Plum Blossom Award Actor Interview with Pu Opera Artist Ren Hexin (2)

Plum blossoms come early in spring

Visit the plum blossom award winner Ren Hexin

Hao Tian Hu

After graduating from school, Ren Hexin was assigned to the newly formed Linfenpu Theater Youth Pu Opera Troupe. As a young actor who has just walked out of school, he first started by inheriting the excellent traditional repertoire, sorting out and rehearsing, and his skills were rapidly improved. As the lucky one of that era, every step forward of Ren Hexin was inseparable from the care and support of the organization, and it was inseparable from the knowledge and wisdom of a large number of Bó Lè leaders who understood the business. In 1980, the troupe arranged for her to participate in the provincial performance, and her starring roles in "Selling Water" and "Picking Jade Bracelet" won the first prize of shanxi province young actors. A year later, she was seen by the leadership as a key training object. In order to expand the drama road, she was specially arranged to rehearse "Fighting god and telling the temple". This is a play that attaches equal importance to singing and doing, and it is more difficult. And her previous performance of "Selling Water" in the lively and cute little girl Ring Meiying, "Hanging Painting" in the enthusiastic and unrestrained Miss Wanhufu Han Yan, "Picking Jade Bracelet" in the simple and kind little family Jasper Sun Yujiao, these characters are unmarried women, have personalities, and belong to the same Hua Dan industry. But compared with the woman in "Beating God and Telling the Temple", Ao Guiying is wandering in the wind and dust, pursuing love, and finally being abandoned, it is very different, and Xi Guiying is a character who is pressed at the bottom of society and has complex emotions in her heart. And to create this character well, you must start from the beginning. During the rehearsal, Zhao Yi, director of Pu Theater, asked her: To surpass her predecessors, we must innovate; Director Han Gang patiently and meticulously told her the plot and analyzed the characters; Teacher Zhang Qiaofeng's counseling is more well-intentioned, one move and one style, line cavity bite word, there are plates and eyes. On the one hand, it is to teach well, and on the other hand, it is to practice hard. So much so that once her mother came to see her, shed tears of heartache and said: "Baby, don't be too strong, we are almost on the line, if you are tired of a disease, what can your mother do?" Ren he was unmoved, and agreed to his mother's advice, but he still unremittingly practiced day and night according to the strict requirements of Teacher Zhang Qiaofeng. Half a year later, her water sleeve skills finally had a new breakthrough, and she created the stunt of "kneeling double lotus leaf sleeve". However, just having skill doesn't mean you're not necessarily good at acting. Under the careful admonition and guidance of Teacher Zhang, Ren Hexin learned to accurately grasp the performance method of the characters in the play by analyzing the plot and observing life.

Kung Fu pays off. In 1982, "Beating the Gods and Telling the Temple" participated in the performance of young and middle-aged actors in Shanxi Province that year, and Ren Hexin won the Best Young Actor Award. Subsequent inter-provincial exchange performance activities, you come and go, frequent interaction, stage experience accumulated day by day. Especially in Sichuan's performances, 20 performances down, almost the scene is full, affecting many locals do not watch Sichuan opera to see Pu opera. To this end, local Colleagues in the Sichuan opera industry also specially sent people to Linfen to learn Pu opera.

Good things followed. Led by the Department of Culture of Shanxi Province, the Shanxi Puzhou Zizi Youth Performance Troupe toured Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan and other places. This was followed by a report performance in Beijing, which was highly praised by the literary and art circles in the capital. In particular, her role as Han Yan in "Hanging Painting" inherits the meticulous creation of the late Pu opera artist Wang Cuncai (Hanging Painting), retaining the expressive artistic characteristics of Wang Pai's integration of life, art and stunts. On the stage, according to the performance program and performance techniques of Pu opera, with solid basic skills, with dangerous and accurate high-difficulty chair skills, water sleeve skills, fan skills and other body movement stunts of Pu opera, coupled with the combination of eyes and expressions, this performance brings out a girl image with rich emotions, shyness and moving, and a complex and changeable inner world, which can be described as vivid and stunning. Especially on the circle chair, the action of simulating the painting is simulated, the layers are clear, and the movement is elegant. She squatted on one leg on the arm of the chair, stood up, changed her feet, turned and fell off the chair and sat back safely, and so on, skillfully and skillfully arrived home. Mr. Cao Yu, chairman of the China Dramatists Association, who was still alive at the time, said excitedly after watching the performance: "These children are really good at acting, and we can't let these babies go back like this, we have to give them a reward." Therefore, in the hearts of Cao Yu, Zhang Geng, Guo Hancheng and other real big names in the theater industry, the long-formed "Plum Blossom Award" was established, and ten "Plum Blossom Award actors" were among them. Among the actors who won the first "Plum Blossom Award", the Linfenpu Theater Youth Group occupied two exclusive places. No wonder some experts say that it is rare for a regional troupe to win two "plum blossom awards" at the same time. Another of them is Guo Zemin. He is a person who has always adhered to the cause of Pu opera after achieving the same success as Ren and his heart. The difference is that one is a young woman with a flower appearance and a moon; One was a handsome young man.

