"Do you know The Original God? Ever heard of "Goddess Splitting"? Want to know who the original song is? In today's circle of friends, Zhang Fan, the director of the Shanghai Peking Opera House, has received many likes for the text of the Peking Opera "Wang Xifeng's Great Trouble in Ningguo Mansion".
It turned out that the "Yunyan" and "Wang Xifeng", who attracted the attention of gamers around the world, were the same person - young actor Yang Yang. What is unknown is that behind the new generation of "Peking Opera Idols" out of the circle is this "Xun Pai" Hua Dan's ten-year non-stop running on the "Youth Runway" of the Shanghai Peking Opera Theater's young actor training program.
On this same youth track, there are also 117 young Peking opera people running with Yang Yang. With the successful conclusion of the second season of the "Youth Runway" of the Shanghai Peking Opera House a few days ago, more than 200 plays in the past ten years have witnessed the countless trials and tribulations of these young actors from obscurity to C position, and also witnessed the inheritance and handover of classic repertoire in the change of generations. Ten years of hard work have reaped fruitful results: Fu Xiru, a two-season actor in the "Youth Runway", won the "Plum Blossom Award" in 2019, the academy group has won the "Protagonist Award" of the Magnolia Drama Award for five consecutive years, and the three of them have been selected for the Shanghai Literature and Art Award Young Writers and Artists Training Program... "The end of the decade is a new starting point. As Zhang Fan said, the continuation of traditional opera culture still needs a long time to work, and only by moving forward can we attract new spring light and infinity.
Peking opera is taught by everyone orally, and the dramas complement each other
From the 1980s and 1990s to the beginning of this century, the Peking Opera circle across the country experienced a wave of "three broken files" crisis of talent disconnection, repertoire disconnection, and audience disconnection, and the Shanghai Peking Opera House also faced the dilemma of "borrowing actors" for performances several times. Sun Chongliang, then the director of the Shanghai Peking Opera House, was determined to establish a youth team belonging to Shangjing, and the "business management department" came into being, and the main task was to cultivate talents.
The birth of the project is not achieved overnight, from the one-hour training before the initial rehearsal, to the opening of summer training classes to invite artists for individual tutoring, after two or three years of exploration, the meaning is that "on the art track, young people have been moving forward, never ending" The "youth runway" was finally paved. Adhering to the original intention of "drama is the carrier of people, people are the guarantee of drama, and both are indispensable", and taking into account that there are a large number of performance tasks in the body, Shangjing finally decided to "promote merit with drama", and gradually created a training plan according to the personal advantages of each actor, one season and five years, respectively, with "starting", "crossing", "relay", "sprinting" and "decisive victory" to sort out the overall context of youth talent training, once a year, and finally select the most top young talents in the theater with the "pyramid" training concept.
"This decade has inspired actors and actresses to emerge, and it is not difficult to become famous, but it is not easy to become a big talent." Shang Changrong, a famous Peking Opera performance artist, said. Famous teachers produce high disciples, and oral transmission of hearts is a recognized law in the process of opera inheritance. Shang Changrong, Ye Shaolan, Chen Shaoyun, Wang Mengyun... In the list of mentors of the "Youth Runway", you can see a large number of names. In the past ten years, 89 Peking Opera performing artists from all over the country have been witnesses and participants of this runway, carrying forward the spirit of "passing, helping and leading", unreservedly teaching stage performance experience to young people as art directors, and sitting on the gate for every debriefing performance.
Carefully constructed training programs and young actors who do not live behind always achieve each other. Ten years ago, Fu Xiru, who was already the champion of the "Qingjing Competition", took the initiative to sign up for the "runway" in order to strive for more exercise opportunities. "Teacher Li Haotian's "Will Be Like Each Other," Teacher Zhu Yuankun's "Legend of xiangma," and Teacher Tong Xiangling's "Lost Space Chop." Recalling to reporters his experience of studying drama, Fu Xiru was like a number of family treasures, and the careful teachings of famous artists were incorporated into one move and one style in his performance. The progress of art is subtle, and I gradually transitioned from the beginning of the pursuit of appearance to the pursuit of genre charm and character charm. He told reporters. The sweat shed in the rehearsal hall finally condensed into the starlight on the stage, and at the end of the first season of "Youth Runway", Fu Xiru won the "Magnolia Protagonist Award". Three years later, he stood on the podium of the 29th Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Awards and became the ninth winner of the "Plum Blossom Award" in Shangjing.
One person, one strategy, vigorous and energetic stage
"There are many genres and different styles. Youth is so good. Maybe the artistic understanding is still immature, maybe insufficient, maybe too much, it doesn't matter. Because there is time to climb. Being energetic is always lovely. After watching the three-day "Youth Runway" second season report performance on the Tian toad Yifu Stage, Peking Opera master Shi Yihong wrote on Weibo.
Throughout the country, the young actor display platform is not exclusive to the "youth runway", but the homecoming road formulates "one person, one policy" for the actors, and Shangjing is in the forefront. Not only do you pay attention to Tsing Yi and Lao Sheng, Hua Dan, Hua Face, Lao Dan, Xiao Sheng, even if it is a major supporting performance, Shang Kyoto will invite artists to teach specially. "The light of excellent starring actors can no longer support the current stage, and full of brilliance needs four beams and eight pillars, and the common improvement of each industry." Zhang Fan told reporters.
Systematic planning is also reflected in the classic repertoire passed down from generation to generation, Shangjing clearly saw that excellent works "knives and guns into the warehouse, horses put on the South Mountain" is by no means the best strategy for the revitalization of Peking Opera, in order to ensure that the excellent works of the old artists who have spent countless painstaking efforts on the stage bloom for a long time, Shangjing will also "inherit" as its responsibility. "Shang Changrong Trilogy", "Chen Shaoyun Trilogy", "Pansi Cave"... Through the "Youth Runway", a number of reserved plays in Shangjing have now been fully performed by young people.
"When I first learned drama from the masters, I didn't cry my nose because I couldn't learn it." Yang Yang told reporters: "In school, it takes a year or more to learn a big play, and artists teach drama differently, often only two or three days, up to a week." In 2008, Yang Yang graduated from school, and soon after joining the theater, she found that her performance was still quite immature from the level of stage. For her, the track is more like an accelerator to improve her acting skills. "Red Lady", "Huo Xiaoyu", "Yutang Spring", "Hundred Flowers Gift Sword"... Yang Yang nibbled down one play after another, and gradually found the trick to integrate it. Today, the little flower Dan who is afraid of the big drama has disappeared, and has transformed into a mature actor who provokes the beams on the stage.
"Cultivating young talents, we are always on the road," zhang Fan said of the future, Zhang Fan's tone of expectation revealed determination: "I hope that in the next decade of planning, young people can go from the plateau to the peak, on the national and even world stage, become real performing artists." ”
Author: Wang Xiaoli
Photo: Courtesy of Shanghai Peking Opera House
Editor: Xu Luming
Editor-in-Charge: Wang Yan
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.