"La-la-la-la! La-la-la-la!! I am a small connoisseur of selling newspapers, not waiting for the dawn to wait for the newspaper, while walking, while calling, today's news is really good, seven copper plates to buy two newspapers. On the morning of July 15, the stage of the Shanghai Puppet Theater's Xianlesi Puppet Theater once again sounded the crisp "Selling Newspaper Song". On the occasion of the first round of rehearsals of the original puppet musical "The Voice of the Newsboy", all the party members of the Shanghai Puppet Theater Troupe and the creative team of the "Voice of the Newsboy" followed the "little newsboys" of that year to relive and share the lamentable and passionate years.
The "Voice of the Newsboy" literary and art party class activity invited three special guests, namely "Little Newsboy" Liu Huizhen, He Cuibao, and "Foreign Newsboy" Zhang Dahong. Liu Huizhen and He Cuibao were both members of the "Newsboy Guards", a secret peripheral organization of the Newspaper boy school party, and Zhang Dahong was a volunteer small distributor of the progressive newspaper "New Teenager Daily", an underground Young Pioneer, and a special editor of "The Song of the Newspaper Boy - A Collection of Memories of Teachers and Students of the Shanghai Newspaper Boy School". Although they are old, they are still full of energy when they talk about their experiences as teenagers.
In addition, the troupe actors also showed the wonderful clips of "The Voice of the Newsboy" for the first time in the theater, although it was only a few minutes, but the beautiful melody, lively and childlike dance scenes and the cute but age-inspired puppet newsboy image made the young audience feel the artistic charm of this puppet musical. In the sharing session, Liu Huizhen and He Cuibao recalled the hard life of the old era and their growing up feelings after joining the newspaper boy school, especially in 1949, when Shanghai was close to liberation, how they secretly distributed revolutionary leaflets as members of the "Newsboy Guard" and made red flowers and red five-pointed stars to welcome the liberation of Shanghai. Zhang Dahong shared his "newsboy complex" with the newspaperboy school, telling the story of how the underground party members and teachers of the newspaperboy school braved difficulties and, while imparting knowledge to the newspaperboy students, used the methods of spring excursions, singing progressive songs, and telling revolutionary stories to unite and educate the newspaperboys to observe discipline, stress unity, respect and love each other, and carry out revolutionary ideological enlightenment education.
According to He Xiaoqiong, head of the Shanghai Puppet Troupe, "The Voice of the Newspaper Boy" shows the story of the underground party members who, regardless of their own safety, led the newspaper boys to form the party's secret peripheral organization "Newspaper Boy Guard" on the eve of the liberation of Shanghai, making many contributions to the liberation of Shanghai. Different from traditional puppet dramas, "The Voice of the Newsboy" uses the current children's favorite way to interpret the story of the times, breaks the margin of puppet show performance, combines the style of musical theater, plays the fun and compatibility of Haipai puppet art, and shows the continuous innovation and breakthrough of Haipai puppets in the process of artistic development.
The original Haipai puppet musical "The Voice of the Newsboy" will hold the first round of rehearsals in late July, and it is planned to carry out the "First Lesson of School" red art education series activities in September, giving full play to the publicity and education attributes of literary and artistic works, promoting red culture, inheriting red genes, and making due contributions to Shanghai's enhancement of cultural soft power and the cultivation of the city's spiritual character.
Author: Wang Xiaoli
Photo: Shanghai Puppet Troupe
Editor: Xu Luming