From practice to theory, and then from theory to practice, and so on, is a mature artist must take the road.

Ren Hexin's luck is also because he caught up with the most active and exciting period of the development of traditional drama after the reform and opening up. At that time, from top to bottom, from the leaders to the masses, I had an extreme love for opera. In the second year of Ren and Xinxi's first "Plum Blossom Award", the troupe leaders sent her and Guo Zemin to Beijing to study together, which was organized by the Ministry of Culture and held three times before the "Cultural Revolution", this time the "fourth session". The unit bought a sleeper, which was the first time Ren he knew that he could sleep on the train. The 40-day study process in Beijing was very formal, which really opened her eyes. Practice from five to seven in the morning, start classes at eight, and go to school for a day. Listening to lectures and taking notes during the day, discussing and communicating with each other at night, I was very nervous. In addition to the drama in Beijing, many famous characters drawn from all over the country appeared to discuss the teachings. In particular, listening to the teacher's lecture on "Guan Hanqing" is in-depth and simple, easy to understand, funny and humorous, and has benefited a lot. She learned the concept of mutual absorption and influence of sister arts such as inclusiveness, learning from each other's strengths, and further improved her professional knowledge of how to master and enrich the performance skills of the character. For example, the fan and handkerchief gong in "Selling Water" absorb the performance skills of Sichuan opera and Ji opera. The seven-foot water sleeve performance in the "walking road" section of his movie "Fireworks and Tears" is the finishing touch and icing on the cake, which was learned from the teachers of the Shaanxi Peking Opera Troupe. At the same time, he also learned scientific vocal techniques from experts from the China Conservatory of Music and the China Opera and Dance Theater, which greatly improved the expressiveness of the singing voice. Through learning and mutual exchanges, learning from each other's strong points and complementing each other's weaknesses has laid a solid foundation for her to go higher and farther in her future career in Pu opera.

In 1985, Ren he continued his efforts and participated in the second opera observation performance held by the Ministry of Culture, starring in "Hanging Painting", and won the "First Prize for Starring". At that time, guangming daily carried an article commenting: "The performance of the heart has a more layered and three-dimensional sense of revelation of the characters, so it is more vivid." On Labor Day of the same year, Ren Hexin attended the Shanxi Provincial Employee Reform and Innovation Meritorious Commendation Conference and won the "May 1st" Labor Medal issued by the Federation of Trade Unions of the People's Republic of China. In 1986, the Shanxi Provincial Government awarded Ren Hexin the title of "Young Performing Artist". In 1987, the Beijing Film Studio filmed the movie "Fireworks and Tears" for Ren Hexin. Subsequently, she was given many honors organizationally, including participating in the Thirteenth Congress of the Party.

Whether it is Pu Opera that has achieved Ren hexin, or Ren Hexin that has achieved Pu Opera, heroes are all created for the times. In the final analysis, the reason why Ren Hexin was able to rise from a flat step to a young man on the theatrical stage and achieve fame early was the result of the transition and evolution from the planned economy to the awakening of the market economy not long after the country's reform and opening up, the result of the prosperity of a hundred flowers in literature and art, and the result of the long-hidden cultural desire to reach the boiling point after being suppressed for a long time. In a word, it was the success of that era.

In short, in the face of many honors given by the party and the government, Ren Hexin did not become complacent and proud, but devoted himself to his work more wholeheartedly.

Time flies. In the 1990s, especially under the guidance of the spirit of Comrade Deng Xiaoping's "speech" on his southern tour, the pace of reform and opening up was further accelerated, and under the market economy, various preferential policies that stimulated and encouraged business benefited units and individuals. "Resigning from the sea, doing business for the whole people, everything looks to money" and so on, have become a hot topic in people's street discussions. At this time, the individual economy that took the lead in starting has spawned many individual upstarts. The earliest holder of a half-brick-sized phone was undoubtedly one of the most appealing lines of sight that swayed on the street. Subsequently, the television sets of ordinary people's families began to spread from black and white to color. Cabaret karaoke and other related entertainment industries have been launched, entertainment pan-popular tendencies to confuse the market, the traditional stage from hot to cold, the overall decline of the opera industry. Not only that, the survival and development of many theater troupes have been severely tested, and the survival of some local dramas has been ups and downs, self-viable, and some are endangered or have quietly disappeared.

Pu opera, like other local dramas, also faces a crisis. The two regiments under the Linfenpu Theater, at the right time, coupled with the departure of several old leaders one after another, the people's hearts were scattered, the talent was lost, and the performance could not be carried out normally. In this regard, Ren Hexin was at a loss and did not know what to do. As an actor with a successful career, at the time of vigorous development, the most painful thing is not being able to perform on stage and not being able to hear the familiar applause of the audience. In order to continue to act more and not lose her artistic practice, in 1993, she and Guo Zemin once went to the Hongdong County Pu Opera Troupe in Linfen District, with the original intention of being very simple, that is, they wanted to act more. I didn't expect that the local meaning was to let them bring up the pu opera troupe in this county. Instead of that, stop it! After returning to the troupe, he still couldn't act, and he couldn't pay his salary in the troupe, so he tried to make money in business. They used their fame and influence to start busy and exhausted all day. Selling pork, opening a song hall, engaging in wholesale, is still lucky, a year down, confused a reckoning, earned sixty thousand, two people a point, each got thirty thousand. In the period when millions of households were envied and respected as rich people, the figure of thirty thousand was equivalent to the current concept of millions. However, Ren hexin was not satisfied with this, but his heart was uneasy, always unsteady, always thinking that the country had cultivated himself for so many years, and had given so many honors, he could not abandon art just for money, so who could he be worthy of? Thinking left and right, he finally resolutely returned to the cause of Pu opera that he loved and fought for.

