(Photo: CGTN)
Inside the cabins or beside the canals, from the wooden boats to the stone bridges, all of Wuzhen is a stage during its most thrilling theatrical event of the year.
The Wuzhen Theatre Festival has grown to be one of the most significant events in the Asian festival calendar thanks to the striking sections – the “Outdoor Carnival,” which seamlessly merges environmental theaters into the ancient alleyways of the small water town in east China's Zhejiang Province.
From October 18 to 28, over 1,800 performances featuring a variety of different art forms and groups will be showcased throughout the streets of Wuzhen, allowing people to enjoy the arts up close and personal.
During the carnival, walking through the winding streets and cruising over the tranquil canals, you never know what or whom you will encounter around the next corner. Many of the actors, who are primarily seen on stage, join in the crowds to savor the celebration.
Pavel Vorozhtsov, a member of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre, is such a special audience. The prestigious theatre, made its Wuzhen debut at the festival, showcasing the anti-war epic "19.14" to celebrate its 120th birthday.
The actor described his first trip to China as "cool", feeling excited to enjoy the carnival time and have some fun on the streets. “We arrived yesterday, and now, on the first day when we come out from the hotel to see what is it. It is very interesting, for us, unusual…we love it!” Vorozhtzov told CGTN.
The experience has been “wonderful” for Travis Preston, dean of the CalArts School of Theater, who was specially invited to participate in the Wuzhen Dialogues, another festival tradition.
“I meet a lot of friends here from all over the world,” Preston said, adding that the festival's founders imagined the area as "a place for theater, and it was constructed to receive artists. And that's very special."
This year's open-air extravaganza brings more than 100 troupes from across the globe to Wuzhen and hundreds of thousands of visitors, making the 10-day carnival as diverse and inclusive as they come.
A stage without boundaries
When audiences are intimately involved in the performances, the performers also get the opportunity to savor the experience.
The carnival is a grand celebration where you are bound to find countless forms of performing arts, including traditional Chinese operas, live music, acrobatic shows, and sand painting.
Most of time, the streets set the stage for a blend of distinct arts, such as the fusion of theater and opera.
The Twenty, a group of students from the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in Beijing, who named themselves after their average age, is attempting to reach beyond the boundaries of traditional Chinese opera by mixing it with modern theater.
"Like us, people who perform traditional opera on stage, we usually tend to have an exaggerated acting style, presenting fixed forms. We really stress stylized performances," Zhang Min, a member of group, said, "but when we are on the street, and closer to the audience, we do less of that."
The Clown Mime Group pose to take photos after the minstrel show at the carnival, October 23, 2018. /CGTN Photo
The Taipei-based Clown Mime Group presents a unique show, combining stilt walking, a traditional Chinese form of acrobatics, with a Western-style clown and juggling performance. To celebrate their debut show in the "Venice of the East," they decided to wear a Venetian style of dress and makeup.
The group relishes the close interaction with audiences. “The streets are full of antique beauty, but our performance comprises lots of Western elements, which creates an interesting contrast. However, the audiences really love it!” Huang Xinyu, a stilt walker, told CGTN.
In addition, the most creative ideas and challenging spirits are also highly welcome at the dramatic fiesta.
The Transformers are a French band whose instruments are mainly made of recycled materials. They are not only bringing the sound their DIY drums to this small town, they're also sending a message of environmental protection to the excited crowds.
In front of the White Lotus Temple, crowds are drawn to a performance by Japanese metal band Haten Kohro, which mixes geisha dance and "Tate," the art of Japanese sword fighting, with blaring heavy metal music.
Sadatoshi Ito, the band's leader, said he was extremely surprised to see their performances become such a hit, adding that, “we really want to come here again.”