Village dramas are generally rehearsed in the lunar month, rehearsed by the village's mass actors, and at the beginning of the Lunar New Year, they tour the production teams. In addition to village dramas, the commune cultural station also rehearsed programs, commonly known as "social dramas", but not the social dramas in Lu Xun's works. "Social drama" draws literary and artistic backbones from the whole commune, collective creation, cultural station director director, and the level of acting and program quality are higher than that of village drama. The "social drama" was first performed in the commune auditorium for a few days, did not sell tickets, opened the door, and performed until no one watched, and then went to the village to offer condolences and performances. Because there are more villages, it is impossible to go to each village, you can only choose a few key villages to tour, the number of tour days can not be too much, after the Spring Festival a few days, the weather is warmer, you have to spring ploughing production. In order not to miss the farm time, the "social drama" tour ended quickly.
With television, village dramas gradually disappeared and are now completely extinct. Don't say village drama, that is, the county theater troupe, is also precarious and barely survives. The troupe performs purely commercially, and basically no one wants to pay for it. In order to inherit culture and protect folk art, the county had to spend money to maintain the troupe. Sometimes, for the sake of publicity, in order to win awards, in order to decorate the lintel, the county pays money, customizes the program, lets the troupe rehearse, and performs in important gatherings, investment promotion activities, and provincial and municipal performances. Other times, the troupe actors will walk out of the ivory tower, put down the shelf, and sing a paragraph or a fold in wedding celebrations, factory celebrations, birthday banquets, openings and other activities, earn some extra money, and not waste their craftsmanship. On midsummer nights, actors will also appear in the Cultural Square to have fun with the people and cool off. We are the hometown of Huai opera here, and those familiar Huai operas are old and gradually fading out, but they no longer hear that there are rising stars to stand out, let alone talents. When I was in the organ, I wrote a research report for the troupe's way out, wrote it back and forth, and there was no high-level trick, although I made up a few suggestions, the one that really worked was one, suggesting that the county finance continue to raise the troupe, and there was no other way out.
After the disappearance of village dramas, the rural Spring Festival also lost its interest and vitality.
When television first appeared, everyone felt that it was indeed a good thing. Villagers jokingly call television a "little movie," and there is no difference except that the screen is smaller than the movie screen. Television began only a few rich peasant households can afford, television to consume electricity, rural power supply is not normal, every dark is needing electricity, began to blackout, wait until late at night, TV ended, all went to bed to rest, do not need electricity, electricity came instead. There is a saying in our village: "As soon as it gets dark, there is no electricity; when people sleep, electricity arrives." "Our family bought a TV early in the local area, so in order to watch TV in the prime time at night, my father bought back a hand-cranked generator. One year Chinese New Year's Eve, before Chinese New Year's Eve had finished eating, the electricity went out. In order to watch Zhao Benshan's sketch at the Spring Festival Gala, the villagers who watched TV at my house took turns to hand-crank the generator to generate electricity, although everyone shook their arms numbly and breathlessly, but they were willing and satisfied.
The disappearance of the village drama, whether it is progress or regression, I can't say. In the 2015 drama census, there were 348 local drama genres in the country, including 48 inter-provincial dramas and 300 non-inter-provincial dramas. Village opera has a mass base, is passed down by word of mouth, and is a true folk art. Our Huai opera here is an inter-provincial drama, which was originally circulated in the Jianghuai region, and later more Jianghuai people went to Shanghai, and also brought Huai opera to Shanghai. Shanghai also has Huai opera audiences and troupes, and elderly people can hum a few words. Now, young people do not learn, do not sing, do not watch Huai opera, and the Huai opera market is gradually withering. It is really difficult to predict how far any form of literature and art can go without an audience or a market. Cultural genes, there is no folk spontaneous inheritance and development, relying solely on administrative maintenance, rescue, I feel that I can only mix a day to count a day, whether it can prevent the disappearance and extinction, it is worth exploring.
After the village drama disappeared, I still often miss it.
