"People who survive in the world will cover up, and they will not reveal their hearts. On the stage of human art is not, sincerity is glory is dignity, living in this group, acting is the same as being a person, you need to be sincere, and then sincere. You will find that sincere people are popular in the arts. ”
Talking about the precious spirit inherited by the Beijing People's Art Theater, Fang Zichun wrote in his new book "A Vegetable". This simple title of the book was first taken from the Peking Opera industry, in the Peking Opera performance, the actors on the stage to perform their own, and later some people proposed that the performance should be like a vegetable, there must be leaves and hearts.
In 1952, Mr. Jiao Juyin, the founder of Beijing Renyi, borrowed this sentence and took it as the spirit of renyi, emphasizing that whether it is a director, an actor, or a behind-the-scenes, they should be like a vegetable heart, a vegetable leaf, and a vegetable gang around the root of art, and they are indispensable.
The same is true of the new book "A Vegetable", where the ink is written, not only the actors on the stage, the directors under the stage, the props and lighting engineers behind the scenes, and even Uncle Zhang in the communication room of the human arts dormitory are also doing their best to serve the smooth performance. In front of and behind the scenes, everyone's life revolves around the spirit of "drama is bigger than the sky".
"A Vegetable"
Fang Zichun recalled that the older generation of drama actors, almost from the beginning of the play, has entered the state of acting, the renyi compound makes people feel "strange" and "god nagging", and the actors often wear the robes and coats in the play to go home. Some plays require actors to wear high boots to perform, and the actors will wear high boots home, learn the feeling of wearing high boots in life, and explore the most appropriate posture for moving and walking. Another example is the poor who wants to play the roast cake in "The Tea House", how to dip the sesame seeds on the table and eat them one by one, how to take the burnt cakes that are bought, how hot is it, in order to truly interpret these plots, the actors will go to the street to buy two burnt cakes, and joyfully carry the burnt cake home.
It is precisely with such professionalism and sincerity that Beijing Renyi has endured 66 years of ups and downs and still staged wonderful and vivid plays for the audience. For actors, which is more important, talent or effort? What is the significance of Beijing Renyi's repeated rehearsal of classics? Recently, The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) interviewed Fang Zichun, author of "A Vegetable", to talk to her about the story of the Renyi Compound.
Fang Zichun (second from right) and older brothers Fang Zige (first from left), Pu Cunxin (second from left), and dramatist Luo Jinlin
Surging News: Beijing Renyi does not advocate that actors easily go out to shoot films and television, because Mr. Cao Yu said: "Actors go out to shoot films and television, shoot a body of problems and come back, and act on the stage without pulling a few, not seriously." "Today, there are more and more actors who take over film and television works, what do you think?
Fang Zichun: This sentence must be put into the background of the times to understand. Mr. Cao Yu originally asked this question because from the transition from drama actors to film and television actors to have leaps and turns, the two performance scenes are very different. The performance scale of film and television is relatively small, so there will be problems when drama actors return to the stage after performing film and television, for example, the audience sitting in the last row often cannot hear the actors. At the same time, the drama should be completed in one go, film and television can be shot after shot, and if you are not satisfied, you can shoot again.
When Mr. Cao Yu said this, people's understanding of film and television was not as good as today, and now it may be another concept. However, the drama stage honed people, and the requirements for actors are also higher. Actors must have a cultural background to act well, and before the "Cultural Revolution" Beijingers recruited a group of actors, and then they were not allowed to act again, just because they were high school graduates, not college students. Now there may be no cultural heritage can also go to film and television dramas, but such actors can only be short-lived.
The Paper: So, it seems that the actor's acquired learning and hard work is a more important quality?
Fang Zichun: I think for actors, first of all, there must be opportunities, the second must be talented, and the third is to work hard. During the "Cultural Revolution", I went to the countryside to join the team, studied and practiced art every day, and only wanted to return to the literary and art groups in Beijing, but each time I failed. One day I went to Mr. Jiao Juyin's class and confided in him, and he said, "Only you have a negative chance, not a chance to lose you." ”
There are such examples around me, I and Pu Cunxin and Li Xuejian are neighbors, classmates, and I have also played against them on the stage, and when they are still playing secondary roles, I am playing the leading role. Later, Pu Cunxin was admitted to the human art, many good teachers are devoted to teaching him, Li Xuejian went to the experimental drama theater, there are many buddies around to take him to act, coupled with his own efforts, I used to think that Pu Cunxin's play was not very good, and now he has become an artist, this is a different opportunity.
