From January 14th to 16th, the "Meet in Beijing" Olympic Cultural Festival and the 22nd "Meet in Beijing" International Arts Festival Art Forum and Performance Promotion Conference "Art to the Future" were held at the Beijing Intermediate Theater. Over the course of three days, more than 40 top artists and scholars were guests, and more than 10 keynote speeches and 6 summit forum dialogues were held on topics such as the relationship between theater positioning and artistic creation, art aesthetic education, and cross-border new performances.
In the face of the new crown epidemic, the performance industry is facing many challenges and new changes. In this special situation, many performance groups are trying to perform online, so that the vitality of the theater can continue. Many new works are also combined with new technologies to bring fresh experiences to the audience. At this forum, industry insiders believe that although scientific and technological empowerment is important, we cannot ignore the strengthening of art ontology. Excavating the sense of modernity from traditional culture and combining the aesthetics of Chinese can we tell Chinese stories well.
The preservation of art is the foundation of innovation Technology is to serve content
Whether it is artistic creation or theater development, performance content is always the core competitiveness. Tian Qinxin, president of the National Theatre of China, believes that "the observance of art is the foundation of innovation, and the basis for telling Chinese stories is to inherit the excellent Chinese cultural spirit bred by the five-thousand-year-old civilization, bring together Confucian thought and literati temperament, and more importantly, publicize and highlight the living methods of Chinese and the background of Chinese." "In Tian Qinxin's view, scientific and technological progress has brought new changes to art, and scientific and technological empowerment has become a new format." To tell Chinese stories well, we must not only keep the soul of Chinese culture and the roots of national culture, but also keep pace with the times, base ourselves on the development of the times, and use innovative artistic and technological means to combine so that the literature of drama and the performance of drama can become a new classic leading the cultural tide. ”
Although art and technology are now very closely linked, industry insiders believe that technological breakthroughs should follow the content. Drama director Lai Shengchuan said, "We should go in a new direction of science and technology, but breakthroughs in science and technology must be made from the inside first, towards transformation, if this is the direction, these breakthroughs should be." What kind of theater do we need in the pandemic era? It's about being able to connect with everyone, to be able to connect with each other, to a better future. ”
Song Guanlin, vice president of the China Performance Industry Association, also reminded everyone to pay attention to the content itself, "Whether it is technology empowerment or immersion, it seems to have become a trend of Chinese drama, with too much emphasis on online and neglect offline." Valuing online and ignoring offline is a terrible tendency to weaken the ontology of drama. The lines, performances, and feelings of our drama actors are the basis of life, and these things cannot be weakened because of technological empowerment and immersion. The subjective desire of the artist to create, the subjective passion created by the artist, and the relationship between content and form, the way the actor communicates with the audience in the theater, I think this is something that theatrical art can never change. In the fusion of ancient and modern, how to modernize traditional things and fashion classic things is worth our consideration. "In addition to drama, so is music, in the context of the ongoing global epidemic, foreign master groups can not visit, and the Chinese classical music industry has entered the 'inner loop'. Song Guanlin said, "Where is the new generation of Lu Siqing? Since we are future-oriented, we must take these issues into account. ”
Weng Shihui, an international theatre producer and former Producer of Royal Shakespeare, also believes that "if the presentation on the stage is particularly fresh and can make the audience feel and touch their hearts, this is a beneficial attempt." The combination of technology and drama, if you can find the core point, it is very interesting, if you can't find it, it is to burn money. ”
Musicals are created in search of our own expressions
In addition to the need to pay attention to the content itself, how to tell Chinese stories well and spread Chinese culture can be said to be the unanimous pursuit of industry insiders.
Fei Yuanhong, a veteran musical theater artist and deputy general manager of Shanghai Culture Square, expounded his views from the perspective of musical theater, he believes, "The exploration of musical theater is taking many roads at the same time, and I think one thing will be more and more experienced, that is, China must dare to take the road of musical theater with Chinese characteristics, of course, it is also necessary to learn from the world's excellent and good theater creation methods, both of which cannot be abandoned." Fei Yuanhong believes that foreign musicals have a historical heritage at the creative level, and opera, and even ancient Greek drama are related, Chinese musicals learn from Western musicals or when they still combine the aesthetics of Chinese, "Musicals are presented with musical theater, there must be Chinese aesthetic things, music itself is a metaphysical expression, and the aesthetics of our opera are in line with it, we must have cultural self-confidence to find our own way of expression." ”
Cao Lusheng, a professor at the Shanghai Theater Academy, believes that "now young people like the national style, the musical theater audience is dominated by female audiences and young audiences, the return of the national style makes me think of too many rich mines in the history of our country, to let young people like, is the creative inheritance, innovative transformation, this is very important, traditional things to have a sense of the present, modern sense, when the subconscious transformation, so that young audiences can empathize, can cause empathy, this is an inexhaustible rich mine." ”
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Tian Wanting