At the Festival, it is not unusual to brush shoulders on the ancient streets with the masters of the world's theatre. The Wuzhen Dialogues are an integral part of the Festival, a platform that utilizes the presence of all the artists at the Festival to exchange thoughts and ideas about theatre and creativity, China and the world, the past and the future. The Dialogues are free to the public.
In the previous Wuzhen Theatre Festivals, audiences were treated close up to artist dialogues that included Honorary Chairman of the Festival Robert Brustein, European avant garde maestro Eugenio Barba, David Henry Hwang, Stan Lai, Huang Lei, Meng Jinghui, Tian Qinxin, Shi Hang, and Raymond Zhou, among others. Workshops were held by Odin Teatret, where participants learned theatre techniques close at hand from eminent theatre artists.
“Every year, artists, distinguished guests, and theatre masters come to the Wuzhen Dialogues to participate in this annual discussion about theatre. Here, the audience can get closer to these theatre artists and enjoy their thoughts and ideas on theatre, art, life, and the world in a relaxed atmosphere. The Wuzhen Dialogues series is an integral component of the Festival, and is free to the public. We hope that each audience member enjoys a hot cup of tea while feeling and listening to the true blend of the masters’ heart and soul in the dreamy town of Wuzhen.”
— Stan Lai
Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of the Festival
The Wuzhen Dialogues 2017
FORUM 1: LITERATURE, THEATRE AND WOMEN
10:00-12:00, 20 Oct.,
2017 TRADITIONAL STORYTELLING HALL
The opening forum discussion of this
Festival will focus on literature and its adaptation for the stage, with Onegin as a case study and its portrayal
of women characters at the fore. The guests will discuss both Chinese and
international theatre productions and trends from their unique experiences and
perspectives, offering insights into the evolution of the Wuzhen Festival and,
by extension, the present and future of theatre as an art form and as a way of
life.
Moderator: Stan Lai
Founder and Executive Chairman, Wuzhen
Theater Festival
Rimas Tuminas
Director of Eugene Onegin, Lithuanian theatre director; artistic director,
Moscow Vakhtangov Theatre
Olga Lerman
Actress, Moscow Vakhtangov Theatre; Tatiana
Larina in Eugene Onegin
Dai Jinhua
Professor, Comparative Literature and
Comparative Culture, Peking University; Director, Center for Film Studies and Cultural Studies, Peking
University
Tian Qinxin
Artistic Director, 5th Wuzhen Theatre
Festival
FORUM 2: THEATRE AND ARCHITECTURE
14:00-16:00, 20 Oct., 2017 TRADITIONAL
STORYTELLING HALL
As two of most important thinkers about
space, Chen Xianghong, whose works include Wuzhen Xizha and Beijing WTown,
and Yosuke Hayano who created the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Absolute
Towers in Canada, and Ordos Museum, among others, will hold a conversation on
space and the theatricality of space. Both of them have started from
humanitarian concerns and thought seriously about the future of Asia’s towns
and cities. A play is by nature a work of architecture; but what is the
theatricality of architecture? How does the most important element – the human
being – figure into it? This Dialogue in the water town of Wuzhen will take you
into this rarely explored interdisciplinary field.
Moderator: Huang Lei
Co-Founder and Producing Director of Wuzhen
Theatre Festival
Chen Xianghong
Co-Founder and Festival Chairman, Wuzhen
Theatre Festival
Yosuke
Hayano
Principal Partner, MAD Architects
Committed to exploring the future of
architecture; active
in both set design and theatre design
FORUM 3: ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE
10:00-12:00, 21 Oct., 2017 TRADITIONAL STORYTELLING HALL
Both theatre and literature obtain their
sources from life. Literature can present dramatic scenes and theatre, in turn,
may achieve more depth with literary values. At the end of the day, theatre,
literature and life may have parallels in that they all involve a certain form
of acting or making believe.
Moderator: Shi Hang
Juror for the Young Artists Competition,
Wuzhen Theatre Festival
Liu Heng
Writer, chairman of Beijing Writers’
Association; Vice-Chairman, China Writers’ Association
He Jiping
Writer for stage and screen; author;
playwright of The Top Restaurant; council member of China Theatre
Association
Liulian Zi
Novelist and script writer for Empresses in the Palace and Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace
FORUM 4: CONTEMPLATING THE SEAGULL
14:00-16:00, 21 Oct., 2017 TRADITIONAL STORYTELLING HALL
Anton Chekhov is one of the world's most respected and most loved playwrights.
