The hundred-year-old ancient capital has a new rhyme, and the thousand-year-old canal has infiltrated the cultural context. Dongcheng District carries a profound cultural heritage, and makes every effort to promote the "renewal" of the cultural industry park, through a variety of policies, space, and resources, it has opened up a fertile soil for nurturing theater enterprises, cultivated many theater enterprises full of unique charm and innovative spirit, and constantly explored the new realm of theater art, bringing rich and diverse cultural experiences to the public. Here, there is the rebirth of the theater, the butterfly change of the neighborhood, the inheritance of drama education, the innovation of drama groups, and the "going to sea" and integration of culture.
· dramatic context, ancient capital style
Wang Nan, the founder of QFunTheater, started the first stop of his world tour with the children of the troupe this summer at the opera hall of the Musée Guimet in Paris. The performance work is "The Book of Poetry", which is the sixth work in the "Ancient Books and Me" series created by QFun Theatre Company. The children selected 14 poems from the magnificent "Book of Songs" that can reflect their current living conditions, connecting the difficulties and confusions they faced in their growth, raising questions in their creation, and finding solutions in their creation.
QFun Theatre Company is located in Nanyang · Sharing, No. 6 Nanyang Hutong, founded in 2013 by Li Haotian and Wang Nan.
They are professional theatre workers, all from the Lam Siu Wah Theatre Studio. Li Haotian said that the integration of drama education and performance is to create an environment for children to have a free creative platform in the most imaginative and creative stage of life.
Based on classic Chinese stories, interpreting and re-creating them from the perspective of children's present, and inviting domestic and foreign artists to help children complete their artistic expression, it has become an innovative model for QFun Theater Company. The troupe has dozens of original plays such as "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" and "Zhong Kui". With the goal of "being original in China and appreciating it with the world", the troupe has participated in dozens of international and domestic art festivals.
There are also many theater clubs in Nanyang · Sharing, where Qfun Theater is located, which has become a landmark of Dongcheng theater culture. The five-year-old comedy brand "Farce Theater" continues to output high-quality comedy content, and students continue to appear in the "CCTV Spring Festival Gala" and "Annual Comedy Competition", and have also held lectures at Harvard University and other universities at home and abroad.
Nanyang · Sharing, a "drama shared life community" integrating creative incubation, rehearsal performances, leisure accommodation, etc., is a typical park in Dongcheng District that revitalizes sunken assets and rejuvenates the industrial ecology. From the pre-rehearsal to the post-publicity design, it can be completely implemented in the community, forming a fully functional "drama workshop" and creating an innovative sample of the drama park.
New · creative exploration, pioneer in the drama industry
"Happy Twist is not just a play, it represents a style, an entertainment spirit, and an attitude to life. Now, we hope to integrate the core of 'happiness' with the cultural, commercial and tourism attributes of Longfu Temple Cultural and Creative Park, create new scenes and comedy spaces, and bring happiness to more people." Han Li, who graduated from the Central Academy of Drama, has been deeply involved in the entertainment performance industry for more than ten years, and has participated in the production, operation and management of various forms of projects. Currently, she serves as the director of theater operation of Happy Twist Headquarters Theater and the director of Longfu Temple A99 Theater.
A99 Theater, as Happy Twist's first self-operated theater in Beijing's Dongcheng, marks a new starting point. When the appeal of the drama brand collides with the magnetic effect of cultural landmarks, Longfusi Cultural and Creative Park has also gained a new impetus as an important pole of "Beijing's cultural consumption highland".
"Immersion, innovation, interactivity, popularity, novelty and diversity, these are the key words of A99 Theatre." The space of A99 theater is a black box multi-functional theater, with the core positioning of "immersive performing arts flagship store", and the innovative attempts and the latest achievements are presented in an all-round way. A99 Theater will also become a testing ground for Happy Twist to incubate new repertoire and develop new models: thematic and in-depth integration of catering, new retail, social experience and other formats, aggregate the magnetic field of new youth trendy entertainment consumption, and create a novel experience of theatrical life.
In recent years, Dongcheng District has been at the forefront of the country in exploring new performance forms and technologies by promoting the construction of cultural and creative industry parks, such as immersive drama, interactive theater and other new performance forms have been widely developed. The addition of A99 Theater will bring a new sample of drama innovation in Dongcheng District.
As an important part of the "Cultural Golden Triangle" of the Forbidden City-Wangfujing-Longfu Temple, the Longfu Temple Cultural and Creative Park shares the cultural industry chain and cultural resources, and is also the only way for local residents and tourists in Beijing to visit the citywalk. A99 Theatre plans to create a number of repertoire repertoire and maintain a capacity of more than 300 performances per year to meet the cultural and entertainment consumption needs of local audiences and foreign cultural tourists in Beijing.
A99 Theater is committed to realizing the aesthetic upgrade of "drama + new consumption + social interaction" here. According to reports, A99 Theater will carry out iterative renewals of the Happy Twist classic repertoire according to local conditions, on the basis of retaining the "twist gene", let the popular classics glow with new vitality, and at the same time introduce the latest and hottest immersive themes, performance modes and product forms to mobilize the social enthusiasm and consumption nerves of Generation Z audiences.
Break the fourth wall of the theater stage, and the audience will play, act, and get excited together. At Happy Twist A99 Theater, this vision is becoming a reality.
Integrate · drama into the world, culture out to sea
"The drum tower is in front, with red walls and yellow tiles. The bell tower is in the back, with gray walls and green tiles. The drum tower is fat, and the bell tower is thin. "40 years ago, the writer Liu Xinwu wrote in the novel "Bell and Drum Tower". Two years ago, Beijing Jiuwei Culture joined hands with Dongcheng District to adapt the novel into a drama and make a grand premiere at the Beijing Poly Theater, conveying the generosity and warmth of Beijing's Hutong Miscellaneous Courtyard culture.
Founded in 2008, Beijing Jiuwei Culture's early operation model mainly focused on the introduction of overseas high-quality repertoire, such as the tap dance "Riverdance" series, foreign musicals "Notre Dame Cathedral" and "Gone with the Wind". Among them, "Riverdance 2 Dancing Waves" has become the box office champion in the dance category for ten consecutive years.
In order to make the works have lasting vitality, since 2016, Jiuwei Culture has entered the field of literary dramatization and moved the works of the Mao Dun Literature Award to the stage. Cooperated with Shaanxi Renyi to produce Mao Dun Literature Award trilogy works such as "White Deer Plain" and "Ordinary World". Zhang Ligang, chairman of Jiuwei Culture, said, "We chose these works because we hope that each work can reflect the big perspective of this era. ”
From the introduction of repertoire to the export, the development of Jiuwei culture is also part of the development of Chinese culture to the world stage. Now, Nine Dimensions Culture is selling its own dramas to London's West End and Broadway. Recently, the acrobatic ballet Swan Lake was staged at Sadler's Wells Theatre, one of London's finest dance theatres. The evening was packed, and more than 90% of the audience was from London. Subsequently, from August 29th to September 7th, the dance drama "Wing Chun" by Shenzhen Song and Dance Theater will also be operated by Jiuwei London Company, and will be staged for 12 consecutive performances.
To seize the opportunities of the international market, it is necessary to have a deep understanding of the needs and preferences of the target audience and precise positioning. "Culture has outstanding symbolism, symphony to Germany and Austria, Shakespeare to United Kingdom, classical ballet to Russia, acrobatics, kung fu to China, this is the world has become familiar with cultural symbols, the attitude to beauty, the view of beauty, is the language we can communicate with the world." Zhang Ligang said.
The Far East Science and Technology Cultural Park, where Jiuwei Culture is located, is located in Hepingli North Street, Dongcheng District, which is the vacated space of the former Jingyi Group Far East Instrument Factory and the Beijing Municipal Cultural Industry Park. The codeword bookstore in the park has won the Beijing Model Bookstore Award many times because of the collision of "drama· film · poetry". Due to the strong cultural atmosphere in the park, the small bookstore sometimes becomes a stage and a theater, and its founder said that the codeword people will go deeper in the direction of "bookstore + drama", and will build their own small theater and create their own repertoire and IP.
From local cultivation to international expansion, from the innovation of business model to the precision of market positioning, Jiuwei Culture and the cultural industry park where it is located are committed to showing the vitality and charm of Chinese theater art in the new era. With the in-depth implementation of the "culture going overseas" strategy, they will also shine more brightly on the world stage and contribute more to the global dissemination of Chinese culture.
Create · model innovation and create experience
Last year, the 77 Theater was successfully shortlisted for the first batch of performing arts space cultivation projects in Beijing. The Horse Catching Troupe cooperated with 77 Cultural and Creative Park to jointly create a "breathing space" for young people to put down their mobile phones and forget everything and feel the charm of drama. The panoramic and immersive space design, superb theatrical performances, and humorous on-site interaction make it a popular performance space that attracts much attention.
"The park is very supportive and cooperates with the drama party to adjust the space, and there are many options for young people to choose from the citywalk, and our cooperation with the cultural and creative park can attract more consumers to visit." Zhao Haichun, head of the Beijing Horse Arrest Aix team, said.
Originally focused on traditional theater, in order to expand the audience for drama, it spent a year researching the consumption format of young people. From March to July 2023, 77 Theater and Capture Ma Aix jointly created a panoramic immersive interactive drama "The Great True Detective Zhao Catches the Goose", which staged 125 wonderful performances, with innovations in performing arts content, performance scenes and cultural consumption experience.
This year, the original creative team of "The Great True Detective Zhao Catches the Goose" officially opened its Beijing residency at the 77·· Horse X New Space Theater with a "brand-new" story, a "brand-new" immersive scene, a "brand-new" interactive experience, and a "brand-new" space gameplay. In addition to the theater, "Goose 2" also opens more additional experience projects for the audience, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the "Big Goose Universe" while watching the play.
Zhao Haichun said, "The novelty of the new space lies not only in the environmental immersion, but also in the expression and plot presentation, which is to break the frame of the performance, increase the audience's sense of experience, and create a 'magic way of performing arts space'."
Formerly known as the 77 Cultural and Creative Park of Beijing Offset Printing Factory, it combines cultural consumption with theatrical exchanges, creating a new scene of cultural consumption experience that is different from the traditional theater model. The 77 Cultural and Creative Park has also formed an organic interaction with the surrounding rich cultural institutions, making the 77 Cultural and Creative Park an important part of the "Cultural Golden Triangle" area, providing a platform for citizens and tourists to have an in-depth understanding and experience of dramatic art, and promoting the popularization and development of dramatic art.
· Resource gathering, sharing ecology
Jinyu Jintai · Shared International Cultural Industry Park is committed to creating a vibrant drama ecology. Founded in late 2020, Hanren Theatre is a group of passionate young directors and artists who focus on the creation, production and operation of theatrical projects.
"Before we settled in Jinyu Jintai, we used to perform in Nanyang · Sharing, and when Jinyu Jintai opened, we hit it off. We value not only the entrepreneurial environment and the convenience of the theater space, but also the cultural atmosphere of Dongcheng District. Founder and producer Li Yingyi said.
In more than 50 venues, such as the Guardian Art Center and the Codeword People Bookstore, the representative work "Two People" of the Hanren Theater Company is combined with a variety of spaces to bring a unique artistic experience to the audience.
"Dance itself is an art form that is heavily influenced by space and emotions. Therefore, we have developed the plan of 'Two People Embracing Space', which combines theatrical performances with the characteristics of the space, so that the audience feels like they are enjoying an art exhibit, which enhances the sense of interactivity and participation. ”
In order to further expand the operating space, the Hanren Theater Troupe has launched a series of courses called "Han's Theater", which includes courses such as "Body Theater Training" and "Improvisational Comedy Dance", so that ordinary people who have no performance foundation can also experience the fun of drama. The company's productions and classes are similar to the dance version of "Stress Relief Counseling", providing young people with opportunities to release stress and heal their bodies and minds. The curriculum appeals to a wide audience and also opens up new possibilities for drama education and community cultural activities.
Hidden in the old hutongs of Beijing, Jinyu Jintai · Shared International Cultural Industrial Park focuses on small theater performance spaces and provides a content creation platform for young theater workers. "Now our small theater not only attracts domestic art groups to perform and rehearse, but also attracts many foreign art groups." The person in charge of Jinyu Jintai Sharing · said that the rich culture of the park has promoted cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries.
The fertile soil of Dongcheng District Cultural Industry Park has not only nurtured the prosperity of theater art, but also become a cultivator and innovator of cultural consumption ecology, realizing the two-way integration of art and life consumption.
From the international performances of QFunTheater Children's Experimental Theater to the overseas commercial performances of Jiuwei Culture, the theater art of Dongcheng District is also attracting global attention with its unique charm. Here, every theater group, every artist, every audience is an indispensable part of the theater ecosystem. With the continuous improvement of this ecology, the cultural industry park will also become an important platform for global theater art exchange and innovation. This fertile soil will accelerate the release of innovation vitality, give birth to more cultural achievements, and let the style of the "City of Drama" bloom in more corners of the world.
Text: District Cultural Promotion Center