Wei's adaptation of Puccini's famous work Chinese Princess Turandot to Peking opera was taken on a performance tour to Italy, Puccini's hometown, in 1993. In 1995, Wei's makeover of Turandot, performed by the Zigong Chuanju Opera Troupe, which featured dazzling stunts and the distinctive local flavor of southwest China's Sichuan Province, won a staggering 11 awards at the national drama festival.

As a stage performance form imported from Western countries, plays in China have abided by the script-core tradition. The playwright remains the soul of a play.

A good tradition of Chinese plays is putting a focus on real life. However, many Chinese plays are far from real life and reality. It is important for plays to reflect on social reality, especially the demands of disadvantaged groups. Yet the majority of Chinese plays have failed this mission.

As one of China's best-known comedians, Chen Peisi has played roles in TV soap operas, movies and plays. Having succeeded in all three areas, Chen is most proud of his current identity as a performance agent.

"My business specialty is on plays," he proudly announced. In the last five years, play performances that he has participated in have sold over 400,000 tickets and achieved a total box office income of 60 million yuan.

Somebody has questioned my act of shifting to play performances since I was originally a movie person. Although compared with shooting soap operas and movies, stage performance is more demanding on the ability of an actor, especially a comedian, the limitations on stage acting are much less. I felt that I couldn't bear the limitations any longer, just like a fish of 1 meter in length thrown into a pot of less than half a meter wide.

Before starting my career on the stage I suspended my work for three years. During this period, the experiences I accumulated through playing in comedy movies kept coming back to me. I decided to move into play staging although most play troupes were losing money.

I got to know that many play troupes, while receiving subsidy from the pockets of taxpayers, have staged plays that were so far away from real life. In some troupes, this kind of practice has been carried out for generations. I think it is a kind of deception and irresponsibility toward the audience. I intended to destroy this old tradition by creating works closer to ordinary people's life. I knew that my act would edge a small number of stage professionals out of the labor market, but this is what we have to do to achieve a more buoyant performance market.

Most of my plays are about small potatoes in life, most of which are critical and reveal the dark side of society. However, I think the criticism in my plays is positive as it exposes the ailments of society.

In pricing strategies, I have adhered to two principles of no high-price tickets and no complimentary tickets. The first principle is in line with my goal of providing people with good entertainment while the second goal has guaranteed the economic soundness of my comedy troupe when most play troupes are losing money.

I believe comedy is all about catering to audience response. Our staff observe audience reactions to every laughable detail we design. If people don't laugh at our debut performance we change it before the next staging.

Now the stage is short of excellent comedies and excellent stage comedians. We hope we can create more plays and cultivate a generation of comedy talent.

Unlike many of her peers, Yuan Quan, the 30-year-old actress and a graduate of the Central Academy of Drama, refused to say goodbye to theater after blazing a trail as a movie star.

After winning numerous awards for her roles in movies, launching a considerably successful music album and gracing the covers of countless fashion magazines, Yuan still believes that plays are her favorite.

For every student who majored in acting like me, playing a role in a play is a dream. On that account, I consider myself very lucky since I have been active on play stage for many years.

We all know that the play market has been at the valley's bottom for many years, but things have been turning round in the last few years. I think the future will be even better since we have nurtured stable audiences in some big cities.

I also like playing in TV operas and movies, but I will definitely sacrifice lucrative moneymaking opportunities on the screen for a role in a play since it gives me a lot of self-recognition. One good thing about stage performance is that it can inspire quick progress in acting in a short period of time. As I have played in a large number of excellent plays, I have raised my requirements on TV scripts and wouldn't accept any role in a mediocre TV script.