Theaters are the cultural windows of the city

Source: People's Daily - People's Daily

In recent years, many viewers have dragged suitcases, just to watch a drama, they rushed to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Harbin, Suzhou, Hangzhou... You will also like a theater because of a play, and even fall in love with a city. How to make the theater more actively involved in the construction of urban culture?

First of all, as theater builders and urban planners, government departments play an important role in promoting the co-construction of theater and urban culture. How to upgrade the theater from hardware construction to performance content construction, shape the city's cultural image and brand, and achieve a breakthrough from "table" and "inside" is a problem that all localities need to face urgently after the boom in theater construction.

Secondly, the content supply and management level of the theater must keep up with the level of hardware facilities in order to truly play the due value of the theater. Theaters should focus on excavating and inheriting local cultural and artistic varieties, better enrich the spiritual life of local people, and strive to meet the diversified cultural needs. Through efficient operation, expand the power of cultural communication, such as through the establishment of standardized management and service means, expand the scope of service space, enhance the large-scale influence of cultural content; with the help of technical means to insert wings for art, start the construction of smart theaters, and break the boundaries of theater stages.

Moreover, citizens play an irreplaceable role as theater consumers and urban participants. From the initial appreciator to the participants of the interaction, and then to the conscious disseminators of urban culture, their cultural aesthetics, participation and support have been continuously improved, which will become an indispensable link between the theater and the city, and subtly improve the overall quality of cultural life of the city.

The theater is a wonderful stage, a city's cultural "living room", but also a moving window, the epitome of a city's cultural construction. Through it, we can taste the cultural characteristics of a city, peek into the quality of life of a city, and feel the surging vitality of a city. It is hoped that the theater can create more possibilities for the city where it is located and plan a better future.

(The author is the president of Beijing Performance Industry Association)

People's Daily (2021-04-28 20th edition)