Research On YunCheng Pu Opera Troupe

With the development of society, people's entertainment has been diversified. As a result, the popularity of opera is decreasing. The Opera Troupe——the carrier of Opera——faces a series of problems, such as immense loss of audiences, shortage of professionals and program innovation and the poor related environment.Pu Opera, one of the Four Operas in Shanxi Province, has a so long history and accumulates a wealth of experience. As a professional Opera Troupe, Yun Cheng Pu Opera Troupe has contributed a lot to the development and propagation of Pu Opera. Yun Cheng Pu Opera Troupe, which is established in the year of 1970, comes from the Pu Opera Troupe of Jin Nan(located at South of Shanxi Province). It is facing new challenges after having been through the wind and rain of Cultural Revolutions and the prosperity during the Reform And Opening-up.According to my investigations, Yun Cheng Pu Opera Troupe is composed of three kinds of staff: actors, orchestra and others(contains directors, writers, composers, logistical and administrative staff), among which emerges several outstanding actors such as Yihua Wang, Youfang Ji and Julan Jia, and also many amazing writers, directors and composers. They often perform in other cities. The main income of actors involves basic salaries and allowance of acts and other staff relies on basic salaries. Most of the staff are from other Pu Opera Troupes or Yun Cheng Opera school, but a small part just work here for interest. Now, some personnel have left, but the situation is within control.Moreover, the area where they act stays unchanged. In general, they play in downtown or around, often in north and south of Yuncheng. The performance often suspend In June/July and December/January when it is too hot or too cold A majority of performance are for business while some are for governments. Since they act a lot in Yun Cheng, the repertoires have covered the traditional categories which interest the public, and the Ben and Zhezi(two types of Opera) always show separately.Nowadays, although Yun Cheng Pu Opera Troupe is under the impact of modern entertainment culture, they keep developing by fighting for the support of government, strengthening the training of personnel, and popularizing the culture of Pu Opera.This paper is focus on Yun Cheng Pu Opera Troupe. By tracing and interviewing of the Troupe, the information of the personnel structure and the types of repertoires has been collected. In this way, we are able to draw the conclusion why Yun Cheng Pu Opera Troupe keeps on, and find out the future direction. As a result, by thinking the developing path of local opera Troupe, the traditional operas like Pu Opera can be better protected.