Beijing International Youth Theater Festival opens: 14 works meet in the theater

  The 2026 Beijing International Youth Theater Festival opened in Beijing on September 9.14 works from China, Spain, the United Kingdom and Georgia will be performed in different theaters in the following performances.The excitement of the Youth Theater Festival can often be felt before it starts: the audience is flipping through the program catalog in the foyer, the creators rush to the scene with the newly arranged passages, and the discussion about a work has not yet been officially unveiled.

This year's drama festival takes “Drama Present” as its core unit. The works not only care about current life, but also re-read literary classics, and also look for new expressions in a cross-cultural context.The opening play - It's Good Between Us - was performed by “Butterfly Group” and was adapted from the work of the same name by Polish playwright Dorota Masławska. The story falls in a family with three generations living under one roof.After being transformed into a Chinese stage, the unfamiliar text will eventually return to the characters and relationships in front of the audience.

The theater festival does not focus solely on the performance itself.“Drama is Talking” arranges forums and sharing sessions to allow directors, actors, screenwriters and audiences to continue conversations around the work; “Drama is Reading” starts from the script to see how a piece of text goes through rehearsal, revision and stage presentation; “Drama is On Record” focuses on physical training through performance workshops.Each unit corresponds to an unavoidable link in the birth of a work, and also gives the audience the opportunity to see the labor behind the stage.

“48 Hours V Drama” retains the most lively aspect of the Youth Theater Festival.The limited time forces the creators to quickly determine the theme, division of labor, and performance methods. Many ideas are too late to be polished and can only be pushed to the audience by relying on the tacit understanding between the teams.Such compact creations may not necessarily pursue a complete large-scale production, but they can often leave vivid moments: a line adjusted on the spot, an action suddenly found by an actor, a laughter or silence completed by the whole audience.

Works from different countries come to the same city, bringing together differences in language and style.Family, loneliness, growth, work, memory, these issues will have their own details in different cultures.The capacity of the theater is limited, but watching can bring distant life experiences closer.The audience may not understand every word in another language, but they can read what the characters are going through from the pauses, eyes and body movements.

The value of the Youth Theater Festival also lies in leaving an entry point for new creators to enter the industry.An early work may be rough and the staging needs to be refined, but it must first be given the opportunity to be watched in its entirety.The lights in the theater go on and off, the people on the stage complete a performance, and the people in the audience take away a question.For young creators, such an encounter will become the starting point for the next work.