Students to Visit Shanghai
The Cal State Long Beach Department of Theatre Arts is sending a troupe of 10 students and faculty members to perform at the Shanghai Drama Academy in Shanghai. The company leaves today and will present three performances of an original Shakespearean montage compiled for this cultural exchange.
“With Fairest Flower While Summer Lasts,” a program of songs, scenes, and soliloquies, will employ the talents of graduate and undergraduate performers under the direction of faculty member Patricia Boyette.
Performers will include John Ross Clark, Tim Diamond, Amy Griffin, Russell Schmid and Stacy Lee Tilton. Technical support will be provided by stage manager Holly Ahlborn and designer Bill Georges. Li Bin will serve as company interpreter.
Boyette will present an acting workshop for Chinese students, while department Chairman Howard Burman will present a lecture and seminar focusing on current practices of American theater and theatrical training.
The company will perform in the Shanghai Drama Academy’s Experimental Theatre, a 999-seat facility considered to be the most up-to-date in China.
Fund-raising efforts by the Department of Theatre Arts have made this exchange, the first for Cal State Long Beach theater students, possible. The bulk of the funds came from the auction of celebrity “doodles,” donated to assist in the creation of an international exchange scholarship fund. No university or student funds have been used to cover the travel or production costs.
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