The Department of Drama for both undergraduate and postgraduate students trains high-level professionals in drama, film and television. Located in Zhejiang, the department continues to benchmark against the frontier of world drama, film and television culture. It embraces advanced Chinese and Western artistic concepts while learning from well-known schools of music, drama, film and television at home and abroad, in a bid to build the department into a hub for training talents in this field. In 2016, the department set up the major of Performance. In 2020, it was approved as a provincial first-class undergraduate major construction site and the six related courses were included in the provincial first-class course development program. New breakthroughs have been made in major development.

The program of Performance has four focuses, namely 1) Drama Performance (Yue Opera Performers), 2) Opera Instrument Performance (Yue Opera Accompaniment), 3) Musical Drama, and 4) Opera Performance for Film and Television. In the department there are three teaching and research faculty teams: 1) drama performances, 2) opera music, and 3) musical drama and film and television performances. Cureently it has 242 undergraduate students. In recent years, the department has made continuous efforts to build a strong faculty. It brought in a clutch of high-level talented people and boasted national-level talent for the first time. At present, there are 29 teachers, including 6 with senior professional titles, 6 with deputy senior professional titles, and 9 with intermediate professional titles. In addition, the department has won many awards and commendations in various events. They include the National ‘Pear Blossom Cup’ Youth Opera Teaching Achievement Performance, the National Competition of 100 Excellent Full-time and Part-time Teachers of Opera, ‘Xin Song Project’ Young Opera Performers and Instrumentalists Competition by Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, Zhejiang Province University Micro-teaching Competition, Zhejiang College Students Art Festival, and ‘100 Opera Performances from 100 Schools’ by China National Arts Fund.

To create a new height for drama studies, the department has set up two scientific research platforms, namely the Institute of Dramaturgy and the Research Center of Yue Opera. Meanwhile, it has undertaken art projects under the National Social Science Fund of China. Besides, it has built the Research Center for Opera Art Creation and the Promotion Center for Lin Weilin Opera Creation and Research (a master teacher studio), laying the foundation for the establishment of a talent training mechanism based on ‘department-institute cooperation’.

Joining hands with Xiaobaihua Yue Opera Troupe of Zhejiang, the department has been approved as a provincial demonstration base for industry-education integration and an off-campus practice and education base for college students in Zhejiang Province to inherit the drama (Yue Opera). This provides a solid foundation and guarantee for deepening school-troupe/enterprise integration and collaborative education, and for effectively improving the training quality for talented opera performers.

As for art practice as well as creation and performance, the department takes major creation and performance projects as leverage for the integrated development of the industry and education and the construction of art practice platforms. Among the excellent stage works created by the department, two obtained subsidies from the China National Arts Fund and three obtained subsidies from the Zhejiang Culture and Art Development Fund. The department has successfully organized performances by the Plum Blossom Award Troupe of China Theatre Association at Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, as well as special performances by graduates to display the teaching results. Due to the emphasis on students' creation and practice, the department has recorded a graduate employment rate close to 100%.