英文阅读：Bringing theater to the masses
I know a lot of people don't agree with me, but I've always believed in thenecessity of building a Grand National Theater in China. Yes, in terms of
marginal benefit, the money would probably have been better spent on rural
education or poverty alleviation. But a nation as culturally rich as China is
needs a venue worthy of its performing arts.
Besides, if we recovered a little bit of government waste, money would have
been no problem anyway.
I was involved in an early phase of the feasibility study for the theater
around 20 years ago, when I took a group of experts on tour along the West Coast
of the United States. They were on a mission to evaluate offerings in the US as
they prepared plans for the future national theater. We visited several old
theaters in downtown San Francisco as well as its historically important opera
house. We drove down to Los Angeles to explore more performing arts halls. The
one in Orange County does not have any right angles, we were told.
Nothing I saw on that trip prepared me for what just opened next to the
Great Hall of the People. I know the design is controversial, but it's so much
better than the other designs that made it into the final competition. I'm no
architect, but I believe the best architecture risks becoming just a landmark
for tourism if it does not function properly.
By "function" I mean presenting great art on its three stages.
The first signs are encouraging. It seems the theater is not destined to
overtake the Great Hall as a setting for politically themed performances. It
could so easily have been a place where every province showcases its
achievements by staging its own variety shows.
The Grand National Theater drew a lot of press coverage when it started
selling standing tickets. Costing just 30 yuan each, the 100 tickets attracted a
phalanx of huddled masses, some of whom had queued throughout the night.
I sympathize with them. A decade ago, I snapped up a lot of standing
tickets at the San Francisco Opera. I called them "student tickets" because only
financially destitute students like me would be willing to stand for a five-hour
Wagner opera. Sometimes, when the action on stage came to a standstill, I - and
a few fellow standees - would sit down on the floor and just enjoy the glorious
music wafting across the hall.
Standing tickets, in my opinion, are the cheapest way to nurture the next
generation of classical music lovers. Over here, some pundits see them as
further proof of the rich-poor divide. In San Francisco, I was never treated
badly because the opera house knew many of us would one day graduate to become
regular patrons.
Once I came back to China, I found - to my dismay - tickets so overpriced
that most of the people who go to the theater are either institutional ticket
buyers or complimentary ticket holders. A lavish show costs money. In the West,
a show runs for hundreds, even thousands, of days, while here in China a week is
considered a long run. You do the math.
Since the initial production cost is fixed, why not lower the price and run
longer so that more people have a chance to be exposed to the magic of the
theater? Hopefully the Grand National Theater can create some competition and
provide more access to people who otherwise cannot afford to go, even the
standing tickets.
As an aside, an acquaintance of mine told me he had come up with the
English name the National Center for Performing Arts. It is similar to Lincoln
Center or Kennedy Center. But would it replace the more habitual moniker or
create confusion? Maybe it'll be best known by its nickname, the Giant Egg.
E-mail: raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn
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