Since long I’ve been trying to understand what happens when cultures mix, but now I realize now there is nothing to understand. You just have to submerge yourself in it. Here in Shanghai this encounter is violent and fierce. It moves me. To be here is a feast, though I know that when I will do a project next year it also will be difficult. The bureaucracy and the shirking of responsibility are annoying.
Shanghai and its people, especially the people from the Shanghai Theatre Academy, are extremely hospitable but the organization is complex. Also here I experience the wriggling search.
The academy contains all the sides of theatre. Students dream to become a star in the Peking Opera (photo), a drama teacher, a play writer, a director, a ballerina, a stage designer, a soap star or any other profession in this field. Again the contrast between past and future is exciting and challenging. Will I be able to bring them all together in one project? I really don’t know. What I do is research and collect impressions.
Doing the lectures was interesting. The questions they asked me were original and made me think differently about my work, which is always enriching.
And for the fans some new chairs from Shanghai .