Because, village drama is connected to my childhood and the fun of the New Year. When we had winter break, the village drama was about halfway through the rehearsal. The village drama is rehearsed in the conference room of the brigade room, and usually goes through several processes: first writing a script or finding a script. Screenwriters are not qualified in every village, there must be a high level of culture and screenwriting, and only a few villages have such talents. Our village, close to the commune, belongs to the central village, has more cultural people, and has the ability to write scripts. The scripts are all collectively created, three stinky cobblers, and the top Zhuge Liang. The content of the script is mainly based on learning Dazhai and the three red flags, and there are also new rural trends, good people and good deeds, as well as neighborhood relations, in-laws contradictions and the like. The types of programs include three and a half sentences, oral singing, performance singing, Allegro, and crosstalk. The brigade, which is not capable of writing a script, borrows the script from the commune cultural station or the neighboring brigade. Although it is borrowed, it is actually copied. Each brigade was equipped with a well-written document, which borrowed the script, copied several copies on copy paper, and sent them to the actors. Because the rehearsal time of the village drama is tight, there is no printer, and the documents are copied day and night. The transcription of the script ended, and the document was slimmed down. One year, the clerks of our brigade rushed to copy the script overnight, and their noses bled and they fainted on the ground, and they had to be sent to the commune hospital for rescue. After all, the number of copies of the transcription script is limited, and it is impossible for each person to read a copy, but only a few actors can read a copy together, or take turns to bring it back to recite.
After having the script, it is necessary to find actors, musicians and drummers, and organize the village opera team.
The brigade will identify an actor with senior qualifications, high acting skills and prestige as the leader, which is equivalent to the leader and director. Every year, the personnel of the drama team do not change much, and only two situations will be adjusted: one is that the actress gets married and marries to another brigade; the other is the newly graduated offspring or girl, who has the talent for acting, which can make the villagers refreshed. Both male and female actors are basically outstanding in the village, and clowns are only selected when needed in the play. Those unmarried offspring and girls who were selected by the brigade drama team were the objects of envy, jealousy and admiration of other young men and women in the village. In a few years, our village opera team broke the lace news, and the actors and actresses secretly hugged and cuddled and flirted outside the play, and were discovered by the revolutionary masses on the spot, and some even said that the acting went to bed, and the news was loud and colorful, boiling and boiling, whether it was true or false, and finally it was not confirmed. The content of the early village drama was pure, unlike the later content was messy, there was no love talk, no kissing and kissing, as if it was not a village drama. For a time, young men and women who entered the drama team encountered difficulties in talking about marriage and marriage. I remember a beautiful girl who had acted in village dramas, a little more open, the most gossip, thirty or so can not marry out, until the package to the household, behind the back of the parents to Run to Shenzhen to make a living has become very sought-after, it is said that also married a rich big boss, the days have made many people in the village red-
At that time, my grandfather was still alive.
He heard the gossip in the drama team, and every time he ate, he told me and my father that even if I hit a bare stick, I was not allowed to find a girl in the drama team to be my wife. I was about ten years old at the time, and I didn't know much about marrying a wife. My grandfather nagged every day that the girls in the drama team were not good, but I didn't feel anything bad at all. I always felt that the girls in the drama team looked better than other girls, and they could sing and dance, which was not good. As for the gossip, I don't care. As long as you follow me, there is no gossip. Anyway, I was so blind at the time, I didn't know if it was right or not. Therefore, every time I heard my grandfather's incessant nagging, I deliberately avoided it with my rice bowl. When my grandfather found out that I couldn't listen, he sighed a few times. A few years later, my grandfather died at the age of eighty-nine and was bedridden for more than half a year. Before I died, I was specially called to the sickbed by my father and I, and when I grew up, I should never find a girl who played a village drama as a wife. My father and I burst into tears and silently nodded our heads in assurance before he left with confidence.
After looking for actors, he began to rehearse the repertoire.
