A poster for the 2021 Beijing Fringe Festival Photo: Courtesy of Qing Yang

 
Beijing Fringe Festival held its opening ceremony on Sunday, when over 90 young artists presented their improvised plays. 

Organized by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the National Theater of China and other organizations, the festival will run for 60 days, adopting a mixed format of online and offline events to protect against COVID-19.

The ceremony also marked a drama-creating competition where young artists were asked to do a short improvisation on stage. A young director named Hong Tianyi became the only artist at the festival to win two awards at a time, Best Creation and Best Work, since the festival made its debut in 2008.

Hong’s play Baicizhan, meaning a hundred words, describes the different stage of a woman’s life from birth to marriage to death. Hong used a hundred words to express a hundred feelings during a woman’s life.

In addition to the improvisation show at the opening ceremony, the festival will also invite 22 young directors to showcase their works. Insiders and experts will be invited to host forums on the future of Chinese theater.

“We hope to discuss the future of our theater industries as deeply as possible and from different angles,” the festival committee said on Sunday.