White-collar drama

School teacher Xu Jingru (bottom right) performs in the classic drama Anitgone. Photos: Courtesy of Guangzhou Dramatic Arts Center

As he enters the theater on a Friday night, Tang Ming loosens his tie and throws his briefcase in the corner. By day, he is an engineer confined to a desk looking over equations while the hours tick by. But by night, Tang is an actor who bursts into laughter and tears to the acclaim of audiences.

"Taking part in drama training helps me to become more confident and outward at work. I am in a better relationship with my colleagues," said Tang. Tang is among the many white-collar workers who have turned to drama clubs to gain the edge in their industry, looking for an advantage over their peers.

As a teacher in an elementary school, Xu Jingru believes the speech training she has received from her drama club in the past year has helped her express herself better when teaching in class.

"I now pay more attention to intonation to emphasize the key points and logic of my lecture, so that students can be more focused in my class," said Xu.

In drama training courses, teachers often employ games to improve a person's tonality and expression when speaking. In one such game, students have to say sentences randomly, and let others imitate their intonation and rhythm without using words.

"Often how you say something is more important than what you say," said Xu Xian, a drama teacher in Zhejiang University, who also hosts training courses for white-collar workers in Hangzhou Muma Theater.

After attending Xu Xian's drama club, Wang Yangxi who works at a news portal, was selected over her peers to present the company's newly developed news app to their clients."My supervisor thought I had stronger expression skills, and the drama training has helped me to have a better control of my body so I can present the app in a more lively manner," said Wang.

For body language training, Xu Xian asks participants to express their mood by body language only. Often her students will pretend to be aliens who can't speak and must communicate strictly through physical actions.

As a comprehensive art, drama training is not confined to just verbal and body language training. It also teaches people how to think and react quickly in different situations.

"I am a Japanese monarch hunting with hundreds of my own dogs," said Tang as he galloped around the stage. Another girl, watching his performance, jumped in and said she was a little boy flying a kite, who needed the monarch's help to get his kite that was stuck in a tree. Then another participant started to run with her arms out pretending to be that kite.

This is called improvisational drama, in which one actor creates a role in a story, and other actors invent different characters to fit in with that story.

"This exercise can improve people's ability to cooperate with each other and carry things forward in their work," said Xu Xian. The key points behind this exercise is to say "yes" when new situations arise, and then use creativity to move things forward.

"This exercise really stimulates my imagination and creativity, in addition to braking my mundane day job. Sometimes I need this divergent thinking to see things outside the box," said Tang.

Ni Chao is a drama teacher from Guangzhou Dramatic Arts Center, who organizes training courses that directly tackle issues in the workplace. Since opening five years ago, the drama club has received 2,000 white-collar participants.

"I let participants act out their work issues with other classmates, while another group observes the task. The groups then change roles," said Ni. "Then the previous group can see things more clearly and impartially as bystanders."

According to Ni, drama training might not change the workplace immediately, but eventually it will have an impact. "After all, life is a play and we are all actors," he added.