Mou Sen

Mou Sen, born in 1963 in Liaoning, is recognized as a crucial Chinese avant-garde theater director. A documentary filmmaker, Mou graduate in Chinese literary criticism from the Beijing Teachers’ College. Although the university did not offer him any theater training, he managed to direct several student productions during his studies. After graduation, he became the director of the Tibet Theater Company. Having returned to Beijing, in 1987 he founded the Frog Experimental Theater – the first independent theater company established in China since Mao Zedong took power in 1949. In 1991, Mou was invited by the United States Information Agency to the US to conduct interviews with American theater directors. From 1991 and 1993, he returned to Tibet to set up the Tibet Theater Studio and a training program for Tibetan actors. In 1993, he returned to Beijing and established Xi Ju Che Jian (the Garage Theater), a company that presented its productions mainly in alternative independent spaces. Mou was particularly attached to the director Jerzy Grotowski’s idea of poor theater, which he tried to implement in his own creative work. He also borrowed inspiration from the Russian film avant-garde and the work of composer John Cage.

(Magda Lipska)