Three major performing arts areas will be built in the city's sub-center
2024-08-13
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Come to the world-leading Beijing Art Center to watch classic plays, go to the crowded Universal Studios to watch tours, and go to the distinctive Taihu Performing Arts Town to experience the fashionable performing arts venues... Tongzhou, this thousand-year-old ancient city is attracting more and more people's attention in the new era with its unique charm. In recent years, Tongzhou District has focused on building three performing arts areas, namely Taihu Performing Arts Town, Beijing Art Center, and Universal Studios, continuously expanding performing arts space, strengthening institutional design, and continuously enhancing cultural supply, making Beijing's sub-center a bright performing arts cultural business card in the eastern part of the capital. It is understood that in the first half of this year, Tongzhou District had a total of 1,417 commercial performances. It is expected that by the end of 2026, the annual number of commercial performances will reach 2,000.
The performing arts landscape of the sub-center continues to expand
In 2023, Tongzhou District will actively implement the "Three-Year Action Plan for Building a "Performing Arts Capital" in Beijing (2023-2025)" to comprehensively promote the construction of the sub-center performing arts district, continuously expand the performing arts territory, and increase performing arts space.
At the end of last year, Beijing Art Center officially opened to the public. It can be said that it was a "top stream" as soon as it debuted. This brand-new "cultural granary" has become a new landmark for performing arts in the sub-center and even in Beijing. Beijing Art Center also plays a huge role in the gathering of high-quality performing arts resources in the city's sub-center, attracting all kinds of outstanding performing arts to appear in the sub-center. The National Grand Theater's newly produced forest theater version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" premiered here, and Rudolf Buchbinder, Verbier Festival Orchestra, Lang Lang and other famous troupes came one after another. According to the relevant person in charge of the Propaganda Department of the Tongzhou District Party Committee, Beijing Art Center launches about 300 performances of various types throughout the year, including concerts, dramas, dramas, Peking opera and folk art.
In Taihu Performing Arts Town, Taihu Stage Art Center successfully held the Taihu Jazz Festival, inviting 30 top domestic jazz bands to bring more than 50 wonderful performances, focusing on creating a jazz music brand that integrates multiple formats of culture, tourism and commerce to meet the cultural and life needs of the audience. In Universal Studios, there will be 630 tours in 2023. So far this year, there have been 873 tours, a significant increase year-on-year, accounting for 60% of the total performances in the district.
At the same time, Tongzhou District has also actively and continuously promoted the Taihu Performing Arts Town Book City upgrading and renovation project and the Orange Sky Golden Harvest Sound Universe project, accelerated the Beijing Symphony Orchestra's landing in Taihu, and steadily promoted the implementation of six major cultural and tourism projects around the Universal Theme Park.
The “Canal Drama” brand enhances cultural appeal
Children's plays tailored for children, such as "The Secret of the Tree Hole", "The Queen of Proposal" and "Seven Square Meters" focusing on the lives of young people... On August 16, as the highlight of the 2024 "Canal Play" performance season, the Happy Twist Comedy Life Festival will premiere at the Tongzhou Cinema. Ms. Chen, a "post-90s" who lives in Yongshun Town, Tongzhou, told the Beijing Youth Daily reporter that she usually likes to watch stage plays. In the past, she often drove back and forth for more than two hours to watch plays in the city. Now her hobbies can basically be satisfied at her doorstep. "Last year, during the 'Canal Play' performance season, I watched "Seven Square Meters" performed by Happy Twist at my doorstep. This year, I am also going to watch "The Queen of Proposal."
Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that in order to actively promote the implementation of the "Performing Arts Capital" construction, Tongzhou District launched the "Canal has a play" performing arts brand. Last year, the first "Canal has a play" performance season was held, launching the first Happy Twist Comedy Life Festival, the first Grand Canal Music Festival, the 13th Songzhuang Culture and Art Festival and other eight themes with more than 130 performances and cultural activities, with nearly 400,000 citizens participating, and related topics on the Internet were more than 300 million times. From May to October this year, the 2024 "Canal has a play" performance season will focus on launching three main series of performances, including the Taihu Jazz Music Festival, the Starry Drama Village Parent-Child Drama Festival, and the Happy Twist Comedy Life Festival. About 1,300 performances such as high art, youth drama, children's drama, new folk art, boutique drama, and benefit performances are being staged one after another. At the same time, Tongzhou District also supported the premiere of original Grand Canal-themed repertoires such as "Northward", "Prosperous Canal", and "The Girl with the Pencil" this year.
According to a relevant person in charge of the Publicity Department of the Tongzhou District Committee, by successfully hosting two "Canal Drama" performance seasons, the urban charm and cultural appeal of "Vibrant Tongzhou" will be continuously enhanced, helping the construction of the performing arts area in the sub-center, making the sub-center further "hot", and making positive contributions to the construction of the "Performing Arts Capital".
Top-level design supports industrial development
A prosperous and orderly industry ecology cannot be separated from the planning support of top-level design. Beijing Youth Daily reporters learned that in recent years, Tongzhou District has comprehensively upgraded its top-level design. Starting from 2021, in order to strengthen the performing arts function positioning of Taihu Performing Arts Town, in view of the scarcity of commercial performance venues in Taihu Performing Arts Town, Tongzhou District, based on extensive research, has introduced a five-year transitional policy "Implementation Opinions on the Approval of Commercial Performance Venues in Taihu Performing Arts Town, Tongzhou District" through deepening reforms, and adopted the form of joint acceptance by six departments to accelerate the approval of various performance venues in the performing arts town.
