Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News Reporter Chen Xinyi Text/Photo Some of the pictures provided by the interviewee
On October 2nd, the Hangzhou Drama Festival closed. During the drama festival, an invited stage play "Ant Guest House" attracted different attention: director Wu Jiahui cooperated with the volunteer education institution to choreograph the play with five "problem teenagers", who hoped to let the "problem teenagers" find a channel to express themselves through drama.
The children, from Hushiha Town, Luanping County, Chengde City, Hebei Province, are only fifteen or sixteen years old and have just graduated from junior high school. This time, two of the five children came to Hangzhou to participate in the performance, and with them came the teacher Tian Zongyang.
"Fights, drinks, smokers, skipping school... There is no single positive word to describe them. Tian Zongyang counted the children's appearance a year ago.
In 2020, the only junior high school in The town of Hushiha, Lizhi Middle School, opened an "elite class". The ten students in the third grade who caused the teacher the most headache came to this class.
Including Tian Zongyang, about seven teachers participated in the elite class teaching. They all come from the Saibei Academy, which has long been teaching in Hushiha Town, some have been teaching for nearly five years, and some have just graduated from Peking University.
Teachers wonder what will happen in one year, freely and equally with these ten "problem teenagers" in small classes.
"Ant Guest House" is the result of an elite class. This Douban 9.1 score drama is tailor-made for students. Through it, they reached the Aranya Theatre Festival, Sichuan Luhu Lake and Hangzhou. After that, they will also go to Suzhou, Beijing and Nanjing.
But it's not just a story of a "bad boy" getting better.
Teacher Tian Zongyang said: "We hope to help them find something they like. "And the teachers are looking, rural education, what exactly is needed?
So, the Qianjiang Evening News hourly reporter came to Hushiha, looking for the birthplace of this drama, but also trying to find the answers that the teachers wanted.
Runaway
On the evening of September 23, the premiere of "Ant Guest House" in Hangzhou ended. The Douban score of this play dropped to 7.6 points. One of the screenwriters who watched the live broadcast, Huang Yifan commented: "It looks a bit out of control. ”
A few hours before the Hangzhou premiere, the two actors announced their withdrawal from the show. Further ahead, on the eve of the premiere, during the dinner, Li Hang, who was drunk, fought with an actor who later quit. Li Hang was not the one who did it first, but he let the other party into the hospital.
Director Wu Jiahui urgently modified the set and lines. He also starred in the play, and in the premiere scene, he yelled at Li Hang almost angrily: "Who are you? "What the hell are you doing here?" ”
Li Hang is one of the student actors, and the other student actor is called Chen Cheng.
Director Wu Jiahui in "Ant Guest House" Hangzhou field
In September 2020, the elite class officially opened, with a total of ten junior high school students, initially equipped with five teachers. Each teacher "one belt two" focuses on two students. One of the teacher Bai Hongyu's matching students is Li Hang.
For the fight accident before the premiere, Bai Hongyu commented: "I am not surprised, not at all. ”
Bai Hongyu remembers that in a politics class shortly after the elite class, he found that several students had blocked the young female political teacher in the corner.
Bai Hongyu pulled out the throwing stick he carried with him—he was a well-behaved student when he was young and had no experience in fighting, and when he came to the elite class, he deliberately prepared the throwing stick—and blocked several students in another corner.
Bai Hongyu did not move. The teacher of the elite class promised never to scold the students. He remembers: "I was blindfolded and my mind was blank. ”
Among these students was Li Hang.
For the politics class, Li Hang recalled with a smile: "I scared the teacher, saying that I was going to cut her eyeballs, and scared her to cry. ”
Li Hang in the "Ant Guest House" Hangzhou field
boring
In the mouths of Li Hang and Chen Cheng, school life is always taken by "no energy".
From the beginning, they are always asked by the teacher not to influence other students in the classroom, and in addition, "just stay". Sometimes, the teacher raises it privately; sometimes, it is reminded in public in the class.