But few truly understand his art. He seemed to turn drama into quotidian
situations, giving the rhythm of real life to the stories on stage. This has
often been interpreted as moments of boredom. Is his classic The Seagull a comedy or a tragedy? Why
did he have the fracas with director Stanislavski during the play's premiere?
It was clearly stated that The Seagull was a "four-act comedy." Where are the comic elements? Stan Lai
has done an acclaimed Chinese production of the classic, and a Lithuanian
production is included in this year's Wuzhen Festival. Together,
renowned Chekhov expert Lissa Tyler Renaud, veteran Lithuanian critic Ruta
Noreikaite, and Stan Lai will unlock the secrets behind Chekhov's aesthetics.
Moderator and speaker: Stan
Lai
Founder and Executive Chairman of the
Wuzhen Theater Festival
Rūta Noreikaite
Lithuanian
theatre critic, author, senior editor of performing arts website menufaktura.lt
Lissa Tyler Renaud
Master
teacher-director, InterArts Training; actress-scholar; critic, Critical Stages; senior writer, Scene 4.
FORUM 5: ACTORS ON ACTING
14:00-16:00, 22 Oct., 2017 TRADITIONAL
STORYTELLING HALL
Since its launch, the Wuzhen Theatre
Festival has been a big draw for big “names,” including superstars of the big
and small screens. They descend on the water town for the shows and, when
pressed, will also divulge some secrets of their magic-making craft.
Moderator: Huang Lei
Co-Founder and Producing Director, Wuzhen
Theatre Festival
Guests to be announced at the time of the
event
FORUM 6: RE-TRANSLATION OF SHAKESPEARE FROM PAGE TO STAGE
14:00-16:00, 24 Oct.,
2017, TRADITIONAL STORYTELLING HALL
This is a discussion about Shakespeare’s
language and theatre translation. The panelists will share their experiences of
making words come alive from page to stage, and of their approaches to
Shakespeare’s verse in a modern context. Other matters include: the clues
Shakespeare put into the texts for his actors, the special features of theatre
translation itself, and the key challenges specific to translating Shakespeare in
China. We will introduce the RSC Folio Translation Project and the reasons why
we are creating new Chinese translations for Shakespeare today.
Moderator: Raymond Zhou
Juror for the Young Artists Competition,
Wuzhen Theatre Festival
David Johnston
Theatre Translator, Professor of
Translation, Queen’s University Belfast, PhD Tutor
Owen Horsley
Theatre director, based in New York and
London; Associate Director, RSC King and Country Tour
So Kwok-wan
Associate Programme Director, Hong Kong
Arts Festival
Weng Shihui
Project manager for the Folio Translation
Project, Royal Shakespeare Company
FORUM 7: OBSERVING VENUS FROM MARS
14:00-16:00, 25 Oct., 2017 TRADITIONAL
STORYTELLING HALL
Men are from Mars and women are from Venus,
they say. But the charms of Venus have attracted many Martians. In the same
vein, many great female stage roles have been created by male artists. So, what
do men, as “outsiders,” have to offer when it comes to the shaping of women’s
roles on the stage? The two directors, from two of this year’s Invited Plays,
bring their respective cultural backgrounds to their discussion of this
fascinating topic.
Moderator: Nai-Chu Ding
Executive Director, Wuzhen Theatre Festival
Paulo de Moraes
Director, Water Stain; Brazilian
theater director, scenographer and playwright
He Nian
Director, Hummingbirds Fly Backwards; Director of Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center;
founder of “Nian Theatre”
FORUM 8: THOSE VIVID PORTRAITS
10:00-12:00, 26 Oct., 2017 TRADITIONAL
STORYTELLING HALL
It is commonly accepted that photography,
including portraits, and moving images such as film, and theatre such as plays,
belong to three distinct art forms. But they are connected in subtle ways. In
the age of celluloid, one second of film is made up of 24 still images. In the
early days of film, film was essentially a faithful visual record of a live
performance. And a great photograph, though it does not move, seems to
encapsulate the content of a play. The three guests for this forum discussion
have demonstrated unique approaches to interweaving photography with theatre.
Moderator: Shi Hang
Juror for the Young Artists Competition,
Wuzhen Theatre Festival
Xiao Quan
Chinese photographer
Known as “the best portrait photographer in
China,” Xiao has published several photography collections and held
exhibitions in France and Switzerland.
Volker Gerling
Director of Portraits in Motion, German photographer
Flipbooks are photos being thumbed into
motion. Portraits in Motion is the story of his experiences during his annual
walking journeys through Germany and Switzerland, especially of the people he
met along the way.
Li Yan
Chinese photographer who specializes in
capturing theatre productions and theatre artists.
