[Forge ahead in a new journey and make contributions to a new era and great changes]
"Do you have a ticket?"
"No, I can't buy it myself."
From March 23rd to 25th, the dance poem "Only Blue and Green" was performed three times in a row at the Huangmei Opera Theatre in Huanggang, Hubei.
Before the performance, the phones of Zhou Liya and Han Zhen, the directors of "Only Green", kept ringing - their friends wanted to "go through the back door" because they couldn't buy tickets.
But the performance is so hot that every time the ticket is issued, it is very difficult for them to get tickets even if they want to enter the theater as directors.
The above scene has been played out repeatedly since it premiered in August last year.
In the past, many stage art performances were given free tickets and no one watched them; now, good works like "Only Green" are hard to find.
This change reflects the deepening reform of state-owned art troupes, which is rejuvenating the stage arts.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has launched a series of reform measures such as the "Implementation Opinions on Deepening the Reform of State-owned Art Troupes" to continuously promote the reform of state-owned art troupes. It has formed a good development situation with many performances, lively market, popular repertoire and excellent talents.
1. There are more performances
As night falls, the lights are on.
In twos and threes, people flocked to No. 115 Jiefang Road, Jiefang Road, Jinan City in twos and threes.
In recent years, Shandong Provincial Theater has become a new local Internet celebrity check-in place.
To become an internet celebrity, you need to be popular, and the gathering of popularity comes from the rich performances of the theater.
"We have performances here almost every day, including dramas, operas, and children's plays. Despite the impact of the epidemic, we will perform more than 260 performances in 2021." Dong Xuan, director of the Shandong Provincial Theater, said.
Hu Heping, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, pointed out that performance is the core link of stage art and a key indicator to test the effectiveness of the reform of state-owned literary and art troupes.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, state-owned literary and art troupes have gradually established and improved the incentive mechanism to encourage performers to perform more in accordance with the principle of "more performances and more rewards", and at the same time accelerated in-depth cooperation with theaters. The resident performance system of the troupe and all these reform measures have led to more and more performances by the state-owned literary and art troupe.
There are more performances, and the audience is closer.
In recent years, state-owned literary and art troupes at all levels have entered villages, factories, mines, schools, communities, and military camps to carry out extensive performances for the benefit of the people.
For example, in Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi and other places, the government buys more than 10,000 performances for the people every year. Anhui and other places have realized the full coverage of the administrative villages in the province. Beijing invests more than 20 million yuan every year to implement low-cost performances. More than 30 theaters are subsidized, benefiting more than 200,000 people every year.
The way of performance is also changing.
In the past, the cast and crew of the Art Troupe paid special attention to the sense of ceremony of the performance - they always felt that the performance could only be "seen" when the audience walked into the theater.
The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has forced state-owned cultural and art troupes to innovate their performance methods, and promote the construction of a performance mechanism that integrates offline and online performances and simultaneously performs performances.
The National Theatre has built the first 5G smart theatre in China; the National Peking Opera Theatre has launched a new spring performance season that combines offline and online performances for two consecutive years in 2021 and 2022; the China Opera and Dance Theatre adopts VR technology to launch online customized programs, which will be placed online for a long time. Pay-on-demand... Nowadays, with the application of "4K+5G" and other technologies, "cloud performances" by state-owned cultural and art troupes have become the norm, and audiences can enjoy opera, drama, dance, symphony and other stage art works online anytime, anywhere.
2. The market is alive
Signed a contract with China Construction Bank, signed a contract with Beiyan Company, signed a contract with Luzhou Laojiao, signed a contract with the Tibet Autonomous Region Cultural Department, and signed a contract with Xiangcheng District, Suzhou City... Looking at the development events of China Opera and Dance Theater in recent years, we found that "signing" has always been signed. is a keyword.
Behind the cooperation agreements are the efforts of the state-owned literary and art troupe to improve market competitiveness and actively innovate market operation concepts.
Dare to try and innovate, the market will pay off.
