If there is anything to be thankful for in the new crown pneumonia epidemic, I am afraid it is a coincidence of fate.
In 2020, the Wuzhen Drama Festival was suspended, and the annual grand event of domestic dramatists was blown away. However, Seion lost his horse, and attempts to promote the drama online finally progressed. The sound of this landing is the dark horse of the highest-rated variety show in the first quarter of this year - "Drama New Life".
When I first heard the news of the preparation of "Drama New Life", I had a lot of anxiety and doubts in my heart.
It should be noted that in recent years, domestic blockbuster variety shows generally follow two laws: celebrity celebrity and celebrity.
The stars who are high above deliberately present the short part of their parents. It turns out that stars are also people, through the shooting and editing of variety shows, what is unhappy, speak out to make ordinary audiences happy and happy. The vegetarian variety show imitates the mature model of Korea and Japan, holding a baseball education, doing cool work, talking about sweet love, and soothing pain and exhaustion through a large number of highlight moments in ordinary life.
Even "Sound into People's Hearts", which is also from the stage to the screen, also hides the basic logic of popularity: the value of the face is out of the circle quickly, and the strength is completely crushed.
However, of all this, what does "New Life of Drama" have?
Drama actors often laugh at themselves, and film and television actors take off their costumes and stop in the crowd, still dazzling. But the vivid and flexible horns on the stage jumped into the sea of people and never disappeared.
The eight protagonists in "Drama New Life", a high and low station is a mobile phone signal, and there is no god face to circle fans. Xiu Rui and Wu Haochen, who are relatively popular, are strictly speaking borrowed from the light of film and television. Although on the theatrical stage, everyone has achieved a lot, it is not an exaggeration to say that they are "vegetarians" outside the circle of fans.
As for the road to the stardom of "ordinary people", it is obvious that it will not work. Marriage and love have "Heartbeat Signal", the workplace has "Heartwarming Offer", but the setting of "Drama New Life" is not only not heartwarming, but also heartbreaking.
A group of big masters, locked up in Wuzhen for two or three months, formed a self-sufficient drama commune. The performances have to be arranged by themselves, the venues have to be rented by themselves, and the meal money must be earned by themselves.
Sleep in Chase Shop and snor enough at night to form a symphony band. Run to the next field to steal vegetables, scenic spot management will find a door-to-door fine. Seeing the sauced duck and mutton in Wuzhen, I had to force myself to walk away with hunger, wave my hands and say" "I am not hungry at all." Dozens of cameras followed, recording too many outrageous embarrassments.
The initiator, Huang Lei, even parodies the "sister who rides the wind and waves", calling these eight drama people "gray-headed and dirty-faced brothers".
Having said all this, why expect people to look at it and turn it out?
With two abusive words: "love" and "light."
Words must be called love, and deeds must be called chasing light, which is the popular trend of variety shows at present. But "Drama New Life" does not sound the oath, really listen to it, really see the real feelings.
Cutting through tens of millions of variety show production costs, the state of dramatists in the camera is really poor. This kind of pre-publicized poverty is like another kind of assumption: taking the theater community in Wuzhen as the stage, eight people, dozens of days, ten plays, what kind of works can they finally hand over? How do these works respond to the "big question" raised by the promoter Huang Lei in the first episode: Can you make money doing drama?
The answer is extremely true: struggling to make ends meet.
But behind this subsistence, there is no element of confusion.
In the first scene, except for Wu Haochen, who joined the group a little later, everyone participated. The plot of the play is simple: there is a chicken named Xiaolan, who does not want to lay eggs and only wants to see the sea. A chicken that can't swim, but dreams of a journey to follow the sea.
The metaphor of this story is obvious, and it is used at the beginning, and it is enough to make a clear statement for each actor.
The eight "Little Lans" have since explored immersive and environmental drama, adapting King Lear, Portrait of Dorian Gray, and finally a puppet show.
The work, called "About Planet 23," tells the story of a child's dream: there are big dragons, there are magicians, there are dark unknowns and magnificent waves. When a child wakes up from a dream, becomes an adult, and has his own child, he finally understands that in the past, such as yesterday's death, more like today's life - life is always regrettable and lamentable, but the child's heart does not die, innocence lives on.
