Affected by the epidemic, a grassroots old theater troupe that cannot guarantee normal offline performances has gained 600,000 fans in 3 months with the help of live broadcasts on Douyin. A few days ago, the 66-year-old Huangmei Theater Troupe also rushed to the hot search with the solid performances of the actors.
Now, 170,000 people watch the live broadcast of the Huaining County Huangmei Drama Troupe every night. In the live broadcast room, some viewers left messages lamenting that "these are the plays that I heard in my hometown when I was a child", "I was a 00-year-old, and I actually fell in love with the Huangmei opera after listening to it", and some viewers even said movingly: "Is it the reason for age?" Really heard crying..."
On the one hand, many audiences were moved to hear the familiar voice of their hometown and were moved by the poignant singing sections such as "Tianxian Match" and "Meng Jiang Girl" in Huangmei's plays; on the other hand, many people lamented that there are still post-90s and post-00s in the old troupe who insist on traditional arts and have sent gifts in the live broadcast room.
Fans praised the traditional opera culture
Live tipping became the third source of income for the troupe
Under the epidemic, many industries have been disrupted, and the same is true of the performance industry.
Before the live broadcast, this troupe from Huaining County, Anqing, Anhui Province, always performed and disseminated Huangmei opera at the grassroots level. Every year, they will have hundreds of performances to send plays to the countryside and into the school. However, since 2020, the epidemic has disrupted the pace of troupes going out to perform. Under the pressure of performances and income reduction, the troupe leader Liu Lihua decided to let the troupe sing Huangmei Opera in the live broadcast room.
"After the outbreak, because we couldn't gather, we had a lot fewer opportunities to perform. For the whole year of 2020, our troupe basically only performed in the county. After the winter solstice last year, the whole group has not been out. Liu Lihua has been engaged in the Huangmei opera industry for nearly 34 years, she said: "At this time, I moved my mind and wanted the troupe to broadcast live and perform Huangmei opera. ”
Huaining County Huangmei Drama Troupe broadcast live on Douyin
In Liu Lihua's view, on the one hand, live broadcasting can subsidize some income for the actors of the troupe, on the other hand, she has also seen young people in the troupe singing live on Douyin, which she feels is a broad platform, and the leaders in the troupe are also very supportive of her idea. Therefore, on January 15 this year, everyone officially entered Douyin with the name of "Huaining County Huangmei Drama Troupe". Since then, the whole troupe has had a new stage, and has gained more than 600,000 new fans and new audiences, and also let many people know about Huangmei Opera.
Under the epidemic, the opportunity to go out to perform has decreased, and like many traditional theater troupes, the Huaining County Huangmei Theater Troupe can only rely on the difference in government departments to maintain. Liu Lihua said: "Douyin live broadcast revenue is already the third source of income for the troupe in addition to government appropriations and out-of-town performances. ”
In the past one or two years, this new source of income has allowed many opera actors, especially young actors after 90 and 00, to stay in the troupe, and the income of many opera actors in live broadcasting has gradually increased, even exceeding the income of performing in the troupe before the epidemic. This has also made many opera actors who have "changed careers" see hope, return to their profession, and make many old troupes on the verge of difficulties revitalized.
Liu Lihua said that she is very happy, 3 months ago the troupe chose to take this step, "live broadcasting has injected new vitality into our troupe and actors, and the cooperation between online and offline stages has given our performances a chance to be seen by more people." The decision may not be difficult for individuals, but it is not easy for a 66-year-old troupe. I would be very honored if we were able to provide some references to other local troupes in a similar situation to us in this attempt. ”
In 2021, after the performance of the 9th China Anqing Huangmei Opera Art Festival, the Huaining County Huangmei Drama Troupe took a group photo
Staged actors singing
Happy the audience enriched the actors and lived the culture
Judging from the Huaining County Huangmei Drama Troupe, which rushed to the hot search, new forms of communication such as live broadcasting are bringing new vitality to traditional opera culture. On the one hand, this is the unremitting persistence and efforts of opera workers, on the other hand, many platforms are also providing assistance for the dissemination of opera culture.
A few days ago, Douyin launched an opera support plan "DOU has good drama", the most direct purpose is to provide all-round support for opera theater troupes and outstanding actors such as Huaining County Huangmei Drama Troupe - give them more traffic support, more professional training, so that they can better inherit and promote traditional opera culture.
It is worth mentioning that before the release of this plan, live broadcast and short video platforms such as Douyin already had a good cultural foundation. The data shows that in 2021, the live broadcast of traditional culture on Douyin increased by 1 million compared with the previous year. Taking the most popular traditional opera as an example, in the past year, the number of live opera broadcasts has exceeded 800,000, with an average of more than 3,200 views per session. Every live opera is equivalent to a medium-sized performance.
The increase in the number of performances and the number of viewers also means that the income of actors has increased. The "2021 Douyin Data Report" shows that the income of traditional culture anchors increased by 101% year-on-year, of which quyi anchors started an average of 3719 times a day, and each one received 116 netizen tips and encouragements, and the revenue increased by 232% year-on-year.
Critics believe that from "opera on stage" and "opera on records" to "opera on TV", and now it has evolved into "opera in short videos" and "opera in live broadcasts". With the continuous evolution of media forms, the ancient art of opera has also begun to enter the vision of young people with the help of live broadcasting. In the face of the cultural wave of the revival of the national style, more and more young people like to feel the charm of the national essence through the network platform, so the traditional opera art is frequently "broken" on the new media platform.
In such a healthy cycle, we saw the professional performances of opera actors in the live broadcast room, the enthusiastic comments of fans and audiences, and the inheritance of China's excellent traditional culture among young actors and audiences. It's like the Huaining County Huangmei Drama Troupe trying to seek change through live broadcasting, and the excellent local opera culture has been combined with the modern Internet through live broadcast platforms such as Douyin, allowing old opera to take to a new stage and obtain new income. This not only promotes the inheritance and development of opera art, expands the coverage of culture to benefit the people, but also broadens the way for the revival of local opera. Such as fake bag exchange to enjoy the audience, rich actors, live culture.