Recently, the topic #post-80s female group leader becomes anchor to save Huangmei Drama Troupe# has become a hot topic. The protagonist of the story is Lin Mimi, a professional Huangmei Opera actor who studied under Xu Ziyou, a direct disciple of Huangmei Opera master Yan Fengyin

Recently, the topic #post-80s female troupe leader becomes anchor to save Huangmei Opera Troupe# has become a hot search topic.

The protagonist of the story is Lin Mimi, a professional Huangmei Opera actor who studied under Xu Ziyou, the direct disciple of Huangmei Opera master Yan Fengying. In 2009, 27-year-old Lin Mimi, a "Beijing drifter", founded Beijing's first private Huangmei Theater Troupe - Changle Huangmei Theater Troupe.

For ten years, she brought the troupe from a small stage of corporate performance to Mei Lanfang Grand Theater , turning the troupe from making ends meet to a slight surplus. However, just when she was high-spirited and ready to expand into a larger market, the epidemic hit.

Offline performances are either postponed or cancelled. In the first half of this year, the troupe did not receive a single commercial performance, and the only five or six performances were government performances to benefit the people. The theater troupe's rent, water and electricity bills, and the basic salary of the staff are all indispensable. The Douyin live broadcast room has become the "life-saving straw" of this folk theater troupe.

(Lin Mimi in the Douyin live broadcast room)

You can try Huangmei Opera

Lin Mimi has been a theater troupe for more than ten years.

She came into contact with Huangmei Opera when she was 5 years old. After graduating from junior high school, she entered Anhui Huangmei Opera School and also worked as an actor in Anqing Huangmei Opera No. 2 Troupe. But in the early years, the opera market was not very prosperous, and Lin Mimi participated in less than 20 performances a year. Frustrated, she stayed away from the stage for a while and also worked in the clothing processing business for several years.

In 2008, she came to Beijing to establish a cultural company and wanted to do film and television projects. But after one year, the business was not completed, but I got to know many Anhui fellows and Huangmei Opera fans. Everyone said that Huangmei Opera could not be seen in Beijing, and Lin Mimi was often asked to sing two verses of "To Satisfy the Greed" during the banquet. Lin Mimi thought: Private Yue Opera Troupe and Henan Opera Troupe can survive in Beijing, why can't Huangmei Opera Troupe give it a try?

(Lin Mimi is doing makeup in the background)

It was not that easy to get a share of the opera market, which was not very popular at that time.

In the first year, in order to promote the troupe, Lin Mimi took six actors recruited from her hometown to travel around to act. If there was no time to change their costumes, they would just catch the subway in their opera costumes.

In the second year, the troupe finally had a regular performance on the second floor of the Victory Cinema in Xicheng District, but after deducting venue fees, water and electricity bills, the box office revenue per show was only two to three thousand. In two years, the company lost more than 1.5 million yuan.

In the fifth year, the troupe almost disbanded. The actors felt that the salary of several thousand yuan was too low to establish themselves in Beijing, so they collectively resigned and returned to their hometowns. Had it not been for Lin Mimi's younger brother, Zhu Deng, who later became the troupe's artistic director, to help recruit extras and carry on the regular weekly performances, the troupe might have died at that time.

After that setback, Lin Mimi no longer "transplanted" actors from Anhui to Beijing, but began to truly take root and cultivate potential young Huangmei opera fans in Beijing. After fans took to the stage, the separation between the stage and the audience was broken. For regular performances every weekend, the 200 seats were in short supply, and many audience members could only stand and watch.

Slowly, the situation of the troupe improved. In 2015, Zhu Deng, who was originally a director at the CCTV Opera Channel, resigned and officially joined the troupe; in 2017, the troupe finally stopped its decline; by 2018 and 2019, the troupe even had a net profit of hundreds of thousands per year.

Lin Mimi thought that her hardships were finally over and she could show off her talents. However, she didn’t expect that a new challenge had just begun.

Online "Second Theater"

On January 19, 2020, the theater troupe held its tenth anniversary celebration in Beijing. At that time, Lin Mimi was very high-spirited and signed performance agreements with several theaters. Within a few days, the epidemic hit and all eight performances during the Spring Festival were cancelled.

(January 2020, the 10th anniversary celebration of the establishment of Beijing Changle Huangmei Theater Troupe)

4 regular employees and more than a dozen part-time actors, all live and eat in the troupe. Every day when I open my eyes, I am faced with rent, water, electricity, and salary... For a while, Lin Mimi was so stressed that she couldn't eat and lost 10 pounds in 8 days.

"Would it at least make me happy if I go to the Douyin live broadcast room to sing and talk?" In order to relieve her inner anxiety, Lin Mimi started live streaming on Douyin. She didn’t have any equipment, so she just sang a few pieces of Huangmei opera into the camera of her mobile phone, and earned dozens of yuan in rewards.

