The theater restarts, and the drama people’s half-year "unemployed" story has gained
Performance practitioners rely on short-term cross-border work such as food delivery and insurance to solve the income dilemma. Offline performances are gradually recovering, hoping to return to the old industry
The performance market has gradually resumed performances. Under the premise that the reservation flow limit requirement remains unchanged, the number of audiences in theaters and other performance venues in Beijing has also increased from 30% to 50%. This August for theater people has finally ended. After six months of emotional tension, preparations for the new drama to return to the theater began. At this time, the dramatists looked back on their experiences in the past few months, and they chose short-term cross-border work. In addition to solving the income problem, they found that they also had more experience of immersing themselves in life in the accumulation of creative materials.
According to incomplete statistics, during the epidemic, the career transformation of drama practitioners was mostly concentrated in the fields of micro-business, insurance sales, housing intermediary, drama director to film and television screenwriter, etc. Short-term cross-border work is like company audit agency, food delivery, etc. Didi Express, online courses for educational institutions, etc. In addition, performance institutions are constantly seeking self-help and transformation. The Beijing News reporter interviewed several drama practitioners who have made transformations and cross-border breakthroughs in the past six months. They wanted to provide a reference through their experiences on how to balance artistic creation and life balance more calmly, and whether multi-line self-management is right. Will future careers and even industries bring more new opportunities?
(Editor's note: This interview uses a pseudonym at the request of the interviewee, and the performances and theaters involved have been hidden at the request of the interviewee.)
Set up a team of "Drama People Wechat Business"
Xiaofang and Xiaofang are a couple, engaged in the drama industry. The two graduated from the Directing Department and the Acting Department of the Central Academy of Drama respectively. Xiaofang has a restrained personality. Before the epidemic, he mainly worked as a drama director, while the cheerful Xiaofang was a drama actor. They told the Beijing News reporter that, like other colleagues, before the Spring Festival, many performance projects this year have been confirmed, but there has been no progress on these projects.
After graduating from Chinese opera in 2012, Xiaofang has been active on the stage of drama for the past eight years. In the past two years, I have not only been an actor, but also started to develop in the direction of screenwriting and director. Being a micro-business is actually a sideline I had done before. "Even if there is no epidemic, I am doing a part-time job as a micro-business. Friends trust me, and the goods I sell will experience firsthand, so from sharing with friends around, to finally becoming an agent of the brand. Many people say that sideline business will be a success during the epidemic. Just need, I am the representative of this sentence."
Although it is not a new occupation, Xiaofang's mentality of being a micro business has changed this year. "In the past, the purpose of doing a micro business was to save money by using cheaper prices. On this basis, I would be happy even to earn an extra dollar. After the epidemic began, I found that my side business gave me other sense of accomplishment. It can satisfy some people. Life needs, and we can even overcome difficulties together."
During the epidemic, Xiaofang also set up his own micro-business team, many of whom are drama colleagues. Xiaofang told reporters that the most common thing she said to everyone was, "Everyone is under a lot of pressure now. If you believe me, we will tide over the difficulties together, because no one can understand drama better than a drama person at this moment. The panic.” During the epidemic, Xiaofang, who brought out the "drama people's micro-business team", conceptually, she believed that she was not a professional micro-business. "The team I now lead is like a production crew. There are actors, directors, makeup artists, and stage technicians. Everyone has a clear division of labor and clear thinking. Our story is a stage play."
Compared with Xiaofang, the career of her husband Xiaofang's choice of "cross circle" is actually in the creative field. Upon learning that the project he had set at the beginning of the year was gradually postponed indefinitely, his wife Xiaofang suggested that he find other things to do, "At that time, friends also approached me and asked me to create some film and television scripts, but I refused. "Xiao Fang said frankly that he can't let go of the air of a dramatist. After all, drama is a field that he prefers and loves and is also familiar with. "After waiting for another two months, my heart was shaken, and then I agreed to help my friend write some film and television scripts."
As a theater director who has been in the industry for six years since graduation, Xiaofang has always been relatively repulsive of "cross-circle" development. On the one hand, it stems from his own conservativeness. On the other hand, he feels that after "crossing the circle", he has disadvantages in personal connections and personal experience. But even if there is no epidemic, the issue of transformation has always plagued Xiaofang. "As we get older, there is the dual pressure of career and family. Everyone knows that making film and television is more ideal than making drama than doing drama, but as a drama person who has been working for many years, it is really difficult to tear off this label at once."
But no matter what jobs the Xiaofang and his wife change, they are always firm: "As the theaters gradually open in an orderly manner, the time allocation will definitely change in the future. After resuming work, there will be rehearsals or performances every day. They will not spend as much energy as they do now. Sideline business. The main business is always the main business. No matter how much money I make, first of all, I am an actor and an art practitioner." Before publishing, the Xiaofang and his wife told the Beijing News reporter that their suspended performance project will resume rehearsals. The film and television project, which has been in preparation for several months, is about to start, and the couple are very happy.
Want to return to the "insurance sales" in the rehearsal hall
Cheng Yue is a drama actor who has played many roles on stage in recent years. After the epidemic began, Cheng Yue's scheduled national tour before the end of April was cancelled. As an actor, most of the schedules were set in advance. Once cancelled, it would mean unemployment. Seeing that some of his friends became micro-businessmen, some were engaged in sales and financial management, and some even publicly applied for jobs, he decided to try to become an insurance salesperson. After doing this in the past few months, his deepest feeling is, “In the eyes of many people, art workers are almost night owls. They have been in Beijing for so many years, and never thought that one day they would go to bed early and get up early. Time, arrange your own life and work."
