2025 CARL WEBER MEMORIAL LECTURE + SEMINAR
with SPECIAL GUEST STAN LAI
Playwright | Director | Filmmaker | Author | Educator
ABOUT STAN LAI
Stan Lai is “The major contemporary Asian playwright of his time, perhaps of all time.” (Robert Brustein) “Asia’s top theatre director,” (Asiaweek) “The most celebrated Chinese language playwright and director in the world and his body of work … has redefined how we think about the art form itself. ” (Broadway World) Lai’s 40 original full-length plays pioneered modern theatre in Taiwan, then influenced theatre throughout the Chinese speaking world, and can be seen in current performance or read in Lai’s own translations (U. of Mich Press). Lai is also an award-winning filmmaker and long-time educator with a PhD from Berkeley. His book on creativity, which has sold one million copies in the Chinese language, will be published in English this year under the name Creativitry. Lai is Festival Director of the Wuzhen Theatre Festival and Founder of the Huichang Theatre Village. Theatre Above, Shanghai, is dedicated to his works.
Photo Credit: Anais Martane
PUBLIC LECTURE
THU APR 17 at 6-7:30PM
HARRY J. ELAM, JR. THEATER in ROBLE GYM
FREE and OPEN to the PUBLIC
Four Decades of Making Theatre in the Chinese-speaking World
“The best Chinese language playwright and director in the world,” (BBC) Stan Lai will share his creative journey of four decades. Lai has pioneered a Chinese language theatre where little foundation had existed before, in the process defining what “modern Chinese theatre” is. Lai will speak of how he created many of the most celebrated plays of his era, including Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, The Village and A Dream Like a Dream, under often difficult circumstances. Through an organic concept of making theatre that often employs improvisation with actors, Lai has created intricate works that explore what it means to be “Chinese,” and in a deeper sense, what it means to be human, while also creating innovative new staging forms. Lai will also talk about creating a cultural ecology in China, through his landmark book on creativity, as well as his festival-founding and theatre-building projects.
DEPARTMENT SEMINAR
FRI APR 18 at NOON-1:30PM
ROBLE GYM 136/137
OPEN to STANFORD STUDENTS, FACULTY, and STAFF
Creativity for Scholar-Directors
Tailored for the PhD students at Stanford, but open to all interested in creativity, Stan Lai will give an overview of his groundbreaking book on creativity which will soon be published in English (Creativitry: Asia’s Iconic Playwright Reveals the Art of Creativity). Focus will be on what tools a scholar-director should have in their creative toolbox and how to use them, with focus on how Lai created his legendary work A Dream Like a Dream (“possibly the greatest Chinese-language play since time immemorial”—China Daily). Lai will explain his methods of using improvisation in the creative process for theatre, and if time allows, will do a demonstration.
RECOMMENDED BUT NOT REQUIRED PRE-READING
Must be logged in via an @stanford.edu account to view
- Lai, Stan. “How I Wright Plays.” In Selected Plays of Stan Lai, Vol. 3, Ed. Lissa Tyler Renaud (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2022).
- Lai, Stan. A Dream Like a Dream. In Selected Plays of Stan Lai, Vol. 3, Ed. Lissa Tyler Renaud (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2022).