On October 27, 2024, the closing ceremony of the 11th Wuzhen Theatre Festival was held at the Wuzhen Grand Theatre. Theatre people, guests and media from all over the world gathered here to witness the end of the eleven-day theatre festival.

During the eleven years, Wuzhen Theatre Festival has grown up with many theatre lovers, becoming a playground for the growth and incubation of Chinese theatre and a bridge for international theatre exchange and integration. Many former dreamers have now become dream makers, building an inner utopia for all those who go to Wuzhen.

Inside the Wuzhen Grand Theatre, the results of the Emerging Theatre Artists' Competition were officially announced! After the careful evaluation by the Competition Jury, Sattva and Baby Boxes won the Special Prize for Excellence. The former uses projection to create a real visual field, showing the interest of sound and painting, and demonstrating the confidence of oriental culture; the latter intertwines sincerity and simplicity with absurdity and banter, resolving the bluntness and abruptness of stage expression, and thus entering the best realm of theatre. Meng Jinghui, the Co-Founder and Festival Artistic Director, presented the awards to the above plays.

Han Yannanfei won the Most Outstanding Artist Award for her play Seesaw Law. As a playwright, director and actress, Han Yannanfei has made a thought on the issue of women's view of reproduction that is not sensationalized in any way, and her performance style is both clean and brilliant, creating a spark of gender struggle and awakening on the stage. Stan Lai, the Co-Founder and Festival Director, presented the award.

The Best Play Award went to Amy Zhang Returns to Her Hometown. Chen Xianghong, the Co-Founder and Festival Chairman, presented the award. The play refuses to simply take sides or dichotomize, focuses on the existential dilemma of contemporary youth, and uses modern dance to demonstrate the wide space of reverie in trivial reality.

The eighteen groups presented their sincere and pure interpretations at the West Warehouse Theatre. After three rounds of competition, seven plays were selected as finalists. On the stage, they focused on life situations through the eyes of theatre and used artistic language to explore contemporary issues: affection, life and death, self-identity, and gender respect, etc. Young artists' reflections and concerns about the real world never stop.

The Emerging Theatre Artists' Competition's purpose is to establish a platform on which promising young artists can develop original theatre works. Over the past eleven years, it has provided a stage for young artists to show their talents, and inspired them to create unremittingly, with a total of 179 original plays shortlisted, and more than 11,000 young people applying for the competition. Wuzhen Theatre Festival also provides young people with opportunities to communicate with each other and learn from the masters, and in the future, Chinese young theatre artists will be able to travel in a broader artistic universe.

The 11th Wuzhen Theatre Festival featured 24 Specially Invited Plays, 13 from overseas and 11 from China. For 11 days, there were 86 performances in Wuzhen's 11 theatres.

World masters presented masterpieces. The renowned European director Krzysztof Warlikowski brought We Are Leaving with the Nowy Teatr; one of the most important directors and playwrights of the contemporary French-speaking theatre stage, Wajdi Mouawad, presented Littoral with the La Colline-théâtre national; Japan's national treasure Suzuki Tadashi with the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT) presented Dionysus; the world-class master Eugenio Barba led the Odin Teatret to present Hamlet's Clouds; the best Chinese language playwright and director Stan Lai and the Theatre Above presented River/Cloud; one of the most influential theatre artists of the 20th century, Thomas Richards, with the Theatre No Theatre, presented The Inanna Project; Nikolaus Habjan, who has been hailed as one of the world's finest puppeteers, and the Viennese playwright Paulus Hochgatterer joined forces to present Karl Böhm. Once the play was performed, it was met with an overwhelming response and favorable reviews. The professionalism of top-notch theatres is evident in these masterpieces.

The classic themes broke the grid. Biedermann und die Brandstifter, En attendant Godot, The Threepenny Opera, Echoing: the Seagull, and Werther. Based on a Novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visited the Wuzhen Theatre Festival on the basis of time-honored artistic themes. Classic texts and famous plays reached a breakthrough in terms of connotation, theme and expression. The plays crossed cultural barriers and shaped a new pattern of contemporary theatre aesthetics, while examining the classic themes from the contemporary perspectives.

Cutting-edge exploration brought brand-new experiences. The subtle and novel Du bout des doigts brought an epic dance on the fingertips; Lying Flat 2.0 subverted the traditional mode of viewing, with great experimental temperament and vanguard; K.I. and Abel focused on the topic of artificial intelligence, and created an innovative mode of script writing. Cutting-edge domestic and international theatrical explorations converged at the Festival to create unprecedented experiences for the general public.

