Guest: Elizabeth LeCompte, Zhao Chuan
Date: 2014-09-26 14:00 ~ 2014-09-26 16:00
Address: Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre (Drama Salon on 3F, 288 Anfu Rd. Xuhui District)
SPEAKER: Elizabeth LeCompte
MODERATOR: Zhao Chuan
LANGUAGE: English (with Chinese translation)
VENUE: Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre (Drama Salon on 3F, 288 Anfu Rd. Xuhui District)
The lecture is hosted by Chronus Art Center and Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center
Reservation via membership@chronusartcenter.org (please indicate your full name, contact information and the number of reservation).
ABOUT LECTURE
Postmodernist theatre, since its rise in America in the 1960s, had set off a new trend of thought in theatre and been maintaining its momentum. In this context, The Wooster Group was founded in 1975 and enjoyed a rapid development. Their experimental theatre has a heavy touch of western postmodernism and is constantly breaking convention and restrictions of time and space, which is considered as a pioneer of contemporary theatre.
In the process of taking various artistic explorations, The Wooster Group had put great emphasis on the spirituality, profundity and vitality of theatrical work; it tried to make theatre into a new type of multiplex art, and presented it to the audience with new ways of expression. Compared to traditional theatre, their practice is more critical and incisive. At the same time, they’ve managed to maintain their unique artistic style in such a commercial environment, subverting tradition, revolting against classics and facing the reality directly. Against a backdrop of theatrical diversification, they eventually became the mainstream of contemporary theatre development.
The lecture will be given by Elizabeth LeCompte, director of The Wooster Group, and hosted by Zhao Chuan, founder of Shanghai’s local theatre collective Grass Stage. A conversation between the two guests will also be held after the lecture.
ABOUT SPEAKER
Elizabeth LeCompte (US) is one of the founding members of The Wooster Group. Since 1975 she has constructed—choreographed, designed, and directed—all of the Group’s productions, including nineteen theater pieces, five dance pieces, and nine works for film and video. LeCompte has received numerous awards and honorary doctorates from the New School and California Institute of the Arts.
ABOUT MODERATOR
Zhao Chuan (China) founded the Shanghai theatre collective Grass Stage with his colleagues in 2005, and has since devoted himself to the promotion of new social theatre movement and the creation of non-for-profit public space and theatre aesthetics. Becoming a visible force of alternative theatre in China, he and the collective stimulate average people’s energy on stage, create theatrical works, organise cultural events, and bring about not-for-profit performances and international interactions. Zhao also writes culture and art critiques for publication in various media in China and abroad, and won many literary awards including, most notably, the Unita Prize for New Novelists. He has also been an invited participant in numerous international theatre and literary festivals.
