From the winding and majestic Badaling Great Wall to the crowded Happy Valley, from the revitalized century-old guild hall to the young and active new space, the performing arts resources of flexible forms and different categories have taken root in the depths, opening up a different scene for the "performing arts capital" to gather great opera masters.
To show the image of Beijing
The lights gradually turned on, and another night, the Badaling Great Wall in the night was brightly lit. At the foot of the Great Wall, the long scroll of fireworks in the world unfolds one after another: dance, folk music, acrobatics, opera, magic and other performances change the scene, and intangible cultural heritage food stalls and cultural and creative shops are closed at night, and the business is prosperous...... Singing and dancing intertwine light and shadow, "activating" the glorious history and national spirit of the Great Wall. This summer, the immersive night scene performance "Dreaming Back to the Great Wall· Cranes from All Directions" launched by Beijing Performing Arts Group and Badaling Cultural Tourism Group will once again be stationed at the Badaling Great Wall. Last year, "Dreaming Back to the Great Wall, · Cranes from All Directions" was performed 169 times in about half a year, opening a window for 118,300 audiences to explore the mysterious charm of the "Night Great Wall".
Including "Dreaming Back to the Great Wall· Cranes from All Directions", the strong momentum of resident performances is continuing to boost cultural tourism consumption, showing Beijing's openness and self-confidence, and the coexistence of ancient and modern: "Night Painting of the Fu River" blends natural scenery and myths and legends, like a cruise ship wandering in the painting is about to set sail; The large-scale sitcom "Menghua · the Great Wall", focusing on the "Great Wall Cultural Belt", has been stationed in Beijing Shiyuan Park this year, and plans to perform more than 200 performances within a year, covering 500,000 audiences. In the Aoya Guanchen Art Center adjacent to the "Bird's Nest", many acrobatic programs with a high amount of "gold" converged into the "Dragon Olympics" full of memories of Beijing's "Double Olympic City". Last summer, the 258 performances of "Dragon Olympics" achieved an income of 4.84 million yuan, and in May this year, "Dragon Olympics" took the stage again, and the number of performances is expected to exceed 200.
Such a huge layout relies on Beijing's deep, mature and top-quality resource accumulation. Taking Beijing Performing Arts Group, which has created large-scale resident performance projects such as "Dream Back to the Great Wall· Cranes from All Directions", "Night Painting of the Fu River", "Menghua · the Great Wall" and "Dragon Olympics" as an example, as an important new force in the construction of the "City of Performing Arts", Beijing Performing Arts Group has a total of 9 municipal state-owned art troupes, including 13 art categories. Furthermore, "the group has signed strategic agreements with Yanqing, Miyun, Mentougou and Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, etc., which has a good foundation for multi-point efforts and promotion of more resident performances." Zhao Jiachen, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Beijing Performing Arts Group, said.
The cultural golden business card of "big drama to see Beijing" has derived the radiation effect of "big drama out of Beijing". In Zhangjiakou, the "Beijing-Zhangjiakou Sports and Cultural Belt" is transforming the traffic of the Winter Olympics into more cultural tourism increments. In the past two years, with the help of its China Acrobatic Troupe and Beijing Children's Art Theater, Beijing Performance Group has jointly launched "Chongli Circus" and "2024 Beijing Zhang Xue Ruyi 'Children's · Voice' Art Festival", the former is a combination of Chinese and Western, with 96 consecutive performances last year and 40 more performances this year; The latter has introduced about 20 rich experiences such as word-of-mouth children's dramas such as "Where is Chang'an" and "Love You Forever and Forever" to the National Ski Jumping Center "Xue Ruyi", as well as carnival parades and art exhibitions, and by mid-to-late September, nearly 100 performances, games and other activities will be intensively carried out.
Revitalize space and stimulate urban vitality
It complements the large-scale tourist resident performances that show the image of Beijing to the outside world, and moistens things silently to the literary and artistic boutique resident performances that nourish the city's civilization, and also injects new vitality into many urban spaces.
In the Star Theatre Village, since its official performance in December 2013, "Desperate Love" has set a record for the most performances in a single round of 192 performances and the longest residency record for 7 consecutive months in a small theater in China. Fanxing Drama Village is not unique, in recent years, the emergence and upgrading of new performing arts spaces in Beijing has made the residency performances promising.
