Almost a one-man army

Huang Lei (R) talks with Stan Lai [Photo provided to China Daily]

Scouting the web, the biggest criticism of him sounds like eulogy in disguise. "I hate Huang Lei," goes one post. "How can we men measure up if our girlfriends use him as a role model?" Some go as far as saying that such "a perfect man" must have a dark secret.

"Inexplicably we got inebriated and then sober; inexplicably we started the festival and reached this point. So many inexplicables have converged to a certainty, as if this festival has its former life and its current incarnation," Huang waxes poetic at the closing ceremony.

The Buddhist analogy is a reference to Karma, this year's big winner at the competition. The play, a tale of a Tibetan mother and her daughter, is so touching that it is almost a religious experience.

The piety embodied in this short piece is something we need to reach our goal, says Huang. "We need to kneel and prostrate, Tibetan style, all the way to the shrine of theater."

At the post-ceremony bash, Nancy Pellegrini, a veteran theater reporter for TimeOut Beijing and Shanghai, goes up to thank Huang.

She says that of all the performing arts venues across China, Wuzhen is the only place where audience members are nudged not to look at their cellphones during a show.

This is a small detail that escapes the notice of most theater managers, but Huang is attentive at both the macro and micro levels. Though only 45, he is clearly thinking of his legacy in the annals of performing arts.