The First Small Venue Theater Awards were held in Beijing to honor outstanding plays made for small stages in Beijing.

Shao Jiehui and Huang Ying were among those awarded as "best directors" for their box-office hit plays, such as Leave Before Getting Old and Li Xiaohong, which received both commercial and critical success.

According to Wu Ran, an official from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture, small theaters have been developing fast during the past few years.

The bureau has initiated a project calling for stories from small-venue theater companies. Ten stories will be selected and the companies will get funding to produce the plays in 2013.