First, the actors recited the script separately. The director designs the performance style according to the script, and the characters' emotions, looks, expressions, actions, tones, postures, and footwork must be repeatedly deliberated and deliberated, without theoretical guidance, all by themselves. After familiarizing yourself with the script and performance design, you begin formal rehearsals. Singing and playing, one move and one style, the director and the actor discuss together, each lyric has been seen, and the director has decided. The rehearsal of the village opera is open and transparent, not hidden, unlike the current TV Spring Festival Gala, the rehearsal is confidential, and idle people are exempted from entering. There is no farm work in the moon field, and the members can go to the brigade room to watch the rehearsal as they like. Villagers who know a little bit of acting fur also point out, talk nonsense, put forward some rational suggestions for the reference of directors and actors, and even when their views conflict, they also compete with the director for red face and do not give in to each other. From the rehearsal of village opera, I seem to see the origin, evolution and evolution of local opera, and find the prototype of literature and art "coming from the masses and going to the masses". Those performing arts that are closed doors and moaning without illness, although they also hang on the mouth of the masses, but in their bones they still do not eat fireworks and are far away from the art of the world.
In village drama, Huai opera is a mandatory repertoire.
The singing and confession of Huai opera are in the Yanfu dialect, but it is not exactly the authentic Yanfu dialect. Local drama must be sung in dialects, and without dialect singing, the charm and charm of local drama are lost. The area of the Yanfu dialect is very narrow, and the area of the authentic Yanfu dialect is even narrower, and it is a little bit southerly or northerly, which is not the pure taste. Outsiders may not be able to hear it, but authentic Yanfu people can hear it as soon as they hear it. There are often outsiders who learn to speak the Yanfu dialect and feel good about themselves, thinking that they can blind us. Many times, we just want to give face, not to discourage its enthusiasm, not to puncture. It was too much to be proud, so we broke it and poured some cold water on him, so that he could clear his head and feel that the authentic Yanfu dialect was no easier to learn than foreign languages, not to mention the authentic Huai opera singing.
Village opera performances require a variety of talents.
Drums, gongs, bamboo flutes, erhu, three strings, bamboo boards and other trades must be available, plus actors, at least fifteen or sixteen to twenty people are needed. Among the more than a thousand villagers, a large part of them are illiterate, very few read to primary or junior high schools, and those who read to high school are called "xiucai", which is even more rare. In my impression, no matter how many villagers there are in each village, it seems that there is never a shortage of village drama talents. In some villages, there are many and excellent village opera talents, and when the village cannot use them, they recommend them to the commune and the county to participate in the performances of social dramas and county troupes. Once the performance name is given, it will be able to stay in the troupe, transfer the fixed or quantitative household registration, get a fixed salary, eat public meals, marry a man in the city or marry a girl in the city, forever leave the countryside and farm work, and even give birth to children who are city people, which will be a good thing that ordinary villagers dare not even dream of. Some people also mixed into the troupe, transferred their household registration, and after getting the career editor, they found that the troupe was too bitter and difficult to mix, so they were transferred to the grain management office, the supply and marketing cooperative, and the material station, and they were both paid high wages and were very decent. Those who have vision and background are also transferred to the organs and use the set of acting to be officials, and being an official is better than acting, and the officials are getting bigger and bigger, and eventually they will achieve success. Only those troupe actors who looked away were transferred to factories, whether to state-owned enterprises or collective enterprises, and finally laid off and unemployed, and their retirement wages were pitifully small, and they regretted that they should not be afraid of suffering and tiredness, and should insist on staying up until retirement, and taking retirement wages that were several times higher than those of workers. A friend of mine, the couple used to be in the troupe, he changed his career to the company, and his wife still stuck to the troupe. Now his wife's retirement salary is very different from his, and he often feels chagrin and regret.
Village dramas are generally performed on the first day of the New Year, and each production team performs in the past, and one production team performs for one day.
