At night, the Cao Yu Theater, the opening drama "Sunrise" is vivid, and the new generation of actors, under the leadership of director Feng Yuanzheng, completed the reinterpretation of the great classics by this generation in more than 100 days.
As the director of the opening play of the new theater, Feng Yuanzheng while acting in "Du Fu", while taking into account the work of the vice dean, there is pressure, but more is thinking, "This play young actors are more active, I hope to give them more time to run in, to reread the classics, to learn the way of arranging the art, familiar with the process of a role from scratch." ”
The adventure features a 23-year-old heroine who didn't even praise her before taking the stage
In the play, Lu Lu, played by Chen Bailu, is only 23 years old and plays the opening scene of Cao Yu Theater, and Feng Yuanzheng is adventurous. "We have also discussed whether to find famous or mature actors, but after careful consideration, we feel that the new theater actually indicates that the art has entered a new era, and the young actors recruited by the theater in recent years have a high overall quality, and what they lack is performance experience, performance skills and life experience."
Although young people are allowed to take risks, they must be given opportunities, which is also related to Feng Yuanzheng's own experience. "When I was in the student class, I was not yet 24 years old, and I was selected by director Xia Chun to play Zeng Wenqing in "Beijinger". 6 months of rehearsal, to be honest, when standing on the stage, I did not expect others to say that you acted well, even if it was a 'OK' is good. That role is a very big compliment to me, and although it will feel childish to watch my own video now, it is a big step for me, and as long as young people give them the opportunity, I believe they can. ”
Even if it is believed that the most effective way to get young actors to mature on stage as quickly as possible is to give them a chance. But Feng Yuanzheng also admitted that his choice of Lu Lu this time was actually risky, and it was a relatively large risk. "Once Chen Bailu fails, this play also fails. But I myself feel that I have had some experience teaching acting over the years, and I know these young actors. Up to now, I can say that in fact, we have also made a backup, but I will never change people until I have to. ”
After more than a month of rehearsal, Feng Yuanzheng and Lu Lu talked once, and Feng Yuanzheng told her, "Although this is an opportunity for you, it is a pressure for me, if you fail, I will take responsibility, and you may not have a future." "Feng Yuanzheng said that his words at that time were indeed quite cruel, and after that conversation, Lu Lu was like a changed person the next day." In fact, I also know that that month and a half is very stressful for her, but after people walk into a dead end in a difficult situation, they either kill a bloody road or find a new exit, if they struggle at the end of the dead end, it will be over. I knew that young people would not be content with this, so I said something like that to her. Until before going on stage, Feng Yuanzheng did not praise Lu Lu, "but from the heart I still like her, as such a young actor, her role completion is still very high." ”
Re-read the 80,000-word script and use a fish to allude to people's living conditions
There have been four versions of "Sunrise" in the history of renyi, this version directed by Feng Yuanzheng is the fifth version, but also the youngest version, before, Yang Wei, Di Xin, Yan Minqiu, Zheng Tianwei, Kong Wei, Chen Hao, Cheng Lisha and other people have played Chen Bailu, from the perspective of the director's elaboration, Feng Yuanzheng said, "A script is handed over to the hands of any director, as long as it is not rearranged or rehearsed, I think no director will repeat the predecessors, after all, each director has his own different life experience." For example, in "Sunrise" this time, we will even seek other possibilities from Mr. Cao Yu's script. In the face of the four versions of the theater that have already been performed, I have always felt that the cut-out version of our theater is the best, retaining the essence and trimming some of the branches that everyone thinks are lengthy and very clean. In this rehearsal, I found the script of the 1950s, up to 80,000 words, and read it for two or three days before reading it, and then we mixed the script with the cutout version of the theater. ”
In the rehearsal, Feng Yuanzheng particularly emphasized the actor's lines, Chen Bailu's sentence "I can't go back, I sold to this place", the meaning of the opening and ending are different, the original actors will say this sentence very heavy at the beginning, but this time he asked the actor to say lightly, because Chen Bailu lived well at that time, but at the end, it was still this sentence, and the connotation expressed was completely different.
