UM Ranked Third in the 2nd Chinese Universities Shakespeare Festival

The University of Macau (UM), performing a scene from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, has been placed third in the 2nd Chinese Universities Shakespeare Festival held in May. The performance also won the Audience Choice Award, while one of its team members won Award for Best Actress.

The 2nd Chinese Universities Shakespeare Festival was held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). More than 30 universities from the Mainland of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao submitted entries to the preliminary round. In accordance with competition rules, the UM had three members: Tabitha Lou Vai Iu and Anna Cheng Fun Hyn are fourth-year students in the Department of English, while Petuna Chang Ut Man is a fourth-year student in the Faculty of Education. In the scene from The Tempest, they played the roles of Trinculo, Caliban and Stephano respectively. Their director was Professor Glenn Timmermans, the Head of the Department of English of UM.

The UM team was successful in getting through to the semi finals from an original entry of over thirty teams and, in the final round held at CUHK between 22 and 24 May 2006, the University of Macau team competed against eleven other universities, including Peking University, Fudan University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Soochow University, Shenzhen University, Zhejiang University, Tianjin University of Commerce, Wuhan University and South China Normal University. Finally, the excellent performance of UM’s acting team ranked third in the competition. The University of International Business and Economics in Beijing won the competition with a scene from Julius Caesar, while the 2nd place went to Nanjing University with a scene Measure for Measure. Anna Cheng Fun Hyn, who played the role of Caliban in UM’s scene from The Tempest, won the Award for Best Actress. Moreover, the audiences also thought highly of UM’s performance and UM shared, with Wuhan University, the Audience Choice of Best Performance.

UM has been participating in this “Chinese Universities Shakespeare Festival” for two consecutive years. This year, the dedication of the director and the outstanding acting of its team members had resulted in success. The Department of English of UM will make great efforts in the future, continuing to play an active role in this competition.