Photographed by Ren Ming, President of Beijing People's Art Theatre

BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Reporter Gao Kai) The Beijing People's Art Theatre announced its 2019 performance schedule in Beijing on the 20th. A number of classic dramas, including "Teahouse", "Wotou Guild Hall" and "Mutiny", which are "hard to get a ticket", will take turns on the stage. At the same time, the original works of Jingweier targeted by the theater are also worth looking forward to.

The mutiny was shot by Wang Yuchen

Ren Ming, president of Beijing People's Art Theatre, said on the same day that the performance of Beijing People's Art Theatre in 2019 will focus on the celebration of the 70th birthday of the motherland, with 18 major plays and 12 small theater works presenting nearly 400 performances.

Teahouse Photographed by Li Chunguang

On February 23, the Teahouse returned after the happy opening of the comedy "Wet Paint" and the New Year celebration of "The Whole Family". This heirloom of Beijing People's Art Theatre, "a miracle on the oriental stage", has experienced generations of audiences and actors year after year, and has practiced the significance of inheriting classics.

"This is our reserved repertoire, and this performance is also arranged to commemorate the 120th anniversary of Mr. Lao She's birth. Every time this classic work appeared on the stage in the past, it triggered an upsurge of ticket buying. This year, it is the same. The first ticket is almost 'seconds'. At present, our actors are in tight rehearsal, and we hope to repay the audience's expectations with perfect performance," Ren Ming said.

"Teahouse" will be followed by "Foreign Mahjong" and last year's new big play "Doll's House". At the end of August, the Beijing style drama "Player" will appear again.

On September 13, the "mutiny" that conquered the audience with the charm of "words" kicked off. On September 27, the long-awaited "Wotou Guild Hall" was staged again. From the lineup to the work itself, "Wotou Guild Hall" has become a phenomenon. Ten years of polishing has made this masterpiece of the new era a true classic.

On October 11, the textbook like Thunderstorm will meet the audience again.

In terms of small theater, such plays as Three Comedies of Ding Xilin in the Republic of China, I Love Peach Blossoms, Dinner, Icus, Hypnosis, Contract Marriage, Burning Van Gogh, and Her Dying will be staged in turn. At the same time, the masterpiece of emotional theme, Sex Man and Woman, which has not been staged for many years, will return to the stage, The lineup of new and old groups will also interpret this work that reveals the inside and outside of life.

The most noticeable issue of the annual repertoire is undoubtedly the arrangement of the People's Art Theatre for the original new plays.

Ren Ming introduced that this year, the original works of the Capital Theater are combined by the strong and powerful, and the themes are different from the past to the present.

In June, the celebration of Beijing People's Art Theatre will be marked by a new contemporary original play, which will focus on realistic themes and be full of modern spirit, "At present, we have several works being written at the same time. As for which one we will go to this year, we have not yet made a final decision, but we can be sure that it must be a contemporary realism theme, and it must be biased towards Beijing flavor."

In addition, Feng Yuanzheng will use the second original drama of this year to re direct at the Capital Theater. Ren Ming said that this work with classical themes will focus on the great realistic poet Du Fu and tell about his artistic creation and ups and downs of destiny in his life. The play, written by the famous screenwriter Guo Qihong, is another masterpiece of his following the trilogy of literati, "The Son of Heaven", "Li Bai" and "My Friend". The launch of this play also represents the determination of Beijing People's Art Theatre to spread national culture and tell Chinese stories well.

The two new plays of the small theater - Old Comedy directed by Banzan and Beyond the Horizon directed by Wang Ban will meet the audience in June and November respectively. It is reported that the theme settings of these two foreign works will echo and complement each other with the big theater.

Ren Ming said that in order to encourage originality and attract more excellent scripts into the resource pool of the People's Art Theatre, Beijing People's Art Theatre has focused on improving the remuneration of screenwriters, hoping that more excellent screenwriters can create for the People's Art Theatre.

The Capital Theatre has entered its ninth year of invited performance of its boutique plays, and will use four units to show the charm of the drama in an all-round way.

In the "International Unit", the new work "Lilium" by the Saint Denis Theatre in France, "Swedish Summer Night" by the Royal Swedish Theatre, "Father and Son" by the Gesher Theatre in Israel, and "This is it, if you think so" by the National Theatre in Turin, Italy, will appear in turn.

The second part of the invited performance is the first "Brother Theater Performance Unit in Beijing". In this unit, two outstanding realistic works from Sichuan People's Art Theatre and Tianjin People's Art Theatre will be staged separately.

The third part is "invitation unit of original plays". This time, two original plays are invited. One is Their Secret by Beijing Datong Culture Media Co., Ltd., directed by Yang Lixin, and the other is Jewish City by Beijing Yanghua Times Cultural Development Co., Ltd.

The fourth part "Special Image Unit" will, as always, bring multiple high-definition drama and film works to the audience, and lead the audience to explore the profound connotation of excellent drama through the image media.

In addition, from April 11 to 28, three plays, "Xiaojing Hutong", "The Return of a Lady" and "The First Building in the World", will successively appear on the stage of the National Grand Theater. In late November, "Wet Paint" was staged in Hunan Ouyang Yuqian Grand Theater, which is the first time that this comedy has gone out of Beijing. At the same time, the small theater plays Icus, Three Comedies of Ding Xilin in the Republic of China, Her Dying, and Hypnosis will also tour Beijing and other cities across the country.

In terms of overseas tour, our Jingke, a work of great oriental aesthetics, will be performed in France in May, the classic Li Bai will meet the audience of Tartarstanka Mountain in June, and the historical drama Sima Qian will go to St. Petersburg, Russia in October.

On the same day, the People's Art Theatre also made public for the first time the construction of the Beijing People's Art Theatre International Center. Ren Ming said that after the completion of the east expansion project, in addition to the existing Capital Theater, the People's Art Experimental Theater and the Juyin Theater located at the east entrance of the light market, a medium-sized professional theater with 690 seats and a small theater with 350 seats will be built at No. 22 Wangfujing Street. This move will greatly enrich the existing theater types of Beijing People's Art Theatre, Meet the performance needs of different drama purposes and provide more abundant drama performances for the audience. At that time, Beijing People's Art Theatre will become the only art troupe operating five theaters at the same time in China.

Looking forward to the future, Ren Ming cannot hide his excitement. "The whole project is expected to be completed in 2021, which can be said to open a new page for Beijing People's Art Theatre. Beijing People's Art Theatre will enter a new historical stage. At that time, a drama belt will be formed at No. 22 Wangfujing Street, which will be a very brilliant scene. For this reason, we are actively planning to make full preparations in the repertoire and talent pool. " (End)