Wuzhen Theatre Festival, highlighting new work, closes

The closing ceremony for the 11th Wuzhen Theatre Festival was held in Tongxiang, Zhejiang province's Jiaxing, on Sunday.

At the Wuzhen Grand Theatre, the awards for this year's Emerging Theatre Artists' Competition were unveiled. More than 11,000 young theater practitioners submitted their works, involving the three compulsory elements of pillow, sunlight and a big dinosaur, and 179 were shortlisted, of which 18 were chosen to compete during the festival.

Sattva and Baby Boxes were awarded with the Special Prize for Excellence, and Amy Zhang Returns to Her Hometown won this year's Best Play award. Playwright, director and actress Han Yannanfei was awarded as the Most Outstanding Artist with her creation and performance in Seesaw Law.

This year's festival showcased 24 specially invited plays, among them 13 presented by international troupes and five making their world premiere. These productions saw a total of 86 performances staged at Wuzhen's 11 theater venues during the 11 days.

The festival also presented more than 2,000 public performances by 68 theater troupes, six original theater works created by young practitioners at the festival's brand-new Granary Reverie section, 10 dialogues, nine workshops, as well as reading sessions.

Last year, the festival hosted a public welfare livestream fundraising session, the contributions of which have been used for theater education charity. Guided by the Tongxiang government, this year's festival hosted the second livestream session, supporting theater education for children and teenagers in rural regions, and young practitioners and art teachers based in these areas.

Teenagers and children from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the Xizang autonomous region and Sichuan province were organized to attend the theater performances in Wuzhen.

The ceremony also announced that the 12th Wuzhen Theatre Festival will take place next year from Oct 16 to 26, themed on Swirling Up (fuyao). The concept comes from pivotal Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi's work, meaning a swirling wind moving up and propelling mythical creatures to fly.