Drama festival delights Beijing's theatrical set

"Let it go," a play staged by volunteers on Tuesday night, marked the end of the sixth Beijing Nanluoguxiang performing arts festival.

For the past two months, people have jammed into Penghao Theater in a central Beijing hutong, to applaud presentations from 14 countries including Italy, France, the Czech Republic and Israel.

Edward Bond, a well-known English playwright, came to the festival with his play "The Angry Roads," and Japanese director Oriza Hirata brought robots in "The Metamorphosis, Android Version," all attracting many fans.

The 46 international performances and domestic plays were held alongside 11 workshops in performing arts.

"It has become routine for me to come to the festival every year," said Zhang Xin, a student from Beijing Language and Culture University. "It brings some varieties to my life."

Most of the audiences are students or young people with a monthly income lower than 3,000 yuan (about 480 U.S. dollars), according to Xie Pang, promotion director of Penghao Theater.

"I love the festival as I can experience such a great diversity of culture," said Zhang Haijing, a member of one audience. "Nanluoguxiang would be boring if there were no Penghao Theater."

Located in Nanluoguxiang, a center for culture and arts in east central Beijing, the Penghao Theater was founded by dentist and drama lover Wang Xiang. With only eight staff, 15 interns and 30 volunteers working on daily performances and festivals, he works under huge financial pressure and a shortage of human resources.

Wang insists on the quality of performances and low prices; the average cost for each play is 96 yuan (15 U.S. dollars), less than half the average ticket price in Beijing.

"Only when my country is better in an artistic and a warm way, can I be better," said Wang Xiang.

After months of hard work, staff decided to put on "Let it Go" by themselves, based on Wang's daily life in the theater, to celebrate the end of a busy drama season.

In 1906, a group of Chinese students founded a drama club called The Spring Willow Society. They adapted "Uncle Tom's Cabin" for the stage, the beginning of China's modern drama history.

Over a century later, there were 4,519 plays, with an audience of over one and a half million in 2014 in Beijing, according to Beijing Trade Association for Performances. Endi