Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 3 (IANS) More than 300 students from 13 theatre schools of the Asia-Pacific region began brainstorming at the second Asia-Pacific Bureau Drama Schools Meet, an UNESCO-aided theatre promotion and world peace forum, at the National School of Drama (NSD) here Monday. It is the biggest-ever conclave of international theatre schools in India.

The six-day meet Jan 3-8 will help students of theatre exchange ideas, forge common methodologies, identify lacunae and make room for development in theatre education in the Asia-Pacific region, and to promote youth-to-youth contact and better cultural ties, NSD director Anuradha Kapoor said.

The meet opened at the NSD with a methodology workshop in the morning, followed by a show of students’ theatre in the afternoon and informal interaction late in the evening. The same schedule will be followed on all the days

The participating schools include the NSD, National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts from Beijing, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the Shanghai Theatre Academy, Bhartendu Natya Academy from Lucknow, School of Drama and Music from the University of Tehran, Te Kura Toi Whakaari O Aotearoa: New Zealand Drama School, the Ateneo de Manila University in Philippines, Theatre School and the Faculty of Performing Arts from Lasalle College of Arts in Singapore, Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan and department of dramatic arts at the Chulalongkorn University from Thailand.

“The spirit of the meet will be one of coming together, sharing, interacting, learning and adding value to the teaching and practice of theatre. To enable meaningful sharing, the meet will include an installation-cum-interactive exhibition and a seminar on institutional methodologies. The closing of the meet will coincide with the beginning of NSD’s 13th Bharat Rang Mahotsav,” a senior NSD official said.

The regional bureau was constituted in 2006 in Manila, when the Fourth World Conference of Theatre School Directors and the World Congress of the International Theatre Institute (ITI), a UN arm, ratified through a resolution that the activities of the Unesco Chair of the International Theatre Institute should be decentralised.

Following this, the regional bureau of the Unesco Chair of ITI, based in Shanghai, was created to represent the Asia-Pacific region.

On March 29-30, 2008, representatives of 16 drama schools from 13 Asia-Pacific nations regions gathered at the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) for the First Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of Theatre School Directors under the auspices of Unesco.

Following a decision at the conference, in June 6-12, 2009, the Shanghai Academy hosted the first theatre school expo of the Asia-Pacific Bureau to coincide with the Fifth Shanghai International Experimental Theatre Festival.

The week-long expo consisted of full productions, themed workshops, and an Asia-Pacific Bureau member school directors’ conference.