Tech changes the theater game

In his final novel, The Glass Bead Game, Swiss-German writer Hermann Hesse envisioned an art form that transcends all boundaries — an intricate game woven from the essence of human culture, drawing on every creative achievement in history.

Its masters, secluded in the ivory towers of Castalia, believed the game could mirror the universe's spiritual order and lift humanity beyond the mundane into a realm of pure thought.

Last month in Beijing, that vision found a contemporary echo in a group of young creators, passionate about theater and eager to explore technology, coming together in their own version of Castalia.

At the Beijing Fringe Festival, a new program called "Digital Theater" brought together 25 cross-disciplinary young creators. Over 12 days, they merged code with choreography, algorithms with acting, and innovation with imagination, culminating in six experimental performances that redefined theater.

According to the program's director, Xiao Jing, a theater director and playwright, this new initiative was launched in response to the current wave of new technologies to explore how technology and emerging media integrate with theater.

"This time, we recruited 25 young people from across the country, all from different backgrounds — some in computer science, some in theater directing, others in digital media, and so on. Their fields vary, but they all share a deep passion and enthusiasm for theater," Xiao says.