On The Contemporary Little Theatre Of China

With the advent of little theatre along with China' reforms, there is the reform of Chinese contemporary theatre. It begins in the 80's, undergoing the revival during the mid-80's and early 90's, and achieves its heyday in the 90's, creating 3types of theatre: the experimental theatre, non-experimental theatre and the commercialized theatre. Discussion about the nature and characteristics of little theatre have been around for more than 10 years, ridding Chinese theatre of the overseas definitions of little theatre and forming recognition of theories pertinent to China's contemporary theatre.The artistic exploration of China's contemporary little theatre depicts the contemporary China, revealing the living status, spiritual crisis, emotional well-being and the transformation of the Chinese people. There are roughly 3 aspects in ideas and themes: the liberation of humanity, the dilemma and anxiety of the contemporary existence and the questioning and re-building of values.The artistic exploration of China's contemporary theatre is bolder and more creative compared with that in ,ideas:: 1.The change of theatre conception -the theatrical concept is based on the audience, assuming the essential difference between film and TV is the participation and exchange of the audience. It has brought about varied stage form. 2. The change between the performance and the script-no longer considering the script as the basis of the performances no longer following the theory that director is responsible for re-creating the play, no longer confining to the conventional interpretations of the classics, some directors even taking the scripts as the mere materials for stage performance by the playwright. 3. The breakthrough of the models of realistic theatre-breaking away from the Stanislavsky-system as the sole system of the stage art and developing the theory of the "the forth wall" ,utilizing various new form in the attempts in performing.What is meant by all this does not only lie in the break-through and innovation of the conventions of the traditional theatre, not only showing that spoken drama is going on by contracting the performance, not only encouraging young people who areinterested in theatre going into spoken drama, but also providing living space for the more experimental theatre, therefore developing endless possibilities for the new forms and expression of the spoken drama.Due to various reasons, researches into contemporary Chinese little theatre in Mainland China are still at the rudimentary stage, lacking in systematic state. The author attempt to carry out systematic researches into contemporary Chinese little theatre by utilizing all the extant materials, and to show the process of the development, basic characteristics, main form of expressions and the cultural significance in Chinese spoken drama.