In November 2022, the new Damai space located in the Longfu Temple Cultural District was unveiled and put into operation, and the immersive interactive drama "Open Now" will be resided until the end of August 2023, with more than 200 performances; During the Spring Festival in 2023, the Time Theater, located in the 22nd Yuan Street Art District of Beijing, Baiziwan, will be officially opened, and the environmental musical "The Merchant of Venice" will continue to be stationed; Beijing 77 · Catch Horse X New Space in 77 Cultural and Creative Park is the "birthplace" of the panoramic immersive interactive theater "Zhao Catch Goose" series, "Great True Detective Zhao Catch Goose" and "Great True Detective Zhao Catch Goose 2" have been stationed here for two consecutive years, at the end of July, "Great True Detective Zhao Catch Goose 2" has been temporarily over for more than 3 months, and the average attendance rate can exceed 90%.
Focusing on the development of a new performing arts space with diversified business formats, it is a testing ground for connecting young audiences and practicing cutting-edge concepts. Compared with traditional theater performances that end with only a few performances, the residency and the new performing arts space achieve each other, "It is easier to generate brand effect." Pan Pengfei, director of operations of 77 Cultural and Creative Park, said. According to his observations, the acclaimed "Zhao Catch Goose" has successfully let more audiences know about this unique park hidden in the back street of the art museum, and the food and beverage consumption has been significantly driven by the performance, and the old factory building of the Beijing Offset Printing Factory has been revitalized by the injection of performing arts resources.
A number of ancient buildings that have been sleeping in the depths of time are also awakening. The guild halls dotted around are a precious treasure left to Beijing by history, and with the in-depth promotion of "guild halls have plays", the old space has gained new vitality. In the Pigment Hall, 9 troupes under the Beijing Performance Group have brought immersive Beijing opera "Teahouse" and quyi drama "Memories of the Southern City - "Old Door God" and other works to reside for a long time, and have brought more than 200 performances in the past three years.
Cultivate talents and drive the development of the industry
Nowadays, the continuous expansion of the outreach of resident performances is continuing to bring more industry exploration and thinking.
"At the content level of focusing on building a 'performing arts capital', resident performances are a very important pole, which can drive the development of the whole chain of the performing arts industry." Zhang Haijun, president of the Beijing Performance Industry Association, said. Li Chi, head and general manager of the China Acrobatic Troupe, deeply agrees, taking the construction of the actor echelon as an example, at present, Zhongza is deeply involved in the production and presentation of many resident performances such as "Dragon Olympics" and "Chongli Circus", "Many new generation actors are driven to go on stage as soon as possible and take charge of themselves. In June this year, "New Skills Surprise Four - International Circus Gold Medal Show" opened at the OCT Grand Theater in Happy Valley, bringing together excellent works from nearly 10 countries. In this program, the task of China Miscellaneous is not only to "perform", but also to "gather", to thread the needle like a link, and build a bridge for artists from all over the world to gather in Beijing to perform on the same stage.
In the past, Zhongza was once involved in vicious competition in the low-end market, and many groups lowered ticket prices and continuously reduced costs, "An obvious consequence is that tourists and viewers cannot see good programs." Li Chi said. Last year, Zhongza made up its mind to withdraw resolutely. Beijing is the cultural center of the country, and as an art group rooted in Beijing, "our positioning is to create high-quality works that can benchmark the development level of the city of Beijing, and truly high-quality works." In the long run, we are running the acrobatics industry throughout China. ”
"The international position suddenly opened our horizons and forced us to keep moving forward and surpass ourselves." Zhao Jiachen said. In her view, in order to upgrade and develop resident performances, it is necessary to break through the key challenge of talent shortage, "Resident performances rely on long-term and stable passenger flow, which requires us to reserve a high-quality creative team. Taking "Dreaming Back to the Great Wall· Cranes from All Directions" as an example, the content of the performance changes every year, and the actors are constantly changing, and the main creative team must "have the thinking of market operation, but also have the ability to refine and create, so that the performance reflects the characteristics and standards of Beijing, and is often performed and new." At the same time, at the same time, in terms of venues, funds, publicity and other levels, high-level resident performances call for the early implementation of relevant supporting policies, and comprehensively help Beijing build an influential resident performance brand in the country and even the world.