Reported by Hui Yao, Lecturer in Chinese Language, Duke Kunshan University
The 2nd Chinese Theater Night Workshop 1: Acting
On September 7, 2025, the first workshop of the “2nd Chinese Theater Night” was successfully held in the CCT Performance Café. The event was organized by Hui Yao from the Language and Culture Center, in collaboration with the Curtain Call Drama Club, and sponsored by the Humanities Research Center at Duke Kunshan University. The workshop invited Wenyue Zhu (Ms. Yi Er), a professional actress who collaborates with Liu Xiaoyi’s Touch Laboratory as well as Deep Space at the West Bund Museum, as the workshop mentor, and drew participation from student actors, drama club members, and other theater enthusiasts.
The workshop began with Ms. Yi Er posing the question, “What is on stage,” guiding students to reflect on the relationship between performance, character, and the dimensions of time and space. She emphasized the need for actors to set aside their everyday roles and returned to a “zero” state before constructing new identities on stage.
After warm-up games and a series of training exercises, the workshop moved to a “throwing ball” session. Students called each other’s names and made eye contact while tossing the ball, which represented the shifting spotlight. Later, this exercise was combined with movement through the practice space. This trained their ability to divide attention and manage stage presence.
In the physical performance part, students experimented with walking in different ways to imagine themselves as animals and then transform those traits into human characters. Ms. Yi Er introduced Michael Chekhov’s Four Qualities of Movement: Flying (air), Flowing (water), Molding (earth), and Radiating (fire). This exercise encouraged students to generate varied energies and emotions in performance and helped shape their characters.
The workshop concluded with an improvisation exercise, where students delivered a few simple lines such as “I’m here” and“The weather is nice today” while keeping the training exercises in mind. Through this process, they experienced how different voices, movements, and emotions could transform a character.
After the workshop, participants shared their feedback. “Chinese Theater Night” actor Sophia Paske felt she had gained a lot from this event. Solana Torres noted that the differences between Chinese and American performance methods were very interested and added that “the instructor was really cool.” Madison Brown discovered many new ways to express herself through various movements. Wenxi Jiang from the Curtain Call Drama Club said she was inspired by Michael Chekhov’s methods, while Yueting Xiong hoped to carry the insights from the workshop into actual theatrical practices. Yihan Liu reflected that the workshop helped her shift from an audience perspective to that of an actor, which allowed her to better understand the foundations of character building. At the end, Professor Odelia Lu shared that the experience rekindled her passion for theater from her student days.
第二届“中文戏剧之夜”工作坊系列之一：发声与肢体
2025年9月7日，昆山杜克大学第二届“中文戏剧之夜”第一场工作坊于CCT performance café 顺利举行。本次活动邀请到刘晓邑触感实验室合作演员、西岸美术馆深空间合作演员朱文悦（一二老师）作为工作坊导师，为同学们带来了一场生动的发声与肢体训练。活动由昆山杜克大学人文研究中心慷慨赞助，语言文化中心讲师姚卉与幕间行话剧社合作组织，吸引到“中文戏剧之夜”演员、剧社学生及其他戏剧爱好者参与。
活动伊始，一二老师抛出“舞台上有什么”的问题，引导同学们思考舞台表演与人物、时间、空间的关系。她提醒同学们在舞台上放下自己生活中扮演的角色，回到“零”的状态，再在舞台上建立新的身份。
在热身游戏后，同学们逐一进行了口部操、寻找共鸣腔训练、并通过“数枣儿”“数葫芦”和绕口令练习来加强发声的清晰度与控制力。随后，一二老师带领大家进行扔球练习，在走动传球的过程中呼唤他人的名字并保持眼神交流，以此练习台词节奏、空间意识与注意力分配。
在肢体表演部分，同学们通过不同的走路方式来想象自己成为不同的动物，并体会如何将这些动物的性格转化为人物的特质。一二老师引入了迈克尔·契诃夫的表演训练法，带领大家感受风、火、水、土四种表演质感，帮助同学们在表演中激发不同的能量与情绪，以此拓展角色塑造的维度。
在最后的即兴环节，同学们带着所学内容演绎了几句简单的台词，比如“来了”、“今天天气不错”，并在其中感受不同的声音、肢体和情感所带来的人物变化。
工作坊结束后，大家分享了自己的心得体会。“中文戏剧之夜”演员潘姝菲（Sophia Paske）认为自己在工作坊收获良多；戴雨彤（Solana Torres）表示中美表演方法的区别很有意思，还觉得“老师很酷”；陈栀乐（Madison Brown）则找到了许多用肢体表达自己的新方式。幕间行话剧社的蒋雯曦表示受到了迈克尔·契科夫训练方法的启发，熊悦婷希望能将工作坊的体会带入更具体的戏剧表演中去，刘宜涵则认为工作坊帮助她进一步从观众视角转换到演员视角，让她能更好地理解人物塑造的出发点。最后，陆叶教授分享到，工作坊的体验让她重新回想起学生时代对戏剧的热情。
