WHEN tickets became available two months ago, the fifth Wuzhen Theater Festival sold out 15 of its 24 plays in about an hour.

The annual international festival, which kicked off Oct. 18 and continues until Oct. 29, has gradually become one of the most significant events of Wuzhen, a traditional waterfront township in East China’s Zhejiang Province. The modest town has a history that traces back 7,000 years.

The Wuzhen Theater Festival, jointly founded by the chairman of Culture Chen Xianghong, award-winning playwright and theater director Stan Lai, well-known Chinese actor Huang Lei and highly-reputed experimental drama pioneer Meng Jinghui, is welcoming its fifth year since the first Wuzhen Theater Festival was launched in 2013.

Over the past four years, the festival has expanded at a spritely pace, now totaling a cumulative 65 plays, 218 performances, 16 theater activities and more than 5,100 carnivals attracting nearly 100,000 theatergoers and almost 1 million tourists.

Chen Xianghong summarized the past five years as “the renaissance of a town” which has broadened the Chinese vision of plays and acts as a window into Chinese theaters on the world stage, making this unassuming yet charming town known to foreign audiences.

Because the Wuzhen Theater Festival has attracted a large number of young people and artists, the town has transformed from a commercial tourist town to an authentic art scene.

“It is now hard to imagine Wuzhen without a theater festival,” Chen said.

The town has become busier the last four years, with the number of theater productions and outdoor carnival events constantly rising. (SD-Agencies)