On May 15, 2018, at the invitation of art department of Ministry of Culture and Tourism, president of ITTA and Shengzhou Yue Opera Town Co., Ltd, renowned director Guo Xiaonan made a special trip to Beijing, making a keynote report titled Promote the Production and Management of Grassroots Troupe in a Balanced Way to troupe leaders of 4th training class. The report focused on the production, management and protection and inheritance of opera, which struck a responsive chord in the hearts of troupe leaders.
At the planning stage of Yue Opera Town, director Guo Xiaonan repeatedly mentioned his emphasis on “No.1 Troupe in the World” at the first forum of ITTA. According to the latest research on genre of drama, among the existing 384 genres, there is only 1 performance troupe left for 120 genre of drama. No.1 also means the only one. Director Guo Xiaonan was appointed as the chief director of 2018 Opera New Year Party, in the section of mixed drama singing Not One Less and Ancient Opera Welcomes the New Year, many of the dramas that only one troupe passed down appeared on CCTV, which shows the culture stance and attitude of Mr Guo. While as for Yue Opera Town, director Guo plans to invite“No.1 Troupe in the World”to perform at ancient opera house of town and sign contract with them within 3 years. Meanwhile lectures and exhibitions will be held, platform for exchange between operas and international performance group will be built, aiming to give more performance opportunity to ancient, endangered and rare opera, also making practical effort to dig into the connotation of operas and making a difference.
The heads of troupes from all over the country responded actively and offered to provide scripts and videos of their own dramas. Troupes in the western region are even more cooperative. As long as there is a chance to perform, any conditions can be ignored. Dozens of troupe heads signed letter of intent for performance with Yue Opera Town, hoping to establish cooperation relationship.
Signing contract with troupe head
Director Guo said Yue Opera Town will be the display and exchange base for Chinese opera, it is the home of people who loves opera. His deep love for opera is reflected through this after he directed a few kinds of operas. It shows his unique position of Yue Opera Town as the president, it also contains his academic thinking as the president of ITTA.
Design Sketch of Ancient Opera House