"That's when I realized that I could make money by being a Douyin anchor." Lin Mimi said that she decided to give it a try.

Theater audiences buy tickets based on the playlist, and sometimes the audience enters the live broadcast room just to watch the excitement. "Many people may not be interested in Huangmei Opera at first. If you keep singing, many people will not be able to stay."

In order to enhance the stickiness of fans, Lin Mimi not only sang classics such as "Female Consort" and "Brief Friends of Britain and Taiwan" , and also sing old songs such as "Shanghai Beach" and "Daughter's Love". In order to avoid the sense of stage when chatting, she rarely wears opera costumes for live broadcasts. In order to get closer to the audience, she rarely uses filters.

From 2020 to now, Lin Mimi has earned a good amount of reward income from Douyin live broadcasts, and it is with this money that she has guaranteed the daily operations of the troupe and the basic salary of the troupe actors.

The epidemic is recurring. The most exaggerated time was when a sudden case of illness broke out in Beijing the day before she was scheduled to perform overseas. Lin Mimi had no choice but to cancel her trip because the local policy required a 14-day quarantine in Beijing.

Lin Mimi also considered cooperating with other theater troupes to take opera photos and make some money, but the characteristic of Huangmei Opera lies in the singing rather than the appearance, so there is no advantage. At the beginning of this year, she also considered cooperating with an art training institution, but most of them The organization itself cannot protect itself, so it can only give up.

According to China Performance Industry Association estimates, by the end of March this year, about 9,000 performances had been canceled or postponed nationwide, accounting for 30% of the total number of professional theater and new space performances in the first quarter. In order to help the opera performance industry tide over the difficulties, in April this year, Douyin Live launched the "DOU has a good show" plan, which will help at least 10 troupes and 1,000 professional opera performers to create an online "second theater" in the next year.

Lin Mimi said that in the face of uncertainty, Douyin Live is already the most stable and has the best development direction.

(Still photo of Lin Mimi (right))

"Actors cannot sing on an empty stomach"

In the theater troupe, Lin Mimi also encouraged other actors to start live broadcasts. But not everyone can switch roles. "On stage we just need to devote ourselves wholeheartedly to art, but during live broadcast we need to maintain relationships with fans and be able to communicate with people."

Zhu Deng is considered to have done a good job. He now has more than 210,000 fans. When the live broadcast room was at its most popular, more than 10,000 people were online at the same time.

In his opinion, Douyin live broadcast has indeed helped many opera people overcome difficulties. "Nowadays, performances have shrunk. No matter how popular the live broadcast room is, you can always make a little more."

When offline performances were normal, Zhu Deng's monthly salary was about 10,000. Now in the Douyin live broadcast room, the most he can earn in one night is The same as the previous month's salary. Unlike Lin Mimi, he does not need to support a theater troupe, so all the income from live streaming tips can be used for his personal life.

Regarding the relationship between opera actors and money, Zhu Deng agreed with Lin Mimi’s point of view: Only by living, can there be a future.

Recently, Lin Mimi has also begun to think about other business models. Lin Mimi was inspired by the "knowledge + live delivery" model of the "Oriental Selection" live broadcast room that became popular on Douyin. "They have brought the advantages of English teaching to the live broadcast of goods, so can we also combine the advantages of opera?"

She is not worried that one day she will really start to bring goods, and she will lose the fans in the live broadcast room. " Henan opera famous teacher Li Shujian teacher once said that actors should not sing on an empty stomach, which is very reasonable. Only when people in this industry have enough income can they perform stably. Now we can't sell tickets offline. , we have to open up other ways to meet this demand, and then give back to the stage, right?"

In 2020, Lin Mimi funded and trained 7 children from poor families in the name of the troupe and arranged them to work in Anqing Huangmei Opera. He studied at a technical college and became a member of a theater troupe after graduation.This year, we brought them to Beijing, and three of them felt that they had no intention of singing and went back to their hometown.

Now, Lin Mimi and Zhu Deng spend 4 hours every day training the remaining 4 children. Now that she had brought them out, Lin Mimi felt that she had some moral responsibility. "Children can't wait. If they miss this time to learn opera, their future life path may be completely different, so even if it is difficult, they still have to hold on."

Lin Mimi has been working in a private theater troupe for 13 years, and Lin Mimi rarely She would rather brag about being the inheritor and disseminator of traditional culture than talk about it. In the past two years since the epidemic has been recurring, her family and friends have advised her to disband the theater troupe. She also hesitated, but in the end she was reluctant.

"My life will be more comfortable than now, but looking back, financial rewards can be obtained through hard work, but spiritual support is not." Lin Mimi knew that she could not do without Huangmei Opera in this life.

editor Gong Xia