In the northern suburbs of east China's Zhejiang Province, a festival is underway, bringing together lovers of drama, literature and art in an ancient water town. Wang Siwen finds out what makes it special in this interview with Stan Lai, co-founder and festival director of the Wuzhen Theater Festival.

Town's scenery creates chemistry for art event

In 2013, the first Wuzhen Theater Festival started. Recalling the memories of when they first started it, director Lai said the festival was just something between friends.

"Huang lei, one day he said to me, I wanna show you this place, so he brought me here and said, what about a theater festival? And Mr. Chen Xianghong also asked me what [do] you need to do for a theater festival here? Already in my mind, I thought this was a very amazing possibility to blend theater with a scenic town, and the chemistry that it creates can really be something special. I told Mr. Chen that at a theater festival, you need theaters. He showed me these spaces. So we turn these into theaters."

Talking about the festival, Lai said all of the wonderful things in life sort of happen very naturally.

2022 theme reflects 'abundance' in creativity, potential and hope amid challenges

Each year, the Wuzhen Theater Festival has a theme. For 2022, the organization chooses the word "abundance."

"We chose abundance in a way because of the very difficult and challenging times we've been going through. We feel that there is still an abundance in our hearts, creativity and potential, and it gives people a lot of hope."

Event's main highlight is contest for emerging artists

The Emerging Artists Competition is the main part of the festival. Eighteen plays have been chosen from over 500 works in the 9th Wuzhen Theater Festival. The contest provides a platform for promising actors to be "seen" and also brings fresh blood to the Chinese theater industry.

"We really believe in youth, and we really believe in how to nurture emerging artists, the younger artists. The competition has become a sort of a legendary part of the festival, people flock here to see the competition, some of the best works you see even though the international masters are here, sometimes the most compelling works are in that little theater, the west warehouse, where you see these emerging artists doing their work. And many of them have gone on to become mature artists."

Fans dub event 'utopia' for range, duration of options

Each year, the festival gathers tens of thousands of people in Wuzhen. A lot of people call this place a "Utopia."

"I think anybody who's come to the Wuzhen festival sees the special quality of the festival, which is that Wuzhen is an enclosed scenic town. All the theaters are within walking distance of each other. We have 10 beautiful theatrical spaces, and you can get there. We have performances at 5 p.m., at 4:30 p.m., and at 11:00 p.m., we've had midnight performances. We do whatever we want here. In so many ways, it's Utopia."

'We want people to come here for the world's best'

Talking about the future of the Wuzhen Theater Festival, director Lai said he hopes people come here for the world's best.

"Theatre is everywhere in Wuzhen, but we wanna keep it confined. We don't want to say, let's spill out into Hangzhou or let's spill out into Shanghai. We don't need that. I think we just need to ensure that every year we are getting the best theaters in the world and that anyone who comes to Wuzhen during the festival can see the best theaters in the world. They don't have to travel to France, New York, or whatever; they can see it here."