On the evening of May 23, the closing ceremony of the 1^st World Theatre Education Conference with the 3^rd Asian Theatre Schools Festival was held at the Experimental Theatre of the Central Academy of Drama (CAD), China.

The closing ceremony was hosted by Deputy Director-General Liu Libin of ATEC (also the CPC Party Secretary to CAD). Vice President Liao Xianghong of CAD announced the winners of the “Outstanding Play Award”, the “Best Play Award”, and the “Best Acting Award”. Director-General Xu Xiang of ATEC (also the President of CAD) presented the awards to the winners, who received big rounds of applause from the audience. Delegates from different schools gave wonderful performances, adding extra fun to the closing ceremony.

The conference, themed as “Today’s Asia: Theatre Education in the 21^st Century”, has witnessed in-depth discussions on Chinese and Western drama teaching practice, the fusion of Chinese and Western drama, and the Stanislavsky system. It has promoted the exchanges of theatre arts and reaped fruitful results. During the Theatre Festival, 11 plays from 11 schools were staged, presenting their distinct artistic imagination and national theatrical languages and cultures. Their performances demonstrated the theme of the festival, “Modernization of Traditional Theatre”, and exhibited their proactive exploration for the forms and philosophies of theatre.

Though the event has come to an end, the platform of the World Theatre Education Conference and the fruitful results from the academic exchange will inject new impetus into the development of the world's drama arts, leading to a new leap forward in theatre education and theatre arts.