Light and shadow for this version of "Sunrise" on the stage to create a sense of dream and taste, the second act of the stage background has always been a fish swimming, Feng Yuanzheng's explanation is, "In fact, all people may live in the fish tank, very beautiful but can not swim out, this is my interpretation." And modern means can help me better show the character's heart and fate in another way. For example, the frost mentioned in the first act, the projection will project a beautiful picture of frost, and then it will slowly turn into fog inadvertently, and finally become a continuous stream of water, indicating that beautiful things are fleeting, using the cycle of nature to allude to the state of man. ”
If only the original repertoire is moved to perform, the Cao Yu Theater will lose some of its value and significance
The new "Sunrise", the new "Thunderstorm", the new "Wilderness", cao yu theater successively staged three opening plays have a "new" word, which in addition to the new director, new actors, more importantly, new interpretation. And this arrangement also vaguely conveys a signal - the difference in the functional positioning of the Caoyu Theater and the Capital Theater in the future. In fact, as President Ren Ming said, the Capital Theater and the Cao Yu Theater, one is Shouzheng, the other is innovation. In what direction should a brand new theater go, and it is not that it is impossible to move the original repertoire to perform, but it seems that something is missing. Caoyu Theater has so many hardware facilities with high technology content, if we continue to repeat the past, we will lose some of its value and significance. In the future, Renyi will explore more possibilities here. ”
In Feng Yuanzheng's view, "Although the family foundation of human art is thick, in addition to classics, innovation is also the tradition of the theater." Beijing Renyi history is a theater with the spirit of pioneering tolerance and exploration, at the beginning of the establishment of the older generation proposed to build a theater like the Moscow Art Theater, but in fact, Renyi did not take the road of Moscow Art Theater, but out of a road with Chinese performance characteristics, the formation of the Beijing Renyi Theater School, this is innovation. In the 1980s, China's first small theater drama was born in Beijing Renyi, and the representative plays of avant-garde drama at that time, "Savage" and "Station", were also born here. Throughout the history of Beijing Renyi, there will be innovative actions in every period. Although in these innovations, we are not turning the world upside down, but we can move forward little by little to break through ourselves. For example, we had "Tea House", "Thunderstorm" and "Sunrise" before, and later we also had "The First Floor under heaven" and "Dog Grandpa Nirvana", and with a new theater with first-class hardware conditions such as Cao Yu Theater, we should continue this innovative spirit. ”
In the next three or four years, the existing cast will be expanded from 106 to 160
As the first director to use the Cao Yu Theater, stage machinery such as lifting, pushing, pulling and rotating, Feng Yuanzheng was almost useless. The original idea was to smoothly perform the play first, but in fact, from "Du Fu" to "Sunrise", his requirements for stage design are not far from the word "concise". "Everything on stage is at the service of the show. In addition to proposing the use of projection, I hope that the stage can be transparent, and at the same time distinguish multiple performance areas, and the complex stage mechanism is useless. "Although the stage is as large as the Capital Theatre, the stepped audience seats of the Caoyu Theatre create a very different viewing experience from the Capitol Theatre. Since most of the audience can directly look down on the stage board, Feng Yuanzheng said, "so in the future, we must pay attention to the stage design should also consider the stage board." ”
At present, among the 5 theaters of Renyi, in addition to the Juyin Theater, which is mainly for public welfare performances, the other 4 theaters are not only scarce if they are staged at the same time, but also the scarcity of actor resources, but also various types of stage art. According to Feng Yuanzheng, during the trial operation at the end of June, one night three theaters were performing at the same time, the Capital Theater was "Fragrant Mountain Night", the Cao Yu Theater was "Sunrise", and the Renyi Small Theater was "I Love Peach Blossom", but the makeup artist of the theater was only 5 people, and in the end there was no way, all the actors were making up in the dressing room of the Capital Theater that night, and Dean Ren Ming couldn't even tell which crew it was after he went in. "Renyi hopes to expand the existing cast from 106 to 160 people in three or four years, including stage staff, who are also looking for it, and will start to recruit the second stage of the performance student training class after the 70th anniversary of the academy next year." Although there is still a big gap in the cast, it is safe to say that we will not be green and yellow now, but we just need the audience to give us time. ”
Restraining actors from being called "performing artists" or "pillars"
For many years, Renyi's innovation of classic repertoire has been somewhat secretive, and three consecutive major plays have occupied a "new" word, which is a rare scene for many years. In this regard, Feng Yuanzheng explained, "For Renyi, innovation is actually not difficult, just because there is no one. It is impossible for Teacher Gu Wei to arrange one version of "Thunderstorm" and then export another version. In fact, there is a stage, the art of people is less directors, the actors are also less, the stage of social impetuosity, the art of people can not be a pure land, many people also want to earn money, want to be famous, do not often come back to act. But in recent years, a lot of people have begun to return. In terms of management, we also educate and guide young people, and everyone realizes the benefits of returning to the stage. ”
Recently, the phenomenon of actors in the literary and artistic circles losing their morality and norms has become a hot spot in society, and as the vice president in charge of the actor team, Feng Yuanzheng said, "The education and training of actors in art and moral conduct has never been broken. Including in the past few years, when recruiting new actors, we have also proposed that virtue comes first, art is later, in fact, young actors who can enter the re-examination to come to the art internship are similar in performance, and finally how to distinguish it? Two criteria, being a person and whether it conforms to the style of human art. It is reported that Renyi has always reminded actors that outside, they can only be said to be actors of Beijing Renyi, and cannot be said to be "performing artists" or "pillars of Renyi platform". "We hope that the actor can put down his body, put down the so-called aura, you are an actor to the outside world, playing a good role is the duty, you can't regulate your words and deeds, how to guide others, how much credibility does your role have!" 」
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Guo Jia
Photo / Beijing Youth Daily reporter Wang Xiaoxi
Editor/Ying Qiao