Creative Asia

It’s the evening now in Shanghai and traffic is still pouring past our hotel on the Yanan Road. Shanghai feels distinctly autumunal with leaves falling off the trees in the French Concession. Today has been an enjoyable mix of work and pleasure.  We took the chance to stretch our legs after a long flight in Fuxing Park and had a late lunch at the Yin Yang bar.  We then went to meet Nick Yu, Ray Liu and Sophia Zhang at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre to check arrangements for our first workshop tomorrow morning. The Asia Contemporary Theatre Festival is in full swing, with productions from Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taipei and Hong Kong as well as mainland China.  This year’s theme is ‘Creative Asia’, with over 100 artists gathering to discuss the future of theatre in Asia. It was great to hear that the workshop will be full and we’re looking forward to working with young, emerging writers and actors.  Having squeezed in a quick bit of tea-buying on our way back to the hotel, we then ate a delicious Shanghainese meal and discussed ways in which Chinese theatre could be profiled in the UK.  It’s an interesting thought that by the end of the week, we will have generated well over 100 plays written by British and Chinese writers.  Creating opportunities for these plays to be seen by wider audiences is just one area which we will be talking through over the next few days.