This article is from the WeChat public account: One Entertainment Observation (ID: yiyuguancha), text/Ming Xiaotian.
On March 12, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism released the news that "for theaters in low-risk areas of the epidemic, the attendance rate is no longer uniformly restricted", triggering a collective "carnival" of theater people – which means that the "75% attendance rate" limit that has lasted for a long time has been broken.
In recent years, the drama industry has frequently "gone out of the circle" and been favored by the market, and theatrical performances have gradually become the "just need" of literary and artistic life: the high-scoring variety show "Drama New Life" is popular, and the dance drama "The Eternal Radio Wave" grabs tickets by seconds... On the other hand, the labels of "poor" and "poor" have always appeared in front of the public along with the lives of dramatists, and the living conditions of dramatists have attracted attention.
It is not uncommon for dramatists to be in a state of "strain".
The structure of the drama industry, such as performance venues, performance methods, ticket sales methods, etc., determines that theater people cannot rely on modern media means and obtain "once and for all" income through a work like musicians and filmmakers; the immediacy and live characteristics of drama also determine that theater people must rely on repeated physical performances to obtain corresponding income.
Classic Drama "Four Generations Together"
It is true that theater people who rely on sponsorship fees, advertising fees and other names can indeed get some income, but on the other hand, the box office and other income of some works also need to be divided into multiple accounts: the theater, the producer, and the performer are three-legged, and the situation of "more monks and less meat" in the theater industry has been formed, so that many theater people need to rely on translation, training and other means to obtain more sources of income.
As a performer in the downstream of the theater industry, life is not good.
Compared with broadway, London's West End and other theatrical works that can be cyclically rearranged and have stable box office revenue, the domestic theater industry still lacks relatively "out of the circle" commercial drama. This further leads to the need for continuous auditions and interviews for theater actors in order to seek more performance opportunities and income, and this unstable state also makes it impossible for theater newcomers to survive on performances alone.
Theater people shouted "no money" through "Drama New Life", and the status quo of the theater industry was only placed in the spotlight and seen by the public, but the significance of this variety show is far more than this.
Stills from "Drama New Life"
What is the state of life of a dramatist? In the face of difficulties, how do they break the game? One Entertainment Observation (ID: yiyuguancha) interviewed three theater-related practitioners, including leading directors and actors in the theater circle, drama producers working at Peking University at the top of the ivory tower, and senior theater operators who face the theater market environment on the front line. Let's hear how they answer questions about drama...
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="13" > Liu Xiaoyi: I did 20 small works before I started doing commercial drama</h1>
Director, actor, masterpiece "War Horse", "Wukong"
Last year, the "Drama New Life" program team approached me and said that they wanted to make a variety show that focused on dramatists, and I thought it was funny, so I decided to join them.
In fact, before participating in the show, many people in this variety show we all knew each other, and I think this has to do with the fact that the drama itself is a very niche circle.
For example, Wu Pi in the show, we were already good friends before, so joining this variety show is more like an experience for me to experience "working with people I know and participating in new activities".
Wu Pi
It is also true that during this time of recording the program in Wuzhen, it really brought me a lot of interesting life experiences. Eight of us slept in one room for two months, and we all went back to where we were when we first started doing the play: two months to create ten plays, which is a "crazy" thing, but we are full of momentum... These experiences made me feel like I should have been in some of the things I should have encountered in my life.
Usually our creative time is only three to five days, three or five days need to memorize the stage scheduling and then put the lines, actions, etc. throughout it, so many of the works in our program are adapted from the existing script.
I really like "A Desperate Man", which is the work of french writer Gabrière Dimerre, which is a more traditional script that promotes the development of the storyline through lines, which is very challenging to the basic skills of actors, but I like this kind of work.
The day after recording the show, I rushed back to Shanghai without stopping, and I didn't have time to rest, because several of the plays in my hand had to continue rehearsals, which also made me think that doing drama was indeed a very hard thing.
