On January 19, the performance data of Shanghai in 2021 was released. According to the database statistics of Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism: in 2021, Shanghai held a total of 38,366 commercial performances, with an average of 105 performances per day, an increase of 24.7% over the 30,772 in 2020, and the number of performances was basically the same as the 38,960 in 2019.
Among the 38366 performances in Shanghai in 2021, 8894 professional theater performances, an increase of 25.6% year-on-year, 15787 performances in the new space for performing arts, an increase of 70% year-on-year, and other performances such as song and dance entertainment venues and performances in tourist attractions reached 13685.
Industry insiders said that the Shanghai performance industry to overcome the impact of the epidemic, the main reason for the growth of the number of performances in the city is to continue to promote the implementation of the development of new performing arts space, by the end of 2021, the number of new space awarded has reached 100; compared with 2020, more industry entities will resume work and production in 2021, and the operating environment will be further improved.
100 new performing arts spaces have sprung up
In 2021, 100 new licensed performing arts spaces will become a powerful catalyst for the Shanghai performance market. The Asia Tower, which has attracted the attention of its peers across the country, has transformed commercial buildings into performing arts complexes and become a popular punching place for trendy performances such as small musicals, talk shows, and modern dance. Fashionable cultural tourism projects, high-tech three-dimensional video performances, and role-playing games have brought about important changes across the formats of cultural, commercial, and performing arts.
Next to Liuhang Station on Line 7 of the Shanghai Metro, there is a 300-year-old ancient opera building "Yuyin Pavilion", the environmental drama "Deserted Village Apartment" interlaces the ancient opera building stage and the stage into parallel time and space, the Peking Opera actors on the stage interpret the anecdotes of the deserted village apartment in the 1920s, and the scene around the audience seat is integrated under the stage, attracting young people to explore it.
"The rise of the new space for performing arts conforms to the changes in the performance viewing of the post-90s and post-00s generations, verifies people's desire for live social experience, allows performances to break through the shackles of the four walls of the theater, and provides new ideas for the innovative format of performing arts." Zhang Yu, head of the Shanghai Modern People Drama Club, the producer of "Deserted Village Apartment", said that he will cooperate with Yuyinge to explore how different types of dramas and different performance forms conform to the structure of the fictional reality of the drama plot, and the environmental drama "Deserted Village Apartment" is just the beginning, and the two sides will continue to cooperate to create new plays in the future.
For two consecutive years of National Day, Shangsheng Xinshuo introduced drama exhibitions, and 5 suspense dramas with different styles performed in different spaces during the "First Suspense Drama Exhibition and Performance Week" were performed in different spaces for 25 consecutive performances, from the Shengdan Xinsheng Drama Culture and Art Festival to the first Coffee Drama Festival, theatrical art was integrated into the century-old humanistic life circle.
Last year's Mid-Autumn Festival, Shanghai Children's Art Theater completed a small but beautiful "Terrace Starry Sky Concert", this year, the theater will further create the theme of the terrace star space, so that "Mid-Autumn Festival Exclusive" becomes a monthly meeting of "one session and one meeting". The small theater that has been officially listed as "Shanghai New Space for Performing Arts" has joined hands with Shangyao Xinyi to devote itself to content incubation and original power cultivation.
Wei Zhi, president of the Shanghai Performance Industry Association, described the new space of performing arts as "leading", "The prosperity of the market is inseparable from the environment that promotes the smooth development of cultural undertakings, and there is a group of peers with ideals, courage and vision." ”
State-owned literary and art academies and troupes center on performances
"The new round of deepening reform of state-owned literary and art academies and troupes will make guiding guidance for performances." Zhou Ping, director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, revealed that in 2021, the number of shanghai performances exceeded 200 for the first time, setting a record high. In the face of the challenge of epidemic prevention and control, Shanghai still holds a normal music season, in addition to regular concerts, in the music season, the "Music Map" series featuring teenagers and the evening peak concert tailored for white-collar workers are added, and as many performances, theme music party classes, and art popularization lectures are sent to campuses, communities and enterprises as much as possible.
Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center adheres to the diversification of income sources and provides more possibilities for artistic creation to grow calmly, with a total income of 150 million yuan in 2021, of which 65.27 million yuan is performance income, a new high since the establishment of the institute.
Meet the challenges of the market with "changeable". The Shanghai KunQu Troupe has formed a ladder performance system from the grand theater and the small theater to the new space for performing arts. Since the National Day last year, Shangkun has joined hands with Shanghai Peking Opera House and Tiantou Yifu Stage to create the "Beijing-Kunming Qunying Festival" performance season, with Yu Zhenfei Kunqu Hall, Sea Pear Garden, Sinan Mansion and other new performing arts spaces as the station, to carry out "Zhou Zhou Performance" and "Kunqu Yayin Meeting". Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe Changgu used the "deepening diversified performance mechanism" to summarize 2021, among the 268 performances in the whole year, the number of professional theater commercial performances reached a new high, an increase of 94% compared with 2019, and the annual performance income was 11.929 million yuan, a record.
Resident performances helped to increase the number of performances throughout the year. Shanghai Song and Dance Troupe in Shanghai Majestic Theater resident performance "Immortal Radio Wave" and "Crested Ibis", received good market response, Shanghai Chinese Orchestra for 23 consecutive days in Shanghai Concert Hall to perform "Sea Life Folk Music", the leader Luo Xiaoci said, "The richness and change of the audience group, let us see the endless potential and future of Haipai folk music." ”
Shanghai Yue Theatre took wanping theater's resident performance of "Dream of the Red Chamber" as an opportunity to build an innovative communication position for traditional culture in the new era. From the "Yue Ju Golden Generation" series of performances in January 2021 to brand performances such as "Shengshi Yuezhang" and "Jinse Nianhua", throughout the year, there were 214 offline performances and 37 online performances, with performance revenue of 12.353 million yuan, an increase of 60.1% over last year.
The performance income of private theater troupes reached 230 million yuan
"The private theater troupe has withstood the test of the epidemic, insisted on basing itself on the market for survival, insisted on serving the grass-roots level for development, and always regarded increasing performances as the foundation of its existence." Wei Zhi introduced that in 2021, 9895 performances of 91 major private theaters in Shanghai have a total income of 256 million yuan, of which the performance income is about 230 million yuan.
Wenhui Shanghai Opera Troupe and Qinyuan Shanghai Opera Troupe perform more than 300 times a year, and the troupe leader and main actors insist on being in the front line of performance almost every day, while serving the grass-roots audience, they have also accumulated many realistic theme masterpieces that tell the story of Shanghai. The New Dongyuan Shanghai Opera Troupe not only successfully excavated the theme of local red culture and created a large-scale Shanghai opera "Flying Over the Seventh Bridge", but also brought the performance to the Huangpu River cruise ship with a new idea, expanding the new way of cultural and tourism integration, and also opening up new ideas for Shanghai opera performance.
Shanghai has emerged a number of private theater groups with social influence, can play a backbone and "leading" role, such as Xu Jun Drama Art Center, Miao Shike, Tribute Culture, etc. "Outsiders" have also found a new runway in Shanghai. "Happy Twist", which settled in Shanghai in 2013, operates through a diversified model and has a revenue of 118 million yuan in 2021. The resident performance of "Crazy Barbershop" with "twist" style has set a good result of 4 million yuan at the box office in just one month. Happy Twist and Raffles City Market on the North Bund produced the late-night immersive theater "Lane 1992", using the free time after the closure of the business to create a "Shanghai Lao Li Lane Scene". The immersive project of the old bungalows on North Shaanxi Road, which is being incubated, and the "Windfall 100,000 Guan" created in conjunction with Hangzhou's Fuyicang Heritage Park, all make use of the existing "storytelling" sites.
Wang Haigang, Co-President of Happy Twist and CEO of Shanghai Happy Twist, said: "Thanks to the management's measures to create a new space for performing arts in Asia and a new space for performing arts, as well as the promotion of the Municipal Performance Industry Association, Happy Twist is now developing more immersive, interactive and participatory theatrical forms to capture more young audiences. ”
Column Editor-in-Chief: Shi Chenlu Text Editor: Shi Chenlu
Source: Author: Zhuge Yi