A Critical Account Of Historical Development And Activities Of National Modern Drama School

This thesis tries to make a comprehensive and vivid account of the historical development ofNMDS (National Modern Drama School) on four aspects: general introduction, performancesduring the anti-Japanese war, dramatic works and studies in modern drama. It also presents acritical account of its performances, which exhibits the many efforts of NMDS as a modern dramaschool, and which makes people clearly know the origin of NMDS, its anti-Japaneseperformances to save the country, its studies in Modern drama, and its contributions to makeChinese modern drama prosperous and its value in anti-Japanese publicisation.The following is the contents of the four chapters.Chapter One: Introduction to NMDS. It introduces the development situation before the NMDS,the stages of preparation, establishment and movement of NMDS, its faculty during theanti-Japanese war, whose purpose is to make people know the chronicles of NMDS.Chapter Two: Performances of NMDS during the anti-Japanese war. It chronically presents thefirst public performance of NMDS, performances during the movement and dramatic activities inJiang'an, which exposes the value of NMDS in anti-Japanese publicisation.Chapter Three: Dramatic works of NMDS in modern drama. It focuses on two playwrights: CaoYu, the one from "old" to "new" and "metamorphosis"; Wu Zuguang, the one who comes fromNMDS. We can see the contributions of NMDS to make modern drama prosperous from thegrowth of these two playwrights.Chapter Four: Dramatic studies of NMDS in modern drama. First it presents artistic views of the teachers of NMDS, i.e. Yu Shangyuan, Chen Zhice, Yan Zhewu, Jin Yunzhi and Cao Yu. Then it introduces those who were the most well-known in dramatic direction, i.e. Jiao Juyin and Zhang Junxiang.