STA shines at Hangzhou Asiad with stunning stage designs

Ti Gong

Stage designs by Shanghai Theater Academy blossomed at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Stadium, or the "Big Lotus," during the Hangzhou Asiad opening ceremony on September 23.

The Shanghai Theater Academy, which has two campuses in Minhang District, supported the Hangzhou Asiad with its strengths on stage design, lighting, costume and make-up designs.

Sha Xiaolan, visiting professor at the stage design department of the academy, played the role of chief director and producer for the Hangzhou Asian Games opening ceremony. Graduate students, alumni and teachers of the school also fulfilled multiple design tasks for the event.

The "special" team made its debut in the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. Subsequently, their skills were further proved during the World Expo Shanghai 2010, 2016 Hangzhou G20 Summit and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

"We've made breakthroughs from old stage designs," Sha said. "This time we also practiced green concept. We lit no firecrackers, and digital torchbearers participated in the lighting of the cauldron."

Pan Jianhua, a professor of costume and make-up design, led his team designing costumes for athlete escorts during the Asiad. In its rehearsal the team worked for over 12 hours daily and filled their prompt plates with notes on costume distribution, event procedures and schedules.

The costumes, inspired from the sweet osmanthus, the city flower of Hangzhou, implicated good blessings for friendships among athletes, a cherish for the grand sports ceremony, and best wishes from China to people in different Asian countries.

Huang Chen, an alumnus of the 2003 stage design major of the theater academy, was one of the chief visual designers of the Hangzhou Asiad.

The team adopted a large amount of artificial intelligence assisted tools in the multiple stages of the opening ceremony, to generate more possibilities for visual effects.