Cover news reporter Xun Chao
"Child, coming into this world, this is an adventure in itself, are you ready?" On January 21 and 22, the drama "Letter to an Unborn Child" will be staged in Hangzhou, which is another tour after the first round of performances in Shanghai. On the stage, actress Shen Jiani will play multiple roles with one person, and interpret the "life topic" together with the actors Huang Fangling and Mai Duo, leading the audience to carry out a wonderful exploration journey and perceive the life experience. Recently, Shen Jiani was interviewed by the cover news reporter to share her understanding of life, stage, family and work.
Challenge multiple roles
Mastering the "degree" is the most important
The stage play "Letter to an Unborn Child" tells the story of the most intimate pain and sweetness, confusion and courage, selfishness and greatness in a woman's heart. In the play, the three actors not only play pregnant women, but also play male doctors, female doctors, male bosses, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, children and other roles, interpreting the deep doubts and painful thoughts of human life and death, love and hate from different perspectives.
This is a great challenge for Shen Jiani. "The hardest part of this play is not to be too involved, not to go too deep. Because you have to jump in and out at any time, switch roles at any time, you can't enter too much and you can't not enter at the same time. And each character in the play has a lot of monologues, such as the conversation between a pregnant woman and a child, which does not need to be too involved, and cannot be as indifferent as the onlooker or narrator. Therefore, it requires us to grasp this 'degree' in the process of performance. ”
In order to grasp this "degree" as soon as possible, "Letter to an Unborn Child" did not rehearse in the first week after the establishment of the group, but has been reading the script. "We also sat together and shared our experiences, so that the director could fully understand us, and then distribute the passages that we felt the most to the right people." You can see the passages we perform on stage now, which are some of the points where we were struck while reading the script. What makes Shen Jiani happy is that "the more this play is performed, the more audiences come to the theater." Seeing its reputation slowly fermenting, as a member of the main creative team, I am still very happy, with a little sense of accomplishment. ”
As a mother of two children, Shen Jiani was also touched by the discussion of life in the play and the thinking about whether children came to this world actively or passively. "I asked my daughter and I said do you think you came actively or passively, and her answer was that she wanted to come on her own initiative, and she said she wanted to come and see the world. I will also think back to the process of my pregnancy, to the moment when they came into this world safely and healthily, which is the energy of life. ”
And the final decision of the child in "Letter to an Unborn Child" to choose not to come into this world has also touched many viewers. "I remember an audience member who said that she had an accidental miscarriage, and finally let go after watching the play, she felt that maybe the child was not ready, or not healthy enough, and she chose not to come to this world for the time being." Some male viewers, after watching the play, feel that they should say thank you or apologize to women. Such a voice makes us feel quite satisfied, which is also a little bit of information that we hope it can convey, including the concern for female fertility, respect for life, and so on. Shen Jiani said.
Cherish family and children
Choose to accept your choices
As we all know, Shen Jiani and actor Zhu Yawen have been in love for many years, and after marriage, they have bred their love crystals. A few years ago, for the sake of her family and children, Shen Jiani chose to suspend her work and devote herself to caring for the family. Shen Jiani's WeChat avatar is the sunflower drawn by her daughter herself. "It means that her heart is very sunny and innocent, and I like it."
However, she does not feel that such a choice is "giving" or "sacrificing". "Some people will say, look at you don't work anymore, or work less every year, and the rest of the time is given to the family." I don't like to say that sacrificing and paying for the family is not very much, I think it's just a family building distribution choice, it's not negative. When you choose to start a family and choose to be a mother, you already know what the result is, and you can't do it all but stop working. ”
Shen Jiani does not like to talk about her own efforts in front of her children, "I also don't like to tell my husband how much I have paid for this family, this is a very normal consensus between us." I choose everything that my choice brings, because no matter what choice you make, life is like this, there are gains and losses, there are losses and gains, everything is two sides of the same coin. Some people don't want children and feel that they don't have to worry about it, but it may also bring other entanglements. After all, no one is carefree every day, and I just accept my own choice. ”
Return to the stage to explore the unknown
I hope to bring some thought to the audience
While more energy is inclined towards family, Shen Jiani has not lost herself. From film and television dramas such as "No War in Peking", "The Rise of the Great Qin Empire", "Wolf Hunter", to dramas such as "Long Hate Song" and "Letter to an Unborn Child", Shen Jiani has well integrated her life experience into the role, presenting one high-quality work after another for the audience. "I graduated in 2006, and in addition to acting in two plays in the year I graduated, I have been acting in film and television dramas for the next 13 years." For the stage, Shen Jiani has always been in awe. "In 2019, I saw the play "Yepgain Neo nekin" at the Wuzhen Theater Festival, and I saw that the actress was really sparkling and full of charm on the stage, and I longed for it."
This experience of watching dramas allowed Shen Jiani to regain the heart of the stage, "I also studied drama, although I have not been on the stage for a long time, but I have planted a seed in my heart." At the end of 2019, she met the invitation of the drama "Long Hate Song", "It was really a hit, and I immediately decided to act." Shen Jiani, who is full of yearning for the stage, has also worried about whether she can play such a big heroine's play, "I think as an actor, I should not distinguish between film and television actors and drama actors, actors should be able to control any platform, I want to overcome my fear of the stage, and then go." ”
Unfortunately, due to the epidemic situation, "Long Hate Song" has only been performed 5 times. "A play may be performed for at least 10 times before you can master it and stabilize it, so this time it has not completely solved the fear in my heart, and it has not yet been done to finish on stage." 」 At the end of 2021, "Letter to an Unborn Child" made Shen Jiani have the impulse again and the courage to overcome herself. "The charm of the drama is that it is fresh every day, the audience watches the first and last ones, the feeling is completely different, the audience feedback is not the same, the interaction with you is not the same, full of challenges and unknowns." 」
Shen Jiani also hopes that more and more generation Z young people who are close to the workplace can boldly exert their young creativity and create without fear. "There is a line in our play - we should be born to explore, discover, seek knowledge, and create, which is what contemporary young people should do." As an actress, she also has a sense of mission, "I hope that my work, my role, can affect some people and make them think positively." Now, 2022 has arrived, Shen Jiani's wish for the new year is that the epidemic is gone, "I hope that everyone can travel smoothly, and if you have summer vacation, I hope to be able to take my husband and my children to get close to nature." ”