"As a newcomer to musical theatre, I haven't even acted on stage. The company told me, 'Someone asked you to act in "The Orphan of Zhao"," and my first reaction was, who has the courage? Ming Dao said a word, and the whole audience burst into laughter. On March 18th, Shanghai Xujun Theater Art Center produced the original musical "Orphan of Zhao" Creator Meeting, gathering Zheng Qiyuan, Xu Junshuo, Fang Shujian, He Liangchen and other musical theater actors who participated in "Sound into People's Hearts" and the popularity "out of the circle", and took the initiative to break the circle and ushered in the "cross-border" of film and television stars Ming Dao and Xue Jianing.
MingDao laughed, "I saw the director Xu Junxian and asked, 'What do you think, so have the courage?'" The director said that he had seen a lot of my performance materials and thought I could. I am grateful. As an actor, there are really very few producers who are willing to come to you to do something you have never done before. The musical is a one-time performance on stage, good is good, bad is bad, what touched me was the courage of the director. ”
From May 27th to June 6th, Shanghai Xujun Dramatic Arts Center produced the original musical "The Orphan of Zhao", which opened at SAIC Shanghai Culture Square. From June to November, "The Orphan of Zhao" has successively toured more than 50 performances in 14 theaters across the country, including Nanjing Poly Grand Theater and Ningbo Cultural Square Grand Theater, which is another attempt to promote Shanghai's original stage works to the whole country.
Xue Jianing, who first switched to musical theater, played the princess of Jinguo and the mother of Cheng Bo. Sixteen years of separation and solitary imprisonment are to be presented on the stage in just a few hours, and Xue Jianing admits that it is not simple. She sees participating in "The Orphan of Zhao" as a challenge with gold content, "Many people choose value, I choose meaning." "The Orphan of Zhao" was performed happily, watched happily, and the result was also painful. It's not fast food but cultural roots. ”
Zheng Qiyuan, who played the role of Cheng Bao in "The Orphan of Zhao", said, "This is a well-known classic with many versions, but cheng baby in this musical is different and challenging. The process was a rebirth for me, for all the actors in our group. ”
Xu Junshuo, who plays Cheng Bo, and Fang Shujian, who plays the soul of Cheng Zi, are called "twins" by everyone in the crew, and the lives of the two children who have been replaced are the prominent reflections of this work. Whether it is the far difference between Cheng Bo's role and the actor's life experience, or the shaping of Cheng Zi's soul, an unprecedented new role, they all face their own challenges.
The musical "Orphans of Zhao" is based on the original work of Ji Junxiang, in which Cheng Bao, Tu Anjia, and Zhao Orphans present the bondage between family and country, clan and individual in the choice of sacrifice and revenge. From the original musical "Jews in Shanghai" in 2015 to the original musical "White Snake Shock" in 2018, director Xu Jun has always been obsessed with using musicals to "tell chinese stories well". "Musicals can also become a front for reviving traditional culture", as the adaptation and director of the musical "Orphans of Zhao", Xu Jun said: "I cherish this good script immensely, it has our own wind, belief and realm. Under the motif of love and revenge, we look up to the sublime and face the abyss. Known stories are full of unknown possibilities. "The Orphan of Zhao" has a history, a present, and a future. ”
The English poet and playwright James Fenton never expected that the script "The Orphan of Zhao", which he had rewritten for the Royal Shakespeare Company, would return to China in the form of a musical. In a video message, he said, "This Masterpiece of Chinese Drama completely captivated me. Today, we have new music, new songs, new actors, new theaters, and a new world to present it, and I look forward to it. ”
Adhering to this philosophy, Xu Jun and producer Yu Huiyan specially invited Professor Jin Shenghua, President of the Hong Kong Translation Society, and Professor Peng Jingxi, Head of the Department of Drama at National Taiwan University, to translate Fenton's script into Chinese. With the cooperation of the two professors, the Chinese-translated script fully integrates Fenton's poetic aura and the classic style of the original work, and has reached a cooperation with the Shanghai Translation Publishing House, which is expected to be published simultaneously during the stage of the play.
Composer Jin Peida, lyricist Liang Mang and director Xu Jun reunited, and all three were very emotional. Jin Peida poured his life thinking and inspiration into this work, "I spent a full sixty years creating "The Orphan of Zhao". From the four promotional tracks that have been released on the online platform before, Jin Peida's understanding of "The Orphan of Zhao" has been revealed. Numerous characters, overlapping conflicts, and complex emotions are composed into more and more generous lamentations. "In a relatively unified tone, each character has to sing his own song." Liang Mang spent a lot of effort to study the flow of the story, immersed in it to find each character. During the creation period, he lived in his home in Chongqing for a long time, and "I would often cry for them when I wrote, such as the Jialing River."
From the Shanghainese drama "Forever Yin Xueyan" to the original musical "Jews in Shanghai", designer Zhang Shuping collaborated with Xu Jun for the third time in "The Orphan of Zhao". Different from the precise requirements of the times in the previous two works, this time Zhang Shuping rubbed traditional Chinese elements in the texture of overhead time and space, which is refreshing.
From August to October last year, the actors completed the first round of rehearsals. They have been polishing their works for more than two months. Affected by the epidemic, the preparatory front of the play has been stretched. Yu Huiyan said, "Although the epidemic has lengthened the cycle of repertoire production and brought various challenges, it has also allowed us more time to work intensively and make the repertoire present the best state." ”
Column Editor-in-Chief: Shi Chenlu Text Editor: Zhang Yi Photo Editor: Zi Xi
Source: Author: Zhuge Yi