Happy New Year from Beijing

Happy 2008 from Beijing, where we’ve been for the past week with the National Youth Theatre setting up a programme that will run for the next six months. We’re planning to run an online competition in both China and the UK, film the two winning 100 word plays which will be screened in both countries during a live interactive event on 30 April, and showcase work created by young British and Chinese artists in July, when the National Youth Theatre perform at the new National Centre for the Performing Arts as part of China International Youth Week. The past few days have been crucial in terms of confirming partnerships and drawing up a detailed plan of action. We’re working with a small team of Chinese fixers, who will continue to liaise with partners once we’ve returned to the UK. The latter include Beijing Dramatists Association, SOHU.com and the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Three National Youth Theatre volunteer members have been with us, working with students at CAFA to develop interactive ideas and collecting visual material that will be screened in April. As ever, it’s been a stimulating week, full of surprises and happy coincidences. We spent a fun night in Song, a new bar which is co-run by music promoter and DJ Neebing in partnership with the editor of Time Out Beijing. We saw some wonderful early 1960s animations of Monkey: Journey to the West. The bar has only been open a few weeks but is worth checking out – b108, The Place, Chaoyang District. Tonight will be spent having a working dinner with our fixers, Yang Lei and Zhang Bo before packing and flying back tomorrow.