Since the 1980s, has recorded the
development of contemporary drama in China (based in Beijing). Known as the
"living fossil of Chinese contemporary drama."
FORUM 9: FANTÔMAS BEYOND STAGE AND SCREEN
14:00-16:00, 26 Oct.,
2017, TRADITIONAL STORYTELLING HALL
A discussion featuring the creators of Fantômas, and international artists working in theater, and media arts and
theory. The panelists set the production in the context of current theatrical
and cinematic concepts of image, sensation, and spectatorship. Why is Fantômas
such a compelling historical figure for understanding "the revenge of the
image" in contemporary terms? How does the collapse of proscenium into
aperture offer new ways of thinking about the increasingly blurred lines
between embodied experience and virtual reality, the visual culture of mass
entertainments and the practical realities of everyday life?
Moderator: Stan Lai
Founder and Executive Chairman, Wuzhen
Theater Festival
Travis Preston
Director of Fantômas: Revenge of the Image, Dean of the School of Theater,
CalArts, Artistic Director of the CalArts Center for New Performance
Tom Gunning
Co-Creator, Fantômas, Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service
Professor, Department of Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago; film
historian and theorist
Jeannene Przyblyski
Provost, CalArts; artist, media historian
and critic
FORUM 10: CHINESE THEATRE GOING GLOBAL
14:00-16:00, 27 Oct.,
2017 TRADITIONAL STORYTELLING HALL
More and more Chinese theatre productions
are presented on the world stage, mostly in festivals, from which commercial
productions can seem somewhat remote. So, how much do overseas audiences like
Chinese theatre? What kind of shows do they prefer? What shapes their taste,
and does their taste evolve over time? Do we need to promote what we regard as
the best of our works, or should we calculate our offerings for the overseas
market?
Moderator: Meng Jinghui
Co-Founder of the Wuzhen Theatre Festival
Hans-Georg Knopp
Former secretary general, Goethe Institut; now
international advisor, Shanghai Theater Academy
Lissa Tyler Renaud
Master
teacher-director, InterArts Training; actress-scholar; critic, Critical Stages; senior writer, Scene 4.
Rossella
Ferrari
Reader,
SOAS University of London; Regional Managing Editor (China) of The Theatre Times
Nick
Rongjun Yu
Playwright,
Vice President, SMG Shanghai Performing Arts Group; Director, Shanghai
International Comedy Festival
FORUM 11: THE MUTUAL INVASION OF STAGE AND SCREEN
10:00-11:30, 29 Oct.,
2017 TRADITIONAL STORYTELLING HALL
In olden times, theatre and film were
comprehensive art forms that borrowed sources from each other but were
otherwise distinct. With the advance of technologies, films began to
incorporate ostensibly theatrical elements and, more often, theatre has been
even more audacious in experimenting with multimedia projections and other
forms of moving images that were once firmly in the realm of the film art. This
forum discussion approaches the topic from the perspective of operations, with
this year’s artistic director, Tian Qinxin, sharing her thoughts with the
technician who turns Shadow into
simultaneously a film recording and a live performance.
Moderator: Raymond Zhou
Juror for the Young Artists Competition,
Wuzhen Theatre Festival
Tian Qinxin
Playwright and director of Turmoil, Artistic Director, 5th Wuzhen
Theatre Festival
Christin Wilke
Camera technician for Shadow (Eurydice
Speaks); filmmaker and media artist from East Berlin
FORUM 12: SUMMARY AND PROSPECTS
14:00-16:00, 29 Oct., 2017 TRADITIONAL
STORYTELLING HALL
The
Wuzhen Theatre Festival has just passed the five-year landmark. If it were a
human child, he or she would now be in kindergarten. This
is a magical child, born in boundless innocence and dreams, and loved and
supported by so many people. Sometimes the scrutiny is so intense that it seems
to make the child precocious. But after all, we all want him or her to grow up
healthy. This forum discussion is similar in spirit to those snapshots you post
online of your children. More than that, it is an opportunity for those who
have given the most to the Festival to share their “parenting” tips.
Moderator: Huang Lei
Co-Founder and Producing Director, Wuzhen
Theatre Festival
Chen Xianghong
Co-Founder and Festival Chairman, Wuzhen
Theatre Festival
Stan Lai
Founder and Executive Chairman, Wuzhen
Theatre Festival
Meng Jinghui
Co-Founder, Wuzhen Theatre Festival
Tian Qinxin
Artistic Director, 5th Wuzhen Theatre
Festival
Workshop 1
OPEN
A DOOR AND FIND THE WAY: PU CUNXIN ON ACTING
10:00-12:00, 19 Oct. 2017, MINGYI
CONFERENCE ROOM, ZHAOMING ACADEMY INN
PU
Cunxin
Actor; Chairman, China Theatre Association; Vice
Chairman, China Film Society Of Performing Arts.
