At 7:30 p.m., the lights of the bar dimmed, the prelude sounded, and inadvertently, as soon as the actor turned around, the actors stepped out from behind the bar with a natural rhythm, raised a glass and greeted the audience, and the musical theater began in this way. The stage and scene are around, all the performances are unfolded around the audience, the emotional experiences and emotional ups and downs of the characters in the play are clearly visible, the climactic moment of the plot, the scene is quiet enough to hear the breathing and heartbeat of the actors...
When the drama "meets" bars, restaurants, wedding halls, secret rooms, cafes, libraries, immediately because of the diversified spatial effect and close viewing, a huge "chemical reaction" is generated, which fascinates young people and theater lovers. In the past two years, immersive theatrical experiences and performances that focus on immersive experiences, cross-border mix-and-match bars, restaurants, and various new spaces are gradually becoming active. Happy twist, a good drama and more drama teams and dramatists gradually participated, and various types of theater viewing and interactive experience held with the new space for performing arts as the carrier became the trend and trend in the current cultural format.
"New type of drama" mixes and matches wind circle fan young people
"It's more experiential to watch a show in a bar and café than to watch a show in a traditional theater, and it's fun to watch a show while drinking along with the plot!" In the past year, Zhang Chunzi, after the 90s, has become a regular customer of several immersive theater bars and theater restaurants in Beijing. "Just watching movies and dramas is too restrictive, light dinners have no topic, there are watching and eating, close contact with actors, and a strong sense of immersion and substitution!" As a result, drama bars and drama restaurants have become fixed gathering points for Zhang Chunzi and his friends, and regularly going to various new spaces to brush dramas has also become a new consumption habit.
In addition to meeting the "compound" needs of being able to eat and drink and watch plays, the repertoire of theater bars, theater restaurants and other performances often has an immersive attribute, which has become a major reason for attracting young people. "Actors are no longer high and far away. The male and female protagonists shuttled between tables, and when they were emotional, I could even see the tears in their eyes. And in the interactive part, the actors interact randomly, giving people a sudden surprise, making me feel that I am also part of the performance. "These fresh experiences that are different from traditional theaters are enough to make Su Xiao, who is born in the 80s, be instantly circled." In the past year, I have watched seven or eight such immersive dramas in bars and restaurants, and the catering and drinks in each session have been added to the tickets, and the per capita consumption ranges from 300 to 600 yuan, the price is not cheap, but it feels very enjoyable. ”
Theatrical mashup new space is imaginative
As a well-known content production company in China, Happy Twist has been constantly moving and imaginative in the creation of "environmental drama" and "immersive performing arts new space" in the past two years.
In Beijing, the Happy Twist Stage One Drama Bar opened almost every night, and various works that matched the temperament of the bar took turns to appear; the "Stealing Heart Dinner" with meal comedy that the company tried to cooperate with Sanlitun Asniu Western Restaurant also received a wave of attention.
In Shanghai, the performing arts space has become the city market of Raffles City On the North Bund, where Happy Twist has created an immersive interactive repertoire for the magic capital, "Lane 1992" with a strong Shanghai style, let the audience dream back to the 90s.
Coming to Jinan, the acting space of drama mixing has a new attempt. "We used to turn a wedding hall in Jinan into a wedding theater the year before." Speaking of this cross-border attempt, Liu Yan, vice president of Happy Twist, told reporters, "On the one hand, the wedding hall is equipped with a small stage, sound equipment, guest seats, etc., with the conditions for performance; on the other hand, the wedding hall is almost empty from Monday to Friday, generally only on weekends, and the performance will make the idle time of the wedding hall become full, which greatly improves the efficiency of the ping." ”
This year, Happy Twist also has a big move in Beijing about the new space for performing arts. Liu Yan revealed that on the basement floor of Dong'an Market in Wangfujing, Beijing, Happy Twist is building a national flagship store of the new theater entertainment space that integrates rich contents such as new theaters, coffee, light meals, cultural and creative stores, and theater experiences. The project will be presented in the form of a theater block, so that theatrical elements can be presented in a more diversified way in the audience's vision, so that the drama can be better integrated into modern leisure life.
Drama out of the traditional theater ushered in "serendipity"
Why should theater go out of traditional theaters and mix new performing arts spaces such as bars, restaurants, and wedding halls? While seeking innovation, this is actually an inherent need for drama to continuously expand its lifeline.
Liu Yan said frankly that as an indispensable platform and position for performance projects, theaters with superior geographical location and reasonable spatial layout belong to the scarce resources of the city. "Happy Twist insisted on launching its own original works as early as the beginning of its establishment in 2003, and then achieved uninterrupted performances throughout the year and opened a national tour, but our performance schedule in some cities was not ideal, mainly because the use of performance venues was greatly limited."
Under such circumstances, the Happy Twist Theater Theater Company was born on demand. The experience of long-term operation of projects and "dealings" with theaters has enabled the company to form its own set of "methodologies" for laying out theater theaters. "We believe that the 'theatre' of the future should break down existing cognitions and concepts. Because with the continuous increase of emerging cultural venues, shopping malls, tea houses, wedding photo studios, and scenic spots with performance conditions have become common, compared with traditional large-scale professional theaters, these performance venues have a strong literary and artistic atmosphere, convenient transportation, and leisure characteristics that integrate shopping and dining games. Liu Yan said, "The flexible use of a variety of venues to tailor suitable theatrical products, so as to produce a stronger chemical reaction, which will form a '1+1>2' 'serendipity'." ”
Nowadays, this kind of mix-and-match "new drama" is gradually becoming an active new cultural format, not only with the industry-leading brands represented by Happy Twist entering the game, but also giving birth to "small and beautiful" special brands such as drag horse drama bars. Not long ago, the large-scale immersive drama "New World" made its debut in Shanghai Film Park, and Shanghai Film Group announced that it would build China's largest "immersive theater" in Shanghai Film Park. In the Lido business district with a strong cultural atmosphere in Beijing, the drag horse drama bar has quietly become popular, and the bar mainly performs traditional classic dramas, which not only fans young people, but also attracts many theater lovers from the 50s to the 70s.
Image source: Happy Twist