介绍:
Hailed as "the world&`&s newest great theater festival" by American writer-scholar Lissa Tyler Renaud, China&`&s Wuzhen Theater Festival has entered its third year and will open this coming October. This year the Honorary President for the event will be British director Peter Brook, the 20th Century&`&s theater legend.
It&`&s widely recognized that in the second half of the 20th century, no theater director has had more influence or recognition than British director Peter Brook. Now 90 years old, Peter Brook has agreed to serve as the Honorary President of China&`&s Wuzhen Theater Festival.
Huang Lei, co-founder of the festival, speaks about the initiation to invite Peter Brook.
"We held a meeting during last year&`&s festival, to start considering this year&`&s event. Our Honorary Presidents of the previous two years were Robert Brustein who founded the Yale Repertory Theater, and Eugenio Barba, who founded Odin Theatre, both theater legends from America and Europe respectively. So we were thinking if we could have Peter Brook in Wuzhen this year, it will be wonderful, and it will be huge."
On the first year of the festival, the world theatrical giants Robert Brustein and Eugenio Barba both showed up in Wuzhen, an ancient town at the southern end of the Jing-Hang Grand Canal. When they met each other they exclaimed: "I&`&ve seen the history of European theater!" and "I&`&ve seen the history of American theater!" It has now become a classic memory of everyone at the scene. This year it&`&s still uncertain whether Peter Brook will show up or not, but one thing is for sure, his latest work will be staged in the oriental water town.
This event was founded by a group of star theater makers in China including Stan Lai, Huang Lei and Meng Jinghui in 2013, and captures theater lovers&`& attention ever since with its high artistic taste and enchanting environment. Theatrical works covering various topics from both home and abroad are staged in Wuzhen at seven performing venues, some newly constructed with modern design, some renovated on the basis of historical architectures.
Last year, a tailor made stage play "Green Snake" brought by prolific director Tian Qinxin made the open show impressive in unexpected pouring rain. And this year, Tian Qinxin will continue to work closely with the festival. Although the main repertoire still remains undisclosed, inside information has leaked out that she will bring some opera-related work, and adroitly mingle it with the Wuzhen environment. As for more details about the repertoire, Tian says artistic director Meng Jinghui will have open-minded choices.
"Director Meng Jinghui has his own taste. It&`&s not necessarily avant-garde, but when we talk about this year&`&s plan, I found he&`&s very open-minded. And don&`&t forget our theme for this year is: transmittal. All the works on the repertoire will be around this theme."
This year the event will go on from October 16th to 25th. Besides the established theater makers, it will also provide opportunities for young theater artists. They can compete for a cash prize of 200,000 yuan which comes to the best play, and a special prize of 60,000 yuan, or about 10,000 US dollars to the most outstanding artist. The inaugural Master Classes will also be held, allowing aspiring artists to learn from Chinese and international masters at close quarters, in the rich ambiance of the Festival. All course proceeding from the master classes will be used as prizes for young theater artist&`&s competition and work incubation.
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