To this, Meng said he wanted the actors to feel the play by themselves and act in the most natural way they could. "I cannot tell them how to do the acting. If I do, it is just my idea, which would be narrow and limited. I want the actors to explore more about the story by themselves." This directing method has made him stand out in the genre.

Meng has persevered with his methods despite many setbacks. When he started his play career in the 1990s, it was very hard to move forward since few people knew what his works meant. "We had to make many calls to invite people to come to watch the plays since nobody would buy the tickets," he said. Now, things are getting much better and mini theater has got more acknowledgement. "I am a stubborn person. I want to stick to my own way and my way is just to try new ways and make the best plays in China." said Meng.

New generation of directors

Huang Ying, a young play director who has risen to prominence in recent years, is a fan of Meng. "If you ask any young play director in China about who has influenced them the most, Meng's name will always come up," said Huang.

The interest of Huang's in plays began when he was still a biology sophomore in the China Agricultural University. One day, he watched a play called Antiques, which totally changed his life. He spent one year watching different plays in Beijing until he felt he could also make one. Then he gave up his plan for going abroad for further study and organized the first students' play association in the university. Their first play, King Lear, was praised by students, and two years later after Huang graduated from college, he entered the Central Theater Academy for his postgraduate study.

In 2006, Huang directed Jujube Tree, which was regarded as one of the best successes in the mini-theater play genre. "This play comes from a real story in a hutong of Beijing , and I like to tell stories of common people and share it with many other people," said Huang.

In May 2008, Huang directed another play Two Persons' French Dinner, and in October, he put this play on stage again, but in a totally different form. "I like to make different versions of the same story," he said. For this play, the first version is about a couple of low-income earners who went to a French restaurant to celebrate their wedding anniversary, and in the second version, the same story happens to a middle-class couple.

"Life has a lot of possibilities, so should the plays," said Huang, who is known for changing the content of plays from performance to performance.

Try to make profits

However, Huang also revealed that he won't become a professional experimental play director, as he doesn't want to turn a hobby into a career and also he is afraid that he cannot support himself by just directing mini theater plays.

Huang said Jujube Tree cost 15,000 yuan ($2,200) of his own money as he couldn't get investors. "What you earn is always less than what you invest." he said.

In an attempt to change this situation, some studios were established. X2 Drama Studio is one of them which has gotten attention since its launch in 2005. Their slogan, "Creating China's Broadway," is motivating the studio and 17 mini theater plays later. It is opening branches in other cities.

Just as some of the plays produced by X2 Drama Studio follow popular movies or songs to create similar but funny stories, more and more plays now claim to be funny plays with the purpose of attracting more people who are living under great pressure in modern society.

"But some plays are full of shallow and stupid jokes, and this is not what we are looking for," said Meng.

As a successful director, Meng's plays are always profitable, but he refused to call his plays commercial ones. "It is of course good to make profits, but it is a humiliation for me to be titled as commercial director," said Meng. In 2008, before the Beijing Youth Theater Festival, Meng spent more than 500,000 yuan ($71,000) renovating a gutted cinema into a theater and naming it Fengchao Theater. It is now regarded as the largest mini theater in Asia.

"I am happy that I finally have my own theater, and I will build it as the base for young experimental directors," he said.

Lin shares Meng's views on the commercial aspect of mini theatre. "I don't think plays, especially experimental plays, are for the majority," said Lin. He said he invested 380,000 yuan ($55,654) in his play The Three Sisters• Waiting for Godot and did not quite break even, although the audience enjoyed the performances. Despite this Lin said he could deal with the loss and would not let this influence him in choosing new materials.

Future of mini theater

Meng explained that mini-theater plays are not simply those plays that were put on the stage of mini theaters. "They should be experimental, non-mainstream plays."

With this idea, Meng held the first Beijing Youth Theater Festival in September 2008.

The directors of the plays in the Beijing Youth Theater Festival have much freedom in producing their works. They were not obligated to pleasing a specific group or audience, did not need big name actors, and even making a profit was not a consideration. They were just required to follow their own will. Twelve young directors took part and Meng is confident they can change the play structure of China and influence the development of China's modern plays.

Huang's Journey to the West was the opening play for this festival. The story is adapted from one of China's most famous ancient novels, which was about a monk's journey to the west with three of his students, including a magic monkey who fought again monsters and protected the monk on the journey. It was well received by the audience.

With the success of such plays and the growth of the number of the audience, many mini theaters have sprung up in Beijing, including Fengchao Theater, Oriental Pioneer Theater and Nine Theater.

"In my early days as a play director, the conditions were much worse than nowadays. If we can persist in our dreams, the future of mini-theater plays can be much better than it is now. It is still a matter of perseverance," said Meng.