Shakespeare Society: the dissemination of drama culture, the development of humanistic spirit

Having won the title of the excellent societies both in the college and province many times, Shakespeare Society, a student club of arts and humanities in our university, strives to set up a self-display, self-improvement stage for students, provides original Shakespeare drama feast for the whole school, and lets them truly feel the unique charm of Shakespeare’s dramatic culture, with the idea of “disseminating drama culture, developing humanistic spirit” and the purpose of promoting Shakespearean drama literature on campus and cultivating students’ interesting, improving students’ English expression ability and appreciation of English literature and dramas.

Inviting you to Soul Appointment with sincerity

The annual public performance is the highlight of Shakespeare Society. Having gorgeous stage sets, the changing lights and the actors’ heart performance, Shakespeare’s classic tragedy Othello, the first show for Shakespeare Society in our university in 2006, gave the audience both visual enjoyment and spiritual baptism, and then, for the first time, set off a Shakespeare frenzy in the school. Since then, Shakespeare Society elaborately produces a Shakespeare’s classic drama specially for the audience each year. Hamlet, the bold attempt of Shakespeare Society in 2013, led the audience began to explore the life, interpreted Hamlets in their hearts, concentrating on this classic problem “To be or not to be”. The Merry Wives of Windsor, the first performance of Shakespeare’s classic comedy in 2014, entertained the audience in the humorous atmosphere. Romeo and Juliet, the re-interpreted famous tragedy of Shakespeare Society in 2015, depicted the fleeting but immortal romance between Romeo and Juliet for the audience. After ten-year effort to create the series of performances named “The Phantom of Shakespearean plays”, it has become the brand programs in university. The hard-to-get tickets, the audience’s early waiting before the performances in the evening and the bursts of applause after the shows, are to their affirmation.

In order to provide more opportunities, after 2012, Shakespeare Society specially designed a new theater. the new recruits will be divided into groups to rehearse different plays. The new theater is a wonderful display for the new recruits, giving them both the performance exercise and the preparation for larger stages in the future.

Achieving excellent results by concentration

Over the past decade since the establishment, Shakespeare Society has not only participated in various provincial, national and even international level competitions, but also has constantly pursued higher quality performance and higher artistic value. In April 2008, Shakespeare Society firstly went out of the campus to participate in the sixth “Global IELTS Cup” English drama contest held in Wuhan University. In that contest, Shakespeare Society successful preformed the Romeo and Juliet, wining a second place in Wuhan area. To participate in the “The competition of Chinese college students of Shakespeare’s drama” jointly organized by the Royal Shakespeare Institute and the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2011, Shakespeare Society performed some classic pieces of Taming of the Shrew for the first timeand won six prizes, namelythe third prize in the national group, Award for Outstanding Actress Award, Best Actor Award, Best Costume Award, and the most popular award, which has attracted a wide attention as the team that win the most awards. Shakespeare Society hit the iron in hot. It participated in the fourth Hubei Provincial College Students Art Festival, and won the second prize of the comprehensive category in November 2011.although these awards did not make Shakespeare Society forget its missions, they unceasingly surmounted itself. At the “Third International Students’ Ibsen Theater Festival” organized by the China-Nordic Cultural Center of Nanjing University, Shakespeare Society’s the elaborate reinterpretation of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, beat Beijing Language and Culture University and other colleges and universities, and successfully entered the final to compete with Xi’an Foreign Language University and other colleges and universities on the same stage in August 2012. In March 2013, a good news came from Hong Kong that Shakespeare Society’s Twelfth Night reached once again the final of Shakespeare Competition in Hong Kong,which made ZUEL the only university coming to the final in Wuhan, and won the Outstanding actor award, the best comedy moments, the most popular award. In 2013 November, Shakespeare Society performed the original musical storm in the fourth session of Wuhan University Students Drama Festival, and won the Third Prize, the best director award. Meanwhile their performance Macbeth won the best performance award, the best performance award. after six-month carefully rehearsing, deeper mining to the play, the clever hints to the details, seminal walk and changing rituals, the applying of lighting and the actor superb acting, its performance Macbeth won group third (The first in the mainland of china) in The Tenth competition of Chinese college students of Shakespeare’s drama, and the outstanding actress in May 2014. In December 10, 2015, by performing Shakespeare tragedy Coriolanus, Shakespeare Society once again took part in Wuhan area University Students Drama Festival, eventually won the repertoire Gold Award, Best Performance Award for 3 times, the best Performance award for 2 times, The nomination of the best director award for 2 times among more than 120 entries.

Transfering the humanistic spirit with a variety of forms

Over the past decade, Shakespeare Society have grown from only once performance every year at the beginning to various forms of activities every month now. Shakespeare Society’s English Corner helps more people improve their spoken English in the form of English Salon. It not only uses live performances to attract more students to participate in the English corner, but also let students merrily learn Shakespeare’s literary knowledge in the quiz. The students can see the offstage lives of the actors and clear that “it is the dream that makes you different” through the English Corner.