Renyi 85 Student Class "Five Tigers" Wang Gang, Gao Dongping, Ding Zhicheng, Wu Gang, Feng Yuanzheng (from left to right)
Wu Gang played Tang Tiezui in "The Tea House"
Wu Gangyue Xiuqing and his wife participated in the 68th anniversary of renyi
Wu Gang played Greenwald in "Mutiny"
"I love the taste of renfu backstage." Wu Gang, who said this, even if filming and television works are hot again, there will always be several times a year to see him in the backstage of the Renyi Theater. In addition to "Tea House" and "Mutiny", he will also help his daughter-in-law Yue Xiuqing's performance and teaching work.
And the tea guests of "Lao Yutai" have not seen each other for two years, this July, the rehearsal performance of the epic "Great Journey" celebrating the centenary of the founding of the party, Wu Gang returned to the theater non-stop to participate in the performance of "Tea House", the old acquaintances met extremely warmly, but they also made their own efforts, and did not stagnate because they had surpassed the old version of the performance numbers and the hot box office. "Until now, I still feel that I have not acted well, and there is no special brilliance."
Teacher Lin Liankun took a shot
Dump us a few streets
No matter how the actors rotate, the starring lineup of "Tea House" has been relatively stable in recent years, even when "Tea House" was a little loose in previous years, Wu Gang's performance has always been online. But even so, he was always dissatisfied with his "Tang Tiezui", "I think until now, I have not acted well, there is no special brilliance, and there may be a distance from that era." I wasn't alone, He Bing had said the same thing a few years ago. ”
Therefore, in the rehearsal before each performance, Wu Gang not only walked the words, but also hoped to use down-to-earth rehearsals to craft with a craftsman spirit. "A few days ago in rehearsal, Yue Xiuqing also told me that there was a line in the third act that was not right, and I deliberately adjusted it when I performed, and it felt right. Sometimes we do ignore the reaction of the character for the sake of the theatrical effect, and the performance should still start from the character. ”
In the rehearsal hall of "Tea House", everyone will not hold their faces, and Wu Gang is the same, seeing that the performance of young actors is not right, he often speaks bluntly. "There is no such thing as giving or not giving face, what is face?" It is the brilliance and highlight moment on the stage, and it is the most faceless thing to perform well. When we first came to the theater, if I had the opportunity to play a role, I would catch the teacher and ask people how I was acting, tell me, I was afraid that I would not be able to keep up. ”
The first performance of this round of "TeaHouse" is the 712th performance of the total number of performances, this generation of actors took over in 1999 in the voice of doubt, when the glory of the predecessors has not faded, Huang Zongjiang's sentence "Not easy, it is taken down" let everyone remember it to this day. If at the beginning it was still a cat to draw a tiger, to now, the total number of performances of "Tea House" starring Liang Guanhua, Pu Cunxin, Yang Lixin, Feng Yuanzheng, Wu Gang and others has exceeded the version of the old artist. But in Wu Gang's view, the so-called number of performances is an untenable comparison, "They were all delayed by the 'Cultural Revolution' when they were the brightest and most glorious on the stage, and if they had been acting, we would not have been able to compare." For that generation of actors, we only have to look up, and as soon as Teacher Lin Liankun makes a shot, it is not a matter of dumping us a few streets. ”
It was so comfortable to go back to the theater to act
To support an opponent is to support oneself
Although more than 20 years have passed, the scene in which the role of "Tea House" was announced at the Renyi Small Theater, the picture in Wu Gang's memory is still clear, "Due to the large number of crew members, we were all standing at the door at that time, nervously looking at director Lin Zhaohua, looking forward to the alignment of his name and role." Before the secrecy work was done very well, there was no news at all, everyone was very nervous, afraid that they would not be able to enter the crew. ”
