Bulletin Spring‧Summer 1996

The Intercollegiate Drama Competition: Then and Now In November 1995’ the drama societies of the University's four constituent colleges held their annual drama competition on campus. The productions were of an equally high standard and each college managed to clincb a prize. Under Hong Kong's primary and secondary education system, the average student has minimal exposuretodrama.Formanystudentsat the University,the intercollegiate drama competition is their initiation into the world of the theatrical arts, offering them experiences that they otherwise would not have had. What follows is a brief history of this competition. 'In the Wake of the Wind', winner of Outstanding Original Script ALon g Tradition In the 1960S, drama societies from different tertiary institutions and colleges of education would take part in an annual competition organized by the Hong Kong Federation of Students. The Chinese University's representatives were the drama societies o f its three constituent colleges, Chung Chi, New Asia and United, who competed against each other as well as their counterparts from other institutions. At the time, the event was the highlight of the year ： competition was keen and the standard was very high. In the 1970s, the drama societies of the three colleges coalesced to form the Chinese University Student Union Drama Society (CUSUDS). It began to organize intercollegiate drama competitions for its three members. Si rRun Run ShawHall' s Involvemen t The enthusiasm for these events seemed to have waned in the early eighties. It was not until Sir Run Run Shaw Hall was established and took over as organizer that interest was revived. Sir Run Run Shaw Hall invited the participation of the dean of students' offices in the colleges, organized an intercollegiate drama competition in October 1984, and assisted the CUSUDS to stage a performance in March of the following year. Both have since become annual events at the University ： the competition would take place in the first semester as a warm-up and to tap potentials, then the annual performance staged by CUSUDS would take place in the second semester to foster cooperation among the three colleges. By the mid-eighties, drama had regained, if not surpassed, its former standing on campus. The years between 1986 and 1988 were the golden age of student theatre at the University. Between the intercollegiate competition and the CUSUDS annual performance, each college would present its