To enhance the multi-dimensional representation of the theatre arts at Wuzhen Theatre Festival, and to further develop the potential for exchange and cooperation in the theatre, this year we will have theatre forums and exhibitions, along with dialogues between local and international theatre practitioners, presenting a diverse ecosystem of theatre.
Artistic directors and producers of top international theatre festivals, theatre producers, critics and stage designers play the leading roles in these events. Offering varying perspectives on the theatre arts, the forums will provide a platform of exchange for senior theatre practitioners in Wuzhen, where those with common goals can share their thoughts about the future of theatre. In addition, we particularly provide a platform for theatre masters and for young stage designers, giving audiences a behind-the-scene chance to see more of their work.
INTRODUCTION OF FORUMS 2016
01 THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THEATRE CRITICS CHINA SECTION FORUM 2016
TOPIC: DIALOGUE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST, TRADITION AND MODERNITY
DATE: 9:00-12:00 AM, 16 OCT., 2016
VENUE: Multi-purpose Conference Hall, Tong An Hotel
The Chinese Section of International Association of Theatre Critics, together with Wuzhen Theatre Festival, will host Wuzhen Theatre Festival Summit, IATC.
Founded in 1956, the International Association of Theatre Critics is now an internationally influential organization which has sections in 48 nations and regions. IATC is committed to the communication between theatre critics with different cultural backgrounds and the nurturing of young theatre critics.
Ms Margareta Sörenson (Sweden), president of IATC, Mr Michel Vaïs (Canada), secretary general of IATC and Mr Octavian Saiu (Romania), adjunct secretary general of IATC will be invited to attend the Wuzhen Theatre Festival Summit. Chinese critics who will attend the summit includes professor Peng Tao, president of Chinese section of IATC, theatre scholars and senior critics Zhang Xian, Shen Lin, Ma Wenqi, Huang Jue. This summit will hold discussions regarding the productions to be staged at the Wuzhen Theatre Festival.
02 THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE ARTISTIC DIRECTORS FORUM
TOPIC: INTERNATIONAL VISION, COLLABORATION
DATE: 14:00-16:00 PM, 16 OCT., 2016
VENUE: Conference room, Zhaoming Academy Inn
With theatre arts as cultural platform of brand new height and starting point, the fourth Wuzhen Theatre Festival will host the The Central and Eastern Europe Artistic Directors Forum to comprehensively promote the communication between international theatre circle.
In this October, representatives of major theatre festivals in central and east Europe and experts in cultural and arts circle will visit the Wuzhen Theatre Festival, viewing theatre performances, attending International Avant-Garde Theatre Forum and making keynote speeches.
The old town Wuzhen is expected to host an international summit of high level and standard. As the international influence of Wuzhen Theatre Festival is growing and the communication between Chinese theatre and central and east European theatre is becoming increasingly intensive, the diversity and achievements in Chinese theatre will be presented for mutual learning and reference to broaden the international horizon for the development and innovation of both sides. In addition, with its role as a comprehensive promoter in artistic collaboration in international theatre, the Wuzhen Theatre Festival endeavors to further develop the potential and interest for cooperation.
03 ARAB STATES “ ARTS ACTION” FORUM
TOPIC: EXPERIMENTATION, COLLBORATION, DIVERSIFICATION
DATE: 16:00-18:00 PM, 16 OCT., 2016
VENUE: Conference Room, Zhaoming Academy Inn
04 STAGE ART FORUM
THEME: CHANGE, SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES, INNOVATION
DATE: 9:00 AM -17:00PM, 17 OCT., 2016
VENUE: 2F, Zhaoming Academy Library
The Stage Art Forum will be co-hosted by the 2016 CISD Exhibition “Art Works by Young Avant-Garde Stage Designers,” the China Institute of Stage Design, and Wuzhen Theatre Festival, bringing together a great number of renowned stage design artists. This is bound to be an unprecedentedly grand event in stage art circles.
Experts who will participate in the event include the Artistic Director of Wuzhen Theatre Festival, Meng Jinghui; president of China Institute of Stage Design, Professor Cao Lin; vice president of CISD, Professor Liu Xinglin; Professor Han Sheng; Mr. Gao Guangjian; and former president of CISD, Professor Liu Yuansheng. The nine exhibition participants and these six experts and will have a discussion focusing on a range of academic issues.
We hope this event can encourage stage designers to critique their own creations, taking the exhibition as a “section plan” for deep analysis of their stage design works. We also hope that, through this forum, they can envision future directions for their creative work.
05 PRODUCERS FORUM 2016
TOPIC: BUSINESS AND OPERATIONS MODELS, DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARTS AND CULTURAL PROJECTS IN WUZHEN
DATE: 14:00-16:00 PM, 20 OCT., 2016
VENUE: Traditional Storytelling Hall
The annual Producers’ Network Meeting and Forum (PNMF) is an important flagship platform for the West Kowloon Cultural District. As a cornerstone for our Cultural Exchange strategy, this gathering of producers is critical in laying the foundations for future collaborations and partnerships with our colleagues from the region. PNMF also aims to provide a vital resource for producers from the region to meet, to see and to learn from interesting new colleagues, festivals and institutions coming online in the next few years.
