Grass-roots art troupes are an indispensable part of our country's literary and artistic undertakings. They can be called the "capillaries" of Chinese literature and art spreading at the grass-roots level. Their main service objects are the general public in the locality.
Grass-roots troupes are not only loved by the masses, but also indispensable in the inheritance and development of culture.
Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, many grassroots academies have faced many difficulties in survival and development.
In the face of formidable challenges, in the past three years, they have risen to the difficulties, successfully solved the problem, and ushered in the new life of Nirvana.
When the epidemic hits, work stops without stopping
In 2020, the sudden outbreak of the epidemic made Sun Changxian, the head of the cultural troupe of Yuyang District, Yulin, Shaanxi, who thought the troupe was on the right track, faced difficulties.
In 2019, Sun Changxian's cultural troupe transformed into a rare state-owned second-class cultural and industrial troupe in northern Shaanxi. The housing security, office environment, and business premises of the troupe's employees have all improved.
"I am planning to carry out further work. Once the epidemic comes, it can be said that there is basically no market."
The stagnation of the performance market, for a while, made grassroots troupes such as the Yuyang District Art Troupe rely on financial allocations to survive.
Restricted attendance due to epidemic prevention and control requirements, restrictions on out-of-province and cross-city performances, and restrictions on performance approval have brought a great impact on the performance market of many grassroots troupes across the country.
The Shaoxing Opera Inheritance and Learning Center of Tonglu County, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province has been digging local characteristic culture for a long time and performing at the grassroots level all year round.
"In 2019, our Chuanxi Center had 120 performances outside the county alone, with performance income of 2.3 million yuan. Since 2020, the national performance market has almost completely stagnated, and foreign performances outside the county have also been forced to stop, with performance income of only 450,000 yuan. "This is the data from Zhang Yu, director of the Learning Center.
However, in addition to "revenue", the literary and art workers of grass-roots troupes have seen another problem that cannot be ignored.
As the saying goes, "the song never leaves the mouth", and the reduction of long-term performances in three years will inevitably affect the state of the actors, which in turn will affect the effect of the performance.
Despite the difficult situation, the grassroots troupes across the country all adhere to the principle of "suspending work without stopping work" to accumulate energy for performances and opera inheritance.
Compared with the national and provincial troupes, the grassroots troupes, which were originally limited in scale, still insisted on practicing and performing, which was especially touching during the epidemic.
"Although the rural market has been preserved, there are almost zero commercial performances." The situation is grim, but hope still exists. Under such circumstances, the Shangnan County Theater Troupe in Shangluo City, Shaanxi Province insists on spring training and winter training. In addition to practicing kung fu, we also try our best to cultivate actors' multi-skilled skills, for example, opera actors also have to work part-time on stage props." Cheng Gang, the group leader, said.
The Jiangxi Poyang County Troupe also insists that "the performance has stopped but the rehearsal has not stopped." Good condition." Xuan Qin, secretary of the troupe, said.
There are also some grassroots troupes, taking advantage of the time when they cannot perform during the epidemic, to invite famous opera figures to teach the troupe actors.
Tonglu County is an important training place for Chinese Yue Opera actors. It has successively trained five Plum Blossom Award actors. The Tonglu County Yue Opera Inheritance Center invited Plum Blossom Award actors and famous Yue Opera teachers to guide them, and insisted on training young actors during the epidemic.
Grasp the rural position and keep the root of culture
In our country, grass-roots troupes often play the role of the most important inheritors of local operas.
"Counties, towns, townships, and villages are the fertile ground for traditional drama, and they are also the main positions of grassroots troupes. Holding the rural positions through performances actually helps protect the roots of Chinese culture." Shi Jun, a professor at the Shanghai Theater Academy pointed out.
Wuju Opera originated in the Ming Dynasty and is commonly known as "Jinhua Opera". It has a history of more than 400 years and is one of the oldest operas in my country.
