Drama groups from Malaysia and Austria will join in this year's
China College Theater Festival, which opens on Aug. 11 in Beijing.
The Road of Love, contributed by Malaysia's New Century
College drama group, will be performed in Chinese. The
Myth of Wish, presented by the University of Vienna, will
be played in German.
This is the first time that foreign college drama groups will
participate.
The festival aims to make the plays more colorful and foreign
drama more enjoyable, said Fu Weibo, an organizer of the
festival.
Fifteen plays, selected from more than 60 drama groups, will be
performed in the three-week college theater gala.
This is the festival's seventh year. This year students will
present classical Chinese dramas, including the political satire
"Career Promotion" written in 1945 by Chinese comedy writer Chen
Baichen.
The festival, co-organized by the Beijing Dramatists
Association, the National Theatre Company of China and the Culture
Palace of Chaoyang District, are charging adults ten yuan (US$1.3)
and students five yuan, said Fu.
In 1866, Western drama was first introduced into China via
Shanghai. Chinese student playwrights began producing socialist
realism shortly afterwards, becoming the pioneers of China's modern
drama.
(Xinhua News Agency July 31, 2007)
