What is the unique style of the theater in old Beijing?

Old Beijing called the theater as the theater, "theater" this title in the eyes of the rich people at that time is very humble, and bath ponds, restaurants and so on together as the "lower nine streams".

Old Beijing's theater is mostly opened in the former three doors outside the area, and the brothel adjacent to the alley. For example, on the east side of Qianmen Street, there are Guanghe Teahouse, Tianle Teahouse, Guangxing Teahouse, etc. On the west side of the street, there are Guangde Teahouse and Guangxing Teahouse. The west side of the street has Guangde teahouse, three Qing, the same music, neutral, civilized tea garden. The inner city is few and far between, only two Dong'an market auspicious tea garden, Dangui stage.

The above architectural form of these theaters is more or less the same. Generally, there is a tall single-door pagoda outside the door, on which the name of the theater is written horizontally.

Walking into the pagoda is a courtyard, set up some of the day's performance of the play with simple props, such as the day of the big axis for the "Royal Pavilion", then set up a one-sided cloth pavilion, if it is the "eight hammers", then set up four pairs of hammers.

Entering the theater through the courtyard is a four-square building with a stage on one side, which is four-square in shape and faces two pillars. On the other three sides are seats, which are mostly long and large benches, each of which can seat six to eight people, with a long and large wooden case in front of the benches for placing teapots, tea bowls, and food such as melon seeds.

The front of the center of a four-square strip called "pool seat", upstairs front called "box seat". Next are the two corridors, that is, the two sides of the downstairs and upstairs seats. Box seat in front of a row of pillars, sometimes blocking the view, commonly known as "eat pillars.

Additionally, there is a small area on each side of the stage that can accommodate about 20 to 30 people, called the "small pool." The "corner" of the stage is a small area that can accommodate about 20 to 30 people. The people who hold the corners of the stage watch the theater here.

The most inferior seat in the theater is the last seat against the wall in the two corridors, which is nailed to the wall with wooden boards, commonly known as "leaning against the wall".

After the audience entered the park by the "kanzi on the" (i.e., the seat of the waiter) for people to find a seat, if you want to find a good seat must also give the waiter reward money. At the same time, a pot of hot tea is brought to the audience. Tea money is collected by the teahouse when the finale (the penultimate play) is performed, and the price is not fixed.

In the 1920s and 1930s, there was a preliminary change in the theater, that is, in the southern city of some new theaters modeled on Shanghai. For example, the First Stage, the Kai Ming Theater, the Xin Ming Grand Theater, and there were also comprehensive entertainment venues, such as the New World and the Chengnan Amusement Park, which were mainly for Peking Opera and supplemented by other types of operas, such as operas and movies.

Most of these theaters have semi-circular buildings and semi-circular stages. The first stage also has a turntable, the lighting conditions have been greatly improved, the seats have been converted into rows of chairs, behind each row of chairs to add a board about five inches wide to place pots, bowls and food.

After its opening, the theater did away with the bad habits of selling tea and food and flying "hand towels" in the theater, but unfortunately, the theater was destroyed by fire in the mid-1930s and was never rebuilt.

After the emergence of these new theaters, some of the old theaters were renovated or rebuilt. For example, the Tian Le Tea Garden removed the stage columns and replaced it with a semicircular stage, but still retained the "small pool". The seats were replaced by long rows of chairs, and the name of the garden was changed to Huale Theater.

The Chung Wo Tea Garden was rebuilt, but the shape of the building was not reformed, and the name of the tea garden was changed to Chung Wo Theater, which is still in its original form.

Qingle Tea Garden was rebuilt and renamed Qingle Theater. After the reconstruction of Jixiang Tea Plantation and Civilization Tea Plantation, the names were changed to Jixiang Theatre and North China Theatre respectively.

In addition, in the East Side of the True Light Theater, which was built with the same design drawings and slight changes to the Kaiming Theater, the two theaters were more advanced at the time, whether lighting, sound, curtains, ventilation, seating and so on are new.

In the 1930s, two large new theaters, the Xinxin Theater (today's Capital Cinema) and the Chang'an Theater, were established on West Chang'an Street, and many famous actors and actresses performed in these two theaters.

In the 1940s, Beijing's theaters changed little. After the liberation, new theaters were built vigorously, and the old ones were gradually rebuilt and improved. For example, the popular theater outside the front gate, Guanghe Theater, Qianmen small theater, the inner city of auspicious, Chang'an, Xidan Theater are on the original site of the reconstruction or repair.

The newly built large-scale theaters include the Workers' Club in Hufangqiao, the People's Theater in Guguoji Temple, the Capital Theater in the main Fujing Street, the Tianqiao Theater in Tianqiao, the Concert Hall in Zhongshan Park, the Beijing Exhibition Hall Theater, as well as the theaters and clubs in various districts and counties.