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| Beijing Modern Dance Company |
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| “Fei Chang Ma Jiang” |
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Private
Sector Theaters and the Emergence of a Democratizing Generation
Up to this point we have discussed the movements among government-affiliated theater
companies, theaters and agents, but what about the private-sector theaters? It
is believed that theater facilities now being built by real estate development
companies and the like will be used primarily for an entertainment-oriented lineup
of performances or ones aimed at the tourists staying in the hotel complexes they
are built in. However, at the same time we are seeing movements suggesting that
a new wave of cooperative efforts between the private sector and government-affiliated
performing arts companies will bring a fresh impetus to the Chinese theater arts
scene.
Spearheading this movement is the North Theater in Beijing where Yuan Hong, a
30-something artist born in the early 70s, serves as both producer and art director.
This small theater of about 400 seats stands on a quiet Huton, a small street
in one of Beijing’s older residential areas. This is one of the theaters
that belonged to the former China Youth Theater Arts Company and was vacated when
the company merged into the China National Drama Theater Company as mentioned
earlier.
At the time in 2001, there was a plan for Yuan Hong and his friend, the well-known
Taiwanese director Stan Lai to invest in the purchase of the theater and
make it the Beijing base for Lai’s company, the “Biao Yan Workshop.” However, official approval for investment from Taiwan was
not given and Yuan ended up running the theater by himself. The
staff are all people with independent sources of income who have gathered in support
of Yuan’s activities. With their individual expertise in different fields
from finance, media, research and the like, they combine their abilities in the
creation and production of works.
The theme of Yuan’s activities is the “popularization of theater”
and “returning theater to the people.” Although the government-affiliated
theater companies are gatherings of professionals who command an unshakable position
in their respective roles, there has long been a problem that the theatrical fare
they provide is lacking in variety of expression and that the contents of their
plays lack relevance to people’s lives today. And, as seen in the fact that
Tsao Yu’s first play was written when he was a college student, theater
is a field where anyone, pro or amateur, should have access to the stage as a
place of expression. In reality, however, the present theater scene in China has
become one where only the pros have the opportunity to mount productions and perform.
Yuan’s desire was to break down the status quo and bring new stimulus to
the Chinese theater world by opening up the stage to imaginative young college
students. In 2001, he planned and organized a student theater festival named the
“Beijing High School and College Student Theater Festival.” Using
the small theater of the People’s Art Theater Beijing, six student
plays were presented in the festival’s first holding. By its fourth holding
in 2004, however, the festival’s schedule had grown to include 31 plays
performed at the North Theater, the small theater of the People’s
Theater Arts Beijing and the theater of the National Drama Theater Company
Experimental Theater. Also, the venues had spread outside Beijing to include performances
in Guangzhou and Shanghai.
Presently, the People’s Art Theater Tianjin is apparently planning
a student theater festival also, and it is expected that this movement will spread
throughout China. It is exciting to think about the potential new talents that
will emerge from this movement in the future. Despite its limited budget, the
North Theater is organizing small-theater festivals in Beijing, Hong Kong and Taiwan
and is nurturing new talents and conducting tours around the country with its
productions.
Another movement in private-sector theater worthy of mention is that of modern
dance companies. In China, the very concept of modern dance is still a new one,
with the country’s first modern dance company having been founded in Guangdong
in 1992. Due to this short history of barely ten years, most of the companies
are made up of young dancers and most are privately run. What’s more, the
Beijing Modern Dance Company established under the auspices of the Beijing Municipal
Bureau of Culture in 1995, was privatized in April of 2004. Its director, Zhang
Changcheng, is still in his early thirties, like Yuan, and he is working actively
to create a network to enable overseas performances and invitational performances,
while at the same time directing efforts toward the establishment of a foundation
to support young artists.
When we think about it, these people now in their mid-30s are from the generation
that were college students at the time of the Tiananmen incident in 1989. That
generation that called for democracy back then are now at the forefront of the
privatization movement and are beginning to move the Chinese performing arts world
as well. |
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