Drama groups from Malaysia and Austria will join in this year's China College Theater Festival, which opens on Aug. 11 in Beijing.

The Road of Love, contributed by Malaysia's New Century College drama group, will be performed in Chinese. The Myth of Wish, presented by the University of Vienna, will be played in German.

This is the first time that foreign college drama groups will participate.

The festival aims to make the plays more colorful and foreign drama more enjoyable, said Fu Weibo, an organizer of the festival.

Fifteen plays, selected from more than 60 drama groups, will be performed in the three-week college theater gala.

This is the festival's seventh year. This year students will present classical Chinese dramas, including the political satire "Career Promotion" written in 1945 by Chinese comedy writer Chen Baichen.

The festival, co-organized by the Beijing Dramatists Association, the National Theatre Company of China and the Culture Palace of Chaoyang District, are charging adults ten yuan (US$1.3) and students five yuan, said Fu.

In 1866, Western drama was first introduced into China via Shanghai. Chinese student playwrights began producing socialist realism shortly afterwards, becoming the pioneers of China's modern drama.

(Xinhua News Agency July 31, 2007)