After entering the insurance industry, the first lesson Cheng Yue learned was to take the initiative to establish contact with people around him. Although it seemed that he was just chatting with old friends, it was the most difficult part for Cheng Yue. I feel that everyone is familiar with each other. Once we talk about insurance-related topics, it will inevitably make the other party grudge," but this worry did not appear. "The friends around me all support this job when they know my current situation and take the initiative to help. Introducing friends around me who are willing to take out insurance, and the rest, as long as I take the initiative to talk to people and learn not to give up is my biggest gain in the past few months."
Cheng Yue clearly remembered that when he sent the first insurance product advertisement in Moments at the beginning of his career, he hesitated for nearly a whole day, "I care about the opinions of others too much". He even wrote in the first sentence of the text: "I Used to be a drama actor." He felt that this sentence was written not to win sympathy, but to be unwilling. "Fortunately, what we received in the end was the warm encouragement from our friends. We all tacitly understood the difficulties that the dramatists were facing."
Cheng Yue thinks he is lucky compared to others, because he was recalled for a week in the first half of the year. After Beijing's emergency response level was once again reduced from Level 2 to Level 3, Cheng Yue felt that he was not far from ending the day of "being in Cao Ying and heart in Han". "I used to have acting classes in school, and the teacher often said,'Drama comes from life and is higher than life'. But during this time, I realized that life is far more cruel than drama."
Stage manager becomes anime model anchor
As a senior stage supervisor, WHISPER expresses his empathy for all the above-mentioned personnel have experienced in the past few months. Whisper is a "Beijing native" and has no pressure to rent a house. Therefore, after reducing entertainment activities and unnecessary living expenses in the past few months, he feels that "life is always affordable. Compared to other colleagues, he is lucky. many."
At the end of March, the participating theater producers informed him that the plan for more than ten national tours originally scheduled for the first half of the year was cancelled, and WHISPER's sense of crisis began to emerge subconsciously. In order to relieve the pressure of future life, in the early stage of the epidemic, he began to help his friends with some company audit work. "These audit work, if you follow the process, newcomers can get started in half a day, so it's very simple for me." WHISPER is very clear that trying a new job right now is to temporarily "break the circle", "mainly for income. Look. With partners who have worked together for many years, they know each other’s difficulties, but don’t know how to comfort them."
Outside of his job, WHISPER is also a full fan of anime models. He is always more interested in talking about models than about drama. Currently he is preparing to build a self-media platform with a few friends who are playing with models, mainly in the form of live broadcast and shooting small videos, to popularize model knowledge for everyone. As for the future direction of this platform, it is not clear, but this is also a new opportunity based on one's own interests. "No matter how the transformation is, everyone will eventually return to the theater to do their jobs. Now it needs some patience. But I will be a little worried. After the theater resumes work and the performance resumes, how many people will be able to return? But seeing movie audiences support the theater so much, I also see hope." WHISPER said.
Performance company builds e-commerce brand
Compared with dramatists, performance agencies or performance brokerage companies are more urgent to think about "self-help and transformation" during the epidemic. Liu Zhao, the founder of the music brand War Horse Times, told the Beijing News that even if there is no epidemic, "self-help and transformation" is a topic that the company always talks about when discussing its future development. "As a company engaged in the performance industry, it is dangerous. And the'machine' will always exist. The war horse era has been constantly surviving and seeking change since its birth, from record distribution to acting agency, to new media, to today's e-commerce and education, it has never stopped changing After the performance resumes, we will only become stronger, because we have grown a few more legs and can walk more steadily and run faster."
During the epidemic, War Horse Era launched its own e-commerce brand "Good Manufacturing", which formed a connection with users. The project leader Zeng Manqing, Planning Director of War Horse Times, said, “The audience gathered through the media and performances has similar aesthetic standards and consumption habits. In addition to music, there are also other lifestyle needs. The frequency is relatively limited, so I thought of doing my own shop, so that everyone can stop, and it may also become a new profit point."
Zeng Manqing feels that Zhanma’s stores will not develop in the direction of large and complete platforms such as Taobao and JD. The company’s positioning is still in the subdivision field, focusing on the tonality of literary and artistic brands. The initial stage is to join forces with brands that have a basis for cooperation. Such as Exceptional Clothing, Houlang Books, CITIC Publishing House, etc., hope to grow with each other through this platform.
In addition, as a music performance brokerage company, War Horse Era also started the transformation of online course knowledge payment during the epidemic. This is a long-awaited plan by Cui Wenrong, Operation Director of War Horse Times, "After the accumulation of the past few years, our new media reserves a large amount of valuable content, and the course is to dig and upgrade these contents in depth. The highlight of new media is Timeliness and entertainment sometimes deliberately fragment content. We found that many readers are also eager for more systematic knowledge combing and extension, so they thought of courses. Audio is easier to spread and listen online than text." According to Cui Wenrong, the project has just started, and the War Horse Times and Sanlian Middle School have cooperated with a series of small lessons. About every one to two months, a new content will be launched, not limited to the music field; in the Himalayas, they have also done "walking horses". "Radio", updated every weekend, is a free radio program that promotes distinctive musicians and works, and new content will continue to expand.
Summarizing the company's transformation in the past six months, Liu Zhao feels that this is an attempt to develop from the initial vertical field to diversification on the basis of the company's revenue and cost reduction and survival. "To meet the recovery of the industry, we need to continue to face many difficulties, such as market activity and consumption power. After all, performances are not so-called rigid demand products, and recovery is slower. In addition, most of our previous projects are foreign-related performances. It is not realistic for foreign artists to enter the country, and this influence is likely to continue until next year."
Writing/Beijing News reporter Liu Zhen