time,” she says. Rather than pursue the opportunities provided by her law degree, she instead joined the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center after graduation. “I worked backstage then, taking care of the props,” she laughs. “It wasn’t an easy job.”
Passion isn’t lacking within the festival. Participating clubs submit demos with judges trying to see as many performances at the colleges as possible. Once the final 15 are narrowed down, the clubs work directly with judges on fine-tuning their productions. After they are staged at the venue, a group of judges award major prizes for best directing, producing and acting.
“College students are getting innovative and so are we,” Zhang says. “We don’t put too many restrictions on their performance and we don’t mind getting razzle-dazzled, as long as it’s not a musical or a dance piece.”
Since debuting in 2003, the College Drama Festival has become one of the biggest showcases in Shanghai of non-traditional Mandarin theater. What the groups may lack in professional polish, they make up with sincere expressions of their worldview.
One of the more interesting things that Zhang sees is the diversity among the plays and its groups. “The most impressive thing is how the different mindsets of the post-80s and post-90s generation reflect in their performance,” she notes.
“It would be ridiculous for us to keep labeling the latter as self-centered and carefree when they carry deeper thoughts. The works by the former tend to have more romance involved.”
Zhang cites last year’s festival as an example of the festival’s growing diversity, contrasting two of Northeast Normal University’s drama clubs, Yang Zhi Shui and Jing Bilingual Drama Club.
Formed in 1999, Yang Zhi Shui are frequent festival winners and their 2013 production Sheng Yu Longtang (translated as Born in the Alley) was a grand attempt to present Shanghai’s history through the perspective of alley residents.
“It was a big story full of detail, from the dialogue to the costumes,” she gushes. “The show’s themes echoed our 10th anniversary celebrations perfectly.”
Jing Bilingual Drama Club formed last year and impressed last year’s judges for different reasons. Rather than compete with their sister club’s grandiose production, their show Sheng (Living) [see left] was a 15-minute exercise in physical theater with five performers. It won First Prize in the newly created short play category.
“We’re glad that most contestants are writing their own scripts and appreciate that more colleges are starting to become aware of the importance of supporting their own clubs,” Zhang says. “After all, these young people will be controlling our culture in the future.”
// The Shanghai College Drama Festival starts Apr 7 at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, 288 Anfu Lu, by Huashan Lu 徐汇区安福路288号, 近武康路 (5465 6200, www.drama-china.com). For more information about the show’s schedules, visit www.drama-china.com
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