The whole show lasted no more than two hours, more than enough time in a day, and it was not used at all. Official performances generally start at 3 p.m. and end at 5 p.m. One morning and most of the afternoon before the official opening of the performance, the drama team will come to the door to pay tribute to the families of military martyrs, revolutionary disabled soldiers, demobilized soldiers and demobilized soldiers, and if time permits, they will also comfort the five insured households, widows and the elderly and the needy households, which is a bit similar to the current "heart to heart" performance. Every time the drama team goes to a household, it must twist a flower boat, sing a minor key or sing a Huai opera, and the content of each performance is not exactly the same. The farmers who were comforted received notice from the brigade years ago, and they were ready to accept condolences years later. Being comforted is a great event that feels supremely honorable, and in the village, other farmers will look up to them, and farmers who have the qualifications to be comforted do not want to be ignored and strive to accept condolences. My father, who was a soldier and a revolutionary demobilized soldier, was also eligible to receive condolences. But my father was the secretary of the brigade, and he couldn't compete with other farmers for the opportunity to offer condolences, so the annual drama team did not have my family. To this end, I often quarreled with my father, making a fuss about my father talking to the drama team, and also came to my house to give a condolence performance, so that I had the capital to brag in front of other children. But this wish was never fulfilled until the village drama disappeared completely.
Condolence performances include very nice tunes and minor keys that are not performed in formal performances. What I remember most is "Visiting the New City", "On the Golden Mountain in Beijing", and the children's song "I Am a Member of the Commune". After the release of the movies "Shining Red Star" and "Honghu Red Guards", they were all good songs, and they were often heard in condolence performances. Although it has been almost fifty years, I can still hum and sing these songs, all of which I learned from village dramas. The most wonderful performance of the condolence performance is the twisted flower boat. The twisting flower boat is not only wonderful, but also lively and funny, and it needs all the members of the drama team to go out and cooperate together. First there was a fierce clamor and drum, the flower boat twisted and trembled, leaned forward and backward, traveled fast, flew crazy, and ran at least three or five laps in the courtyard. The little daughter-in-law or little girl of the twisting flower boat, broken steps followed by big steps, big strides interspersed with broken steps, big steps and broken steps alternately confused, stepping on tight and tight drums, tense and loose, sometimes urgent and slow, as if a big war was imminent, and the sword was raging. The young man holding the flower boat, tied with red and green colored silk around his waist, held a slender bamboo pole in his hand, and took turns to run and jump on both sides of the flower boat and the bamboo pole. The footsteps of running and jumping are flirtatious and circling, and the red and green silk around the waist is burning in the cold wind, like fiery lightning, accompanied by the rapid storm of the gong and drum, setting off a red and fiery weather of the past year.
The intense dance is followed by a soothing flow of clouds. The actors and actresses sang a minor key, the bamboo flute, erhu, and three strings sounded, and the gong and drum stopped and the drum stopped. The girl who twisted the flower boat had a graceful waist, and the lotus step was broken. The offspring of the flower boat tied the red silk to the bamboo shoots, trailing the flower boat, holding the red silk on the stern of the boat in his left hand, holding the bamboo pole in his right hand, and swinging the arc of the stern swing. The flower boat will stop at the station for a while, and the self-created "Harvest Dance" will sound, and the flower boat will hand over the public grain to the commune grain management office in a beautiful tune. The farmers who were comforted had already prepared firecrackers, and when they were placed along the river in front of the courtyard, a small song was sung, and the owner of the household lit firecrackers, and a crackling sound resounded through the clouds and smoke. The head of the household walked through the smell of firecrackers, his footsteps were light and joyful, and he handed cigarettes and sugar to every member of the drama team and the members of the community who were watching in the courtyard. Every time the drama team arrived at a household, we followed and followed, generally arriving at the bone of the smoke and sugar handing, and we could get a few pieces of candy and a few peanuts. Running down most of the day, the pockets of the new clothes are already bulging and the harvest is full.
At about three o'clock in the afternoon, the drama team came to the head of the production team.
