How thinking small hit the big-time

• Source: Global Times
• [13:06 July 12 2010]
• Comments

By Hu Bei

Every day hundreds of Shanghai workers leave their brightly lit offices and head out for an evening in the dark. They are the city's theatergoers the people who want to create their own midsummer night dreams.

Although in most Chinese cities these days DVDs seem to have replaced cinema and theaters and few are willing to dig into their pockets to pay for their entertainment, small theater productions in Shanghai are booming.

Last year, of more than 80 plays performed in Shanghai, 70 percent of them were intimate theater productions.

At present there are six small theater productions being staged in the internal theaters of the Shanghai Drama Art Center (SDAC) and the Shanghai Grand Theater (SGT), two of the largest official performing spaces in Shanghai.

It is almost impossible to discover exactly how many small theater productions are being staged because so many are presented by amateurs and semi-professionals in minor halls and private clubs throughout the city.

Professional small theater productions are defined by three "smalls": they have small budgets ranging from 100,000 yuan ($14,760) to 300,000 yuan, small casts of from three to five actors, and small venues accommodating no more than 300 people.

"It is a very different and fantastic experience when you are sitting in such a small dark enclosed space and the actors are very, very close to you. It's just like watching a 3-D movie," said Wang Jie, a young local theatergoer. She is a member of the SDAC and told the Global Times that she was fascinated by the experience of small theater.

What might be important too is that the price to see a play in a small theater is usually a great deal less than one in a major venue or large theater - usually it costs an average 100 yuan per seat.

Recently the Shanghai Grand Theater surveyed more than 20,000 members and this showed that the audiences for small theater productions were mostly young office workers aged between 25 and 35.

With this sort of audience composition, the themes of small theater in Shanghai mainly focus on love, dreams and careers, the so-called "white-collar dramas."

Among the plays on stage at present are the original Chinese productions, I Don't Want to Sing Alone, Glance, The Left-women Story and The Orz Man Story, all of which tell stories about city men and women.

The romantic comedy The Left-women Story discusses a common problem in modern Chinese society - older unmarried women left on the shelf. The comedy illustrates the funny and outrageous experiences three of these women have as they try blind dates.

"This kind of play strikes a chord in people's hearts. Perhaps you will say this is pandering to the audience but because of the stress of living in the city, young office workers need to see plays which echo their own feelings and situations and reassure themselves," the General Manager of SDAC, Yang Shaolin, said.

The white-collar drama enthusiasm began in 2000 when SDAC produced the play www.com, which dealt with people's relationships with the Internet. The first season enjoyed 44 sell-out performances.

"At that time in China, the personal computer had begun to enter ordinary people's lives, especially young men living in the city. They knew what the Internet was and were learning how to use it for the first time. This play echoed that point in time," Yang said. From then on, white-collar plays about city living dominated the small theaters in Shanghai.

Small theater productions, though, did more than keep a close eye on modern city life. They also staged light comedies, thrillers (Shanghai sees more productions of Agatha Christie's works than just about anywhere else in the world) and Chinese adaptations of foreign classics.

"Sometimes small theaters are used to test some productions. A play which has been well-received in a small theater can be moved to a major venue or a larger theater with confidence," Yang said.

However some professional directors and academics are concerned about the boom in small theater productions in Shanghai.

According to Ding Luonan, the professor of the Shanghai Theater Academy (STA), in foreign countries, small theater should be about experimental works with a concentration on art and less consideration of public acceptance.

"Most of them seldom make money and if anything, there are fewer small venues. It is worth thinking why the market here can flourish so quickly. Is it just a flash in the pan? Or are we leading small theater into commercialization like the mainstream venues?" Ding said.

Song Baozhen, the vice director of the Drama Institute of the China National Academy of Art, said: "Small theaters at present find it easy to cater for their audiences who are largely ignorant of quality of the works and their artistic value."

Meng Jinghui, a leading Chinese theater director, has been widely acclaimed and seen his productions staged in major theaters throughout the country.

He started in small theaters directing experimental works, insisting on his own personal style from the very beginning.

He said: "It is impossible for works to be commercially successful unless there is a strong sense of art. But real success also cannot be judged from the box office."

It remains to be seen whether theater can continue to combine art and profit suc-cessfully.