They choose to sleep. When they were in a panic, the students of several classes discussed it, and after class, they slipped away and did not come back. Or in class, they use the excuse of "going to the toilet" to escape.
Where to escape? Hushiha Town is located in the mountainous area, Lizhi Middle School is already in the most prosperous area, and the neighborhood is still gray.
There are cornfields between shops and houses in The town of Hushha
Along the way, between the shops and houses, there are cornfields. The nearest Internet café is in luanping county, about 30 kilometers away.
Hushiha Town is also about 30 kilometers away from Miyun District and Huairou District of Beijing. Young adults mostly go out to work, and in the town, it is rare to see idle "social youth".
However, it is very inconvenient to go wherever you go. There is no public transportation here, but there are many large trucks that raise dust. To get from Beijing to Hushiha Town, or vice versa, you need to inquire about the phone number of the Beijing-Fengtai bus and ask the driver to take a detour to Hushiha Town. Buses only come once a day, not every day, and need to be booked in advance.
Drivers refer to the gas station just a few hundred meters from Lizhi Middle School as the "station." Although there is a real train station in The town of Hushkha, it is only a stop point and it is not possible to buy tickets to get on the train.
The "station" of the town of Hushha
Li Hang and Chen Cheng lived in a village farther away. They are residential students, and they escape the classroom and are still on campus: Li Hang likes to play in the table tennis room, and Chen Cheng likes to play basketball.
The days are not happy, but they pass quickly. Chen Cheng said: "If you think about the future, you want to take the exam." Li Hang added: "But that thought passed all at once." ”
There are a total of seven middle schools in Luanping County, and in the past, almost only Luanping No. 2 Middle School and Luanping No. 3 Middle School have issued "Good News of the Middle School Examination", all of which are located in the county seat and enroll about 800 students every year. Lizhi Middle School, located in Hushiha Town, enrolls the least number of students, only more than 300. According to a person familiar with the matter, there are only about 100 students who can successfully enter the high school in Lizhi Middle School.
A resident of Hushiha Town mentioned that families who attach importance to education often buy houses in the county town so that their children can enter the better second and third middle schools. This is how his own child attended the second high school and is now studying at a college. "Some of the children who stay here do not care so much at home, and some may have more difficult family conditions."
Li Hang and Chen Cheng's way out is almost certain: go to vocational secondary school and learn a technology. Or like some seniors, follow the elders to the Miyun District of Beijing, work as a waiter in the hotel, the main job is to serve dishes, can earn three or four thousand yuan a month.
The emergence of elite classes was a turning point.
Elite Class
In the circle of teachers, for the "bad children" who do not love to learn, there is a widely circulated self-consolation: only people who are related to each other.
Lizhi Middle School has more than 40 students per class. The teaching staff was once insufficient, and in the past few years it has received support from the Saibei Academy.
Saibei Academy has long been stationed in The town of Hushiha, and its predecessor was a short-term volunteer teacher of the Peking University Society. In 2016, several Peking University students officially established the Saibei Academy, maintaining contact with a number of colleges and universities, where students can come for a one-year volunteer teaching.
The playground of saibei academy, where children used to rehearse
Teacher Tian Zongyang came to Hushiha Town five years ago, and teacher Bai Hongyu graduated from the Communication University of China and came here last year. In the later elite class, there were several teachers who had just graduated from Peking University.
The name Elite Class has two meanings. Teacher Tian Zongyang explained that "there is no positive word to describe them", but they did not want the students to feel discriminated against, so they chose the name "elite"; the second meaning is to adopt a small class, more enlightened teaching model.
"This is an opportunity we are waiting for." Tian Zongyang recalled that they had long noticed students like Li Hang and Chen Cheng. In the past, they tried after-school conversations and psychological counseling, but the results were not good.
In this way, in the third grade of Lizhi Middle School, the ten students who gave the teacher the most headache gathered in the elite class. Although they are not so clear about what the teachers are going to do.
Chen Cheng came relatively late. When some of his former classmates went to the elite class, they told him that he could take two physical education classes a week. So, he also clamored to join.
