Juliet Zhu currently works in the education department at Shanghai Grand Theatre, the first purpose-built opera house in China. It was built in 1998, and can hold 1,800 people in the biggest of its three spaces, 500 in its middle-sized space and 300 in its studio. It closed in March for a major, 10-month renovation, and will open again in November. It presents opera, ballet, music, Chinese opera and theatre, and when it reopens, Zhu will be moving into programming. She's currently in England on the British Council's Chinese Arts Managers programme, spending some time at the Globe and some time at Welsh National Opera. She and Neil Constable from the Globe told me about the programme and why they are participating.
“Another colleague and I applied for the scheme,” says Zhu. “I got the opprtunity to join the 12 fellows and participate in this placement. Because I am interested in education and outreach/community work, and also fudraising work, the Globe and Welsh National Opera were recommended to me. The Globe is an unsubsidised cultural organisation but it's very robust and has a very strong education presence. Last year's fellow who came to the Globe was very positive about his experience!”
Constable says: “We were very open to the idea... the idea of Juliet working with the Globe, which is more than just a theatre, made sense – we do a lot of education work. The programme is designed for both sides to gain knowledge and skills. What does the Globe get out of participating, I ask? “The opportunity for us to learn by meeting the next generation of arts managers by hosting a placement was a great two-way process,” explains Constable. “Quite often one has to deal with a promoter or middle-person [when thinking about international touring], so what we wanted to do was create the relationships that mean we could talk to people direct. It's about breaking down the barriers to facilitate cultural trade between the two countries – language and political barriers make it quite hard. We know there is an interest in Shakespeare from Chinese audiences.”
Zhu spent three weeks at the Globe. For Constable, it's been an interesting process, and he's clearly put a lot of thought into making Zhu's placement as productive as possible: “I'd like for Juliet to understand how an organisation like ours operates and is able to achieve a lot in a small financial envelope. Because The Globe is a relatively young company (we're 17 years old), she can gain an understanding of the ways we rise to challenges and turn things round quickly – everyone thought we were mad with the Globe to Globe festival. Also, to see how people work together in creating the Globe's mission – how closely linked cultural tourism and the education offer are to the theatre programme. We have a faculty, we run MA and PhD programmes... nearly as many people see a performances (c.400,000 people will see a show this season), but we have around 340,000 cultural tourists. Zhu describes her time enthusasitcally: “I've been sitting in on lots of meeting, mostly with the edutcaion team, but also with the executive team, heads of department and the board. Neil has worked hard to really fill my schedule – I'm very busy! It's been great to see how the teams operate daily, what problems they are facing, how they communicate. They don't treat me as an outsider, I feel very at home!”
The placement has not been without its challenges, however, confides Zhu: “It's been challenging for me because I don't want to make the conversation boring! People are so busy and I don't want to waste their time. I have to adjust my questions to stir their interest. It's easy for people to take for granted the stuff they do every day, so to find the interesting things to share has been fun.” Constable says: “It's really interesting for us to hear her thoughts – we don't usually have 'mystery shoppers'!”
Zhu told me that “the general situation is quite different here than in China but I will try to transfer some of the practice here into my work at home. Are there imporvements I can do, knowledge I can share, with my colleagues in Shanghai? I'm thinking about that a lot. I've been asking my colleagues back at home what they might want to know from the people I'm meeting, too, so I'm asking their questions to take back answers. It may not be that transferable, but it will help us to reflect on what we're doing and think about what we might change.”
And what do both sides feel that they might learn from each other? “It's been fruitful,” says Constable. “We have ambitions to tour to Hong Kong, China and Taiwan next year, so the creating these relationships and having people on the ground is great.” For Zhu, “in many ways, the UK is ahead of the Chinese performing arts market, but maybe my questions will help them reflect on their practice, and to think about what they do and how they do it. I hope so. You know less about our market than we know about yours, so it might be interesting to for them to learn how we do things back at home.”
