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| The People’s Art Theater Tianjin’s production |
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New Efforts
by the Guangdong Provincial Arts Research Institute – Establishing Independent
Artist Studios
One example of this shift by public sector theater companies toward commercial-base
management can be seen in the new practice of not relying completely on one company’s
own artists to create and produce performances but to draw on a nationwide pool
of creators when putting together each new production. In other words the public
company takes on the role of producer in a commercially based system.
New efforts of this type are being seen at The People’s Art Theater Beijing
and The People’s Art Theater Tianjin, but perhaps the most prominent effort
undertaken recently has been an experimental program by the Guangdong Provincial
Arts Research Institute in Guangzhou, the major Chinese city near Hong Kong and
Macao. The term “Research Institute” seems to imply a group involved
in academic research rather than creation of new works, but the people at the
Guangdong Provincial Arts Research Institute see “research, experimentation
and production” as three aspects of a single mission, and they are presently
involved in creative activities in a number of artistic fields. Their fields of
endeavor range from modern theater and traditional Guangdong theater to music
ensembles performing with traditional Chinese instruments.
Attention has focused recently on a new system that the Guangdong Provincial Arts
Research Institute is experimenting with, in which artists are given studio space
to use for their own self-financed production activities.
For example, one of the Institute’s first class directors, Wang Jiana, was
allowed to open her own “Jiana Drama Studio” within the Institute’s
facilities in April of 2004. At the same time, stage art directors, musicians
and film/video directors were also allowed to establish their own studios, and
it is said that they now collaborate frequently with each other on productions.
In this way, the Institute is supporting the free creative activities of artists
in a number of fields while also embracing these artists, who are active at the
leading edge of their respective fields with a contemporary management style,
for use in the production of the Institute’s own productions as well. Furthermore,
besides the artists in their own Institute, the trend toward enlisting the talents
of artists from all over the country is seen here as well. Considering these conditions,
it is probably appropriate to say that the actual functioning of the Guangdong
Provincial Arts Research Institute today is closer to that of a production company
than a research institute.
Since the establishment of the first independent studio for Wang Jiana, the number
of independent studios within the Institute has continued to grow. These include
a young director in her thirties named Wang Xiangdong, who was invited to open
a studio at the Institute based on her achievements in directing local civic dance
and traditional dance productions at the Guangdong Province Song and Dance Theater.
In the modern dance field, a studio was also provided for the director of the
Guangdong Experimental Modern Dance Company, Gao Chengming. The Guangdong Experimental
Modern Dance Company was established in 1992 as China’s first modern dance
company, and it has recently engaged in a financial tie-up with the Hong Kong
dancer and stage art director Willy Tsao. Even though Hong Kong has returned to
Chinese possession in 1997, it is still under separate governance as an independent
economic zone and there is a strong desire for financial tie-ups. And,
we are now seeing the start of such tie-ups in the field of arts and culture.
Although the Guangdong region tends to draw less attention from Japan than the
northern centers of Beijing and Shanghai, it is often said that the winds of change
blow from the south and certainly Guangdong seems to be leading reform in this
area.
Government-affiliated agents venture into
production
Another movement being seen in the general privatization of the performing arts
is government-affiliated agents becoming involved in the creation of new works
and production. Until now, many agents have been involved in the performing arts
as short-term managers for a set number of performances of a given production.
Recently, however, some agents have begun to broaden the scope of their activities
in light of the current trend toward independent (commercial-based) financing.
China’s largest agency is the China Performing Arts Agency of the Ministry
of Culture (CPAA) established in 1957, and its primary business has been serving
as intermediary in performing arts exchanges with other governments. However,
since they have no experience or know-how with regard to holding commercial productions
overseas and have little consciousness of copyrights and intellectual property
rights, they have often suffered experiences when their prices were kept unnecessarily
low. As a result, a new organization named the CPAA International Performing Arts
Production Co., Ltd. was formed to undertake their own production of works and
management of overseas performances.
The company’s first production was a performance based on Shaolin Kungfu
martial arts that toured North America, Australia and other markets with a total
of over 200 performances over a five-year period beginning in 2000. During this
time, the production played before a total audience of over 400,000. Also, the
affiliated CPAA Metropolitan Theater Management Co., Ltd. was entrusted with the
management of the Tianqiao Theater (1,200 seats) in Beijing as a rental theater.
This is the theater where a production of Madame Butterfly was staged in 2002
to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the reestablishment of diplomatic relations
between China and Japan.
The organization says that it intends to use its growing experience and know-how
to create its own productions in the future in pursuit of greater profits. Presently,
agencies like CPAA are headed in the direction of working together with other
large-scale agents in tie-ups aimed at expanding the performing arts market and
are making use of facilities like the Tianqiao Theater with a long-term perspective
as venues for development of their production management business. |
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