Li Hang was called to a meeting by the teacher, he took a pen, but when he arrived, he found that it was an exam: the bottom exam of the elite class.
The results of this exam are divided into two categories. Li Hang and Chen Cheng belong to the knowledge level of junior high school students. The other type is that the third and fourth grades of primary school gave up studying, some people can't memorize the ninety-nine multiplication table, and some people can't remember the twenty-six letters in English.
Aspire Middle School Gate
rebirth?
On September 17, 2020, shortly after the elite class started, almost all ten students cried. The teachers held a night talk event for the students to talk about themselves.
Teacher Bai Hongyu remembers that Li Hang said that he had been expected by his family. He transferred to Lizhi Middle School, where he studied in luanping county and served as a class president. But because he always felt "targeted" by his teacher, he began to rebel.
Teachers say they still have a chance. The students said they had to study hard.
The teachers gave the students a physical education test in the hope of helping them progress to high school as physical education students, which required less cultural achievement. The students' physiques have almost passed. Teacher Bai Hongyu recalled: "Li Hang has a good foundation, I think, if he insists on it for one year, he can enter a key middle school as a physical education student." ”
Although Chen Cheng's foundation is slightly poor, the teacher Bai Hongyu feels that he has a "fierce energy": "He is a very hard-working student in the class. ”
Elite classes are more liberal. At the Saibei Academy, there are many books on the history of education and psychology, and teachers try to sort out the research on behavior modification. Teacher Tian Zongyang has paid attention to the more popular walking schools, but he has doubts: "Let the students consume physical strength, and eventually they will be tired and not make trouble." This seems to be only a 'painkiller'. ”
They hardly punish students harshly, but instead, to motivate them, teachers play a game of gold coins. If you perform well, you can exchange "gold coins", and if the whole class follows the rules, Friday is enough to redeem two physical education lessons.
A month later, a freely chosen placement registration began. The elite first class will be a class that prepares for the exam as a physical education student, and the elite second class will mainly supplement the basic knowledge.
Li Hang and Chen Chengdu chose the elite class.
"At that time we thought it was simple. They may just not be able to keep up, and if they can teach from scratch, maybe they can learn. Teacher Tian Zongyang said.
"In the elite class, I feel nervous." Li Hang recalled.
At Aspire Middle School, students prepare for class
It's too late
"The momentum of learning lasted less than a month." Teacher Tian Zongyang recalled.
"I feel like they're working with us to 'make games'. Our attempts are not real-world, like 'games'. Teacher Bai Hongyu said.
"Just be lazy, slowly stop doing it." Li Hang said.
The classrooms of the elite class were recycled, and the elite first class and the elite second class had to be merged. The gold coin system began to fail, and some students pleaded: "I will behave well next week, let me redeem it first." "After an afternoon of physical training, fewer and fewer people came.
Once again, they become idle, and can be called "hobbies", almost only smoking and drinking.
Ten students pooled their money and asked the day students to go shopping. Many times, I can smoke four packs of cigarettes a day in a class.
The wine is oxpen hill or two pot head mixed with drinks. One afternoon, teacher Tian Zongyang walked into the classroom and smelled a smell of wine. He went to the traffic police for help and wanted to borrow a alcohol tester. The traffic police are not at ease and come with them.
So, in the classroom, students take turns blowing in front of the traffic police. That afternoon, class was not going to go.
"It's too late." In the last semester of the third year of junior high school, several teachers felt powerless, and the students returned to the path of vocational secondary school again.
"Today's children in the countryside are not the same as everyone imagines." Teacher Bai Hongyu explained, "They are not the kind of poor, eager to get ahead, very hard-working children. ”
The students did almost no farm work. At night, the grass screamed incessantly, but The child of Hushiha was confused: "What is a clam?" Did you know? ”
They are not short of money, and the iPhone 12, which was just launched in 2020, has appeared in the hands of elite class students.
