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Contemporary Theater of China

Chinese theater has a complex and a long history. Currently, people refer to Chinese theater as opera. However, the term opera is mostly used for the most famous forms of theater like Cantonese and Beijing Opera. Going back to history, Chinese theater was at first commissioned after Grauman’s Egyptian Theater’s success. Among the most distinctive characteristics of Grauman’s theater were the concrete blocks, handprints, and footprints (Vaughn  &Kallos, pg. 6). Coming the year 2013, the theater of China partnered with IMAX Company where the house was converted into a customized theater. Today, the Chinese theater can accommodate 932 people at a time. It is also among the largest movie screens in the world. This paper contains a description of the contemporary theater of China.

Origin of the Contemporary theater of China

Chinese theater opened 90 years ago. Before that, Grauman had built various other movie places including the million dollar theater and the Hollywood Egyptian Theater. Since the opening, theater of China has been contributed by different contributors and co-owners. Recently, the theater was transformed to TCL IMAX. This is one of the most well-known theaters in the world. It is estimated that about 5 million people visit the theater in every one year. Grauman together with his partners co-owned the theater in 1929. However, Graunman still worked as the managing director up to the year 1950 when he died (NG, pg. 104).

The spoken drama

Until the 19^th century, drama in the Chinese theater was never spoken. The artists only used a mixture of declamations and music. In the contemporary theater, artists no longer use only music and declamations but also incorporate words in drama presentation. Some examples of these pays are; The Hall of Everlasting Life, The Peach Blossom Fan, Thunderstorm and the Teahouse. The Hall of Everlasting life has been perceived as the best love story in the Chinese theater. The author spent some days analyzing the way every actor plays his or her part. In the Peach Blossom Fan the author expresses his feelings through the reunion of two lovers. This makes the story more real and live as compared to other plays in the traditional theaters. Another important thing to note in these plays is that the audiences see the scene as a reality and not just a play. For instance in Thunderstorm, the audience at times becomes emotional and forget that they are watching a drama.  

From movie mansion to theater

As one stands in front of the building, there is seen a plaque showing that the theater is dedicated to Bushman. This is because Ben-Hur lived in a mansion in which the current TCL Theater stands on. Bushman permitted Sid to build the TCL Theater on that land. As explained by Łabędzka, the theater costs approximately $2.1 million. Some coral-red columns can be seen at the entrance whose purpose is to hold the roof (Li, p. 79).

Artists and artisans

Several artisans from China and other parts of the world were hired to work on the modern theater. Three different types of woods were used to make some massive starburst for decorating the theater (Łabędzka, pg. 105). Among the designers who participated in decorating the theater at that time was Beckman. It is also important to note that the Chinese theater was the first one to have some air conditioning. It is observed that the wall pillars helps in air conditioning apart from the deportation purpose which they serve.

It is a real theater

It was Grauman’s goal that audience would have a theatrical experience from the theater. He argued that an audience deserves to be transferred to a different place and time when one comes to the theater. Graundman worked as a producer of the shows throughout his life. He was on the job until the year 1929 when he died. In 1930, Grauman was again asked by Howard to perform some prologue for “Hell’s Angels.” This is when Grauman went back to the theater and worked as the managing director and participated in stage shows until the year 1939. At the theater of China, movie premiers are always star-studded affairs (Conceison, pg. 382). However, the Force Awakens one of the contemporary premiers failed to hold a candle to Hell’s Angel’s premier. Another feature that makes the Chinese theater different is the fact that the stage show for the opening night was performed outside and not inside the theater. The oldest footprints and handprints are located in the middle of the forecourt.

What is unique about the theater of China?

Location of the audience and relationship to stage

In the Chinese theater, audiences are directed to sit in rows and on one of the playing area sides. There is a difference between where the audiences sit and the playing area. The theater is designed in a way that audiences understand their barrier from the playing ground. No audience can get into the playing ground something that makes the contemporary theater of China unique from the traditional theater. In the traditional theaters, an audience would surround the actors both vertically and horizontally (Kong, pg. 47). Actors used to perform in a round building where an audience would stand with their heads above the platform.  The actor would be surrounded 360 degrees by the audience.

The relationship between the actor and audience

In the contemporary theater, actors are free to relate and talk to one another. Actors do not talk to acknowledge the audience, but they can share with each other exclusively. Addressing the audience is considered as a crime because it disturbs the action. Looking at the traditional theaters, there were audiences everywhere the actor would look at. An actor could not talk to his colleague without having at least one member of the audience standing behind him. Actors talked more to the audience than they would do to their fellow actors (Łabędzka, PG. 108)

Audience status

In the contemporary theater of China, the expensive seats are placed near the stage while the cheaper ones are far from the scene. Therefore, it is the people at the higher income levels, the rich, who sit near to the podium and thus the performing artists. Lowly class individuals or with lesser money are allowed to sit on the balcony where they can see the performing artists from a distance. However, in most of the cases, those seated in the furthest seats are full of pride and high expressive actions as compared to those sitting right before the stage. Apart from a distance, it is important to note that every member of the audience is seated inside at the contemporary theater of China (Conceison, pg. 376). This brings in another difference with this theater. In the traditional theater, audiences were scattered all over the building with each trying to see what is going happening. People would rarely sit down when some performance was undergoing. Therefore, it is evident that the contemporary theater of China has highly improved.

