Village savors its leading role

It's been a decade since theater director Stan Lai first brought a play to his father's hometown, in Huichang county, Jiangxi province. What started with just one production a year has grown into a much larger vision, and the Huichang Theatre Village has been established, giving around 700 performances in its first year.

The village hosts two theater seasons per year and from May 23 to June 2, the Huichang Theatre Season 003 will bring together international stage artists for more than 370 performances.

This year's event will be more international, especially since a residency program was launched to encourage global theater artists to settle in the village and draw inspiration from the environment.

Among these artists is leading American experimental theater director Robert Wilson, who was invited as a resident artist during the second edition of the event, hosted from Nov 21 to Dec 1 last year.

"He's not just staging one of his plays — he's creating a production right here. We've selected the performers according to his instructions, and he'll stay in Huichang for a month of rehearsals," Lai said at the theater season's media conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

The production is the Chinese language version of Hamletmachine, a classic play directed by Wilson and written by German playwright Heiner Muller, that has been staged in English, German and Italian. The Chinese edition will have its world premiere during the theater season, making it the first international production created on-site at the village.

Greek theater director Theodoros Terzopoulos, a founding member of international theater exchange organization Theatre Olympics, is bringing his rendition of Oresteia, the only surviving complete ancient Greek trilogy. Huichang will be the play's only stop in China.

In his recurring lecture series, Lai will give a special session on Greek tragedy, and invite Terzopoulos to a dialogue discussion.

At the theater village's public areas, visitors will see a variety of open-air performances by domestic and international troupes, including French aerial company Gratte Ciel, which appeared at the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.

Also from France, Les Grandes Personnes will bring giant puppetry to the village. As the festival coincides with Children's Day, a series of special workshops will engage local children in collaborative creations.

Lai is going to stage two productions of his own for the theater season. One of them is a new rendition of Menage a 13, the same play he staged in Huichang back in 2015.

Born in 1954 and then from 1966 based in Taiwan, it was not until the 1980s that Lai got back in touch with his uncle in Huichang. In 1997, he finally visited the county.