The beginning and end of "Drama New Life" begins with dreams and ends with dreams, the former telling people to try their best to chase their dreams, and the latter telling people not to forget their original intentions. Such an intentional or unintentional arrangement may not have seen the heavens and the earth, but has already seen all sentient beings. That's why wept for it.
And these actors, as well as the wider group of theater people behind them, are also always in the middle of such dreams and dreams.
On the way to the sea of stars, you must learn to make a living. How many grievances can be endured for the original intention, how much pride is willing to give up for the dream, more than anything can prove the word "love".
"New Life in Drama" aims to promote drama and, of course, present the part behind the stage. Through the overstretched actors, the audience gradually understands that the rental of lighting and costumes is the cost, and the income level of ordinary dramatists is roughly. Behind the laughter and anger, the audience can also understand how a play goes from ideas to books to vivid performances, and what kind of beatings and grinding by a group of people.
When the process is faithfully presented, the answer is in the human mind.
The witty Wu Pi is actually a drama idiot, but when the revenue of the drama commune is good, he begins to worry about rehearsal. Before the actors took the stage, he also repeatedly recited the sentence: "May the god of drama bless this group of young actors and actresses, and bloom their artistic lives on the stage." ”
It is the records in front of and behind the scenes of the variety show that make this empty sentence seem solid and full of power.
Ding Yiteng and Zhao Xiaosu plunged into the lake together in the climate of the cold current. Zhao Xiaosu had to roll three scenes on the last day, and the gap between the theater had to switch between different roles and lines. Liu Xiaoyi's days and nights in the prop room, as well as those objects made of cardboard wood chips, are all common experiences in the early days of the industry that theater people are familiar with.
The emotional squirting ending of Liu Tianqi and Xiu Rui in "Chicken and Rabbit in the Cage", the frozen and almost trembling freeze-frame expression of Wu Pi in "Out of the Mountain", the self-deprecating look in the bitterness of "The Clown is Myself" in "A Theater", and the seemingly illusory emotional strands in "Encounter like water" convey the impact that the theater cannot perceive through the unique close-up of the film and television.
For the audience who rarely enter the theater, variety shows may be the lowest threshold of theatrical enlightenment, and it is also the easiest key to the theater hall.
"Drama New Life" arranges a sensational ending. When the actors finished all ten performances, Huang Lei, Lai Shengchuan and Qiao Shan sent them to a small boat called "Shashibia". The cabin contains all the objects large and small since the start of the machine, and the two little ducks used as props are also "grown up", "quacking" and shaking at their feet. When time and memory overlap, the small boat that originated from Wuzhen will also be like Xiaolan, fluttering and shaking, sailing to the sea.
The first season has come to an end, the second season has finalized production, what changes has "Drama New Life" brought?
For the audience, the so-called dream life, see the play, see the dream, see the wine between the flowers and see the people in the dream. As for these dramatists, they do not make a high profile, they do not mess with lyricism, but those thoughts that trickle in the heart, and the light that blooms from them, are recorded by the camera through words and deeds, and then they are heard, seen, and perhaps accepted and understood.
The name of the program is "Drama New Life", which actually took a lot of trouble. Earlier, I intended to use "to the unknown", but excessive self-effacing seemed to be calculated. Later, I planned to use "you who will shine", but the reference seems to be too vague.
I like the first-glance bland name of "Drama New Life".
The so-called "new life" has two meanings. First, there is both the old life and the drama. Second, because of drama, life can be transformed into a new place.
So, what kind of life is the new life of theater?
My idea is that one day, when we mention drama, we will no longer feel that it is niche, abnormal, unsustainable, desperately insistent. We no longer need to separate drama from daily consumption behavior, no longer worry about whether we are humiliated because we can't understand it, and no longer be complacent because we are involved in some drama. One day, drama is not something sacred or unique, it is our food, our water and air.
Ding Yiteng wrote the theme song "You Who Will Shine" for "Drama New Life". There is a lyric that says: "In the world of sixpence, dusting off the dust on the moon, are we nameless people, and we are also heroes in our respective lives?" ”
True heroism loves life after recognizing the truth of life. Let us bless the dramatists: May you all be self-righteous people who chase dreams, the heart of the hot child who is always there for the ideal of drama, and the strength of love and the brilliance of art will always exist.
Author: Fu Kick Kick (Freelance Writer, Young Screenwriter)
Editor: Xu Yang
Image source: Stills