Doing art means “to be poor”?
For art graduates, going out of the school means truly starting to face the test of harsh reality. Taking the drama major of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts as an example, the test that graduates face is not only “Which Theater Company to go to,” but also “Whether they can stay in the drama industry.” The existing full-time theater troupes in the field mainly include the Chinese and English Theater Troupe and the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre. The vacancies are very limited each year, and it is impossible to completely recruit new graduates. More and more new theater enthusiasts choose to become freelancers and engage in other occupations to maintain their lives during the day. In the evening, I participated in the rehearsal and participated in the creation of the troupe, and some people took a different approach and founded the troupe with fellow fans to continue their artistic dreams. The performance of the Hong Kong Small Theatre has grown a lot in recent years, and new theater groups have emerged from time to time. Joining a small theater is another way for theater graduates to go beyond the mainstream troupe. However, this road is full of thorns, and it is to survive in the cracks.
Acquisition and photo
The birth of the small theater can be traced back to the small theater movement that began in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 1940s. In 1947, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe began to be held, and in August each year there are different types of performances for about three weeks. Theater performances at various venues are one of them. The word “Fringe” itself has a marginal meaning. Compared with the general international art festival, the Fringe Festival emphasizes “small” and encourages diversity and bold innovation. There is no review, as long as a venue can be found, anyone can do it. Performing, there is a kind of primitive vitality of savage growth.
Local small theater is still in the seeding stage
“Small theaters in Hong Kong are also mostly experimental, (the” small “of a small theater) is not defined by space, but is divided by the spiritual level.” Engaged in radio program hosting, art event planning, art teaching and column writing The cultural man Qu Fei believes that a major feature of the small theater is that the repertoire focuses on touching the audience’s mind rather than the box office. He likens a small theater to a small store, while a professional theater is like an ordinary chain store; it also provides goods, but the store has a color of humanistic care.
In Qu Fei’s observation, the proportion of theatre audiences in Hong Kong in the total population itself is not high. Outside of mainstream audiences, there are relatively fewer people who choose to enjoy small theater shows. Looking at the development of the Hong Kong theater alone, you will feel that it is far behind the Western countries or regions, but Qu Fei believes that this comparison requires specific analysis. Western countries have perfect art systems, good ecology, quality audiences, and artist guarantees, all of which have been formed through years of reform and change. Hong Kong is still in the seeding stage.
He recalled that after the June 7 riots, the British government began to support cultural activities in order to give the public a “trust” and set up the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in the 1980s. Development so far, but nearly fifty years. At this stage, the development of Hong Kong theaters is still facing many difficulties, especially for small theaters. The government has not formed a mature policy to assist the industry. Therefore, after a certain period of time, some people will choose to leave the theater and go to other workplaces, but some people will persist and let the small theater develop in different ways.
Qu Fei believes that the ecology of the Hong Kong theater has its own constraints. Take the Hong Kong government’s funding policy for culture and art, the Hong Kong government has allocated about 54 million Hong Kong dollars to support art groups and art workers from 2018 to 2019. Most of the people need to play and teach while they cannot support themselves by artistic creation.
Regarding government funding, even if the troupe applies successfully, it still needs to survive the empty window period of at least half a year for which no funds have been received, and find another way to survive. On the whole, the government devotes most of its resources to professional troupes, and it lacks support for young creators or freshmen.
“This policy has reduced the development of Hong Kong’s drama. Many graduates come out of the performing arts business and will switch careers without success. This has gradually become a vicious circle.” Dymo, artistic director of Laquan Theatre, believes that the existing cultural policy is full of various Limitations cannot help those who are passionate about art. In order to get rid of this constraint, Dymo resolutely does not rely on government funding and devotes himself to small theaters. For him, it is another way to seek creation, and the hardship in the process can only be known.
Huang Junda, the artistic director of Luye Theatre Company, mentioned that in recent years, it has been observed that the mainland has begun to form privately funded arts. “I will not ask you how to do it, not just look at the numbers, but I really like your creation. Does Hong Kong (This model)? I hope so, but I haven’t seen it yet. “He also pointed out that it is more difficult for medium-sized theater companies to get funding because it is not large enough and has limited coverage. He hopes that in the future, some new funding possibilities can be explored in the local area, such as commercial brands supporting art groups to create, etc., so that art groups can step out of the strange circle of relying solely on the government or the ADC to find a more diversified development path.
The lag in software development is worrying
In addition to the funding policy, the shortage of performance venues is also a major issue for small theater creation. The artistic director of the “Big Show” Simon Jian pointed out that there are not enough performance venues in Hong Kong. Most of the industry depends on the performance venues of the Urban Council. Among them, there are less than ten black box theaters suitable for small theaters. not cheap.
“One of the reasons why small theaters in the UK can really develop is because the growth of real estate is not as fast as Hong Kong’s, and no increase in rent for venues is actually important for the development of small theaters.” In order to save rents, there are some small theaters in the country. The show will choose the space inside the factory building, but this is easy to violate the law, because most of these venues do not have safe fire exits and cannot obtain licenses. So many times the troupe found a suitable venue to perform or rehearse, but they could not rent it because of government security reasons.
Simon believes that, in addition to showing the government’s lack of policy flexibility, it also highlights the lack of real enthusiasm of the government in encouraging cultural development.
The comprehensive development of West Kowloon is now imminent, more performing arts spaces are being built, and it remains to be seen whether the venue problem can be relieved. Qu Fei believes that the lag in “software” development is actually more worrying than hardware. For example, under the existing social environment and industry mechanism, students who have graduated in the performing arts may not be able to devote themselves to art creation, and most of them need to engage in other work to maintain their lives. To some extent, they are constantly consuming the enthusiasm and energy to enter a kind of Vicious circle. On the other hand, in Hong Kong, the experience of theatre viewing is far from universal. Hong Kong’s education system does not teach students how to appreciate art, which makes people feel a sense of distance and even fear of art. To improve the status quo of the theater and expand the development space of small theaters, we must always start with education. This is not a one-time event and requires long-term seeding and persistence.