Development
The first BJFF started in 2008, when curators realized the need for a platform for young people to present their plays.
Shao, also a lecturer at Beijing Institute of Technology, worked for the University Students' Drama Festival before.
But many participants soon graduated. Without a place to showcase their creativity, Shao feared that they would be influenced by commercial and mainstream ideas.
At the University Students' Drama Festival in 2007, a section was created for young graduates. Receiving positive responses, it was turned into an independent festival the following year.
The first BJFF featured only dramas produced in Beijing. In its second year, it expanded to the Chinese mainland. From 2010, dramas from Hong Kong, Taiwan and abroad were also invited. The festival then went international.
"After a year or two, we realized if we only showed domestic plays we would receive positive feedback. But this is stagnant for progress," Shao told the Global Times. "By inviting foreign groups, we can compare…We see our shortcomings as well as our advantages."
Shao said that the quality of Chinese dramas falls behind other countries, especially Europe at large. After seeing many performances abroad, Shao and other colleagues cultivated relationships with foreign colleges and cultural departments, receiving recommendations for plays. Last year, BJFF established a four-year partnership with Festival d'Avignon of France, enabling the direct exchange of plays each year.
Commercial versus independent
Though BJFF advocates for experimental plays, not everyone appreciates this direction. Shao said this genre is sometimes too abstract to be appreciated. He used Feng Jiangzhou's Fleeting City Floating Life, staged at 2009's BJFF, as an example.
"During the performance, an audience member shouted that he was dissatisfied and asked for a refund. He was referring to a commercial performance nearby that offered a refund to dissatisfied patrons," Shao said. "But then another patron said he was satisfied and offered to pay for the ticket."
When Pei Kuishan was directing Swedish playwright August Strindberg's A Dream Play in 2009, someone from the audience said he wanted to hit Pei because he disliked the show.
"Pei was happy about this, because it shows people were thinking about the performance," Shao said.
Many people are used to traditional dramas, and companies cater to this, to make money. But Shao believes this form of entertainment does not broaden ideas. Criticism at BJFF is appreciated, as plays and societal issues need to be debated.
"A play with either complete praise or criticism is not good," Shao commented.
BJFF is still one of the most successful drama festivals in China, despite its short history. Scriptwriter Lin Weiran listed three aspects that lead to the success of BJFF: "Extensibility, openness, and a broad view of the future," she said in a phone interview on Monday.
Lin explained that extensibility means participants of BJFF continue to participate and invest time. BJFF isn't only for professionals, but "open for people regardless of background."
"BJFF looks into the future, not limiting itself to Beijing," Lin said.
Tao Qingmei, a drama critic at Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, agrees.
"Directors like Huang Ying and Wang Chong used to be unknown; BJFF provided a platform for them to [develop] ... Now their style is accepted."
Tao said that before, only places like the Ministry of Culture, NCPA and Beijing People's Art Theatre invited foreign works, but BJFF freely communications with various sources.
Source: Global Times
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