Chapter 9 Beijing-Tianjin Small Theater

After talking about theater cross talk, we have to talk about theater culture.I know more or less about small theaters in North China, including those in Northeast China.I think the vitality of small theaters is unmatched by big theaters.According to data research, small theaters in Beijing and Tianjin were also very popular in those days. Some theaters opened three times a day.I didn't catch up before the liberation, but in the 1980s and 1990s, I caught up with the small theaters in Tianjin. That time was when the small theater in Tianjin was just raised. The small theater was not very big. The stage inside might be as big as two Simmons beds, and there were at least 70 or 80 people sitting on it, and as many as 100 or 200 people.It's just such a small theater, and the actors in the small class are performing. What is a small class?In the past, there were many professional groups. Later, because of the merger, some groups were transferred and some groups were disbanded.Many actors just have nothing to do, some have been sent to factories, and some have no jobs.Later, they spontaneously set up this drama club on their own initiative, performing cross talk, criticizing dramas, and Peking opera, which are called small class actors.He is not restricted by the state, and is completely responsible for his own profits and losses. Everyone shares how much money he sells in an opera today, and he will leave work when it rains tomorrow. This is the system.I did a show with them too, which deserves another book.

In the 1980s and 1990s, when I left Tianjin, there was no cross talk in Tianjin's small theaters.When I sang opera in Tianjin, the small theaters were still small Pingju Opera Troupe and Xiaohebei Bangzi Troupe.Twenty or Thirty people are a theater troupe, everyone performs there, and there was no cross talk at that time.It was not until around 1998 that there was such a small cross talk theater in Tianjin. It was initiated by Mr. Yu Baolin, a famous cross talk artist, to bring cross talk back to the theater.In Beijing, we, Deyun Society, are the pioneers of cross talk in small theaters. From the very beginning, the big teahouse, small teahouse, Guangde Building, and Zhonghe Theater are all theaters with more than 200 people.

From the perspective of this theater, I always wonder what a theater with tens of thousands of people is for, and the audience can’t see clearly. Maybe it’s about dance and dance drama. A theater with 100 people is the most comfortable. This is from the perspective of the actors, the audience can see the expressions of the actors.Because especially this kind of folk art telling performances, such as cross talk and storytelling, rely more on the expressions between the actors' eyebrows, and the performers have to communicate with the audience.In a theater with 10,000 people, the audience can't see the expressions of the actors, and everything they perform is discounted.So in the big theater, actors suffer a lot.

It is said that there were thirty or forty small theaters in Tianjin in its heyday.It is estimated that there are no more than ten small theaters in Beijing.Among the ten or so, it is considered that our Deyun Society has maintained a good job in Tianqiaole Tea Garden. The vitality of the small theater is extremely strong. First of all, it consumes less manpower, it does not need many lights, the stage equipment is not very particular, and it does not need luxurious hardware facilities.It has better sofa chairs, and inferior hardwood stools can also sit.People come for the art, for the relaxation, and he doesn't care about the interior.From this perspective, I predict that the further the small theater goes, the more it may be accepted by the common people.The performance is convenient, not as troublesome as the big theater. The performance in the big theater needs to be arranged. When the time comes, those who like to watch and those who don't like to watch, those who understand and those who don't understand will come, and the effect may not be satisfactory.I firmly believe that small theaters will get better and better.