SEMINAR | Stan Lai presents “Creativity for Scholar-Directors”

TAPS welcomes Playwright/Director Stan Lai as the 2025 Carl Weber Memorial Speaker. His visit includes a Public Lecture and a Department Seminar. Learn more about this visit and department seminar at our website taps.stanford.edu/weber25

ABOUT THE SEMINAR | Creativity for Scholar-Directors
Tailored for the PhD students at Stanford, but open to all interested in creativity, Stan Lai will give an overview of his groundbreaking book on creativity which will soon be published in English (Creativitry: Asia’s Iconic Playwright Reveals the Art of Creativity). Focus will be on what tools a scholar-director should have in their creative toolbox and how to use them, with focus on how Lai created his legendary work A Dream Like a Dream (“possibly the greatest Chinese-language play since time immemorial”—China Daily). Lai will explain his methods of using improvisation in the creative process for theatre, and if time allows, will do a demonstration.
ABOUT STAN LAI
Stan Lai is “The major contemporary Asian playwright of his time, perhaps of all time.” (Robert Brustein) “Asia’s top theatre director,” (Asiaweek) “The most celebrated Chinese language playwright and director in the world and his body of work … has redefined how we think about the art form itself. ” (Broadway World) Lai’s 40 original full-length plays pioneered modern theatre in Taiwan, then influenced theatre throughout the Chinese speaking world, and can be seen in current performance or read in Lai’s own translations (U. of Mich Press). Lai is also an award-winning filmmaker and long-time educator with a PhD from Berkeley. His book on creativity, which has sold one million copies in the Chinese language, will be published in English this year under the name Creativitry. Lai is Festival Director of the Wuzhen Theatre Festival and Founder of the Huichang Theatre Village. Theatre Above, Shanghai, is dedicated to his works.
Photo Credit: Anais Martane