Culture Beat: Shanghai Contemporary Theatre Festival brings together global artists

Photo: Courtesy of Shanghai Contemporary Theatre Festival

The 2024 Shanghai Contemporary Theatre Festival (ACT) will run from September 6 to October 13, offering audiences a series of captivating performances.   

This year's festival will be themed "The Field of Memory" and continue its focus on "contemporaneity" and "innovation." 

In addition to Chinese productions, it has invited theater troupes and artists from Italy, Thailand, Greece, Portugal, Australia, and Croatia to participate. 

The festival will feature nine performances, covering various genres such as drama, mime, experimental performance, and dance theater. Most of these productions are new works from leading international performance troupes, with three making their Chinese mainland debut and two having their first-ever showings in Asia.

The ACT is an annual international festival for the performing arts held at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre and other partner venues since 2005. Its small theaters bring the audience very close to the stage for many face-to-face interactions. 

In almost two decades, ACT Shanghai has cultivated a young, curious audience unique to Shanghai and become an important platform for connecting local and international artists with the Chinese audience.