When the Academy was founded in 1984, its mission was to nurture professionals in the performing arts. Over the last 35 years, contemporary theatre has undergone many changes. Today, while having specialist skills is a basic requirement, performing artists must also be versatile and resourceful. Since Professor Poon Wai-sum ("Poon Sir") became Dean of Drama in 2017, he has devoted much thought to how the School can uphold its worthy traditions while forging ahead into the future. "Theatre professionals today need depth and breadth – they must be specialised in their respective fields, yet armed with a broad knowledge base and a sweeping vision. Comprehensive training allows them to create their own unique worlds." After three years of planning, the School has this year launched the Master of Fine Arts Programme in Drama (Dramaturgy), and will add the three new major areas of applied theatre, dramaturgy, and acting for musical theatre to the existing Bachelor's Degree programmes in 2022/23. The aim is to nurture theatre makers of the future, who are at once broad specialists and deep generalists.
The School's popular Bachelor's Degree programmes attract a large number of applicants each year. This year – with over 300 applications, more than ten times the quota – was no exception. Among this number were candidates who had been trying for ten years to get in and finally succeeded. In preparation for next year's Periodic Institutional Review (PIR) of the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications, the School has been engaged in curriculum review and renewal. During the process of reassessment, Poon Sir has kept asking himself what kind of people contemporary theatre needs. "Performing arts is a very broad area. Theatre is not only a profession; its practitioners need cultural vision and mastery of its various fields." Hence the training has to be comprehensive to ensure students are well versed in playwriting, directing and acting, while also developing their creativity and leadership. "Theatre makers should not sit around waiting for opportunities. They must seek and develop their own field while propelling theatre in the direction of cultural development."
The School is meticulous in its curriculum design. The launch of three new major areas is the result of serendipity – the coming together of the right time, circumstance, and people. Poon Sir says the School is blessed with dedicated teachers sharing similar educational ideals, who, after prolonged exploration and deliberation, decided to extend the existing curriculum to include more diverse and in-depth content with the aim of anticipating trends in art development.
Social Consciousness through Theatre
Associate Dean of the School and Head of Academic Studies / Applied Theatre Estella Wong says that Poon Sir is Hong Kong's pioneer in applied theatre, having merged theatre and education as a full-time theatre teacher designing and implementing drama courses in secondary schools as early as the late 1980s. Applied theatre is the application of theatrical approaches to different aspects of society, such as education, community life and healthcare, which gives rise to various theatrical forms, including forum theatre, theatre in education, museum theatre, playback theatre, and even drama therapy. Such activities usually take place in non-traditional venues and the audience do not simply sit and watch. "For instance, if new migrants are our target audience, they will share their experiences or become actors; they will have a hand in creating the theatre. In other words, they do not simply receive dramatic content. They have their own voice and interact with one another; they are theatre makers."
Poon Sir compares applied theatre to martial arts. "In the old days, people learnt martial arts for self-defence, so winning was the aim. Now things have changed – kung fu artists may never need to fight for their lives. But they can apply the skills to other areas, such as action choreography or performing in theme parks." Importantly, applied theatre is about introducing theatrical concepts into the community and using it to empower. Estella explains, "Empowerment is at the heart of applied theatre. It allows society to see and hear the thoughts of different groups. This is especially pertinent to minority groups, such as housewives, who, despite their contributions to the family and society, are rarely given the attention and recognition they deserve. Applied theatre can be a platform for different community groups to make themselves heard."
Apart from professional theatre knowledge and skills, the Academy's applied theatre curriculum will also involve education, psychology, sociology, cultural identity and artistic facilitation practice. "Love of theatre is crucial, but social consciousness, care for society and a wish to give minority groups a voice are equally important. If you're passionate about people and society, this subject may open up new vistas for you."
