Arms open to the new generation

Each year, three of the festival's cofounders, Huang Lei, Lai and Meng Jinghui each come up with a topic which are then combined to create a theme. This year's is "pillow, sunshine, big dinosaur".

Participants exercise their imaginations to come up with a 30-minute stage production based on the theme, 18 of which are chosen to compete during the festival.

The call for entries is open until coming Tuesday. Huang estimates that the committee will receive around 700 submissions, and the panel will announce the selected 18 on Sept 22.

To ensure that excellence is recognized and to inject more diverse perspectives into the selection process, this year's jury has seven new judges, including Beijing People's Art Theatre actress Xu Fan, actor and director Chen Minghao, and young theater practitioners who established themselves during previous rounds of the competition, such as Ding Yiteng.

The Outdoor Carnival section, which is open for applications until Sept 13, will include a variety of outdoor performances, ranging from traditional opera and dance, to modern art and multimedia shows. The festival committee estimates that 1,600 to 1,800 shows will take place, ensuring that visitors enjoy live performances as they explore Wuzhen's streets and alleys.

"Lai, Meng, Chen and I have worked hard together for more than a decade to reach the 11th edition. I feel it is almost like the first edition. It's a new beginning," Huang says.

"We are working to involve more young people in the festival. Also, we are designing and planning more new elements and sections that offer more young people space for creative expression."

One new section this year, the Dream Granary, will be installed at the Wuzhen Granary, a renovated former grain storage facility that opened to the public in 2017. The space is a popular venue for exhibitions by artists from the China Academy of Art.