When Lin Zhaohua and Lin Xiyue announced plans for the 2019 edition of the festival in a bookstore in Beijing on April 27, many of his fans and supporters were excited, including a group of Chinese theater directors and actors who had gathered there to celebrate the director's contributions to Chinese theater.

Among his supporters is Chinese director Zhao Miao who started his theater career with a production called 6:3, at a theater festival for first-time director at the Beijing People's Arts Theater, which was initiated by Lin Zhaohua in 2003.

Speaking about his experience, Zhao, who graduated from the directing department of the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing and is dedicated to physical theater, says: "During the rehearsal, many veteran directors didn't understand the play, because it's physical and has no lines. But Lin Zhaohua was the only director that supported us. The only advice he gave me was to be relaxed onstage.

As for Wang Chong, his love for theater comes from the theater festival for first-time directors at the Beijing People's Arts Theater in 2003.

Recounting the experience, Wang, who was then a 21-year-old student at Peking University majoring in law, says that the experience of being in a theater was so overwhelming that he decided to take it up as a career.

He studied theater in the United States and premiered his first play, Hamletism, in 2006, when he was at the University of Hawaii.

"Lin Zhaohua didn't start directing until he was 46. But he told his students that theater is a game and that's why his works are never boring," says Wang.

Chennan@chinadaily.com.cn