Diversified perspectives projected contemporary viewpoints. Left Unsaid, The Animals, Run Away to the Moon, and An Approaching End/The Witches' Hammer/Trigger Warning covered the domestic social life and a discourse on global social issues. On the theatre stage, the creators used a rich and broad artistic vision to look at the current reality. The masterpieces they created illuminated the common propositions of human beings in reality, in the group, in the self, and in the details of life.

The dynamics of the body were truly felt and known. One of the charms of theatre is the presence of the body, extraordinary and stretching. Various styles of body language were in An Ordinary Day in the Life of the Dancer Gregor Samsa, AFTER ALL, IN MEDEAS RES and Gala. The body conveyed emotions, power and beauty were perfectly fused in the play, giving the purest touch to the heart. The physicality of the body was manifested endlessly, the boundaries of communication were dissolved in the dynamics of the body, and the original form of expression went straight to the deepest meaning of the theatre.

The public service performance demonstrated the spirit of transcending limits. The Revised Future, as a public service performance, was set up as a separate unit of "Nothing is Impossible". As the first play that integrates the disabled and the able-bodied in China, The Revised Future revealed the vision of group understanding, and the play was full of humanistic concern, touching on social issues while transcending the boundaries of interpretation, creating unlimited possibilities for theatrical performances.

The Wuzhen Theatre Festival upholds internationality, professionalism and contemporaneity, and dedicates a diversity of theatrical masterpieces to the world audience. From masterpieces to new creations, from classic productions to realistic focuses, the Festival offers a wide range of theatre in Wuzhen!

We have created a new space in the old granary, and within this new space have erected a new bridge. The 11th Wuzhen Theatre Festival once again broke through the boundaries of theatre, launching a brand-new unit – Granary Reverie, which brought into play the qualities of space and unlimited artistic exploration, and extended the ultimate experience of theatre from indoors to outdoors. There were six new original works, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Oedipus et Oraculum Mechaniacum, Dangerous Relationship, Two Legs, Uncle Vanya, and Burn Paper If Needed, as well as new spin-off activities.

6 imaginative seasoned directors; 5 theatre spaces, each with different style; 45 exciting performances; 3 inventive theatre shacks; 2 parties for audience and creators; 5 workshops to challenge thinking and creation. Granary Reverie is a gathering of theatre people and theatre enthusiasts in a new field that promotes exchanges and stimulates feelings, storing warm artistic sparks and building a diversified and harmonious artistic atmosphere.

The atmosphere for young theatre people to get together and communicate is relaxed and warm, with artistic sparks bursting out at any time. Granary Reverie creates a unique field of theatre creation, absorbing domestic young theatre creative forces with pure, diversified, sincere and innovative literary temperament, and bringing fine plays with different angles, directions and textures, leading the audience into a theatre dream journey that transcends time and space.

This year in the Outdoor Carnival Unit, Artbirds and the Victorine Pasman Team jointly created the water opera The Floating Diva, which made a strong appearance, swinging the dreamy artistic "skirt" in the classical water town. Intangible Cultural Heritage National Style Show of Kunqu Opera, Puppetry, Lion Dance, Jilin Opera, as well as troupes from the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Spain and other countries all made a splash in Wuzhen. China Academy of Art Public Space Art Exhibition Project was to put the art installations swimming on the Xishi River ...... The influence of these live performances showed the beauty of diverse arts.

The 11th Wuzhen Theatre Festival Outdoor Carnival, 68 troupes 109 shows, there were more than 2,000 performances in the public space of the West Scenic Zone. The rivers, stone bridges and lanes, even the sky and the fields were transformed into the stage for the shows!

Parades, improvisation, physical theatre, dance, music, opera, magic, pantomime, avant-garde theatre, multimedia video, installation art ...... art in all its forms, across the water, land and air, was presented in turn.

Universal Studios was back in Wuzhen this year. The four popular characters of Universal Studios Beijing, Bob and Kevin, King Julien and Puss in Boots, made their first appearance in this water town, bringing more than 20 unleashed special editions of Carnival, more than 10 character meetings and other interactive experiences, attracting tourists of all ages. Universal Studios Beijing continues to expand its creative boundaries, help cross-border exchanges between international theme park entertainment and theatre culture, let more young people feel the charm of the collision of multiple arts, and further inspire visitors' desire to explore and yearn for the world of blockbusters.

At the Wuzhen Theatre Festival Outdoor Carnival, there are infinite imaginations, infinitecategories, and infinite artistry!

The 11th Wuzhen Theatre Festival Dialogues, Workshops, Readings, and various forms of communication with both professional depth and aesthetic experience, enrich the spiritual world of theatre lovers, and provide them with a wider range of artistic energy outside the theatre. Many theatre masters, celebrity guests, and professional scholars participate in the event, sharing their ideas and insights on theatre creation, teaching or learning professional theatre methods, and connecting the theatre with the readings to bring them closer to the audience.