In fact, it is not such a large workload to do drama at the beginning, and when I first entered the industry, I always spent money to do drama.
I'm the kind of person who "I will do the things I like even if others don't give me money", including now that I invest in many of my own plays. I have been doing dance-related work during my undergraduate studies, taking over the choreography of several programs that included CCTV's popularity at the time, and after graduating from my undergraduate school in 2010, I wanted to try some unknown areas, so I switched to the field of drama, and it was not until the performance of "War Horse" (Chinese version) of the National Drama Theatre in 2015 that my workload gradually became saturated.
2015 National Theatre Theatre War Horse (Chinese version)
So "War Horse" should be a phase of my theater career, not only because the play gave me more job opportunities, but also because I began to learn how to get along with the team.
As the puppet director of "War Horse", at that time, a war horse needed three people to control, which was a test of everyone's teamwork ability, and we were a team of more than fifty people, just like leading a group of brothers to fight, I had to take responsibility and take care of everyone on the team.
The later musical "Goku" was also a new stage in my theater career. After "War Horse", I did a lot of drama, including a lot of experimental works, but after "Wukong", I officially entered the commercial theater stage, which means that my drama can face the audience and can continue to perform, and continuous performance means that this work can have a relatively stable box office income.
Therefore, young theater people should participate in more art festivals and try more performance forms, only with a sufficient amount of accumulation can it be possible to produce fine works. These experiences will be reflected in how the director works with the team, how to control time and money, these things are very important, require practical training, and eventually will be reflected in the works of the dramatists - I just did 20 small works, and then I began to start commercial works.
"Drama New Life" Liu Xiaoyi
Fortunately, there are more and more platforms for young people to create plays now, and the pipeline for young theater people to rise will be more and more diverse, unlike in our time, there may be only one theater group, and now look around, you will see a lot of theater groups. Therefore, as long as the work is good enough and the dramatists work hard enough, there will be a good upward passage.
But there may also be a lot of things to go through that require the drama people to stick to.
In previous years, we have also done commercial operations. But with business investment, you need KPIs, you have to make money with your team, and you don't have a choice. Once, I asked the producer, the body is not feeling well, can you take a half-day off, the producer did not answer immediately, but said that you need to "apply", the result of the application after telling me that I can not ask for leave, it is also from that time, I do not want to continue to work here, and then I left the team.
Not long ago, we mentioned the topic of "drama people don't make money" in "Drama New Life". I think that the "making money" of dramatists is closely related to the structure of the theater industry: the limited number of theaters means that they can only sell a few hundred tickets at a time, and the income will not be like movies, once performed once and for all, but the theater people need to rehearse and perform every day to have a matching income.
Over the years, because we are happy to try new things, we have also gained some unexpected gains. "Public space performance" is a new form of theater that has emerged abroad in recent years, and theater people go out of the theater to perform in squares, art galleries or streets.
Wuzhen Drama Festival
This form is very popular in foreign countries, but it has just begun in China, we have seen this new art form, and we have begun to rehearse this type of repertoire before the epidemic, so during the epidemic, we have been invited by the government, art festivals and other institutions to perform outdoors, so we are not greatly affected by the epidemic. It also gave me some inspiration, we chose to do some new, unknown or even "unsafe" attempts in safe areas and safe times, but it was these attempts that allowed us to survive the epidemic.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="38" > Li Shi: "One specialty and multiple abilities" let me live a relatively decent life</h1>
Theater producer, working at the Institute of Foreign Drama and Film of Peking University
In addition to the profession of theater producer, I am also a teacher, working at the Institute of Foreign Drama and Film of Peking University, responsible for leading students to rehearse and perform.
Because Peking University students are busy, so usually the class is privately mediated with everyone, in addition to one or two group plays, other sub-roles of the scene, will be with the actor alone time. However, because many students have no foundation in acting, we have to teach everyone the basics of acting in addition to rehearsal; in addition, when we rehearse many Shakespeare's works, many of the English pronunciations in them are still different from the English we have learned now, which is also a challenge.