In the reform of state-owned literary and art troupes, China Opera and Dance Theater gave full play to the role of social forces and market mechanisms, which not only enhanced its own development vitality, but also gained market returns.
For example, the dance drama "Confucius" created by the academy has been performed more than 300 times at home and abroad, with an audience of 500,000 people and a total box office of over 100 million yuan; the scene song and dance party "Four Seasons Love" has been performed more than 700 times around the world, with a total revenue of nearly 200 million yuan.
In March 2018, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism was established, and the integration of culture and tourism entered the fast lane.
Taking this as an opportunity, the state-owned literary and art troupe has further enhanced market awareness and capabilities, and continuously expanded the performance market space.
Founded in 1951, the Chongqing Acrobatic Art Troupe has been frequently invited to perform commercial performances abroad for decades, creating many highlights of acrobatic art.
But as the foreign market becomes increasingly saturated, how to find more "Taikou" has become a real problem faced by the group.
"We decided to take the integration of culture and tourism as the starting point to tap the potential of the domestic acrobatics market." Chen Tao, general manager of the Chongqing Acrobatic Art Troupe, introduced that in order to attract tourists, they have performed resident performances in Chongqing International Circus City since 2019, and implemented group occasions. One of the operating models, and also created the first cultural and tourism resident acrobatic show in the main city of Chongqing, "Magic City Extreme Happiness".
Despite being affected by the epidemic, this acrobatic show with the characteristics of a mountain city in Chongqing has performed more than 600 times in two years, with an audience of more than 350,000 people, and it is often difficult to get a ticket.
The experiences of the China Opera and Dance Theatre and the Chongqing Acrobatic Art Troupe are just a microcosm of more than 2,100 state-owned art troupes using reforms to expand their market space.
With the continuous deepening of reform, more and more state-owned literary and art troupes have developed and grown in the fight against market storms and become a strong force in the cultural market.
The data is the most convincing: in 2021, 18 municipal-level state-owned art troupes in Shanghai will overcome the impact of the epidemic and complete 6,865 performances, a year-on-year increase of 81.4%; performance revenue is 328 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 75.4%, an increase over 2019 before the epidemic 8.25%; Beijing launched a total of 2,415 performances and held 20,597 commercial performances, with an audience of 5.135 million and a box office revenue of about 783 million yuan.
3. The show is on fire
Art depends on the work to speak.
Good works are the foundation for writers and artists to settle down, and also the foundation for literary and art troupes to establish themselves in business.
The success or failure of the reform of state-owned literary and art troupes depends on whether they can create masterpieces of stage art with profound thinking, exquisite art and excellent production.
Opera "Ma Xiangyang Goes to the Countryside", dance drama "Eternal Wave", drama "Night of Fragrant Mountain", Henan Opera "Jiao Yulu", Qin Opera "Wang Gui and Li Xiangxiang", Xiang Opera "Baby Baby", Yunnan Opera "Water" Mangcao", Pingju "Mother", Hebei Bangzi's "Li Baoguo"... From "work" to "high-quality product", from "plateau" to "peak", in the past ten years, the state-owned literary and art troupe has taken advantage of the momentum to sing. With a series of well-known and excellent works, he handed over a qualified reform answer sheet.
It is gratifying to receive applause for stage art works in this field, but breaking the wall and attracting audiences, especially young audiences, is more true.
In 2021, the dance "Tang Palace Night Banquet" created by Zhengzhou Song and Dance Theater will vividly display the culture of the Tang Dynasty with graceful dance.
After the show appeared on Henan Satellite TV's Year of the Ox Spring Festival Gala, it quickly became popular.
Then, in Henan Satellite TV's "Chinese Festival Series" and the cultural drama dance program "Dancing Millennium", the dance programs performed by many state-owned cultural and art troupes such as the China Opera and Dance Theater and the Central Ballet broke the traditional stage presentation form and continued to cooperate with the show. The grafting of film and television works has allowed traditional dance art to successfully break out of the circle with the help of mass media, attracting a large number of young audiences.
