Zhejiang province's Wuzhen is celebrated as an ancient water town but is also gaining acclaim as a contemporary stage for theater.

The fifth annual Wuzhen Theater Festival will host 100 shows of 24 productions from 13 countries, including Russia, Germany and the United States, from Oct 19 to 29.

This year's theme is "luminosity".

It's divided into five series - classics revisited, female perspectives, multimedia productions, physical theater and new voices.

Chinese theater director Tian Qinxin will be the artistic director. The position was previously held by Taiwan director and scriptwriter Stan Lai and Beijing-based director Meng Jinghui.

"The festival's success comes from offering as many productions with as diverse of styles as possible," Tian says.

She recently spent over a month in the hospital with acute pancreatitis.

"The festival creates the collaboration in a space with the artists and audience. That's where you get the meaning of theater - a collaborative, imaginative space."

Eugene Onegin by Russia's Vakhtangov Theatre will open the festival.

The work doesn't fully adapt the namesake novel in verse.

Director and writer Rimas Tuminas chose Tatyana's love for Onegin as the main theme. It's a story with a prologue and epilogue. Audiences are introduced to characters' memories and imaginations.

Tian hopes more female theater directors' voices can be heard. These include Shadow (Eurydice Speaks), directed by Katie Mitchell and produced by Schaubuhne Berlin, and Joan, directed by Emma Valente and Kate Davis, co-artistic directors of the Australian theater company, The Rabble.

Tian will also present her directorial production, Turmoil. It revolves around modern Chinese playwright Tian Han, who wrote plays, 28 Chinese operas, 12 films, and over 1,000 lyrics and poems in traditional and contemporary styles.

Chinese director Zha Wenyuan will present an all-male version of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

Papa will be directed by Ata Wong Chun Tat and performed by Hong Kong-based Theatre de la Feuille. Water Stain will be staged by Brazilian theater director Paulo de Morass and performed by the Armazem Theatre Company.

The festival also offers young artists a platform. Eighteen plays stood out among 300 at a competition for young talent. The Small Town Award winner announced on the final night will receive up to 200,000 yuan ($3,000).

"In a small town, you only dream," says the festival's co-founder, Chinese actor and director Huang Lei.

Huang explains the festival's slogan - "Beyond reality, all Wuzhen is a stage" - conveys aspirations to create "dreamy and surreal experiences".

"We're transforming our crazy ideas into reality," he says.

Huang arrived in Wuzhen to direct and star in a TV series called Lost Time in 2003. He later opened a bar named after the series in the city.

He shared his idea for the festival with Lai and Meng. Lai's eight-hour epic, A Dream Like a Dream, opened the festival in its first year.

Forums, workshops and street performances also inject a celebratory atmosphere into this small town.