The ‘master class’ for Bay Area screenwriters has begun
For the first time in the province, a combination of mentorship and expert teaching training mode has been adopted
Southern Daily News (Reporter/Wang Hanqi) On April 1st, with the support of the Propaganda Department of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, as well as the funding for the support of provincial literary and artistic talents, the “Advanced Training Course for Young and Middle aged Screenwriters in the Greater Bay Area” was officially launched, sponsored by the Guangdong Drama Planning Center and the Guangdong Art Research Institute.
11 students come from provincial and grassroots colleges and literary and artistic creation institutions, including 2 screenwriters from Hong Kong and Xinjiang. They will conduct a six-month creative training from April to September.
This “master class” for screenwriters in the Bay Area is also a new initiative for the Guangdong Provincial Drama Planning Center, which celebrates its first anniversary, to select key supported works for the province in 2024.
In recent years, Guangdong literature and art have continued to make efforts and create continuously. In addition to the harvest, there are still bottlenecks and shortcomings for Guangdong to produce high-quality products and work hard. Over the years, we have read scripts and watched performances in large quantities. Except for a very small number of well-known authors, more authors have problems such as unstable creative state, insufficient breakthroughs, lack of innovation, and weak foundation. “Wang Wei, director of the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Art, observed that although our province has a large number of drama creations and a high passing score, there are few good works and even fewer peaks. We urgently need to change this state
Therefore, the goal of this “master class” is clear – to “produce works, produce people, and produce benefits”. It’s best for students to submit topics that are suitable for rehearsals, rather than just sitting on the desk, “said Wang Wei.
This’ master class’ gathers top drama creation experts and scholars from across the country. This is the first time that Guangdong Province has adopted a combination training model of mentorship and expert teaching in talent training programs. The five creative mentors invited for the training course include Luo Huaizhen, consultant of the Chinese Dramatists Association and famous screenwriter, Cao Lusheng, former director of the Drama Department and famous screenwriter at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, Pan Huisen, artistic director, famous screenwriter, and director of the Hong Kong Theatre Company, Yu Rongjun, artistic director and famous screenwriter of the Shanghai Theatre Arts Center, and Yu Qingfeng, famous playwright and third time winner of the “Cao Yu Script Award”.
The six-month training cycle is divided into two stages. The first round will invite experts who are familiar with domestic stage art creation and have a comprehensive understanding and grasp of the current situation, problems, future creative directions, and trends of stage art creation in China, the Bay Area, and our province to give lectures, aiming to help students clarify their direction and goals. The second round will be held in July this year, inviting professors from institutions such as the Central Academy of Drama, China Academy of Chinese Opera, and Shanghai Theatre Academy to give special lectures, further teaching key issues such as drama, drama context, drama structure, and drama language. At the same time, the current situation of foreign dramas will be analyzed to help students broaden their horizons and expand their thinking.