The themes of the ten Dialogues extended from the Specially Invited Plays to a broad perspective of theatre aesthetics. From Suzuki Tadashi's theatrical aesthetics to Krzysztof Warlikowski's mortal epics, from the poetic sighs of Stan Lai's theatrical universe to Eugenio Barba's sharing of his artistic career. Nine workshops covering performance training, physical exploration, philosophical debate, creative analysis, and theater ecology, where various themes collide and diverge in interactive practice, and where theatre enthusiasts are led by professionals to touch the beauty of art and life.

Numerous celebrity guests participated in the Daydream Readings and Midnight Readings.

The three curators, Rao Xiaozhi, Raymond Zhou and Huang Shujun, curated three different styles of the Theatre Space, Hamlet at Sixes and Sevens and Nines, Border Town and A Streetcar Named Desire 1933, and the classic texts were thus infused with richer connotations. Along the Xizha Street, the portraits of the theatre masters fly high on flags. Gazing at the masters, one can also feel the master's looking back; strolling along the street, one is also traveling in the thick and far-reaching river of theatrical history.

This year, the Nighthawk Live Music featured a diverse mix of music styles and a fully upgraded on-site experience. The iQIYI Showroom was a collection of high-quality dramas, movies and varieties, creating an exclusive exhibition space. The Wuzhen Intangible Cultural Heritage National Style Show presented opera performances and a wealth of intangible cultural and creative products to the public, while the HELLO WUZHEN Art Exhibition was based on globalization and focused on diversified and pioneering contemporary art fields. The LAYERED GROWTH RINGS Art Exhibition outlined the clues of time in the flow of light. The Olfactory Sensation Art Exhibition "Theatre of the Orient" stimulated the five senses with aroma and olfactory art installations. "Arts. The Greco-Romanization and Its Double" presented a five-act video series and many beautiful artworks. The "Having Fun Together/Everyday is A Day" Lifestyle Neighborhood created a fun and artistic lifestyle. The Town Library provided a quiet place and was a symbiosis with the Midnight Readings.

The Theatre Night Market includes exhibitions, music, movies, flash mobs, reading, installations, ...... various kinds of food and drinks and rich activities, attracting guests of Wuzhen Theatre Festival to come and experience them one after another. Lifestyles here are diversified. Visitors can start the unique Wuzhen gathering moments in the resonance of art and life.

The money raised from the 2023 public service live broadcast has now been used for the public service of theatre education. During the 11th Wuzhen Theatre Festival, under the guidance of Tongxiang Municipal People's Government, the Wuzhen Theatre Festival Committee, in conjunction with the Tongxiang Charity Federation and Qianxun Group, jointly initiated the second public service live broadcast, which raised money to fund the public service of theatre education for youths in remote areas, and support young art creators in their formative years as well as art teachers who are spreading aesthetic education in underdeveloped areas.

The 11th Wuzhen Theatre Festival invited young children from Shaya(Xinjiang), Songpan(Sichuan), and Seni(Tibet) to watch plays and experience the power of theatre.

Over the years, Wuzhen Theatre Festival has organized several public service performances. The Wuzhen Theatre Festival's public service live broadcast is also an encounter of love and warmth, joining hands with caring enterprises to promote the concept of charity. Wuzhen Theatre Festival will continue to disseminate humanistic care, help the public service cause, and pass on the flame of theatre art.

The Co-Founder and Festival Chairman Chen Xianghong said in his speech, "Theatre art for the town, from a foreign subject to now as a cultural symbol, this period of metamorphosis is Wuzhen as a long history of the town's own cultural tolerance brought. Wuzhen's growth is like a child, we have always believed that it has a bright future, but more happily to see its growth process, twists and turns and brilliant. And the belief in making it an excellent role model has remained unchanged. This is also the meaning of this year's theme Solidity, like a rock of perseverance, like the original heart." Huang Lei, the Co-Founder and Festival Producing Director, said, "I hope that the Wuzhen Theatre Festival can go on and on, and be a wonderful artistic seed, rooted in more people's hearts."

Wuzhen Theatre Festival, a convention linked to the theatre, a pure love of the run, a cohesive effort of artistic dedication, a section of beauty and common humanistic landscape.

The 12th Wuzhen Theatre Festival

Oct. 16-26, 2025

Theme: Swirling Up

"Fuyao" or "Swirling Up" comes from the philosopher Zhuang Zi's Worriless Journey (4th C. BC) and means a swirling wind moving up. It is what propels the majestic mythical creatures Kun and Peng to fly for 90,0000 miles.

Let's meet next year!