Published
The date on which an article, announcement or project page first appeared publicly.
P4 THEATER / 2015–2026
A chronology of becoming, not a list of premieres
This English overview follows nine periods in P4’s development, moving between the making of the space, public programmes, film, writing and the archive that now reconnects them.
Two scales of time
PHASE VIEW
2015–2026
A continuous story spanning the making of the space, projects, film, theory and the public archive.
EVENT VIEW
54 dated entries
A record-level Chinese index of calls, performances, screenings, workshops, exhibitions and public responses.
- 2015–2026
- narrative span
- 9
- periods
- 54
- dated event records
- 12
- performance entries
from spatial construction to public archive
turning points across eleven years
5 years in the detailed index
within the current event register
READING THE DATES
What a date means here
A publication date, an event date and a later memory can describe different moments. The timeline keeps those moments clear without interrupting the story.
This chronology covers P4 from 2015 onward; it does not stand in for the history of Chinese theater as a whole. Read the main-site Chinese experimental theater field guide for that larger frame and the P4 Theater profile for the organization’s defined scope.
Reported
A performance, rehearsal or opening date named in an article or announcement. It can differ from publication.
Remembered
A later reflection that returns to an earlier work and adds another point of view.
PHASE NARRATIVE
From space to relation
The detailed event index is richest for 2020–2024; the surrounding years are opened through projects, publications and later reflections.
2015–2016
Phase 01
Making a space that could also be a work
A Beijing studio acquired in spring 2015 was rebuilt as P4 Theater. The main construction unfolded from August 2015 to March 2016, followed by performance and cross-media activity through 2016.
- P4 Theater was founded by He Fa. Zhang Shaohua and other collaborators participated in the early space and projects, which unfolded across black and white zones for performance, photography, watching and exchange.
- Dated public records include Shadow Counterpoint on 12 June, Open Theatre: Cross-disciplinary Lab on 9 July and Pixel Echo XIII, published 31 August for a 2 September event.
2017–2019
Phase 02
Pause, return and the prehistory of Real Image
After a quiet interval, He Fa returned at the end of 2018 and reopened P4’s questions through photography, psychoanalysis and encounter.
- The retrospective record identifies June 2019 as the beginning of Real Image Eight and a Half.
- P4 began opening outward again in 2019, preparing the public programmes that followed.
2020
Phase 03
The public programme becomes dense
The detailed event index opens in May with weekly screenings and discussions. Real Image moved into public recruitment; Cocoon completed its 31 October performance; p4U was announced on 8 November as an open experimental programme.
- Weekly screenings, discussions and open calls made the programme easier for new participants to enter.
- By December, Howlers on the Rooftop had entered recruitment and announced its one-time performance for 2 January 2021.
2021
Phase 04
Participation becomes infrastructure
Workshops, p4X challenges and successive p4U projects expanded the ways a person could enter P4: performer, player, witness, recorder, temporary rule-maker or audience member inside the action.
- The Middle Party’s Guide to Self-Rescue After Accusing Love of Failure was performed on 1 May after a public recruitment and rehearsal cycle.
- Kill That Rose, Duel Club and Purple Action shifted attention toward player systems, voting, provisional rules and collective consequence; Northwind Theater was recruiting by December.
2022
Phase 05
Branches travel and make their own records
Northwind Theater, Dialectical Theater and new project groups made P4 less like one programme issuing work from a centre. Productions travelled, generated interviews and returned as written argument.
- Howlers on the Rooftop announced a Hangzhou performance for 4 May.
- Porphyria moved from a July actor call toward an August premiere, while Iceberg accumulated rehearsal, field-film, performance and critical records through November.
2023
Phase 06
The theatre turns toward a film
After new calls including Sail Through Wind and Walk Out of Everyday Life, Human Surrender was publicly recruited in June. Theatre rehearsal, character testimony and camera work were drawn into one film process.
- The Last Rehearsal was announced on 14 August and publicly performed on 26 August as both a theatre event and a play within Human Surrender.
- It was announced at the time as a ‘final chapter’, while the film, writing and conversations continued to circulate afterward.
2024
Phase 07
Exhibition, self-account and the afterlife of the stage
Shi Jiating’s Twin Breeding exhibition opened a new sequence on 8 May. In the following days, exhibition writing, personal moving images and P4’s ten-year reflections expanded the life of the projects beyond the stage.
- The archive records three project-linked texts between 8 and 14 May, alongside personal videos made between 2023 and 2024.
- P4 Theater: A Generative University, a Winding Maze, a Hard Drive Engraving Life was published on 12 May, followed by a first-person version on 13 May.
2025
Phase 08
Ten years become an explicit field of study
The dated publication register records P4 Theater, Ten Years on 8 March. In August, writing moved from a retrospective network account toward Actor-Generating Topology (AGT) as a named theoretical vocabulary.
- From Position to Relation: An Actor-Network Topology Study of Ten Years of P4 Practice was published on 1 August.
- The three-part Grammar of the Event / AGT sequence was published on 19 and 26 August.
2026
Phase 09
Film criticism and archive become public interfaces
A June cluster returned to Human Surrender through essays on intimacy, the camera, language, live divination and incompleteness. Shoot Self with You followed on 9 June, then an essay on the coordinates of film, theatre and documentary on 25 June.
- The English global site brings these 2026 essays together as a reading path through the film.
- The main archive reconnects the new writing with earlier projects, events, photographs and moving images.
Continue at record level
Continue into the Chinese event index for exact dates, open project pages for related photographs and videos, or move to the global site for complete English reading paths.