Children's drama fever to hit Beijing

A group of outstanding shows for children will be put on stage at Beijing's big theaters from May 31 to Aug 31. The events, sponsored by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture, promise to bring audiences wonderful performances.

The bureau has started to collect positive and inspirational works from art performance groups in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei since February this year. A total of 20 high-level shows including children's drama, traditional opera, puppet shows, shadow puppets, doll play and musical play finally stood out from the rest.

The booming development of children's drama is a sign of cultural prosperity. This event aims to arouse public concern for literary works featuring children, and encourage art performance groups to actively create excellent works which teenagers love to see and hear.

Compared with previous year's shows, most of this year's works are related to realistic themes. For example, Treasure Ship, the only children's play created by literary master Lao She in 1961, was premiered in 1963 at the China Children's Art Theater. This time the theater adapted the story and put it on stage once more.

A Large puppet show Uproar in Heaven, based on the first seven chapters of the Journey to the West, which tells the story of how the Monkey King made himself a king equal to Heaven after seeing through a conspiracy planned by Emperor Yu Huang, will entertain children with humor and ease.

In addition to traditional drama, innovation plays will also draw the public's attention. Ji Gong School tells how various problems appeared during the process of children growing up and teaches parents how to deal with them in a proper way. You Benchang, who acted as the "mad monk" Ji Gong in the television series Ji Gong will play the same role in this drama.

A seminar on children's drama creation and an expert meeting on drama review will be held after the performance. Participants will have in-depth discussions on writing skills and the expanding market for children's plays.

Members of Beijing Longzaitian Piyingxi(dragon in the sky leather-silhouette show) troupe take a photo with You Benchang,on May 29, in Beijing. [Photo by Liao Wei/China Daily]