Since the beginning of 2024, the performance markets in many places across the country have had a good start. The demand for performances has continued to increase, and the diversified performing arts forms have brought more possibilities for the vigorous development of the performing arts market.
Data released by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism shows that the Beijing performing arts market will continue to recover in 2023, with the number of performances, audiences, and box office all reaching record highs. During the 2024 New Year's Day holiday, 153 theaters in Beijing held a total of 268 and 807 commercial performances, attracting more than 216,000 viewers and generating box office revenue of approximately 53.538 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 442.8% in 2023.
Changsha, Hunan Province has launched an immersive youth theater "The Classmates" in Juzizhou. Visitors become "actors" when they walk into the theater, and feel the power of ideals and beliefs up close while watching and performing the play.
In addition to stage repertoire performances, various regions are actively promoting new models of integrated cultural and tourism development in multiple formats. The "Supreme Dragon Gate" immersive experience hall launched by the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan was almost full. This naked-eye multi-dimensional film takes the long history and culture of Luoyang as the main line, allowing the audience to be in the thousand-year-old Dragon Gate and experience the charm of Chinese civilization. In Guangdong, Shenzhen Dapeng New District has moved intangible cultural activities with the characteristics of the Greater Bay Area, such as the Unicorn Dance, and intangible cultural heritage delicacies such as sea urchin rice dumplings, to the city center. Through immersive exhibitions and other activities, citizens and tourists can experience traditional intangible cultural heritage items up close. .
In the "Industrial Structural Adjustment Guidance Catalog (2024 Edition)" recently revised and released by the National Development and Reform Commission and will be officially implemented on February 1 this year, the performing arts industry, immersive experience, and digital cultural product development are among the encouraged categories. . With the accelerated development of new business formats in the performing arts market and the improvement and upgrading of traditional business formats, high-quality development of cultural and tourism integration in various regions will be promoted, and the economic space of the performing arts market is broad.
"Chasing dramas across cities" The new cultural life of young people
Recently, immersive small theaters active in shopping malls, office buildings, cultural and creative parks and other spaces are exuding great appeal and are widely loved by young people. Many people still I made a special trip to use the weekend to "catch up on dramas across the city."
This is Hankou Road at four o'clock on Saturday afternoon. There are already many audiences on the first floor of the building waiting for the evening show. They are exchanging their feelings about watching the show with their favorite actors and creators and discussing the performance effect. Among them are local audiences in Shanghai, as well as theater lovers from around the Yangtze River Delta and even further away.
Located in the Asia Tower near Huaihai Road in Shanghai, there are 19 new performing arts spaces. The performances cover musicals, dramas, comedies, dance dramas and other small-scale resident performances. They are scattered on 11 floors of the building, with a total area of about 4,000 square meters. 2688 seats. Although the average area of the 19 theaters is small and the number of seats in a single space is limited, compared with traditional large theaters, the theater viewing experience here is closer to the actors' roles, and the rich combination of actors and highly updated original dramas , many young people like to go to this "vertical drama district" to watch dramas in their free time.
The immersive stage, streamlined characters, and plot design close to life can easily bring the audience closer to the characters and resonate with them. The two-way interaction with the creative team after the performance also deepened the young audience's interest in and recognition of the performance.
Shanghai Performing Arts New Space Theater Manager Guo Ling: Our play will start in February 2023, and by the end of 2023, it will have been performed for more than 200 performances. On some holidays, the attendance rate is very high, and the venue is often full. Out-of-town audiences can account for 30 to 40% of the total audience.
's multi-incubation
small theater brings an immersive experience to the audience with the purpose of nurturing talents for a good show. At the same time, it also puts forward higher requirements for script creation, director scheduling, and actor performance. So, in high-frequency performances, How does the show stay alive?
Shanghai has a strict assessment system for the content, performance, performance and number of performances performed in the New Performing Arts Space, requiring that the annual performance volume of a repertoire must reach 80. The number of audiences and box office must reach certain standards. It is these standards and thresholds that make the level of the new performing arts space must operate at a "high level". The stage close to the audience, high-frequency performances, and the polishing process of revision and revision not only enrich the experience and improve the level of the playwright, young director and actors, but also slowly accumulate and gather popularity and reputation.
Jiang Yizhe, a junior student at Shanghai Conservatory of Music: People usually wait until they graduate before they come out for interviews. I now have this opportunity to practice earlier. I think it is very rare because it is oriented to the market and society.
In the small theater of the new performing arts space, a play will be scheduled and sold based on multiple lineup combinations, giving actors more performance platforms and differentiated interpretations of roles, creating different viewing effects and enhancing the The appeal of the play. The New Performing Arts Space invites well-known actors from troupes across the country to join, which will also drive young actors to learn and improve.
Li Xinyu, executive producer of Shanghai New Space Theater for the Performing Arts: Our work had 400 performances in January, with teachers from many different troupes, such as Guangzhou Opera and Dance Theater and China Opera and Dance Theatre. There is cooperation. It is also very helpful for the growth of these new actors.
Today, outstanding local original dramas incubated in the new performing arts space not only attract audiences from all over the world to come to the Shanghai Small Theater, but also go overseas, becoming a new business card for Chinese young dramatists to tell Chinese stories to the outside world. Ruan Hao, person in charge of
Shanghai New Performing Arts Space: After the repertoire or new performing arts space was established, more foreign institutions have become more interested in some of our original works. We have already exported the copyright of two works and they will be performed overseas in 2024.
"Performing Arts + Experience" activates new driving forces for cultural consumption
At present, dynamic small theaters like this are booming in various places, and the new scene of "Performing Arts + Experience" has become a new driving force for activating cultural consumption.
According to preliminary statistics, a total of 45,030 commercial performances will be held in Shanghai in 2023, with approximately 24.779 million viewers and box office revenue of approximately 3.22 billion yuan, representing increases of 15.6%, 43.9% and 61.5% respectively compared to 2019. Among them, there were a total of 118 projects and 194 large-scale commercial performances such as concerts and music festivals. The number of projects and total number of performances exceeded 2019 by more than 60%. Such numerous cultural and performing arts projects have not only incubated screenwriters, directors, and performers to form related industries, leading young directors and actors from Shanghai to the country, but also driven the lighting, stage design, and production of the performances themselves to form a relatively complete performing arts ecological chain. The number of theater viewers has also increased from less than 20 million in the past to 24.7 million in 2023. 30%-40% of the theater audiences are from the Yangtze River Delta and non-Shanghai areas.
Jin Lei, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau: The annual box office of our commercial performances has increased from only 2 billion yuan in the past to 3.2 billion yuan in 2023. In the past, the number of days tourists stayed in Shanghai was about 2 days. With so much entertainment content, the average length of stay of tourists in Shanghai is about 2.84 days. In the future, content production will be a very important economic growth point. It is hoped that this method can be used to improve the level and quality of the entire service industry and economic development.