So far, three theaters have passed the approval of commercial performance venues based on this policy, laying a solid foundation for the construction of Taihu Performing Arts Town. "Without commercial performance qualifications, the theater can only hold some internal activities and cannot be listed on major online ticketing platforms, which is very unfavorable for the long-term operation of the theater." Li Xin, the relevant person in charge of Shuangyifa International Cultural and Creative Park, introduced that under the guidance and support of the Propaganda Department of the Tongzhou District Party Committee, it took only about three months for Shuangyifa Performing Arts Center and Moonlight Forest·Love Theater to complete the space transformation and pass the joint acceptance of six departments in Tongzhou District to obtain commercial performance qualifications. It is understood that Shuangyifa Performing Arts Center and Moonlight Forest·Love Theater have held a total of 150 performing arts and cultural activities since they officially started operation in 2023 until July this year. "Now our regular performance approval can be completed within a week." Li Xin said.
Tongzhou District has also formulated and issued the "Tongzhou District Work Plan for Promoting 'Drama on the Canal'", proposing 20 specific tasks in seven areas, including establishing a work mechanism, cultivating performing arts spaces, supporting high-quality creation, broadening communication channels, shaping distinctive brands, promoting multi-format integration, and creating a performing arts ecology, to build a work system and strengthen task implementation.
In order to further stimulate the vitality of the performing arts consumption market in the sub-center and support the market-oriented operation of existing or to-be-built performance venues, in 2024, the Tongzhou District Cultural and Educational System Reform Group issued the "Tongzhou District Commercial Performance Venue Approval Implementation Opinions (Trial)", and promoted the pilot policy of commercial performance venues in Taihu Town to the entire district. It aims to revitalize the performing arts space resources in the entire district through reform, add new momentum, and assist in the construction of a performing arts cluster in the city's sub-center.
"Using micro-reform and micro-innovation measures, we will inject new vitality and new impetus into the development of the cultural tourism industry in the sub-center." According to the relevant person in charge of the Tongzhou District Committee, since the release of the "Implementation Opinions on the Approval of Commercial Performance Venues in Tongzhou District (Trial)" half a year ago, 8 commercial performance theaters and livehouses in 6 garden areas have applied for approval, and more than 20 performing arts companies have gathered and settled in the district. A total of 180 applications for commercial performances have been accepted in the district, with a total of 1,417 performances, a significant increase over the same period last year. It is expected that by the end of 2026, we will strive to cultivate more than 30 new diversified performing arts spaces and achieve an annual commercial performance of 2,000 performances.
Dancers from the Beijing Voice of the Heart Art Troupe for the Disabled are rehearsing
on site
The new performing arts space is expanding its capacity and the repertoire will be scheduled until the end of the year
The large-scale mythological puppet show "Havoc in Heaven" produced by the China Puppet Art Theater, the Huimin performance of the Hebei Bangzi "Chen Sanliang", the China Symphony Orchestra Chorus Concert... Walking into the hall of the Shuangyifa Performing Arts Center Theater, a 2024 performance schedule suddenly appeared in front of you, and the performances have been arranged until December this year. Beijing Youth Daily reporters learned that by the end of next year, the cultural and creative park will complete the renovation of 6 theaters, and Taihu Performing Arts Town will add a new performing arts theater. By then, the performing arts theater in the park will be able to accommodate 5,000 spectators at the same time.
Shuangyifa International Creative Park is one of the first "Tongzhou District New Performing Arts Space" award-winning units. Since March last year, Shuangyifa Performing Arts Center and Moonlight Glade Love Theater have officially opened and operated. So far, the two theaters have held a total of 180 performing arts and cultural activities. "During the summer vacation, there will be 4 to 8 performances every week." Li Xin, the relevant person in charge of Shuangyifa International Creative Park, introduced that the park is currently renovating three theaters with commercial performance qualifications, and plans to complete them before the end of the year.
By the end of next year, the park will complete the renovation of three theaters. By then, there will be eight performance spaces in the park, which can accommodate 5,000 spectators at the same time. "The theaters in the park will be able to meet the performance needs of different sizes, ranging from 100 to 2,500 people, and introduce more high-quality performance teams and repertoires to meet the cultural needs of different groups such as children and young people."
In addition to the theater, the entire park also has a strong performing arts atmosphere. In the theater's rehearsal hall, dancers from the Beijing Voice of the Heart Disabled Art Troupe are rehearsing a new dance; in the Hanzheng Modeling Studio on the first floor of the Cultural and Creative Park, staff are designing costumes and props for new repertoire projects... Seeing such a scene, who would have thought that this was a meat processing factory a few years ago. With the evacuation and relocation of general manufacturing enterprises in Beijing, in 2017, "Shuangyifa" centered on the "Performing Arts + Technology" industrial layout plan of Taihu Town, and transformed and upgraded from a meat processing factory to the first professional district-level cultural and creative park in Taihu Performing Arts Town with the core of creating a performing arts ecology.
Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that Shuangyifa International Cultural and Creative Park has attracted 22 cultural and performing arts enterprises to gather in the park. "The park includes related enterprises such as actor training, costume and props design, lighting and stage design, XR virtual reality scene design, and performing arts planning." Li Xin introduced that the park has basically realized the closed loop of the performing arts industry chain, and Shuangyifa International Cultural and Creative Park has been successfully rated as "Beijing Cultural Industry Park".
