HKAPA main building, Wan Chai district Hong Kong

After 5 years of rotating locations between Peking and Zurich, 2014 is the first year in which the “Common Stage” project takes place in Hong Kong. The cooperating partner school is the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) which is known for its professional education, training and research facilities in the performing arts, theatre and entertainment arts, film and television.

Particularly interesting is the combination of the purely performance orientated HKAPA and the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) which teaches also art, design, music, art education, theatre, film, dance, and transdisciplinary studies. Therefore, with regard to trans-disciplinarity as one of the main goals of “Common Stage” the project promises some interesting learnings for its participants.

Professor Ceri Sherlock, Chair of School of Drama and “Common Stage” project leader at HKAPA, sees the promising character of “Common Stage”: “Defining for the future of performing arts is going to be hybridity, trans-culturality and multi-disciplinarity. For us it is exciting to have that kind of dimension. Trans-culturality and cross-disciplinary in a focus-oriented project like this gives an impetus.”

Shortly before the grand finale, at the day of the final presentations, Ceri Sherlock talked about his impressions of the project process from the perspective of the APA: