"In the past, the performances we worked with Buick were all 'tall', but this time we chose a small and beautiful route." The first Buick Art Season of Shanghai Grand Theatre kicked off on the evening of the 30th, and Zhang Xiaoding, general manager of Shanghai Grand Theatre, positioned the event. With the theme of "Toward Home", in the next 5 weeks, the performance season will take the Buick Chinese Theater of the Shanghai Grand Theatre as the core stage and radiate around the People's Square area, bringing rich artistic activities including 4 performances, 1 summer camp, 2-day theme market, 1-day theater open day, 4 workshops and sharing sessions. It is particularly worth mentioning that the event will also join hands with the Education Commission to invite young artists who have taken the stage of the Shanghai Grand Theatre to enter the universities of Shanghai's "Five New Cities" through the "Elegant Art into Colleges and Universities" famous teacher art popularization activities, and come to the campus from the theater at zero distance to present high-quality art masters to the students.
The Shanghainese nursery rhyme musical "Shake Ah Shake" participated in the live performance of the children
From tall to small and beautiful, from focusing on famous masters to setting up a stage for young children. In the "post-epidemic era", the content operation of hall-level theaters has become a new issue. By promoting high-quality original projects, it is the consensus of the industry to create a "performing arts inner cycle" ecology. So on this basis, how to develop market increments and solve the problems of "where do the audience come from" and "where do good programs come from" in the longer term, the Shanghai Grand Theatre seems to give an exploration path - that is, to use the summer "golden file" to excavate and cultivate the stage protagonists and audiences of college students and children. The 2021 Buick Art Season spans the summer golden period from the end of July to August, including children's musicals, dance theaters, solo concerts, light and shadow theaters and other diverse art forms, and is committed to covering a wide audience from parent-child families to emerging young people, so that more people can enter the theater this summer, discover fun, and find the connection between art and life.
Starting from the doll, let the concept of "entering the theater is like going home" take root in people's hearts
What to do during the summer vacation without a training course? I believe this is a difficult problem in the hearts of many parents this year. Saying goodbye to the heavy schoolwork and tuition pressure, the summer life of teenagers is returning to the normal track. But how to spend the summer vacation time suddenly vacated with high quality? Soaking in the amusement park movie theater or hiding at home to play games is probably not a healthy choice. In Shanghai, which is becoming the performing arts capital of Asia, entering the theater is becoming the choice of more and more parents.
For a palace-level theater such as the Shanghai Grand Theatre, the former summer program was also the golden period of performing arts, and a large number of high-quality large projects at home and abroad were staged one after another, although the art education projects for teenagers were carried out, but they would not develop a special performance season customized for young people. Right now, the theater sees this gap in the market and wants to increase its efforts to cultivate future audiences and artists. I hope to grasp the doll and let the concept of "entering the theater is like going home" take root in people's hearts.
Under the theme of "Toward Home", the 2021 Buick Art Season of the Shanghai Grand Theatre will perform on 4 selected stages, inviting the audience to explore the "home" of the theater and spend their parent-child time in the nourishment of art.
At the press conference on the morning of the 30th, the first performance, the Shanghainese nursery rhyme musical "Shake Ah Shake", was exposed in advance. Eight school-age children are lined up in a row, "skewers" a number of classic Shanghainese nursery rhymes, through the new arrangement, so that the familiar melody breathes new vitality, which is not only the enlightenment of children, but also the "home roots" of parents. From the 30th to the 31st, "Shake, Shake", which is based on 17 original musical song songs and classic Shanghainese nursery rhymes, will be performed for two consecutive days.
After listening to the "Haipai Nursery Rhymes", the Grand Theatre will lead the audience to appreciate the children's interpretation of Western classics. From August 27th to 29th, the original children's light and shadow music theater "Ring Ring", jointly created by Chinese and Dutch artists, takes Wagner's "Ring of the Ring" as the core of the story, and selects excerpts from opera classics, allowing children to enjoy this fun adventure of light and shadow while unconsciously immersing themselves in the great musical works of mankind. Parents who are well versed in classical music will gain a different kind of interest from the music giant Wagner in the dreamy stage sound stage.
Audiences who are sensitive to the smell of cross-border stages and cutting-edge art will also find "hidden treasures" in this Buick Art Season. From August 13th to 14th, the Shanghai Grand Theatre's "Hidden Series" Dance Theater x Improv Piano "I" combines dance theater and improvised piano to send a spiritual journey to explore the classic philosophical question of "Who am I" for audiences who like contemporary art and improvisational performances. It was a "no standard answer" performance, as the uncertainty of improvisation depended on the mood of the dancers and the live environment, and each performance seen by the audience was unique.
On August 24th, the Shanghai Grand Theatre's "One Man Classical" concert series will feature a recital by the famous violaist Medyan, the current principal viola of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra in Germany. In collaboration with renowned pianist Professor Huang Yameng, he will present Bach's "Chakong" dance, Schubert's "Apecioni" sonata, Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" and other popular works for Shanghai audiences. In the classical music world, the viola is often unknown because of its "low-key" presence, and in this stage, we invite the viola to the spotlight and discover its unusual charm with music lovers.
While enjoying the wonderful performances, the Shanghai Grand Theatre Art Education Brand will also bring the audience "I and us" improvisational dance workshop, "me and us" improvisational music workshop, "I and the violin family" Medy young art sharing session, "Where is my Ring Ring" parent-child interactive drama workshop and other theme art interaction and 1 dance summer camp, the audience will have the opportunity to experience art with a deeper personal experience, appreciate art, and then carry out their own artistic creation practice.
Benchmark generation Z, and drive the express train of "elegant art into colleges and universities" into the five major new city colleges and universities
Since 2014, the Shanghai Grand Theatre and the SAIC-GM Buick brand have formed a strategic partnership to build China's top art temple, promote international exchanges in the field of elegant art, and give back to the society through public welfare activities to jointly promote the popularization of elegant art. This time, "elegant art into colleges and universities" benchmarked the Z generation, and drove the popularization express into the five major new city universities. It is understood that the two sides will join hands with the Education Commission to jointly promote the popularization of art in colleges and universities, and let more young students fall in love with art and enter the theater in the form of art entering the campus and student public welfare tickets. Among them, the "Elegant Art into Colleges and Universities" famous teacher art popularization activities invited young artists who took the stage of the Shanghai Grand Theatre to enter the colleges and universities of Shanghai's "Five New Cities" and come to the campus from the theater zero distance to present high-quality art masters to the students.
The first invited artists were violinist Wang Zhijiong and percussionist Yu Le. The two shared their understanding of Gen Z on the spot. Wang Zhijiong, who is also a professor of Shangyin, found that "post-95" and "post-00" children have a wider range of interests, focusing on violin skills, and may also be fanatical anime teenagers. In the face of such a generation with more intense cultural collisions, artists are committed to popularizing and promoting elegant art to the younger generation in a more intimate and vivid way. At the same time, the Yiban.com "Meet Classics" student public welfare ticket activity, which cooperates with the Shanghai Grand Theatre for many years, will increase subsidies with the support of the Buick brand, select more high-quality plays, and invite more college students to the Grand Theatre to enjoy elegant art.
Wang Zhijiong shares their understanding of "Generation Z" with Yu Le
Popularize "upgrading", and the theater gameplay is also more fashionable and trendy.
From August 27th to 28th, during the 23rd Anniversary Celebration of the Shanghai Grand Theatre, the unique market brand of the Shanghai Grand Theatre draws inspiration from road travel and will hold a two-day "trunk market" with the support of the Buick brand. Here, the car trunk will be transformed into the protagonist of the market, bringing food, creative toys, wonderful square performances outdoors at the Shanghai Grand Theatre, enjoying the summer outdoors, and on August 28, the theater open day, there will be a series of art experience activities extending from A+ art space to the outdoors, waiting for art lovers to participate.
During the Buick Art Season, the high-end Models of Buick and the art experience were also combined to create a new and unique "Buick Mobile Art Space" diversified experience for art lovers. In the "Art With You Home" activity, lucky audiences will have the opportunity to take the "special car" home and "coincidentally meet" special art guests after watching the selected performances of the Buick Art Season, chat about the experience of watching the drama, and experience the charm of art in various forms of exchanges and interactions, and enjoy an extremely precious art home trip; on the open day of the academy, the "Art Parade Feast" activity will join hands with art guests from various fields to set up mobile art booths, bringing surprises and interesting art presentations and interesting interactions to everyone on the spot.
Author: Huang Qizhe
Photo: Ye Chenliang, stills courtesy of Shanghai Grand Theatre
Editor: Wang Xiaoli