Production design

In the contemporary theater of China, artists have the freedom to design the costumes, scenery sound, and lighting per the required playing environment. The artists design the environment to represent the movie’s time and place. For instance, if the movie or a song is talking about midnight or the actual performance is taking place at night, the environment is set in a way that it becomes totally dark in the whole room. Naturalism is carefully considered and made real in the modern theater. This was not so in the traditional theater. It was a scenery with doors, a below, as well as a balcony. Artists were forced to use a lot of creativity and innovation to demonstrate to the audience of the changing times and place (Vaughn &Kallos, pg. 71). However, in most of the times, the artist could only mention “night” or “morning”. As theater, naturalism was poorly demonstrated. Some audiences would get bored along the way. Imagine a situation where everyone is crowding at the artist? It was already hard to see and understand what the artists are doing. In conjunction with the poor demonstration of naturalism, artistic performance would at times become boring and thus some of the challenges that accompanied the traditional theater. However, in the contemporary theater of China has solved these challenges and audience can always receive the best.

Rehearsal and performance

In the Chinese theater, actors are bound to write and rehearse on the play some weeks before the actual presentation. The actors are directed by one person known as the director. The actors are, therefore, required to repeat the same words, lines or actions in almost every night as part of the rehearsing process. In most of the cases, the director directs the actors towards fulfilling his vision or purpose. In fact, the actors are hired to work with the director who guides them on what to present while on stage. Due to this reason, the contemporary theater of China is highly modernized and far much different from the traditional theater. Actors cannot just present anything on stage (Łabędzka, pg. 99). What they present is first analyzed to ensure that it will only be beneficial to the audience.  Performances must always be appropriate to the audiences at the specific time. For instance, if there are children in the audience, the artist cannot be allowed to present some pornographic performances or use a certain kind of words. All these work is done through the director. Therefore, there is more order in the contemporary theater as compared to the traditional one.

Rhetoric and language

In the contemporary theater, the language used is most fully in prose. Lines are designed like real life situations. The style, idiom and prosaic is made to produce real-life sound. Both texts and stories are made as life scenes. The actors are more concerned with presenting live images, stories or texts. The audience speaks of seeing a play and not hearing or watching it. However, in the traditional theater, the actors would act in the form of argument with the audience to prove themselves from their audiences. The actors would wait to hear the audience reactions from the play. If the audience celebrates or claps hands in responding to a particular play, the actor would understand that they are enjoying and thus more support to keep on. However, in the today’s theater, no actor waits to hear from the audience (Łabędzka, pg. 112). Every actor does the right thing and hence making audience experiences more live and refreshing.

Art and entertainment

This is another thing to look at in the theater of China. There is a distinction between popular and high art entertainment. Most of the musicals are entertainments which makes the theater to look more classic as compared to the older theater. Previously, artists focused more on the economic times, politics and social issues in creating plays and other artistic work. Songs were either full of politics, economic problems, and issues among other societal issues. Among the uses of theaters were informational where people would go to the theater to receive news or information about the ongoing matters. However, the contemporary theater of China has got a different use. The primary purpose has changed to entertainment (Kong, pg. 38). People can receive information or news from their televisions, radios, and social media among other platforms. They go to theater mainly for entertainment and thus making the modern theater to look more classic as compared to the traditional one.

Conclusion

According to the above explanations, the contemporary theater of China is more advanced and developed as compared to the traditional theater. Both the audiences and the artists are in a better position in the modern theater as compared to the past years. Currently, the audiences talk about seeing a play and not listening or watching. The experience has highly improved. Theater performance is also more organized and well planned of in the contemporary theater as compared to the traditional theater. At the same time, the contemporary theater is mainly used for entertainment purposes and not for information and news as it used to happen in the traditional theater. It can, therefore, be concluded that the contemporary theater of China has been more beneficial to the society.

Work Cited

Conceison, Claire. “China Review International.” China Review International, vol. 9, no. 2,

2012, pp. 377–380.

Kong, Belinda. “Traveling Man, Traveling Culture: Death of a Salesman and Post-Mao Chinese

Theater.” Arthur Miller’s Global Theater, edited by Enoch Brater, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2007, pp. 35–56.

Łabędzka, Izabella. “Chinese Avant-Garde Theater: New Trends in Chinese Experimental

Drama near the Close of the Twentieth Century.” Asian Literary Voices: From Marginal to Mainstream, edited by Philip F. Williams, Amsterdam University Press, 2010, pp. 93–114.

Li, Jiangyue, and Roberta Levitow. “China.” International Women Stage Directors, edited by

Anne Fliotsos and Wendy Vierow, University of Illinois Press, 2013, pp. 70–82.

NG, Wing Chung. “The State, Public Order, and Local Theater in South China.” The Rise of

Cantonese Opera, University of Illinois Press, 2015, pp. 107–128.

Vaughn, Kyle, and Robert Kallos. “Figurative Theater.” The English Journal, vol. 103, no. 3,

2014, pp. 64–72.