Staging a revival of introspection

By Yang Guang (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-20 09:11

Li Haifeng has recently been dreaming of standing on a stage, caught up in the action but unable to think of his lines.

The reason is that the ongoing 2009 College Theater Festival reminds him of his days with the Black and White Drama Society, in Zhejiang University, in the mid-1990s.

After graduating from college 12 years ago, Li worked in Shanghai, the United States, and finally in Beijing. But he never lost touch with the Black and White alumni and his drama teacher Gui Ying.

Gui Ying, associate professor with the Art Department, Zhejiang University, has been with Black and White since it was founded in 1990.

"The purpose of nurturing college drama culture is not to create stars but to inspire students to delve into their inner selves, reflect upon the outer reality, and thus confront society and the world at large with equanimity," he says.

While the College Theater Festival began in 2001, this is the first year that it has offered a "Golden Hedgehog Award", which goes to the person or group with the most sharply observed and innovative production.

Festival producer Xu Wei believes drama should be sharp, like a hedgehog.

Among the 19 works entered for the competition, many reveal college students' contemplation of ideas such as time, reality, idealism and action.

Waiting Father and When Godot Comes extend the themes in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, for example.

When Godot Comes scriptwriter and director, Li Ran, has one central question to ask: "Godot comes. So what?"

"When something we aspire to finally happens it might not be what we expect. Behind the play's boisterous facade is agitation about waiting, bewilderment about reality, and contemplation of the future," Li says.

Peking University student Zhang Xinxin, scriptwriter and director of Waiting Father, takes a look at the states of mind of his fellow students as they face graduation and look for jobs.

"Father represents hope and, at the same time, responsibilities. The problem with the four people in Waiting Father is they are passive instead of initiating action."

If Waiting Father is abstract and When Godot Comes is gloomy, Future for Ever is clearer and more optimistic in what it tries to convey.

Cui Yan, scriptwriter and director of the drama, and founder of Future Theater at Beihang University, says he looks at several ideas in the piece.

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