National Centre for the Performing Arts produces Shakespeare's play Hamlet
After a work is formed, we will participate in the art festival in the later stage, and we will also enter the theater to perform, at this time, the operation of the repertoire will be like a professional theater group. Through these, these non-professional students can also feel the complete birth process of a work from behind the scenes to the front of the stage, from rehearsal to commercial performance. This practice is also one of the highlights of the course I took, and I am also fortunate to see that more and more students learn about drama through this course, fall in love with theater, and want to continue their studies in this major.
Like them, I first started with theater by listening to Mr. Joseph Graves Sr. at Peking University. I was still a photographer at the time, and because the show required photography, I was involved in the creative process of the show through a friend's introduction.
Although it was just a photo shoot, after watching that performance, it made me pay attention to the interesting art form of theater performance, so I signed up for graves's drama course at Peking University Summer School in the summer.
That summer, I also officially joined the cast of Shakespeare in One Man and began my own theater career. In the following years, I helped Graves in peking university as a playmaster, and began to learn some acting and directing knowledge, and gradually began to work behind the scenes of the play, and occasionally was assigned some roles in Shakespeare's plays.
Shakespeare of One Man
I am in charge of the "performance coordinator" of this work, and I can understand this role as a "project manager", whose main job is to spend money and find the right person for each specific job.
Because the design and director of these performance rehearsals have been completed, when I go to the field to perform, I will be responsible for the stage, prop preparation, technical synthesis, staff arrangement, lighting and sound control, subtitle page turning, and foreign accommodation transportation.
But frankly speaking, as a theater worker, although there is a rich spiritual world, but materially can not be regarded as particularly rich, as mentioned in the first issue of a recent variety show "Drama New Life", which is very popular in the theater circle, dramatists still have to endure a relatively tight state in the first few years before entering the circle.
This has a lot to do with the "niche" of domestic drama. Domestic drama "does not go out of the circle", can not present periodic rehearsals like many classic foreign plays, which leads to actors need to constantly audition, interview, this state brings a "sense of drift" to the actors, but also an important reason why theater newcomers can not survive by performance.
Like many theater people, if I were a theater worker, I might be in a state of poverty, so in addition to being a theater worker, I also worked part-time as a teacher and translator, which ensured that I could survive on my freelance job and live a relatively decent life.
In the first half of last year, the theater was suspended, the school could not open, and the life accompanied by drama seemed to be suddenly in a state of suspension, so I mobilized everyone to do "radio drama" online in the classroom, perform with sound, and hope that everyone will always be accompanied by drama.
In 2020, the National Centre for the Performing Arts's performance project "Dance of the King" was cancelled due to the epidemic
During this time, we were rehearsing an American play called "Put Your Pants On." The play tells the life of American theater workers in the wartime state of 1942, and they insist on rehearsing and encouraging people in an unusually difficult environment, which makes me feel particularly appropriate - in today's epidemic pressure, theater may be a "dispensable" existence in the eyes of some people, but for us, it is a kind of life companion and an indispensable part of life, I think this is the meaning of the existence of drama, and it is also the value for us.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="56" > A panic: a professional theater operation team can change the temperament of a city</h1>
Senior theater operation planner, eight years of experience in planning and operation of the theater industry
Entering this industry is actually quite accidental.
I did not graduate from theater management or media related majors, but after graduation, I chose to major in theater, and more coincidentally, I was admitted to the theater, which can be said to be a very catchy thing. But there are also many inevitable factors, such as I like to watch movies and have a natural interest in the art industry, so from this point of view, it is also inevitable to join the theater to work in operations.
As my first job after graduation, I didn't aim to make money, and working in the theater industry wasn't a money-making job, so it was all about generating electricity with love and interest. Looking back at the first time I entered the theater eight years ago, I can still recall the curiosity and freshness of "seeing everything is new".
