Learning from a master

Speaking about the program, Qiu Jianwei, 34, general manager of the Chinese resort development company Culture Wuzhen, which is one of the sponsors of the training camp, says: "We're not running the training camp to produce stars; we are doing this to produce great artists and teachers."

According to Qiu, the training program aims at providing affordable no-frills education to Chinese art enthusiasts.

Suzuki, who was born in Shizuoka, Japan, in 1939, has been an active theater practitioner since he was a college student at Waseda University.

And during his career-long search for Japanese interpretations of classic Western plays, he developed his own method of actor training that focuses on the human body's expression of animal energy as the basis of theater.

Suzuki also believes that the body is an indicator of a person's upbringing and cultural environment, and one of the best ways to communicate a culture in theater is to fully explore the capability of the human body.

"To best spread our culture through theater, we need to interpret Western traditions in our own ways. Actors are my instrument of interpretation," says Suzuki, when asked why he developed the technique.