All the things you'd want to do this Monday through Thursday. On the schedule this week: The Album Leaf China tour, wine tastings, Haiku turns five, and China's first sex shop comedy! Read on for details, or check out our calendar for even more. more ›

Hey drama queens (and kings), we just received word that East West Theatre is casting stage actors for a double-bill of absurdist one-act plays. They need: more ›

From June 29th to July 3rd, 3rd Culture Theatre and East West Theatre are coming together to present The Odd Couple, a play of male camaraderie originally written by Neil Simon starring Jim Bennett, Charles Mayer and directed by Jonathan Geenen. more ›

Who says there's no organic grassroots cultural movement in Shanghai? The Shanghai Repertory Theater is presenting a weeklong festival of theater performances, featuring a choice selection of original works and established classics. more ›

Serving as the kick-off event for Shanghai Repertory Theater's June Extravaganza, Friday night's Creative Collaborators Competition began as an easygoing play-reading affair, and ended as a rollicking standing-room only theater party. more ›

All the things you'd want to do this Monday through Thursday. On the schedule this week: Staatskapelle Dresden, the world's oldest orchestra from Germany, is performing at the Oriental Art Center. Pecha Kucha's holding volume 16 of their quickie design talks while Haiku is set on turning you into a sake master. Read on (or check out our calendar) for more! more ›

Start off your St. Patrick's eve the right way -- with Irish play, The Cure by Conal Creedon . It's premiering tonight and is brought to you by Irishtown Productions in association with Le Ceile and the Shanghai Repertory Theatre. The Cure is inspired by the ancient Celtic bardic style of story-telling but with a narrative that is contemporary and cutting edge. Set during the height of the Celtic Tiger economic boom in Ireland - The Cure tells the bittersweet tale of a man who has emotionally lost his way. Brushed aside by the insanity of a booming economy, cut adrift from the city where he and his family have lived for generations. more ›

It's been a while since we've seen A Christmas Carol, and we tend to forget exactly why we're so drawn to it. To put it lightly, Shanghai Repertory Theater reminded us in spades with an overwhelmingly heartwarming rendition. It was like Dickens on overdrive: Scrooge was crotchety, Bob Cratchit was an exemplar of optimistic vivacity, and little Tiny Tim charmed our socks off with unfeigned innocence. In the course of a short hour and a half, we forgot the cultural importance of the play, and entered into the virtues and vices of mankind, something that Dickens was aiming for long before his play became the centerpiece of the Christmas canon. more ›

Photos and text by Jeremy Breningstall Ever wonder what the story of Oedipus would be like if it were told through the language of Beijing Opera? These photos offer a glimpse of that as well as Humans in the Year 2222, a Vietnamese drama. Both are among the many performances happening as part of the 2009 UNESCO Chair ITI Asian Pacific Expo of Theatre Schools & 5th Shanghai International Experimental Theatre Festival is taking place this week at the Shanghai Theatre Academy and other venues across town. This festival brings thespians from across the Pacific region for a range of workshops and performances. more ›

Beautiful Thing, Shanghai's first gay play directed by Michael Darragh, received two standing ovations at the Zhijiang Dream Factory last weekend. The play was followed by a pink tie party organised by Shanghai LGBT in which they crowned their Drag King and Queen of the year. more ›

One of William Shakespeare's most famous plays comes to Shanghai tonight as TNT's production of Hamlet begins its run over at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre on Anfu Lu. Arguably among the most intriguing and complex of the tragedies penned by the Bard, Hamlet explores the themes of revenge, madness (both apparent and real), and, ultimately, death — all in the "rotten" state of Denmark. Featuring some of Shakespeare's most famous and revered moments (the 'to be or not to be' speech and the 'play within a play' scene, for example), the tale of Prince Hamlet's attempts to avenge his father's murder contains great drama throughout. more ›