Pu has been an
actor with the Beijing People's Art Theatre for three decades, playing leading
roles in more than 40 productions, covering both classics and experimental
works. He has also appeared in many movies and television drama series.
As a major
presence on the Chinese stage, Pu is lauded for his solid performances and has
won numerous awards, including two Chinese
Drama Plum Blossom Prizes and Chinese Film Awards Best Actor Award. He is also
known as a philanthropist, lending his image and support to several causes,
including AIDS prevention and blood donation.
About the Workshop
Different from other subjects, acting
requires practice, practice and practice. An actor is expected to understand
and make full use of his/her own body. This acting workshop is a process of
peer learning by questioning, discussing, and inspiring together. I hope
everyone can come prepared and be ready for sharing to create an authentic
learning experience for us all.
Workshop 2
UNLOCK
SHAKESPEARE’S LANGUAGE: A ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY WORKSHOP
Part I: Workshop for theatre translators
10:30 - 12:30 & 14:00 - 17:00, 21
Oct., 2017, 2F, ZHAOMING ACADEMY LIBRARY
10:30 - 12:30 & 14:00 - 17:00, 22 Oct.,
2017, 2F, ZHAOMING ACADEMY LIBRARY
Part II: How to work with Shakespeare's
texts: workshop for directors and actors
10:00-12:30 & 14:00-17:00, 23
Oct., 2017, 2F, ZHAOMING ACADEMY LIBRARY
10:00-12:30, 24 Oct. 2017, 2F, ZHAOMING
ACADEMY LIBRARY
David
Johnston
Johnston is Professor of Translation at
Queen’s University Belfast. He is also a multi-award winning translator for the
stage, with over thirty translations professionally performed by, among others,
the BBC, the RSC and the Royal Court. He was recently described as “generally
recognized as the most innovative translator of the Spanish Golden Age in the
twenty-first century.”
Owen
Horsley
Trained at Drama Centre London. Directing
credits include Salome, by Oscar
Wilde (RSC), The Famous Victories of
Henry V (RSC), A Midsummer Night’s
Dream (Garsington Opera), etc. Owen worked with Artistic Director Gregory
Doran on four shows from 2013-2016.
WENG
Shihui
Shihui is the project manager for the Folio
Translation Project, Royal Shakespeare Company. Before joining the RSC, she was
an Associate Producer at the National Theatre of Scotland. She was also a
Cultural Advisor for Creative Scotland.
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
The workshop is part of the Royal
Shakespeare Company’s Folio Translation Project. Initiated in 2015, the Project
is creating new Mandarin language translations of Shakespeare’s First Folio for the stage, and is deeply
rooted in collaborative theatre practice. This workshop has two parts: the
first is designed for theatre
translators; the second is for theatre
practitioners such as directors and actors. The workshop will
investigate Shakespeare’s texts and share methods used in the RSC’s rehearsal
rooms. We will discuss how to approach Shakespeare’s verse; uncover the clues
Shakespeare put into the text for actors; explore how to evoke character, tone,
rhythm and thought whilst retaining the musicality of Shakespeare’s language.
Workshop 3
NEW
WRITING FOR THE THEATRE: A ROYAL COURT THEATRE WORKSHOP
Part I. Lecture: Sixty Years New
14:00-16:00, 24 Oct. 2017, MINGYI
CONFERENCE ROOM, ZHAOMING ACADEMY INN
Elyse Dodgson
International Director of the Royal Court
Theatre. Dodgson has been on the artistic team of the Royal Court Theatre for
the past 30 years. She created the International Department in 1996 where she
remains International Director. Since that time she has worked all over the
world creating long-term new writing projects in over 40 countries. Many of
these writers are now among the most important writers in their countries,
including Vassily Sigarev (Russia), Marius Von Mayenburg (Germany), Anupama
Chandrasekhar (India), Mongi Mthombeni (South Africa) and Guillermo Calderon
(Chile).
She will address play development at the
Royal Court Theatre from 1956 to the present and the impact this work continues
to have on theatre all over the world.
Part II. Group Discussion
10:00-12:00 & 14:00-16:00,
22-28 Oct. 2017, CONFERENCE ROOM, TONG AN HOTEL
From 2016-17, artists from the Royal Court
Theatre, London, worked with a group of emerging Chinese playwrights on
developing new, original and contemporary plays for China and the world. The
week-long workshop to be held during this year’s Wuzhen Theatre Festival, supported by the British
Council and Spirit of Youth campaign, will be the final
phase of the project.