Filling in the Creative Gaps
Dramaturgy originated in the Hamburg National Theatre in the 18th century. Back then, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing took care of everything related to the content, design, form and communication of the work, as well as its critique. This area is very well developed in Europe and the US, but it is new in Hong Kong. Senior Lecturer (Playwriting and Dramaturgy) and Academic Project Officer, Janice Poon, has 20 years of experience in the field. She points out that while there have always been people serving as dramaturgs or literary consultants in local theatre, dramaturgy has never been a formal academic subject until now. "When designing the curriculum, I researched the experiences of specialist academies in Europe, the US and Asia, and found that most of them concentrate on literature, such as literary analysis and critique. Our programme will explore dramatic literature, but its main focus will be international collaborations across disciplines, professional fields, and cultures; it will also cover media technology, online theatre, and innovative theatrical forms that combine drama, music, dance and even non-art subjects."
The dramaturg is sometimes described as the director's second pair of eyes, assisting the latter to deepen a work's themes and contextualise it from various angles. Hence dramaturgy involves much more than a series of tasks; it is about mindset and vision. Poon Sir compares the dramaturg's job to a fengshui master's. "The architect builds a house that may be sound from a professional standpoint. But the fengshui master may see problems, like the courtyard lacks a pond, for example. As the architect may not think about this, so the director may not be familiar with expertise beyond his or her area. Theatre today is not confined to the professional sphere. The role of the dramaturg is to fill in the blind spots of the director and the playwright, and inspire them to think more thoroughly."
Janice says reception of the newly-launched Master's programme is excellent, with students coming from various backgrounds – architecture, dance education, a love of drama and Chinese opera, music, and animal rights activism. "They all have one thing in common, that is, intense curiosity about the world and creating. This is a subject that forces you out of your comfort zone. Dramaturgs need to work with different people, to share research material with the creative team and collaborators. They must also be adventurous enough to come up with a bold new concept with contemporary substances that are tailored for different settings after compiling information from various sources." The programme covers interdisciplinary and cross cultural theatrical production, dramaturgs' training, curation and performance text creation, to equip students for multi-directional development after graduation. "Only with this training can we nurture professionals who can, in Poon Sir's words, propel theatre in the direction of cultural development."
Jumping on the Musical Bandwagon
Spring Awakening, the School's musical production last year can be seen as warm-up for the new programme in acting for musical theatre. The co director of the production, Li Wing-hong, Senior Lecturer in Voice Studies and Discipline Leader in Musical Theatre Curriculum, points out that besides training students in acting, singing and dancing, the programme will put more emphasis on ways of storytelling. "In the past, academic programmes in musical theatre tended to emphasise candidates' performance capabilities, but we need to move forward from that. First we need to give actors a thorough understanding of musicals. The local musical theatre industry is in need of more creative talents, and we hope our new programme can serve the purpose. How should musicals be written? Through an understanding of the history, development and forms of performance, students will have a better grasp of the playwrights' and composers' inner worlds, which will better enable them to create their own works."
Musicals involve music, dance and theatre. Mastery of acting, singing and dancing is a basic requirement. Students must also be able to transform acquired skills into an infectious, or at least convincing, presence on stage, and this requires passion. Hong observes, "A lot is demanded of musical majors, perhaps more so than other majors. They need to be very good in three types of performing arts, so they must be passionate about what they do. But as with martial arts, the path to mastery is strewn with challenges. An audience watching a consummate, effortless performance have no idea about the hard work the actors have put in. The students must really love musicals to be willing to commit themselves to years of blood and sweat."
Despite its over 40 years of history in Hong Kong, musical theatre has not made it to the mainstream. Hong notes that some people still cannot tell the difference between musicals and operas. The Academy is Hong Kong's cradle of performing arts talent. Poon Sir believes that as such, the School must aim higher when designing the curriculum. "Large-scale performance venues are being built in the West Kowloon Cultural District, the mainland, and other places in Asia. The musical is a highly entertaining art form for the general public; it is also an important direction of cultural development. The existence of large performance venues worldwide means there is a demand for more musicals to be created. We definitely see a future for our students. This art form is already very advanced in many parts of Asia, including Korea and Japan. Hong Kong needs to catch up if we want to jump on the musical bandwagon."
(The article was published in the Nov 2020 issue of Academy News. Click here to read the original story.)