As an actor's touchstone-like repertoire, Wu Gang said, "I want to play any role in "The Tea House", although Tang Tiezui's role is not much, as long as I can enter this group, I am already very happy." "On that day, the most surprising thing was undoubtedly to let Liang Guanhua play Wang Lifa, after all, Liang Guanhua and the so-called version of Wang Lifa were a bit different in appearance." However, Liang Guanhua's ability is obvious to everyone, and at that time he had already acted in "Dog Grandpa Nirvana" and "Cai Wenji", and was recognized as a powerful actor. For more than 20 years, he has indeed used his charm to get infinitely close to this character. Over the years, every time he rehearsed and performed, Wu Gang would pay attention to Liang Guanhua's performance, "He acted really well, the accuracy of his lines and the level of performance were very in place." ”
But in fact, before that official rehearsal, "The Tea House" had announced a version of the list of young and middle-aged actors, planning to play Wang Lifa by Tan Zongyao, and Wu Gang's role was Pang Eunuch. "The old gentlemen rehearsed, we have been watching, once, the old gentlemen's rehearsal ended, director Xia Chun let us watch from the side to perform a performance. I still remember the position where director Xia Chun sat in the rehearsal hall that day, and he said, 'When the young people come, let the teachers see it.' Although for us, the words were already memorized, but no one had the courage to play in front of the old gentleman that time. ”
Just as "The Tea House" has been performed to this day, it seems that it is still difficult to become an independent and recognized version in the hearts of the audience, but in any case, this generation of actors has already integrated their own life experience into it, real and deep...
At present, Wu Gang only has Tang Tiezui in "The Tea House" and Greenwald in "Mutiny" in the retained repertoire of Renyi, and there is only one round of performances per year on average, so he pays special attention to the short time he spends with everyone back to the theater every year. "It's too comfortable to go back to the theater to act, and the expedition, Ding Zhicheng's brothers, on the stage a dozen eyes to know what happened to the other party, forget the word quickly pick up." Acting is actually acting for the opponent, and if you entrust the opponent to a strict position, you yourself will be strict. ”
Wu Gang has always wanted to play an original play, but suffering from no good script, this time in an interview, Wu Gang revealed that next year may play a new play, "I am still obsessed with this stage, like the taste of the backstage, because I just came to the theater when I lived on the 3rd floor, and then lived on the 4th floor, so I am very familiar with the taste of the corridor." And our rehearsal hall also has a temperature. ”
The actor's belly grocery store
Those years with the old gentlemen did not work in vain
"Tea House" as the treasure of the town courtyard of human art, even if the stage trend is strange, the "earthy smell" of this play may be the family foundation that cannot be lost, and it is also the unchangeable value. In Wu Gang's view, no matter what style, as long as the performance is authentic, it is a fine product, and the literary quality of the retained repertoire like "The Tea House" should not be far from the stage, and there will always be an audience, but the performers must have a sense of awe.
As a member of the "Five Tigers and Three Phoenixes" class of the last generation of renyi students, Wu Gang has always been glad that his generation of actors also had the opportunity to have eye-to-eye and heart-to-heart communication with the former golden generation of renyi. "Before director Xia Chun rehearsed the play for us, he would first tell us about the history and the social environment at that time to help you go back to the past first." Later, whether I was rehearsing in the theater or shooting film and television dramas outside, I also had to let myself enter the era in the play first, and then find the right way to deal with it. ”
At that time, the old gentlemen often said to love life, Wu Gang did not understand it at first, and now he finally understands, "It is said that the actor's belly grocery store usually stores some information, so that there is goods in the belly, many details in the performance are from life, and the old man said to love life is exactly what he meant." ”
On weekdays, Wu Gang gives people the feeling that he is not a person who uses kung fu on the surface, and it is rare to see him frowning for a role, but it is recognized that he is accurate with one shot. In Wu Gang's view, many old gentlemen's words need a process of enlightenment, "not to think when rehearsing, but to accumulate in life, temporarily holding the Buddha's feet is not complete, accumulated to a certain extent can be understood." Once director Liu Jiacheng said, why don't you almost take the script on the spot? Because the scripts were given to me in advance, I would turn them over when I was fine. If I put on makeup at 5 a.m., I usually get up at 4 a.m., and when my eyes are swollen, I'll repeat all the scenes I shot today twice. And on the spot, I usually wear makeup with my eyes closed, and then I go through all the scenes today, so that I know what to do. Film and television are the same as the stage, to be familiar with the opponent's lines, to know what the opponent wants to say and do, these are very clear, you will be calm. ”
