Huichang's Lai returns home to liven up theater scene

Stan Lai,playwright [Photo provided to China Daily]

He wants to stage an annual show in Huichang.

"It has become a little mission for me to stage plays in Huichang," says Lai, who lived in the US until he was 12.

"I'm seeing what's going to happen to this town after five years of constant theater coming from me."

Lai says he was working on plans to make the county thrive as the "drama capital of Jiangxi".

"I'm sure there's going to be a definite change and a definite advantage this town will have over thousands of other towns like it in China."

The play tells the story of two theater troupes having to share one stage for rehearsals－a tragic love story called Secret Love and a farce called In Peach Blossom Land.

The stark comparison between the two rehearsals eventually disappears, as the two performances end up in a perfect concord. It's long been a touching journey for the audience, while the comedic part of the play has almost always managed to draw laughter.

The same can't be said, though, for the first play Lai brought to Huichang, during last year's festival.

Such was his commitment to teaching locals about theater, he asked staff members to make sure phones did not ring in the audience during crucial moments in his play, Menage a 13.

"What happened was the theater went ahead and put in some very stringent regulations and it turned out that no one dared laugh at the comedy," Lai says, with some laughter of his own.

"After the first night, I said, well, this was a strange performance.

"I asked them what happened. They said, 'Oh, we thought it was great'. And I said, but no one laughed at all!

"There's a theater culture that has to be cultivated."

Speaking on the eve of this year's first performance, Lai says the play likely served as a good introduction to theater for people in the county who were less exposed to modern performing art.

The endeavor seemed to be a success. Lai's curtain call after the two-hour play attracted a loud applause from the audience.

The director told the audience after the performance: "I hope you will enjoy our plays, year after year."

Contact the writers through wangqingyun@chinadaily.com.cn