Image source: Network
I do love this job very much, plus I just graduated in the years when "one person to eat the whole family is not hungry", there is also energy, there is momentum, at that time all the performances in the theater I will watch, after watching it will write tweets overnight, share live pictures with the audience, tirelessly do promotion, and will not feel overtime, "996" is a painful thing, on the contrary, I am still very happy in it.
In addition to doing publicity, I also have to be responsible for the contact and other work of the performance team, and even some problems in the background need to be handled, so I found some interesting phenomena.
In the city where I am located, everyone generally has a mentality that "face" is a very important thing, many acquaintances are keen to ask me for performance tickets, maybe for them, giving away tickets is more than buying tickets themselves. Of course, this is also related to the special status of the performance industry, many people may think that "performance" can not be regarded as a commodity, I did not ask me for a house, books when I worked in bookstores and real estate companies, perhaps because everyone thinks that houses and books are physical existence, and drama is a kind of virtual body that cannot be taken away, so it is not worth spending money on it.
Every time I experience these things, I will secretly think, we theater industry practitioners are already difficult enough, can you leave us with food to eat?
"Drama New Life" Ding Yiteng, Liu Xiaoyi and others sell songs on the roadside in Wuzhen
Although the salary in the theater industry is not as good as other industries, I still like it here.
The industry is a bit of a "moon and sixpence" for me: I don't want to lose sight of the moon called drama because of the sixpence on the ground.
But fortunately, in recent years, drama has become more and more "out of the circle".
Riding on the sail of "niche art variety show", different from the red to explosive variety shows such as "Sound into People's Hearts", "Dance Storm", and "China New Rap", "Drama New Life" let the audience understand, "The original stage drama is such an experience!" ”
At the same time, this also brings a broader idea to the performance operators - how to recommend and display their own repertoire to the audience when promoting these niche plays, with the presentation of this variety show, we will also start more forms of workshops and theater open days in the future.
On the other hand, when we mention "dance drama" and "drama" to the audience again, the audience will know more about this concept, and these art forms will flash in their minds like pictures, so that we can better do marketing, which are the dividends brought to us by this variety show.
Theater practitioners also don't have to worry about the troubles caused by "New Life of Drama" "out of the circle".
Different from the previous variety show out of the circle from the "pandering" to the audience, "Drama New Life" is very "Buddhist" to find eight drama people to do some attempts on drama, showing the real life state of dramatists. This form is essentially different from the previous variety show: this play is not to seek recognition, but to show the living conditions of dramatists.
From this point of view, it is also not suitable for fan operation out of the circle.
Moreover, this "out of the circle" effect can not be compared with the out-of-the-loop effect brought about by "Hello Li Huanying" at the beginning of this year, which avoids the results of many people who enter the industry in order to "make quick money" to the theater industry, which is conducive to the slow fermentation of the theater circle and the formation of a "long tail effect".
Working in the theater industry is indeed a long-term business.
Over the years, I have also really felt the change that theater has brought to a city and its inhabitants.
When I first arrived, the theater was deserted, and it was conceivable to enter the village, but through our efforts, including a series of formal activities, including pop-ups, art workshops and other forms of art in popular business districts, we gradually felt that the city known as the "Theater Desert" was constantly recovering, and people's enthusiasm for theater was rising, and even had the theater's own fans.
The environment around the theater is also getting better and better, which was unimaginable when I first started working, and it really made me feel that a professional theater operation team can really change the temperament of a city.
Last year, the epidemic brought great losses to the theater industry, but in fact, many theaters explored new online models.
For example, the Guangzhou Grand Theatre has done cloud screenings, and Shanghai Wenguang has cooperated with Tmall to integrate theatrical characters and Tmall products, and these activities even exceed the benefits brought by the performance.
I think that dramatists can bravely advance during the epidemic and develop some business models and logic, which is also very inspiring for us theater practitioners.