An audience member (right) joins an actress in a play presented on Tuesday, making herself part of the play.Photos: Chen Shasha/GT

Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center (SDAC) released eight of its plays for 2020 on Tuesday. This year, the release was done in a "dramatic" way by turning the whole of the center into an interactive wonderland. 

Guided by the voice of artists in the headphones, the audience walked through different spaces of the building like the dressing room, the rehearsal room and corridors where excerpts of plays were being put on, one after another. The sounds, lights, shows and actors created a world of immersive and interactive experiences for the audience.

Zhang Huiqing, general manager of the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, told the Global Times that this tour gives the audience an opportunity to feel the essence of drama in a relaxed and immersive way.

The excerpts of the plays in the immersive tour are from the eight works that the center will put on in 2020, which cover both classic and modern works, such as Beneath the Red Banner by renowned Chinese novelist and playwright Lao She (1899-1966), The Dream of The Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin (1715-63), comedy I Love Peach Blossom, and music drama Letter Home from the War, as well as Under the Roofs of Shanghai, which portrays the lives of Shanghai residents in the 1930s.

Adaptations of foreign works like The Three Musketeers by French writer Alexandre Dumas (1802-70), Death of A Salesman by US playwright Arthur Miller (1915-2005), and Miss Julie by Swedish writer August Strindberg (1849-1912), are also included.

A rehearsal room set up at Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center. Photos: Chen Shasha/GT

According to Zhang, the center will release 52 plays on diverse subjects in 2020, including both Eastern and Western literature, with classics and original works.

The drama tour, as Zhang said, will also be a new program open to the public for 2020. It encourages the audience to leave their seats in the theater to see the other parts of a play. 

"Traditionally, what the audience can see is only the last 10 percent of a stage play. We want the audience to know more about people working on stage plays, the history of our center and the history of drama in an interesting way."

The center also hosts the Shanghai International Theatre Festival every September, inviting foreign drama groups to perform plays for local audiences.

2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the center. In November 2017, the center started renovating its building on Anfu Road. It reopened to the public in May this year. Compared with the previous version, the public area of the building was enlarged by 40 percent. In addition to plays, the center will also host exhibitions, lectures, art salons and workshops.