China Children's Theater Festival lights up Beijing

The 3rd China Children's Theater Festival kicked off last night in Beijing.

In China, school's out for summer and what better way to celebrate than some children's theater! The 3rd China Children's Theater Festival kicked off last night in Beijing.

Held at the China National Children's Theater, kids have until August 28th to enjoy performances from all over the world.

These are the faces of children eagerly awaiting the start of the opening ceremony. For the third year now, the annual China Children's Theater Festival has taken center stage in Beijing, where children from all over the country can enjoy various theatrical performances for the next six weeks. While the excitement is building up inside the China National Children's Theater, it is equally as exciting outside the venue.

One of the major draws of the event is its interactivity. Here, kids get a chance to play with the performing troupe members, and maybe even learn a trick or two. I couldn't help but get in on the action myself.

Well, A for effort right? While I 'm brushing up on my hand-eye-coordination, a major commotion breaks out when characters from the Journey to the West appear. As you're probably familiar with it by now, Journey to the West is a story of the legendary pilgrimage of a monk and his disciples. And it's pretty obvious that these kids have a favorite character.

And from my interpretation of the Monkey King, to the real thing, the opening ceremony performance kicks off with a bang. Kids and adults are then treated to the 3rd installment of the series, as the cast of characters traipse their way through mountains, water and giant sea turtles to fight the bad, support the good, AND have time to check out some beautiful fairies.

So why is theater important for children other than the obvious benefit of it being entertaining? Well, research shows that theater is the perfect training ground for a concept called 'empathy.' If you think about it, it's brilliant. Kids get a chance to practice sitting in their seat, paying attention, taking the focus off of themselves, and learn about characters who may be different from them.

As a result, they learn to care for these characters that are portrayed on stage. So theater provides the fundamentals for kids to develop healthy relationships and to see the world from a more open and empathetic perspective.

The China Children's Theater Festival will feature 46 shows in its 6-week run, with an expected attendance of over 160,000 people. The event will also feature performances from other countries such as the US, Turkey, Argentina and Germany.