They also do not lack knowledge, Kuaishou is a popular software among students, when Bai Hongyu is in class, students are busy making their own "scumbag tin foil hot", and several people are wearing tin foil on their heads. They also learned to sing "earthy songs" and shake their hands.
But they are always in a good mood. In the final semester, the teachers tried to help them find something they liked in many secondary school careers.
Students learn to grind soy milk and make tofu here
When a student mentioned a motorcycle, the teacher picked up a second-hand motorcycle and asked the students to disassemble it. Some students want to cook, Saibei Academy has built an ecological park, in the park, the teacher taught them to grind soy milk to make tofu, try the ancient method of winemaking.
Steamed bun factory, brick factory, logistics center, cold drink factory, wedding photo studio... The teacher took them on a tour of each place for two afternoons.
And "lack of energy" has once again become the memory of Li Hang and Chen Cheng.
Students rehearse in Hushhar
I love xxx
Spring is coming for TigerShha. After experiencing yellow sand and light rain, the flowers in the mountain field were full of branches and snow white.
In April 2021, director Wu Jiahui began to prepare for the Aranya Theatre Festival. After receiving the invitation, he originally planned to prepare three original plays. His friend suggested that one of them could be modeled after the students of the elite class.
Previously, Wu Jiahui and the students had a relationship. Teacher Bai Hongyu once invited a friend to shoot a scene in Hushiha, and the students of the elite class basically participated in the scene work, starring Wu Jiahui.
At that time, Wu Jiahui heard that this was a group of "problem teenagers". But he didn't care too much: "I was like this in adolescence, probably more serious than they were." He also skipped class in junior high school, and later studied broadcast hosting at Zhejiang Media College, but dropped out after being admitted to Meng Jinghui's studio in his sophomore year. Today he is an independent actor and director.
"Ant Guest House" is Wu Jiahui's first use of ordinary actors. He recalls: "The reason I tried it was to find something for the students to do. ”
Teacher Tian Zongyang explained to the students that if you act well, you may be able to become a star and make a lot of money.
The news is hard to cheer the students up. The day before Wu Jiahui arrived in Hushiha again, students mopped the floor of the classroom with washing powder in an attempt to make a good impression on Wu.
Before the director arrived, the students dragged the classroom floor clean
During the first week of rehearsal, Wu Jiahui asked the students to audition. The script chose "I Love Xxx" because: "They don't know what 'me' is or what 'love' is." ”
One of the links is rewriting the lines. In the script, there is a large paragraph of the row ratio is "I love xxx". Wu Jiahui asked the students to fill in their favorite content. He remembered that the final result was still quite long, but he couldn't remember the specific content. Li Hang and Chen Cheng also forgot everything.
Instead, two other things impressed them. One thing is that the students pronounced "the last emperor Puyi" as "the unseen emperor Boyi"; the other thing is that Wu Jiahui used the exclusion method when guiding them to fill in the words. He asked the students, "Do you love the principal?" The students replied crisply: "No love!" ”
The audition was a success. Teacher Tian Zongyang was very pleased. He had followed the students into the men's restroom, trying to "grab the bags" and secretly smoke cigarettes. As a result, the students practiced their lines in the toilet.
The journey to Aranya is almost certain. Director Wu Jiahui determined the general idea. The students play "ants" and gather in a "guest house.". Suddenly, a "Dionysus" (played by Wu Jiahui) appears, leading them to re-acquaint themselves.
The specific content was completed by the newcomer screenwriter Yu Xiangrui. Yu Xiangrui believes in Socrates' method of asking questions, and in the process of screenwriting, he constantly asks the children.
Some questions are easier to answer. "Can I be a bird?" The students said: No. Because the bird needs to fly all the time, because the bird will be electrocuted by the telephone pole...
Some questions are difficult to answer. Students are asked, "What do you want to do?" Li Hang said: "I want to cook." Chen Cheng said: "I want to do business." ”
Both said it wasn't a true story, it was just an improvisation.
Ant Guest House props
The thing that lasts the longest
The journey to Aranya is almost certain. This incident attracted a newcomer director who has long been in contact with the Saibei Academy, Li Yutong.