This producers’ forum at the Wuzhen Theatre Festival is a valuable platform for like-minded colleagues to better understand important developments in China.
INTRODUCTION OF EXHIBITIONS 2016
01 PORTRAITS OF THEATRE MASTERS
THEME: HISTORY OF THEATRE, PORTRAITS OF MASTERS
DATE: 13-22 OCT., 2016
VENUE: Xizha Street & Wuzhen Grand Theatre
This multidimensional show invites us to witness the collisions between the great minds of Western theatre.
It is a journey through the history of theatre covering the ancient Greek and Roman periods, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Neo-classicism, the Enlightenment, the 19th century, the modern and contemporary periods. On this journey, you will encounter a great number of Western theatre masters including Euripides, Shakespeare, Molière, Lessing, Ibsen, O'Neill, Brecht, Dürrenmatt, Pinter, and Beckett.
I. “PANTHEON” ALONG THE STREET
Along Xizha Street, you will find both sides lined with countless portraits of theatre masters, forming a “river” of the history of theatre. This is a special salute to the masters who introduced the theatrical arts to the people.
Strolling on the streets of Wuzhen, you may be pleasantly surprised to come face-to-face with hundreds of images of the theatre’s greats.
II. FACES IN THE BOXES
Immersive images create an interactive dynamic between visitors and art pieces, replacing the usual exhibition experience with a chance to see the faces of the masters of Western theatre up close.
As a result, the exhibition venue becomes more like a living space, where your wonderful experience might start from the chair you are sitting on.
02 2016 CHINA INSTITUTE OF STAGE DESIGN (CISD):
NOMINEES EXHIBITION OF AVANT-GARDE STAGE DESIGNERS
THEME: COORDINATES: SEEKING DREAMS AND TRUTH
DATE: 15-22 OCT., 2016
VENUE: 2F, Zhaoming Academy Library
When scripts are visualized, actions are embraced by the stage, theatre spaces are illuminated by lighting, and the air itself is pervaded with colors, the theatre starts to have unlimited power. Top young stage design artists of China’s avant-garde theatre all gather in Wuzhen, making their trans-stage collective appearances for artistic exchange. Grotesquerie, diversity, profundity, exaggeration, boldness and extremity—crossing the boundaries between the different arts with all these fantastic elements, Chinese theatre is expected to establish its own aesthetic coordinates. Realizing the most illusory dreams in the most concrete space, stage designers expertly present the most beautiful theatrical scenes to the audience. The “2016 CISD Exhibition: Artworks of New Avant-Garde Stage Designers” attempts to present the ideas of “establishing new standards, setting new rules, and celebrating new achievements.” Nine artists including Wang Qi, Wang Zhigang, Shenao, Liu Kedong, Zhang Wu, Ni Fang, Sang Qi, Qin Wenbao, and Tan Ze’en will display their works, representing the most contemporary interpretations of theatrical space from each of their own artistic perspectives. Join them at the Zhaoming Academy Library.
Planner: Cao Lin
Academic Host: Liu Kedong
Curator: Zhang Wu
Artistic Director: Meng Jinghui
03 SCREENING / EXHIBITION: FRANK CASTORF
DATE: 14-16 OCT., 2016
VENUE: Wuzhen Grand Theatre
The text has been visualized, a moment of acting has been turned to eternity. When the works of the Russian realist novelist Dostoyevsky are directed by Frank Castorf, the internationally renowned German theatre director, bold experiments can always be found to express dramatic tensions on screen.
Mr. Castorf is a master in using visual images in his theatre productions of which video has been an indispensable part all through (? “although” doesn’t make sense?) his artistic career. In this year’s theatre festival, an overall presentation of Frank Castorf’s works will be made. Two of Castorf’s screen productions: Dämonen, Castorf’s first film made in 2000, and the video of Volksbühne’s The Idiot from 2006. Together with the staging of Der Spieler in Wuzhen Grand Theatre, they constitute a special version of Frank Castorf’s trilogy in Wuzhen.
Dämonen (2000, 178 minutes)
Frank Castorf, the internationally renowned German artistic director of the theatre Volksbühne at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin for almost two decades, directed in 2000 his very first film based on Camus’ The Possessed, a stage script adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s Demons. Castorf created a haunting post-Soviet pan-slavistic panopticon, which takes place around the very last Russian house before the western border. For the film, the late legendary stage designer Bert Neumann created, within the barren landscape of Berlin’s provincial Mecklenburg-Vorpommern county, a simple set: a dacha, an old garden shack next to a “swimming pool”—an imaginary landscape inspired by Wim Wender’s Paris/Texas, the tiny hamlet Korleput on Berlin’s country side, Russia’s Duma 2000, Cindy Sherman and the Danish avant-garde filmmaking movement Dogma 95.
The Idiot (2006, 278 minutes)
A production of Frank Castorf based on Dostoyevsky’s novel The Idiot, which was staged in the theatre Volksbühne in Berlin. The Idiot unites grotesque elements, tempo and dream sequences.