Wu Opera is rich in repertoire, profound in tradition, rich in characteristics, and has profound influence. It is known as the "living fossil" of Hui Opera.
Founded in June 1962, the Jiande Wu Opera Troupe is currently the only professional Wu Opera troupe in Hangzhou, and it is also the main position for the cultural inheritance of Wu Opera in Jiande City and even the entire Hangzhou City.
As an excellent grassroots literary and artistic group in the country, Jiande City Wu Opera Troupe has visited many times abroad, participated in provincial, municipal and national drama performances, and won important awards such as the Chinese Drama Award.
In 2019, Jiande City Wu Opera Troupe was merged into Jiande City Sujiang Performing Arts Co., Ltd. During the epidemic, the theater was not allowed to enter, so the company focused on opening up a new outdoor performing arts space, and then there was an immersive live performance of "Jiang Qingyue Near People" 's hit.
Zhou Yi, deputy general manager of Jiande Sujiang Performing Arts Co., Ltd., said that although the attendance rate was limited during the epidemic, and performances outside the province and across cities were restricted, the troupe has worked hard to coordinate "economic benefits" and "social benefits". Pay attention to safeguarding the Wuju opera market, explore the local cultural history, make every effort to create an immersive live performance of "Jiang Qingyue Near People", carry out the "Sending Opera to the Countryside" activity, and promote opera to enter villages, campuses, enterprises, and auditoriums. Carry forward the local characteristic culture to achieve the effect of tempering the team, launching new works, and increasing revenue.
"Grass-roots academies are the battlefield of culture and communication, and should form a good interaction and complementarity with state-owned academies." Shi Jun said.
Sun Changxian, head of the cultural troupe of Yuyang District, Yulin, Shaanxi Province, said: "We have put a lot of effort into cultivating the audience. In the past, we only subtitled the singing, but now we also subtitle the Daobai. Open." The troupe's Qin opera "Three Invitations to Fan Lihua" not only asked for word-of-mouth learning experience from peers, but also won word-of-mouth and applause from the common people.
Grass-roots troupes sent operas to the countryside and went into the fields, and they insisted on performing operas for the common people no matter whether it was icy or snowy or scorching sun.
In addition to the important task of inheriting operas, grass-roots troupes often have to pass on the party's cultural policies to thousands of households according to the characteristics of the location. They promote the main theme and help poverty alleviation in a cultural way.
The Shangnan County Troupe inherited the local minor tunes and created a row of lantern operas, compiled the "Legend of Chuangwangzhai" in the form of minor tunes, combined with local historical attractions to Chuangwangzhai, reflected on the historical lessons of Li Zicheng's failure, and then promoted the culture of clean government.
Poyang County Gan Opera Troupe also assumes the function of "Poyang County Raohe Opera Inheritance and Protection Sub-center". During the epidemic period, it insisted on carrying out performances to benefit the people, combined with sending operas to the countryside, and performed traditional Gan operas such as "Yellow Crane Tower" and "Luhua Dang". At the same time as the repertoire, it also created a small Gan opera drama "Lifetime Events" with the theme of changing customs, and a Gan song "New Era and New Journey" that preached the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
"Grass-roots troupes are not affected by inferior theater performances. While grasping open theaters, they should stick to integrity and help the poor and support agriculture." Wang Jingyu, a lecturer at the School of Language and Communication of Beijing Jiaotong University, pointed out, "After the epidemic, these theater troupes still insist on Continue to sink, and at the same time do not forget to expand, and have made an important contribution to the construction of a new countryside that belongs only to "artists."
Make good use of the new stage to develop new formats
During the epidemic, "Zhang Daqian's Tribulation in the Bandit's Nest" created by Sichuan Zizhong County Puppet Troupe used a combination of live performances and puppet performances, allowing puppet actors to move from behind the scenes to the front of the stage, breaking through the previous tradition of performing puppet actors behind the scenes , not only loved by the live audience, but also by the online audience.
