The eighth Wuzhen Theatre Festival was held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province from October 15 to 24, with the annual theme of BURGEONING. At the closing ceremony held on October 24, the jury announced several awards of the Emerging Theatre Artists’ Competition. Two drama works "Electronic Soot" and "Princess and Martyrdom", originally created by a number of students of Beiguo Drama Society of BNU, jointly won the Best Drama Award of the Emerging Theatre Artists’ Competition.

The Gleam of Burgeoning; the Sprouting of the Bamboo Shoot

The Theme of the 8th Wuzhen Theatre Festival - Burgeoning

Liu yexuan, screenwriter and director of “Electronic Soot”, is an undergraduate of the School of Arts and Communication of BNU. She brought warmth to the audience in the cold autumn through a story of large pattern. Zhang Yan, screenwriter and director of “Princess and martyrdom” , an undergraduate of the School of Arts and Communication, revived the life represented by characters, and the use of projection presents a wonderful and unique visual effect.

The two works are jointly cultivated and supported by the Youth League Committee of BNU, the School of Arts and Communication of BNU, and the Chinese Excellent Traditional Culture Inheritance Base of the Ministry of education. Through one round of audition and two rounds of competitive performance during the competition, the works were finally recognized by the audience and the jury.

The Emerging Theatre Artists Competition is a major component of the Wuzhen Festival. The purpose of the competition is a part of the vision of the Festival Director: to establish a platform on which promising young artists can develop original theatre works. This platform is for passionate and potential young playwrights and performers to present themselves, learn from world theatre masters, and broaden their horizons.

Beiguo Drama Society of BNU was officially established in 1986, which was the first college student drama society at that time. It was initiated and served by Huang Huilin, founder and senior professor of drama and film&television discipline of BNU.

At the beginning of the establishment of the drama society, the fledgling Beiguo drama society appeared on the same stage with many national professional drama groups in hte international Shakespeare drama festival.