The production team leader greeted each other with a smile, and the accounting, custodian, clerk, sideline assistant, and head of each team of the production team all attended the scene, and the division of labor was clear and order was maintained. The drama team was in full swing, the flower boat sped away, and following the trajectory of the flower boat running, the production captain drew a large circle at the head of the scene with a bamboo pole in his hand, and the custodian followed the circle drawn by the captain and sprinkled white lime powder on the circle drawn by the captain with a printing box, and the white circle separated the stage from the audience. The members around the scene moved tables and stools from home to sit on the theater team or as props in the play. The members of the society heard the tight drums at the head of the production team, knew that the drama team had arrived at the head of the scene, and the village drama was about to start, so they rushed over and sat or stood outside the white circle. After a while, the head of the production team was crowded. When the production captain saw that the members were coming, he blew a whistle and signaled to the drama team to prepare for the performance.
The production captain stood in the middle of the circle, cleared his throat and said loudly: Comrades, happy New Year! Today, the drama team of the brigade came to our production team to perform, and brought us the spring breeze of the daqing of industrial science and the dazhai of agriculture. It is hoped that after watching the play, the members and comrades of the society will continue to grasp the revolution, promote production, promote work, and promote war readiness, hold high the great "three red flags," dig deep holes, accumulate grain, and not seek hegemony, and resolutely smash the conspiracy of Soviet revisionism and US imperialism! No total victory, no troops! The following is the official acting! In the applause of the members and the masses, the village drama opened solemnly. Then, the announcer came on: please watch the first program, male and female vocal performances and singing, in-laws paying grain! As soon as the announcer's voice fell, the crowd of members laughed and stirred.
Although the village drama does not have the content of cuddling and hugging and talking about love in later movies and television, it has vulgar interests such as in-law and daughter-in-law singing. The spiritual and cultural life of the members is pale and scarce, food and clothing have not been completely solved, and they often use the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law to joke and find fun. After tea and dinner, in the field, it is found that whoever is close to the daughter-in-law will be suspected of being ambiguous with the daughter-in-law. In the old custom of getting married and making new houses in rural areas, there are also the contents of making "picking up ashes" and making fun of them. On that day, the actor who played the father-in-law wore a small white square scarf on his head, a typical image of Xue Dazhai, and the actress who played the daughter-in-law wore a red tweed jacket and tied a green cloth around her waist, and appeared in the cheerful and light music. The harvest is good, the old man pushes the cart, and the daughter-in-law pulls the cart. The trolley was stacked with freshly harvested and dried public grain, and he went to the commune grain management office with joy and laughter.
The opening section is a male and female duet, with actors outside the venue singing in harmony. The father-in-law and daughter-in-law walked to an arch bridge, due to the weight of the grain truck, although the daughter-in-law used all her strength to pull the car, the father-in-law also used all her strength to push the car, but still could not go on the bridge to cross the bridge, often two steps back and three steps, back and forth, pulling and pulling. Suddenly the father-in-law exerted too much force, the foothold was unstable, a toe, the daughter-in-law could not stop pulling the car, leaned forward, and fell into the arms of the father-in-law. The father-in-law did not expect it, panicked and dodged, but could not avoid it, so he had to hold the daughter-in-law's thin waist with his hand and gently support the daughter-in-law to support him. The father-in-law blushed and had a thick neck, and he was ashamed and shy. At this time, the music stopped, a needle gong and drum was noisy, the atmosphere on the field and the interest of the members were excited, the performance and singing reached a climax, and laughter, applause, and screams resounded throughout the audience. Suddenly, the gong and drum stopped, the music began to sound again, the father-in-law and daughter-in-law together lifted the trolley, and with the help of the passing members and masses, successfully pushed the trolley across the arch bridge, and finally completed the delivery of grain. Finally, the father-in-law and daughter-in-law sang in unison, and the other actors sang in unison: the flag of Dazhai flew high, and the social team set the scene, working hard and working smartly, vowing to turn the sun into the past. The members of the stage also sang together with the drama team, and the head of the production team became an ocean of songs.