Although there are not many plays left on the stage over the years, in fact, Wu Gang has also had the experience of acting in six plays a year, in "Thunderstorm", he was once the B group of the great young master Zhou Ping, played by Pu Cunxin, played Li Shiqing in "Sunrise", played Zeng Wenqing in "Beijinger", and meng Siye, the dragon set character in "The First Floor of the World", is still difficult to surpass. In "The Tea House", Tang Tiezui has a line "I have to thank this year", and Wu Gang said that he was very grateful for those years with the old gentlemen. "I still remember when Teacher Xia Chun went to the Film Academy to rehearse the play and brought the old man back; Teacher Tong Di was the class teacher of our 85 student class, and we were the most ironclad; Teacher Lin Liankun sent me to the stage for the first time; Teacher Han Shanxu took our class to perform "Acting As Usual Tonight"... Those years with the old gentlemen did not work in vain, and have been cooling under the trees they planted. ”
"At home" things
Bound
From the first day of entering Beijing Renyi, I have eaten and lived here, my classmates are brothers and sisters, and everyone is accustomed to treating the theater as a family affair, and it is indispensable. "No matter where you are, as long as the theater is looking for you, you must come back, because this is our family's business." 」
The year before, Beijing Renyi first recruited a training class for performing students recruited by the society, and the teaching during the epidemic period was not interrupted, and the class teacher Yue Xiuqing was always accompanied by the students. For a year, Yue Xiuqing accompanied the students to rehearse the play in class, painful and happy. It was Wu Gang who persuaded her to become the head teacher of the student class. "When we were in the student class, we had a very good relationship with the teacher, Mr. Lin Liankun, Teacher Tong Di, and the gentlemen had to take out the cigarettes every day and put them away, at that time we were poor and couldn't afford to smoke, so we smoked the teacher's cigarettes, and they had to bring two packs a day. When I went to perform in other places, I was still riding a green train, and everyone drank and chatted together, and the content of the chat was also drama. Out on tour, the theater arranged young actors to take care of the old artists, I was responsible for Teacher Xia Chun, helping him with his luggage, when I went to the room, I was responsible for packing my luggage, and I greeted him at any time, and I learned too much from Teacher Xia Chun. At that time, I was fortunate to be able to share a room with Mr. Ren Baoxian, and I talked about drama every day. Later, when "Mutiny" was rehearsed, I said that the role of non-Teacher Ren Baoxian was not played. That character is the role that exercises the actor to control the rhythm on the stage, because only he can act in the whole play, for the selection of the role, the front row and the back row of the instruction manual are not important, and it is most important to be able to hone yourself on the stage. ”
Renyi 85 student class "Five Tigers" are now all well-known figures, when 5 boys have a room, Wu Gang said, "The first year is actually quite worried, afraid of being brushed down, not playing with their lives." The reason why we have to eat and live together is because we have to get up in the morning to practice in the morning, after class in the evening, we have to do sketches together after eating, or ride a bicycle to the street to observe life, and the next day we have to turn in our homework, so everyone is basically in a state of picking lights and fighting together. At that time, we also had debriefing performances for the teachers of the art committee to review our results. Just like the current training class for performing students, you can imagine how much pressure Yue Xiuqing has as a class teacher. But because we have felt that warmth in the student class, we also hope to continue to pass on this inheritance. ”
Therefore, Yue Xiuqing, who originally enjoyed the leisurely life of all kinds of flowers and filming, went to the theater almost every day to work this year, Wu Gang has been filming outside, Yue Xiuqing often sent him videos of student performances, communicated with him about what kind of plays to choose for the students, and gave back to the student class.
