Twenty years of history at one dinner table.

Course programme

Shanghai · 2026-12-09T02:00:00.000Z – 2026-12-13T09:00:00.000Z · Asia/Shanghai

Who this is for

Writers, directors, performers and creators with relevant lived experience. Choose one accountable role in the team; previous work or a short preparation task helps the lead organise complementary working groups.

Before you begin

Bring a one-page statement of the problem, one relevant experience or work sample, and materials you have permission to use. Review the preparation brief in your workspace before the first session. The course lead coordinates roles, interviews and external reviews; permission is required before using a contributor’s material or publishing their information. You will work towards: A four-minute ensemble scene, a relationship timeline, subtext annotations and a final edit.

The city as a research setting

Shanghai offers a setting for urban stories, brand commissions and collaboration across publishing, film and audience research. The host city is the working base; market-specific interviews and reviews involve people from the named target market, in person or remotely. Find avoided subjects, old debts and power relations in a consented family or friendship account. Performers exchange shared memories before rehearsing a dinner without explanatory dialogue.

1. Establish the lived problem

Find avoided subjects, old debts and power relations in a consented family or friendship account. Performers exchange shared memories before rehearsing a dinner without explanatory dialogue.

What you submit: A one-page agreed brief, source and permission register, participant roles and the questions the first version must answer.

2. Test consequential choices

Develop two contrasting treatments of the same problem. Rehearse, storyboard or assemble only the decisive scene; review it with the relevant contributor before extending production. Ask viewers who owes whom and who is protecting whom. Performers check that actions carry the shared history while allowing more than one reasonable reading.

What you submit: Two reviewable alternatives, notes on their effects and a reasoned creative decision attributed to its author.

3. Make the agreed work

Produce and assemble the work in assigned roles. Keep sources, permissions and actual resource use with the files. A four-minute ensemble scene, a relationship timeline, subtext annotations and a final edit. Coaching addresses the next creative decision; tools are introduced only as needed for that delivery.

What you submit: A four-minute ensemble scene, a relationship timeline, subtext annotations and a final edit.

4. Review, revise and hand over

Ask viewers who owes whom and who is protecting whom. Performers check that actions carry the shared history while allowing more than one reasonable reading. Complete the final revision and handover by the last scheduled day. Separate observed responses from assumptions and unresolved questions.

What you submit: The final authorised work, external review notes, revision decisions, a resource ledger and a signed account of each participant’s actual contribution.

Completion requirements

Complete all four evidence packages, an individual decision log and the final review. Attend at least 80% of collective sessions, or agree an equivalent contribution within the course period. Reviewers record whether the agreed brief was delivered, what each person actually contributed and which issues remain unresolved. Artistic disagreement is documented rather than converted into a single taste score. Participation and verified completion are distinct records; commercial results are recorded only when evidenced.

Your verified experience record

Your record identifies the course, dates, role, verified contribution and assessment outcome. It links to permitted evidence and names the issuing Academy. Issued records include the signed payload hash and stored issuance timestamp. Public visibility follows your consent and the project’s permissions. INDEX association is made only after a work has a valid INDEX record; taking a course does not itself issue an INDEX certification.