In 1995, it was the most bleak year of operation since the Linfenpu Theater was in trouble. Usually there is no drama to act, the brain drain is serious, and Ren he who wants to act is in his eyes and anxious in his heart. The sky is not to blame. On New Year's Day 1996, Ren Hexin was appointed head of the Linfen Pu Opera Troupe, and the regional leaders asked her to bring up the troupe under the Pu Theater. Ren hexin did not hesitate, she became the leader of the regiment, and Guo Zemin served as the instructor. After the two took up leadership positions, how to manage the troupe became a new topic. In the past, everything was arranged well by the old leaders in advance, as long as they managed themselves well, acted well, and even shouted a few words if they were not happy. Now it's different, she went from an actress to a regimental commander who "leads the army and leads the soldiers". The title of regimental commander is not easy to wear, which is equivalent to wearing a tight curse of responsibility and obligation. There is no choice but to overcome difficulties and move forward. As actors, in addition to management, she and Guo Zemin also have to perform with the troupe, because there are many performances that come to their "Plum Blossom Award" fame: as leaders, in addition to acting, often one thing has not been dealt with, and another thing has followed.

In the face of the practical difficulties caused by the scattered people's hearts, the outdated repertoire, the pile of problems, the arrears of hundreds of thousands of yuan, the sluggish environment of the drama market, and the poor sources of funds for the troupe, the top priority is to first ensure the normal payment of the salaries of the hundred cast and crew of the unit. The young Ren hehexin did not flinch, she used the "Plum Blossom Award" to win her own reputation, running in many directions, grasping the rehearsal with one hand and the performance with the other, and stubbornly gritting her teeth to provoke this heavy burden. With a heavy burden on her shoulders, she never pretended to be a leader and a famous actor, leading the troupe to the front line of rural areas, mountainous areas, factories and mines, and enterprises. Regardless of the cold and heat, he insisted on touring outside the country for many years, so that he could not fulfill the normal duties of a wife and mother. In this regard, she has too much unspeakable bitterness and self-blame.

In the past three years, the troupe has really achieved certain social and economic benefits, and just when the troupe's cause is in full swing, the prefectural committee has appointed her as the director of the Linfenpu Theater.

It is another difficult burden to be taken upon. When Ren Hexin first took office, she was actually the only one left in the courtyard. At that time, many units lost all their money due to blind development and business, and the Pu Theater went with the flow and did not survive. Due to the legacy of a large amount of arrears in the construction of dormitory buildings, the Pu Theater has owed as much as three or four million debts after taking over. She had no way out, she could only face the difficulties. She and the most trusted Guo Zemin partner, with the common pursuit and belief in the cause of Pu opera, support each other, and discuss and solve things together. Booking a platform, running a loan, pulling sponsorship, asking for funds, all the way down, the work of pu theater is soon on the right track.

What is not optimistic is that the negative impact of bias in the policy involving the reform of the art academy system, emphasizing market effects and ignoring the tendency of art commercialization brought about by social benefits, has always caused great fluctuations in the actual survival of the troupe. The reality is that many performance groups, once the state does not care, it is difficult to rely on market behavior alone. It is not terrible that a troupe has dispersed, but what is terrible is that a drama is lost because of it, that is, it is irresponsible to history and future generations, and it is a crime against culture. This is not a weight that renhehe can bear personally.

The general environment of the market economy has led to the increasing indifference of the traditional opera market, and the blind pursuit of materialism has been amplified, which has made a potential qualitative change in people's way of thinking. Some things work in a stumbling fashion, depending on what the leader likes. Dare not tell the truth, dare to tell a lie. Straight lines bend, curves save the country, everything depends on how you go elastic to control. In order to be able to survive and develop well in pu theater, Ren Hexin can be described as painstaking. While the main theme, while walking the market; While talking about development, we do not raise people; While grasping management, while asking for funds, struggling to survive in the cracks. For this reason, she was physically and mentally exhausted, and she had given up. And once you give up, with your own "plum blossom award" celebrity effect, there are too many temptations. Or "go to the hole" to make a lot of money; Or set up a good unit and walk away. Anyway, any choice is better than being the dean of the singing. At this time, Ren hehexin's heart is full of contradictions and pressures. And the biggest pressure is herself. After all, it was her beloved Pu opera career that made her. If she didn't do it, she would be sorry for this ancient art left by her ancestors, and sorry for the teachers who cultivated her.