Starred in "The Great Journey" for the first closed training
The duck-tongue hat was made overnight
From receiving the invitation to perform "The Great Journey" in April this year to the closed assembly on June 15, Wu Gang's attitude is indispensable. But only when he actually arrived at the Bird's Nest did he realize what a grand performance he had participated in. "I still entered the bird's nest for the first time, and the first feeling was that it was big and shocking, and standing inside, I felt the smallness of the individual. It is also at this moment that I really know the huge scale of the performance and the grandeur of the form. But the whole performance is very different from the usual familiar stage performance, "only if your movements are exaggerated enough, the audience can see clearly." Most of the people on the same stage are famous actors and artists who have already achieved fame, and the opportunity given to everyone by the performance of this link is a shot, a sentence, and it is quickly superimposed, and everyone is both excited and nervous. Because a word is not good, your lens will pass, and what you will leave behind is only eternal regret. How exactly should this sentence be said to instantly bring the audience back to that era? We practice non-stop every day. ”
More than ten days of closed training, which was the first time in Wu Gang's experience, "but just when we entered, many of the actors in this theatrical performance had been trained for nearly a year, and an action had to be rehearsed countless times." Every time I see those young actors participating in dance and martial arts performances, after such a high-intensity rehearsal, the mental state is still very exciting, and it will be particularly emotional. They gave a lot more than we did, but there would be no names on the manual, and our two hundred or so main actors were so lucky. ”
There is also a small detail in the whole process, Wang Jinxi, played by Wu Gang, was initially dressed in a cotton hat. But before the last performance, Wu Gang asked whether he could change a duck-tongue hat, because wearing such a hat at that time was a fashion of the working class, also called the forward hat. So the next day of the performance, Wu Gang put on this duck tongue hat that was made overnight.
"Celebrating the Rest of the Year" has been pushed several times because it is a costume drama
As long as there is still a spiritual leader, he will continue to be an actor
At the end of this year, the second and third seasons of the blockbuster "Qing Yu Nian" will start filming together, and Wu Gang will continue to participate. "In fact, I was particularly reluctant to act in costume dramas, and I had to wear makeup for an hour every day, so when I first found me, I pushed several times, but the executive producer always felt that this role had to be played by Wu Gang, even after meeting and talking, I was still hesitant." Before that, I had only acted in Wu Zixu in the costume drama "The Kingdoms of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty", very few, only two or three episodes. But after reading the adaptation of the novel in the script of "Qing Yu Nian", I felt that it was really very good, and the character was quite unique, so I agreed. And I also heard that there is Chen Daoming, and several of us are considered to be children and grew up together. At that time, I didn't think about what explosive models were not explosive, but I felt that I tried my best to act well. ”
After wu gang's son returned to China after graduating from directing in the United States, he is currently studying at the Beijing Film Academy, and he also ran a dragon set role in Renyi's "Community Neighborhood Committee", Wu Gang said, "In fact, I want him to feel it on the stage." You have to be a director, you don't know how to act, if you are an actor, it is best to have some directorial thinking. He watched a lot of films, and I would often ask him for advice. In those years of studying in the United States, he wrote his own script, directed himself, and acted by himself, and he had an understanding of the whole process of film and television, and there was a high probability that he would develop in film and television in the future. ”
Actors of the same generation, such as Feng Yuanzheng, He Bing, and Pu Cunxin, have tried to direct the repertoire, while Wu Gang said that he has no plans at present, "after all, interlacing is like a mountain." Being a director requires talent, so let me figure out the acting thing first. ”
Although the director has a threshold, the profession of actor has not retired, "as long as there is a spiritual leader, continue to act!" Acting is still a very complicated thing, a sentence or two can not be said clearly, or you should hide yourself behind the role. It doesn't really matter to let the audience remember the actor, it also shows that you are not successful, and it is more important for the audience to remember the name of the character. Everyone sees that you are not called Wu Gang, call your character's name, this is a recognition of your performance, I will run here first, let the audience remember more characters. ”
Article/Reporter Guo Jia
Photo / Reporter Wang Xiaoxi