Spring of campus drama

 

By Wendy Li

 

 

Drama has become more and more popular among universities students these years. The coming April can also be regarded as a festival for campus dramas as most university dramas will be performed in April.

 

Drama has a long history, and had played an important role in the improvement of society. Most universities have drama clubs, some of them enjoy the same age as the universities. Although Macau has a long drama history and has its own Portuguese drama culture, the start of drama in colleges in Macau was a recent phenomenon. J-one is the only mandarin drama club in University of Macau and has been established only for 7 years.

 

J-one drama club will give their performance on April 12 and for this year, they choose to present the drama “Hello, Robbery”. It is a story between two stupid robbers and 6 bank clerks. When police surrounded the bank, two robbers tried to pretend themselves as innocent but accused one of the clerks as the robber. A series of things happened but the outcome turned out to be contrary to all expectations. The director of the drama Fang Yuanye and Wang haoyi said that they choose this because firstly, the requirements for scenes and props of this drama are quite achievable. Secondly and more important is that this drama reflects some of our social problems in a humorous way and has the power to make people think about themselves after laughing.

 

It is not easy for a drama club to give their annual performance which usually lasts for more than two hours. For J-one drama club, the preparation started in February. As all the actors and director are students, they need to spend most of their spare times in rehearsal. “I feel worthwhile when doing things I like. Not everyone has the chance to stand on the stage,” said Di Luo, one of the actors. “I can be another person here by experiencing his stories, for me it is exciting and attractive.”

 

Fang also talked about the development of campus drama in Macau. It is for sure that the campus drama has become more and more popular. Last summer, drama clubs from three different universities in Macao even worked together and presented a fantastic drama named “Soul Pawnshop,” which became a big success. However, because of the language barrier, the development of drama culture is quite limited especially for mandarin dramas.