A global village where the world's a stage

Apart from Theater Converge, the venues also include the Courtyard Theater, revamped from the historical Wu family's ancestral hall, and the Open Space which features experimental theater and a rehearsal hall.

The revamped squares, including the Lai Family Mansion Plaza and Wisdom Square, also allow for a variety of outdoor performances.

Unlike conventional theater festivals, such as the Wuzhen Theatre Festival, of which Lai is a founder and festival director, the theater village is envisioned as functioning as a year-round base for theater productions.

"Our wish is that performances will be staged throughout the year, so that visitors can travel here, perhaps for a lovely weekend with cultural activities, see a few plays and go sightseeing in nearby areas," Lai says.

The theater village will host spring and autumn performance seasons every year. Its first spring season following its opening ran until Sunday.

It included three plays by Stan Lai — The Village; a new play titled Flower in the Mirror, Moon in the Water that staged its world premiere in Huichang on Jan 10; and a localized version of Lai's classic Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land performed by the Huichang Tea Harvest Opera Theater.

"This is my hometown, so whenever people come here, at least one or two of my plays will be available," Lai says.

Other theater troupes from home and abroad presented their productions, such as Hong Kong Repertory Theatre which staged Soeurs, UTheatre which staged Meeting With Vajrasattva and French troupe Compagnie des Quidams which staged Herbert's Dream.

"The Huichang Theater Village isn't just putting up a setting for a single play. It is a real village, yet I can experience the atmosphere of theater in its every corner. I've never seen anything like it anywhere else in the world," says Liu Ruo-yu, founder of U-Theatre.

Liu says that when she first visited the Lai Family Mansion Plaza, where Meeting With Vajrasattva was to be staged, she thought it was unnecessary to bring the original stage set because the mansion provided a perfect backdrop for the production.