New wave for seaside theater

Actor and director Chen Minghao experiments with an unconventional location and time slot for his new play Romeo and Juliet by the Sea. The play will take place at the Seaside Theater and begins at 3 am. The night, the dawn and the sunrise will all play an important role as the play unfolds.

"The Seaside Theater is a stage that rises right beside the sea. The sea, the sky and the earth are all part of it. The sun, the moon and the stars will intertwine with the emotions of the characters. Each year the Seaside Theater will elicit great suspense as to the kind of performance it will present," Chen explains.

Apart from theater performances, visitors can book, for free, to attend 35 script reading sessions presented by nine directors, including Yang Ting, Meng and Chen.

At these sessions, the directors will give their own rendition of works by masters from around the world, such as French philosopher Albert Camus, English playwright Sarah Kane and Chinese poet Xi Chuan.

The sessions indicate a close connection with the environment where the script reading takes place, from the Aranya community hall that gives an unadulterated view of the sea, to the soccer field and the amusement arcade, where theatrical drama makes its unlikely appearance.

The festival will also include a project entitled 300 Migratory Birds, inviting 300 theater lovers and practitioners to stay in 300 tents that will be pitched on the beach of Aranya, and spend 300 hours together creating theater works.

Liu Chang, artistic planner for the festival and founder of the project, says that it does not set a bar for its applicants, and anyone who has created something or simply has a yearning to perform is invited to apply.

The outer wall of the Solitary Library will be used for screenings, and the visitors can sit on the beach and view classic films, recorded theater performances and live performance recordings of musicians and bands, such as Ryuichi Sakamoto and Pink Floyd.