Program released for the ninth Wuzhen Theater Festival

A news conference for the ninth Wuzhen Theater Festival was hosted on Sept 29 in Beijing, where three founders, Huang Lei, Stan Lai and Meng Jinghui, together with the festival's executive director Nai-chu Ding, introduced the festival's theme, productions and highlights.

Under the theme of "Abundance", this year's festival will take place from Nov 25 to Dec 4 in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, with four sections of specially invited plays, emerging theater artists' competition, Wuzhen dialogues and ancient town carnival.

Contemporary artist Yue Minjun has created art for the festival's main poster.

According to Meng, the festival's co-founder and artistic director, this year the festival has invited 22 theater productions, and will hold a total of 63 performances in Wuzhen's nine venues.

The productions will be categorized into six sections. The first and foremost section "golden divide" highlights stage adaptations of works by renowned Chinese writers, including Yu Hua, Mo Yan and Bi Feiyu. Meng will bring to stage Yu's novel The Seventh Day.

The topic for this year's emerging theater artists' competition is "wine bottle, blank and remote control". The committee has received 541 submissions during the past three months, and will announce 18 shortlisted works on Oct 15.

The festival will also host activities throughout Wuzhen, including markets, art exhibitions, live music performances and screenings, to provide a comprehensive experience for the visitors to Wuzhen.