Li Yutong sensed that this was an excellent documentary material. But after a few days of observation, she was a little lost: "Honestly, my feeling at the time was that they didn't seem very talented or loving. Li Yutong found that some students failed to enter the state, only Li Hang was very serious. Until the end of May, Li Yutong was still skeptical: "Maybe they just don't want to study, so they act." ”
One night, screenwriter Yu Xiangrui told Li Yutong: After the rehearsal, a student asked him if they could still be actors after performing this play.
Li Yutong's heart was loose: "Their likes rarely show fierce emotions, but insist on doing things." ”
The Aranya Theatre Festival opens in mid-June. The nearly two-month rehearsal, which lasted from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to night, was the longest thing the students had done in the elite class.
Students have tried to raise money for the show. They used the skill of grinding soy milk, which they were not interested in before, and appeared in the mill at three o'clock in the morning, hoping to send tourists early morning hot soy milk in exchange for each other's goodwill and consumption.
The teacher offered the students the opportunity to work as a paid weed puller, and they walked into the field between rehearsals. Teacher Tian Zongyang sighed: This group of students used to rely on stone scissors cloth to decide how to clean.
In the end, director Wu Jiahui's original three works became only "Ant Guest House".
Before going to Aranya, the whiteboard was written with the expectations of the students
The first Aranya Theatre Festival in 2021 was held in Aranya Gold Coast Community, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province. By the sea, "Ant Guest House" will be performed on a meadow, which is part of the "Migratory Birds 300" section. This section has nearly 300 young art creators participating.
In order to win more audiences, teacher Tian Zongyang believes that they are the most "wild" crew in the way of publicity. Students flocked to hand out leaflets at the upper and lower gates of the buses. At the door of the popular repertoire performance site, there are also students holding flyers.
Documentary filmmaker Li Yutong also witnessed some accidents. One student was hit in the foot by a prop while on set, so swollen that he could only sit in a wheelchair; another student's eyes were bitten by insects and he could almost squint. Even more surprisingly, they still finished the show.
At the premiere, Li Yutong cried and was more excited than the audience around him. But the students' reactions were still not intense enough. After the show, they ate as usual. Li Yutong felt that this was exactly the same as usual.
She asked the students, "Are you happy?" The student said, "Not happy." ”
She asked again, "Do you have any regrets?" The student said, "Of course there is." The performance is still not good enough. ”
Run in the opposite direction of sunset
Li Hang and Chen Cheng's favorite lines are "Run in the opposite direction of the sunset."
This sentence has also become the headline of many reports related to "Ant Guest House". At the Aranya Theatre Festival, they perform in the late afternoon, coinciding with sunset. Director and lead actor Wu Jiahui said this line and ran in the opposite direction of sunset. He explains: This means, don't look back at the past.
Stills from the Aranya Theatre Festival "Ant Guest House"
June 20 is the last day of the Aranya Theatre Festival. The next day, it was the Hebei Provincial Secondary School Entrance Examination. Documentary filmmaker Li Yutong felt that this seemed to have some kind of symbolic meaning: "This is a two-at-a-time choice. The students chose to perform and gave up the middle school entrance examination. At the final performance, the students bid farewell to their junior high school, Aranya. This time, the audience also cried.
The last night in Qinhuangdao is romantic. Li Yutong called the children who participated in the exercise, and together with another dance teacher, walked along the beach and waited for the sunrise. Li Hang and Chen Cheng rushed into the sea to swim; the students pushing wheelchairs were also on the shore. They chatted all night.
When dawn came, there were already many people gathered on the beach. They met Meng Jinghui and Chen Minghao, who were also waiting to see the sunrise. Meng Jinghui appeared at the final performance of "Ant Guest House", watched for a while, and left before it was over. At the moment, he was so close to the students. Students know that Meng Jinghui is the teacher of director Wu Jiahui. In their usual words, Meng Jinghui is very "cattle x".
