2015.1130
CMU School of Drama called on NTNU
Peter Cooke, the Head of School of Drama of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) came to Taiwan for the first time, as invited by the Graduate Institute of Performing Arts (GIPA) of NTNU for a 5-day visit. The tour included master’s class, keynote speech. Professor Cooke also had a meeting with Yang Irene, the Dean of College of Music, Lin Shu Cheng, the founding professor of GIPA, current Dean Ho Kang Kuo, Associate Professor Liang Chi Ming, and Associate Professor Wu I Fan. They talked a lot about the academic cooperation
Carnegie Mellon University was founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie, a well-known philanthropist. The school is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The School of Drama is very competitive, with 12 out of 300 people. After 4 years of strict training, its alumni often go to Broadway theatre in New York or even Hollywood.
During Professor Cooke’s visit, he watching the lessons of NTNU. He also gave instructions to student’s performances and pointed out some details like presenting emotion, using body language beyond singing skills. The students as well as the audiences also learned a lot from Professor Cooke.
On his speech on November 24th, Professor Cooke introduced lessons and performances at CMU School of Drama. The most impressing is that the strict training session of CMU. He said that students can only practice in classes on their first two years and their debut comes in their third grade. Before the show is on, students have to rehearse till mid night up to 6 days per week.
Associate Professor Lee Yen I, Assistant Professor Fan Shen Tao said that the sources and the course plans for CMU Drama of School are really well-designed. The Graduate Institute of Performing Arts has been working on musicals and we hope to work with CMU in the future.