Huai opera is the finale of village opera, which is generally placed at the end of the whole village opera. The performance that day was "Family". The play writes that during the Liberation War, Zhang Ying went deep into the enemy's strongholds to collect intelligence, and when he returned, he was tracked and arrested by the enemy. In order to protect Zhang Ying, Aunt Wang resolutely covered zhang Ying and recognized her as a righteous daughter. Unexpectedly, the real girl Xiaoqin returned home, and Aunt Wang did not recognize her daughter in order to protect Zhang Ying. Zhang Ying, on the other hand, stepped forward to explain his identity. The enemy could not distinguish between true and false, and captured the three of them together. In prison, they endure torture and persist in their struggle. In the end, our army wisely annihilated the stubborn enemy and finally rescued three people. The plot is ups and downs, deeply moving, but it is difficult to spoil the village drama team.
There is no curtain at the head of the field, the transition between the front and back scenes, the change of scenes is not covered, moving tables, chairs, benches to occupy time, the members of the crowd are anxious to watch the play, and when they are impatient, they will boo and make noise. In order to solve this problem, the scene change time is reduced to the shortest, and it is not enough to rely on a few actors in the drama team. While they are preparing to act and moving props, they will be distracted and misunderstood, affecting the performance effect. We must mobilize the masses, pool our wisdom and efforts, and work together. The production captain organized several strong young men to be on standby at any time, and as long as they were ordered, they immediately rushed into the theater and moved the props. But you can't move randomly, you must move according to the plot, if you move wrong, it will help to add to the chaos. What is more difficult is that there is no prop gun, and the guns used are made of wood, there is no sound, and there is no bullet. The director of the drama team thought of a way, if there is a gun battle content in the plot, it will be replaced by a cannon. As long as the muzzle of the gun is aimed at the enemy, the actor's mouth says "huh", and the cannon is immediately fired, creating a realistic effect of the gunshot. That day, the director and the production captain gave me the task of throwing the cannon, which I gladly accepted. In order to prevent squibs, the drama team gave me a few more cannons to spare, and if they couldn't use them, they wouldn't take them back, and the right was a reward for me.
The Huai opera "A Family" has begun. I held the cannon in my hand, stared at the plot, and did not dare to relax for a moment. This is a glorious and tense task, if it is not completed well and messed up, it will make the drama team lose face, and let the members and masses of the society lose their appetite when they watch the play. The play finally entered the final scene, I was really unable to urinate, but I did not dare to leave without permission, afraid of missing the plot and being scolded, I could only insist on waiting for the cannon. Finally, when our army came to rescue that scene, our army pointed its gun at the enemy and pulled the trigger. I threw the cannon the ground, but it was a squib, and there was no sound at all.
The "enemy" did not hear the gunshots and remained stubborn. Only to hear the director and the production captain shouting: "The enemy is not dead, hurry up and shoot the cannon." I threw a cannon again, but it was a squib, and the enemy still did not fall, and laughter broke out on the field. The director and production captain continued to chant, "Keep throwing the cannon." I whipped one more, still a squib. The enemy still stood stubbornly. The members of the community held their breath and waited for the gunshots to sound. I wet my cotton pants and underwear in a hurry, and I whipped a few cannons in a row, but there was no sound. There was a sudden silence on the field, and all the members were quietly waiting for victory. The guns were all finished, and the "enemy" could not stand. Suddenly, a member of the company behind shouted: "Captain, the cannon may be wet by small things, and you can't wait any longer." Wait for the enemy to escape. I have firecrackers here." The captain heard the voice and replied loudly: "Okay, hurry up and set off the firecrackers." Hearing the captain's order, the member quickly ran to the edge of the field and lit the firecrackers, and all of a sudden, the gongs and drums on the field sounded in unison, and the firecrackers flew and mixed together. The "enemy" collapsed in the sound of firecrackers and drums. The whole audience shouted loudly: Victory! Victory! Victory...
About author:Liu Wenhua, male, Master of Laws, lawyer, English translator, member of Yancheng Poetry Association of Jiangsu Province, concurrently serves as a literary platform and media editorial board, critic, engaged in poetry, prose and novel writing, published on the Internet and newspapers, and some of his works have won awards.