Students gathered around Meng Jinghui. Li Hang and Chen Cheng remember that Meng Jinghui said something like having fun and acting well, "People are very dressed, but they are the kind of good clothes." ”
(June 20, the students' last day in Aranya.) ）
After dawn, the students wanted to return to Hushiha, and the teacher Tian Zongyang remembered: saying goodbye to the crew, the students cried a lot, and later said goodbye to the teacher was not so excited. He laughed a little sadly at himself, but could understand: "There, they are not students, they are 'adults' who can do things." Only when you pay, the harvest is precious. ”
Actor's dream
Screenwriter Huang Yifan came to Hushiha Town around August. She took over the work of former screenwriter Yu Xiangrui and adapted the environmental version of "Ant Guest House" into an indoor theater version, that is, a version in the Hangzhou Butterfly Theater.
At this time, Ant Guest House received invitations from many places, confirming that it would tour Chengdu, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Beijing and Nanjing in September and October.
In the Saibei Academy, the teacher drew the tour route
However, the only students Huang Yifan saw were Li Hang and Chen Cheng.
There are a total of ten students in the elite class, all of whom have entered vocational secondary school. Four students signed up for school before the audition and went home to wait; one student lost control of his emotions the day before the audition and did not participate in the performance; of the five students who went to the Aranya Drama Festival, only Li Hang and Chen Cheng successfully asked the school for leave.
Several actors from acting majors took the place of other students. In Hushiha, they take Li Hang and Chen Cheng to "pull the film" to discuss "Crush on Peach Blossom Garden" and Shakespeare's plays. Huang Yifan believes that the two students are talented: "They know what performance is good. ”
During the adaptation, a link called "Children's Daydreams" was retained. It was a recording. The night before going to the Aranya Theatre Festival, screenwriter Yu Xiangrui asked the students: What do you want to do in the future?
One student replied: Ten years from now, I will be a well-known actor. At that time, more and more students had expressed similar wishes.
Chen Cheng's answer was to study hard, and at that time this was still his first reaction. Later, he thought that if he answered again, he would say: He wanted to perform.
Image source Weibo @ Martha Shark
The track of the future is in transition. Li Hang chose a railway-related major, he stressed: "I don't think I will be in this major for a long time." Privately, he asked director Wu Jiahui for career advice. It was a vague path: it seemed like waiting until adulthood to attend a specialized acting school.
But it was also the day of departure that screenwriter Yu Xiangrui alone told himself to the footage of documentary director Li Yutong. He answered the students' questions about whether he could be an actor, to the effect that he couldn't easily promise them, and he couldn't even guarantee what he would become in the future.
Teacher Tian Zongyang does not think that this is a key turning point: "Maybe we have watched too much literature and movies, and we always think that if something happens, our lives will change completely." It does happen, but it's not, maybe not big enough. ”
He thought it might be more like a dream. He remained cautiously optimistic about the results of a year's "experiment" in the elite class. Previously, he had seen students want to "start over" their lives many times: "But either wait until they enter vocational schools and start over, or wait until they enter society and start over, in short, not now." "At the very least, Ant Guest House has got the students to do one thing. "To speak of impact, maybe in the future, when they want to fall down, they can have a little struggle," he said. Maybe it's just a struggle, maybe it's just a little bit. ”
Several teachers felt the same way, a year is too short a year. They repeatedly ran into walls in exams and skills training, and finally encountered drama.
Will this be an outlet? This year, there were no elite classes in the Saibei Academy, but the education on aesthetic education was continued.
Just one day apart, the second performance of "Ant Guest House" in Hangzhou was quite successful.
Shao Ran, an assistant director who studied at the Central University of Drama, began to plan drama support with his classmates, hoping to let the students in Hushiha Town have one more activity after school.
Shao Ran calls it a "whole-person education," in which children may be emotionally educated and have a sound personality through art. She thinks so: "In theater, you can recognize who you are. ”
(Wennei Lizhi Middle School, Li Hang, Chen Cheng are pseudonyms)
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