Curtain falls on 15th China Children's Theatre Festival

The 15th China Children’s Theatre Festival drew its curtains on August 30 as the multimedia stage play Stone Lions, presented by the China Welfare Institute Children’s Art Theatre, concluded its final performance at the China National Theatre for Children in Beijing.

The China National Theatre for Children, the Dongcheng District People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, and the Xiuzhou District Government of Jiaxing (Zhejiang Province) jointly organized the festival, with special support from the Beijing Culture and Arts Fund.

With the aim of bringing the joy of theatrical art into children’s summer holidays, the festival brought together 25 theatre companies from four countries, presenting 39 outstanding productions in a total of 181 performances.

Featuring a rich array of domestic and international children’s theatre works covering diverse themes and forms, the festival showcased the major creative achievements and new stage developments in children’s drama in recent years.

The fairy-tale musical The Nightingale reinterpreted Andersen’s classic from an Eastern aesthetic perspective. Works such as Xiao Dongdong’s Fantasy Journey and Dream It Possible explored the meaning of parent-child companionship through warm, delicate stories centered on ordinary children’s growth.

Productions, including Mysterious Sanxingdui and Tangniu Arrive, broke away from traditional narrative modes by combining cultural heritage archaeology with stage art, transforming millennia-old artifacts into vivid stage characters beloved by children. Plays such as The Legend of Deification and The Monkey King offered distinctive viewing experiences through physical theatre and puppetry.

Notably, international and cross-Strait contributions added further artistic diversity. The Russian puppet musical The Dinosaur Namer Igu, the Italian visual foot-puppet play Cooking with Your Feet, and the children’s play The Paper Play from China’s Taiwan, brought creative expressions that enriched the festival’s aesthetic appeal.

In addition to offline performances, the festival launched an online showcase of outstanding productions, which attracted more than 8.87 million viewings.

During the festival, the China National Theatre for Children also launched the “2026 Summer Tour 100+” initiative. Fifteen excellent children’s plays—including Malan Flower, The Cat God in the Forbidden City, Mulan, The Nightingale, The Twelve Months, Pippi Longstocking, and The Little Prince—were performed in 131 shows across 23 cities (districts and counties) in 12 provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hubei, and Shaanxi, further enriching children’s summer experiences.

Since its founding in 2011, the China Children’s Theatre Festival has welcomed 385 theatre companies from 35 countries and regions across five continents, presenting 644 productions and a combined total of 2,919 performances both online and offline.