Behind the scenes at a grand and world-class theater
Print Edition
The Shanghai Poly Grand Theater in Jiading District has been building its audience since it opened four years ago. It has put on 1,180 performances and introduced nearly 20,000 artists to more than 800,000 visitors.
Zhu Guiyin, a technical manager at the theater, is one of the group of lighting and sound engineers and set designers who have made all the theater’s achievements possible.
“A stage, however its complexity, requires us to finish its arrangement one day before the performance,” said Zhu. “We need at first to get in touch with the troupes, to know what kind of equipment is needed, what the stage layout is and what the choreography will be. We feel glad when the troupes can visit the theater when we are arranging the stage. But sometimes they can’t and we can only depend on phone or e-mail exchanges, and problems may occur.”
Once a misunderstanding occurred because a translator mistranslated the voltage of electromechanical equipment before the Russian drama “Slava’s Snowshow” was staged at the theater at the end of 2016.
“Safety of the performers needs to be ensured first and foremost,” said Zhu. He explained how ventilation was stopped to prevent performers from being hurt by scissors attached on ropes as props and how the staff rearranged the stage and reduced the weight of the props to ensure the stage was not overloaded.
“We may just need strength and care to dismantle a stage, whereas to arrange the stage we have to use the brain,” said Zhu.
The theater invited more than 500 troupes from 24 countries and regions to stage performances over the past four years. Famous artists such as actress Liu Xiaoqing, dancer Yang Liping, conductor Tan Lihua and director Lin Zhaohua have set foot there.
The meticulous pursuit of the artists and their art in turn encourages the theater employees to do well.
When Lin Zhaohua’s play “The Three Sisters Waiting for Godot” was to be staged in the theater, the crew arrived beforehand to do their final rehearsals due to the different stage, lighting and sound conditions between Shanghai Poly Grand Theater and theaters in Beijing.
“We did everything possible to meet the crew’s requirements to ensure the success of the performance,” said one theater employee.
When world-renowned violinist Pinchas Zukerman expressed an interest to perform in China, the theater immediately sent out an invitation. An agreement on poster design was reached after rounds of negotiation since the theater intended to focus on the violinist, whereas the foreign troupe hoped the whole troupe could be publicized.
“When doing the promotion, we paid attention to everything from artist introduction and portrait to a specific usage of an adjective. Sometimes a punctuation mark would be revised repeatedly. All these are part of the performance,” said Hao Yinan, chief of the theater’s branding department.
On the theater’s schedule there is a “monthly play” column to ensure the audience can watch one cheap and cheerful play every month. The monthly play enjoys an attendance rate of above 60 percent, partly for the appealing price that may be as cheap as 50 yuan (US$7.2) per ticket, and partly, and mostly, for the theater’s emphasis on the diversity and quality of the plays.
“We hope through the monthly play we can cultivate the aesthetic value of the audience. Though at first the low ticket price was aimed to attract those who had never been to the theater, the standard of the plays rises as the audience group enlarges,” said Hu Po, chief of the program department.
As a local comprehensive theater, the Shanghai Poly Grand Theater enlarges its target audience by introducing the world’s top artists on one hand and holding universal art popularization concerts monthly on the other, according to Hu.
“We dig out potential plays ourselves, and we also have support from our chain theaters to batch purchase plays. So many plays were debuted here in Jiading,” said Qin Tiji, chairman of Shanghai Poly Grand Theater Management Co.
Though it is only late October, the schedule of Shanghai Poly Grand Theater is full till the end of December. Scheduled performances include “White Deer Plain” from the Shaanxi People’s Art Theater, “Swan Lake” by the Royal Russian Ballet and a concert by famous Chinese pianist Li Yundi.
The theater also pays attention to children’s artistic cultivation. It organized its children’s choir in 2015 and held the first Shanghai Children’s Chorus Festival in July this year with 10 children’s choruses from Shanghai and other regions taking part. The Poly Children’s Choir visited Norway, Denmark and Sweden in August this year and met the mayor of Oslo during a reception for the children.
“I sent my daughter to Poly Children’s Choir for the first-rate facility of the theater and also for the face-to-face guidance from its top artists,” said Wen Fang, mother of a Poly Children’s Choir member.
In March this year, the theater also founded its children’s ballet troupe and enrolled 41 students.
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