Reporter Wang Jue Zhi Chunli People's Daily (October 29, 2021, 14th edition)
Core reading
The 8th Wuzhen Drama Festival recently came to an end. The eight drama festivals have allowed more audiences to feel the beauty of drama, built a stage for many creators to grow, and witnessed the change of Wuzhen from a tourist town and a sightseeing town to a cultural town, allowing people to see the collision of ancient and young, the fusion of tradition and modernity.
In Wuzhen in the drama festival, there are many casual "encounters" - in front of the stone square of Zhaoming Academy, watching a body drama performed by a college student team; on the stone road by the rain reading bridge, laughing with everyone by the witty mime; in the fluttering blue printed cloth of the dyeing workshop tanning field, applauding for a play that has not seen the beginning but has always seen the end...
Jiangnan water town is quaint, small bridges and flowing water, theater lights up, open space is the stage. Tourists who meet in Pingshui and performers from afar form a theater without walls, interpreting the meaning of the theater festival with laughter, contemplation and emotion, and also giving the ancient Wuzhen a more modern cultural connotation.
Recently, the 8th Wuzhen Drama Festival with the theme of "Mao" was held in Wuzhen, Tongxiang, Zhejiang. In this year's drama festival, 23 specially invited plays with a total of 64 performances were unveiled, 18 youth competition plays were shortlisted, more than 2,000 ancient town carnivals were performed on the streets, and the drama market section was launched for the first time, attracting theater creators and enthusiasts from all over the world to participate.
What is it like to participate in the drama festival in Wuzhen? What will the theater festival bring to Wuzhen, which has a thousand-year-old history? Let's hear what the audience, the creators of the theatre, the organizers of the festival have to say.
Tourist Guo Ting from Zhengzhou, Henan:
Feel the beauty of the drama
4 years ago, I first came to Wuzhen, a small town with small bridges flowing water and white walls of Dewa, which deeply attracted me. This year, I deliberately chose to bring a 6-year-old child during the Wuzhen Drama Festival to let him feel the atmosphere of the theater festival.
On the opening day, we arrived at Xizha Scenic Area at 5 p.m. and met the carnival parade. The parade is composed of puppets, dancers, clowns, etc., colorful costumes, happy and peaceful atmosphere, as if to bring us to a fantasy world, children are particularly happy.
I took my kids to a show where one of the stories tells about the relationship between humans and machines. At first, I was worried that the time was too long and the theme was too esoteric, but I didn't expect that the child not only watched the whole process, but also liked it, and would soon repeat the lines in the play. Who says children don't understand theater? One day, at the entrance of the theater, we also met several leading actors in the play. The child is a little shy to see the actor, but the actors are very friendly, not only taking photos with the child, but also listening to the child memorize the lines. In the quiet night of Wuzhen, we feel the beauty of drama.
"Goodbye, grass!" "Goodbye, Grand Theatre!" "Goodbye, Art Gallery!" "Goodbye, gate!" When we left by battery car, the child said goodbye to every grass and tree that Wuzhen saw. I was quite impressed.
I work for a communications company and in my spare time I like to watch drama, which brings a different color to my life. Maybe my love of drama has also affected my children. I took him to the Wuzhen Drama Festival in the hope that he would go out of the classroom, look at the world, and discover more interesting people and things.
Youth Competition Participant Li Zihan:
The festival provides a stage for growth
At 10:40 p.m., after watching a 4-hour theater video screening, I walked out of the Lake Theater in Wuzhen, and the fragrance of osmanthus flowers came to my face, and I spent a beautiful day. These days, the creators who participate in the Youth Competition of wuzhen Drama Festival live in a youth hostel for 4 people, and the day's arrangement is often to eat, rehearse, watch plays, and sleep. For about 10 days, "soaking" in the drama with a group of people with the same dreams is a very memorable experience.
I am a film and television second-year graduate student, and the theme of the entries submitted this year is about growth. Youth competition has always been the highlight of the Wuzhen Theatre Festival, and for young people who love drama, it provides a stage for growth. This is my second time to participate in the Youth Competition at the Wuzhen Drama Festival. As early as 4 years ago, I came once when I was just a junior in college, and I vaguely won a special attention award. That experience broadened my horizons, learned a lot from every judge and other contestant who gave us advice, and later I became a creative partner with some of them.
Every year, the number of people signing up for the youth competition at the drama festival is increasing. This year, the organizing committee received 571 application materials, and finally 18 groups of works were shortlisted. Innovation is a prominent feature of the youth competition. The changes in drama at present are enormous, and there is a trend of more diversification in terms of creative methods and content. This time, our work also made some bold innovations, using flat images to build the tone of the whole play, and designing a lot of performances and screen integration during the rehearsal process.
This year's youth competition is scheduled at the Bengwan Theatre, a small theatre built on the riverfront. Each show has only 200 seats, and spectators line up several hours in advance to collect tickets before the opening. In order to meet the needs of more audiences, the organizers set up a screen outside the theater to watch the performances in real time. Every time you enter the venue, you can see enthusiastic and patient spectators queuing up.
Participating in the drama festival in Wuzhen is very different from performing in the city's theater. It's a relatively enclosed space with open communication that makes it easier for me to immerse myself in it. After the performance, the audience came directly to communicate with me, and this direct feedback was very valuable to the creators.
Chen Xianghong, President of Wuzhen Tourism Co., Ltd.:
Wuzhen, which has a theater festival, has a different temperament
Since its holding in 2013, the Wuzhen Drama Festival has entered its ninth year and ushered in the eighth edition this year. The theme of this year's drama festival is "Mao". In the theme poster, several beams of stage lights form the shape of a bamboo shoot, which vividly shows the theme and symbolizes lush growth.
The annual drama festival has become an indispensable part of Wuzhen. In the past, many people knew about Wuzhen Theater Festival because of Wuzhen, and now many people know Wuzhen because of Wuzhen Theater Festival. Wuzhen, which has a theater festival, has a different temperament.
To make the Wuzhen Drama Festival a long-term brand, while adhering to internationality and professionalism, we must now pay attention to purity and inclusiveness. Drama festivals are not held for tourism, but should be based on the original meaning of theater festivals, continuously expand their extension, and deepen their connotations.
The cultivation of young dramatists is a very important part of the festival. Since the Wuzhen Drama Festival was held, more than 8,000 young dramatists have participated in the competition, and the drama festival has also extended a set of training and incubation mechanisms for young dramatists.
A theater festival, without the popular love and expanding influence, lacks the vitality of sustainable development. This year's drama festival pays more attention to the life of drama, and the "Drama Bazaar" section has been newly opened in the Beizha Silk Factory outside the scenic spot, and it is not necessary to buy tickets to participate, watch art exhibitions, participate in book clubs and so on.
What does hosting an international theatre festival mean for a town of less than 10,000 residents in Gangnam? The biggest harvest of the town's big festival is self-confidence from the cultural level. Wuzhen is a jiangnan water town with an ancient history, but also a modern town with 5G signal coverage and perfect theater facilities, where the theater festival is held, we see the collision of ancient and young, the fusion of tradition and modernity.
The holding of the drama festival has witnessed the butterfly change of Wuzhen from a tourist town and a sightseeing town to a cultural town.
The outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan proposes to promote the integrated development of culture and tourism. I understand the integrated development of culture and tourism, culture is the connotation, tourism is the means, culture and tourism should find the appropriate combination point. In this process, one is to avoid conceptualization and superficiality, and the other is to have enough patience. Treat Wuzhen like an ancient and exquisite museum, no matter what you put in, you must be careful.
【Source: People's Daily】
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