April De Angelis
Writer
Carl Miller
Theatre Director
Sam Pritchard
Theatre Director
Workshop 4
THE ACTION BETWEEN ACTOR AND MASK: A THÉÀTRE DE LA
FEUILLE WORKSHOP
10:00-12:00, 24 Oct. 2017, MINGYI
CONFERENCE ROOM, ZHAOMING ACADEMY INN
ATA Wong Chun Tat
Ata Wong Chun Tat is a director,
choreographer, actor, movement coach and instructor. He graduated from the
School of Dance in Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and later studied at
École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France.
Wong formed the Théâtre de la Feuille in
2010 and led as director and artistic director. He has integrated physical
training from both East and West to train actors, as well as to create diverse
productions that have toured around the world. His directorial works include Sonnets, Papa, Zheng He, Zhuang-ji, L'Orphelin 2.0, I Want
Euthanasia and L'Orphelin, among
others.
He choreographed Très léger and Chater Road for
the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Contemporary Dance Series in the Hong Kong Arts
Festival; the musical Midsummer’s Night
Dream with Actors Family; Tracing
Some Places for the opening performance at The Mills Gallery, and more. He
was movement director for the crime thriller Three, a 2015 movie directed by Johnnie To.
About
the Workshop
Through
the application of different masks, the performers experiment with
multidirectional forms of their bodies and the rhythmic energy of body
language. It even leads the performers to explore
various actions with precision and clarity, experiencing the inner musicality
of the character, thus allowing the stance of the performer and the character
to clash organically. These masks serve as an acknowledgement of the distance
between actor and character; the divide between audience and stage. Within the
realm of imagination, one may venture further towards the unknown.
Workshop 5
AN AFTERNOON WITH ARTISTS OF FANTÔMAS: REVENGE OF THE
IMAGE
Part I. Workshop : Developing a Creative
Body
14:00-15:30 28 Oct. 2017, MINGYI CONFERENCE
ROOM, ZHAOMING ACADEMY INN
Fernando Belo
Actor, director and choreographer and
Performer of Fantômas - Revenge of the Image
This movement workshop focuses on
connecting actors, dancers and performers of all levels of training with their
most important creative tool: their own bodies. Through a series of exercises
created to “mind the gap” between impulse and realization, the students will
learn how to rely on their physicality as the source for any creative work of
performance, from preparing for a role to creating whole works for the stage.
Part II. Lecture : Fantômas in Serial
Novels, Silent Film and Avant-garde Memory
16:00-17:30 28 OCT 2017, MINGYI
CONFERENCE ROOM, ZHAOMING ACADEMY INN
Tom Gunning
Co-Creator of Fantômas - Revenge of the Image and Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman
Distinguished Service Professor with Department of Cinema and Media Studies,
University of Chicago.
Fantômas was the invention of two young
French writers who produced one novel on the exploits of this master criminal
every month from 1909 to 1913—32 volumes in all! The novels were immensely
popular with working class readers and were adapted in five films directed by
Louis Feuillade before WWI. In the 1920’s the mysteriously evil criminal
fascinated the modernist poets and painters in France who saw Fantômas as an
emblem of the chaos and revolt of modern urban culture.
Reading 1
STAND ON STAGE AND LIVE ELSEWHERE: A
TRIBUTE TO FOREIGN THEATRE MASTERS
16:30-18:00, 23 Oct. 2017, Woodcarving Hall
This is a reading composed of selections
from letters by Anton Chekhov and George Bernard Shaw, a biography of
Shakespeare, essays by Jean-Paul Sartre, diaries of Count Leo Tolstoy, among
others, together aiming to condense the history of theatre with insightful
snippets.
Reading 2
STAND ON STAGE AND THE REST OF LIFE IS JUST
A VACATION: A TRIBUTE TO CHINESE THEATRE MASTERS
16:30-18:00,
26 Oct. 2017, Woodcarving Hall
This is a reading of selections from essays
by Yu Shizhi, interviews with Shi Hui, letters by Cao Yu, the autobiographies
of Hou Baolin and Xin Fengxia, among others, together aiming to shed light on
some of China's stage classics.
Reading 3
PRESENTATION OF NEW WORKS BY CHINESE WRITERS
22:30-24:00,
28 Oct. 2017, West Warehouse Theatre
This reading will be the culmination of one
year and three months of discussions and creation. Highlights from some of the
original plays of the residency program will make their debuts in Wuzhen,
participated in by playwrights, directors and actors. This presentation, supported by the British
Council and the Spirit of Youth campaign, will be the
final phase of the new writing project.