A flower alone is not spring, a hundred flowers bloom in spring and the garden is full.
With the continuous advancement of reform, more and more state-owned literary and art troupes are actively strengthening the integration and integration of stage production and film and television production, actively exploring cooperation with mass media, and making full use of radio and television, online audio-visual, new media, etc. Channels to continuously improve the dissemination and influence of stage plays.
Thinking innovation has opened up the "two veins of appointment and supervisor" of creation, not only the national and provincial troupes have frequently produced excellent works, but even the grass-roots troupes have also made great plays.
For example, in recent years, the Sichuan Opera Troupe of Zigong City, Sichuan Province has not only created and performed works such as "Easy Boldness", "Bashan Scholars", "Xizhao Qishan", "Liu Qingniang", "Kiss of Death", and "Autumn Frost", but also "moved" the stage abroad. , has performed in the United States, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea and other places, making China's stage art not only popular in the "circle", but also abroad.
4. There are talents
"A good girl doesn't marry a singer, and she keeps vacant rooms all year round. Qiu Mai returns twice in the second season and picks up a bunch of dirty clothes." Li Shujian, director of Henan Yu Theater, once described the survival plight of grass-roots literary and art troupes.
Due to the hard work and low income, many grassroots cultural and art troupes suffered a serious brain drain for a period of time.
And some troupes have an unreasonable talent structure. For example, the Beijing Peking Opera Theatre has hundreds of actors, but not a single screenwriter.
For the development of literary and art troupes, works are the key, and talents are the core.
If the outstanding talents cannot be "taken out" in large numbers, not only the development of the troupe will be limited, but the inheritance of art will also face the danger of breaking generations.
In order to solve the "talent shortage", since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of my country, our country has successively implemented the "Famous Artists to Pass on Opera-Contemporary Opera Famous Masters' Apprenticeship and Art Transfer Project". "Thousand Talents Program" has trained 1,000 opera screenwriters, directors, composers, dancers and other professionals in five years.
In addition, during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period alone, the National Art Fund has trained nearly 18,000 art professionals through art talent training and youth art creation talent projects.
In addition to policy and financial support, the innovation of the mechanism has also activated the "source of living water" for talent training.
For example, Tianjin Pingju Baipai Opera Troupe, while learning from the old opera troupe's way of mentoring and apprenticeship, has also cooperated with colleges and universities to run schools, using opera to lead Gonggong and combining Gongxiu. Students learn and practice, and cultivate a new critic of opera; The acrobatic troupe and Beijing International Art School implement the "integration of the regiment and school". The former provides a practical platform for school students, while the latter provides academic education, cultural and professional training for troupe actors. The two parties share teaching and performance resources, which not only reduces the cost of education , and improve the quality of talents.
With the advent of the digital age and the all-media age, cultural and art troupes need more complex digital performing arts talents.
Tian Qinxin, president of the National Theater, suggested that the country should speed up the training of digital performing arts talents, such as setting up experimental classes in art schools that can be combined with online performances on the Internet, cultivating talents who understand not only movies and dramas, but also Internet digital technology.
"There are more than 2,100 state-owned literary and art troupes across the country, with more than 110,000 employees. They are the main force for the prosperity and development of socialist literature and art, especially stage art." Ming Wenjun, director of the Art Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said that " During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the state-owned literary and art troupe should strengthen the awareness of producing high-quality products and climbing the "peak", bravely be the "pioneer" of reform and innovation, create and produce more works that are ideological and artistic, and tell the story to people's hearts.
From 2013 to 2018, the financial subsidies for state-owned art troupes across the country increased from 9.84 billion yuan to 13.83 billion yuan, an average annual increase of nearly 9%.
There are more than 2,100 state-owned literary and art troupes nationwide with over 110,000 employees.
In the annual performance season of the National Academy of Arts, low-cost tickets below 80 yuan account for 50% of the total number of tickets.
(Reporter Han Yeting of this newspaper)