Talking about how to make traditional puppet shows keep pace with the times and keep youth forever, Hu Hai, head of Sichuan Zizhong County Puppet Theater Troupe and inheritor of a representative project of national intangible cultural heritage, said: "We not only target the grassroots, but also strive to create international Influential performances, walking on multiple legs." The troupe pays attention to audiences of different ages, and hopes to create a program that can be watched by the whole family. Get educated in the process of puppet show.
At the same time, it retains the traditional excerpts of Sichuan Opera and retains the elderly audience.
"Inheritance belongs to the ancestors, inheritance belongs to history, innovation belongs to us, development is necessary, and the things of the ancestors cannot be locked in the museum." Hu Hai said.
In addition to drama performances, the Zizhong County Puppet Troupe has also developed peripheral cultural and creative products related to puppet shows, making some local historical and cultural figures into small puppets of 30 to 40 centimeters, which are deeply loved by the audience.
Tonglu County Yue Opera Inheritance and Learning Center opened an online theater through WeChat public platform, Douyin and other self-media, and selected excellent works of Tonglu Plum Blossom Award winners and outstanding Tonglu Yue opera actors to play "Spring River Moon", "Tongjiang Rain" and "Spring River Romance" "Baiyunyuan" and other classic plays have accumulated hundreds of thousands of views.
Jiande City Wu Opera Troupe tried to promote a series of short videos and live broadcast platforms, launched the red "trilogy" of Wu Opera, and successively launched more than 10 works on the national platform of Learning Power, and promoted local operas in various forms, improving its communication power and influence.
The Gan Opera Troupe in Poyang County, Jiangxi Province put forward the slogan "Gan Opera is not old, spring with you" through live webcasting, and promoted the local Gan Opera Raohe Opera, attracting a large number of young theater fans, and even many Jiangxi natives from outside the province , Followed by nearly 100,000 fans.
According to the "2022 Douyin Opera Live Data Report", 231 kinds of operas have been broadcast live on the Douyin platform. In the past year, more than 800,000 shows have been broadcast, and the cumulative number of viewers has reached 2.5 billion.
After Changsha Flower Drum Opera entered Douyin, it received 5.75 million viewers and more than 70,000 comments in just one month; its fans increased from 2,000 to 40,000, an increase of 18 times.
Hu Yifeng, director of the China Literary Critics Association, pointed out: "The rise of live broadcasts and cloud performances has enabled the 'grassroots' people to enjoy performances that were previously invisible to the grassroots. Their appreciation tastes and aesthetic tastes have undergone great changes. The difference in cultural supply caused by administrative divisions is getting smaller and smaller, and grass-roots troupes are "forced" to provide better and more diverse performances. This is the embodiment of the transformation of the main contradictions in our society in the new era, and it is also the inevitable result of the common prosperity of the Chinese-style modernization spirit These requirements have provided new opportunities and challenges for the development of academies and troupes in the new era."
In today's era, the Internet has become a "keyword" that cannot be ignored in literary creation and appreciation.
When examining the development of grassroots academies, the factor of the Internet cannot be ignored either.
Hu Yifeng said: "The rapid development of various live broadcast and short video platforms has built a 'new stage' for grassroots troupes and changed its development ecology. This 'new stage' is in everyone's mobile phone, which can be carried with you at any time. Appreciation, to a large extent eliminated the 'grassroots' restrictions of grassroots troupes, and provided a highway and a through train for them to reach the audience."
In the new year, many grass-roots troupes have purchased new equipment, equipment and costumes, and the actors have also practiced their "internal skills" to enter the revitalized performance market with a new attitude.
Adhering to the original intention of keeping integrity and innovation, they strive to break through the situation, turn challenges into opportunities for development, and provide ordinary people with more high-quality and diverse cultural works.
(Reporter Li Jinrong and Xie Yunkai)
Guangming Daily