Hamlet——That is the Question to Be Part of the World’s Top Festival 21/07/2009

STA’s honorary professor Richard Schechner arrived at Shanghai Theatre Academy on 15th，May，and started re-rehearsing his production Hamlet：That is the Question with his STA cast members Monday on campus. The acclaimed production was one of the highlights of 2007 Shanghai International Experimental Theatre Festival and has been invited to participate in the world’s most anticipated theatre festival，the UNESCO-declared Grotowski Year 2009 International Theatre Festival，The World as a Place of Truth，in late June，2009，in Wroclaw，Poland. Aside from Schechner，other master directors who will take their productions there include Peter Brook，Pina Bausch，Tadashi Suzuki，and Eugenio Barba.

The year 2009 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Jerzy Grotowski，50 years since Grotowski and Ludwik Flaszen took over the Theatre of 13 Rows in Opole （later the Laboratory Theatre）and the 25th anniversary of the Laboratory Theatre’s dissolution. In November 2007，in recognition of these events，the General Conference of UNESCO added the founding of the Laboratory Theatre to the list of anniversaries to be celebrated within its 2008–2009 program.

This festival，with a name inspired from a speech by Jerzy Grotowski， is an opportunity to witness the work of directors who transformed different areas of the theatre in the twentieth century，very often pushing artistic boundaries. Each featured world master has developed a special aesthetic and form，drawing heavily from the influence of Grotowski’s acting methods and research. The festival will explore these questions， “What is permanent in the transitory art of theatre？”“What is independent of the momentary tastes of audiences？” and “What are we carrying to the new theatre millennium？” 
   
From 14th to 30th June，2009，in Wroclaw，there will be an array of performances directed by： 
    Roberto Bacci
    Eugenio Barba
    Pina Bausch 
    Peter Brook
    Alvis Hermanis
    Krystian Lupa
    Richard Schechner
    Tadashi Suzuki
    Theodoros Terzopoulos
    Krzysztof Warlikowski