Promotional material for The Writer Lu Yao Photo: Courtesy of Xi'an Theatre

As part of the ongoing National Drama Performing Season, The Writer Lu Yao, produced by the Xi'an Theatre, was staged at Beijing's Juyin Theater on Saturday and Sunday nights to mark down the 30th anniversary of the death of renowned modern Chinese writer Wang Weiguo.  

Better known by his pen name Lu Yao, he started writing novels when he was a college student. Two of his most well-known works were Life (1982) and Ordinary World (1991), which won him the Mao Dun Literature Prize. 

According to Ren Xueying, president of the Xi'an Theatre and the drama's producer, it was challenging to bring a writer's story to the stage because a writer spends most of his life thinking and creating. 

"So it is very hard to express such an inner part of one's mind on a real stage. We explored many ways to develop a story about him," said she. 

Lu has earned quite a large number of followers, mostly young people, due to his writing about how young people in Shaanbei, the northern part of Shaanxi Province, have strived to change their lives. 

A seminar was also held at the theater to commemorate the 30th anniversary of writer Lu Yao's death and further explore his life.