In addition to opportunities, Pu Cunxin is also a very hard-working actor, this kind of hard work is not only in the drama, usually more in the cultural and literary foundation. A drama actor without culture and literature cannot become a good drama actor, because he needs to enhance his comprehension through these readings, and be familiar with all kinds of playwrights and styles of various eras.
At the new book sharing meeting of "A Vegetable", Blue Sky Wild, who is in his 90s, attended
The Paper: You mentioned Pu Cunxin, who recently participated in "Foreign Mahjong" being staged at the Capital Theatre, which is a drama rehearsed repeatedly by Renyi, and classic rehearsals are a major feature of Renyi, what do you think of these rehearsals?
Fang Zichun: The rearrangement of old dramas is very important, there is no development alone, but if you only talk about development and do not talk about inheritance, development must be on the basis of inheritance. The old drama is rearranged, we can see the development side of the actor the most, because each actor is an individual, has his own different experience of the role, such as the same role in "The Tea House", each generation's understanding of these roles is different, not completely imitated. As an actor, first of all, we must inherit and understand why the older generation acted so much.
When Mr. Jiao Juyin rehearsed "Teahouse", he would tell each actor what the content of each role was, in our jargon, "only small actors, no small roles". After you know what each character is about, you'll bring out the behind-the-scenes scenes. Maybe I just drink coffee on stage, but my coffee should be different, neither can disturb the starring scene, nor can I sit stupidly, this is the actor's skill, the less the play, the more difficult it is on the stage.
Stills from Beijing Renyi's 1958 edition of "The Tea House"
When Yang Lixin rehearsed "The Tea House", he took out the scene notes of Mr. Jiao's rehearsal and fixed the identity of each person sitting on the stage, which is the difference in interpretation of each director and actor.
Stills of the celebratory edition of "Tea House" for the 60th anniversary of Beijing Renyi
For example, Su Min and Pu Cunxin's father and son have both played Zhou Ping in "Thunderstorm", and when I asked Pu Cunxin what it felt like, he said: "The character of Playing Zhou Ping is basically played according to my father's method, it is learning, not creation, only the difference in self-conditions." Later, Ren Baoxian told him that "you acted too clearly", pu Cunxin was suddenly awakened, and understood that he had to transform his experience into people living on the stage to act, so each actor's interpretation would be different.
Pu Cunxin performed stills from "Thunderstorm"
Classics must be constantly rearranged in order to appreciate the mysteries and show the relationship between inheritance and development. The rehearsal is not immutable and imitated, the drama must have development, it itself is a very young drama, everyone interprets it with their own personality characteristics, this is its development.
The Paper: There are many stories of artists of the older generation in "A Vegetable", who treat the profession of actor with respect, do today's young actors inherit this fine tradition?
Fang Zichun: In the book, I wrote about Uncle Zhang in the communication room, who usually sends and receives letters, sorts newspapers, and is busy every day, but from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. the courtyard is quiet and almost no one moves, during this period, Uncle Zhang does not pass the phone, the children in the courtyard are not allowed to run around, adults are not allowed to speak loudly, to ensure that the actors take a lunch break, they can be energetic at night, and they can be foolproof when performing. At that time, everyone in the human arts dormitory knew that "the drama is bigger than the sky", and everything served the performance. The actors of the human art gathered together, and the most discussed thing was play and eating, so they also called me to write about the eating of the art of the human art that day, but the play and eating, in the end, are related to the play.
It's hard for me to evaluate today's situation, but there are some observations. In the past, the theater rehearsal hall was very serious, and when a small bell rang, the rehearsal hall was quiet. I also said in my book that Pu Cunxin did not act well when he was young, and Zheng Rong called him to the corridor and talked to him about the play, and did not dare to disturb the rehearsal on the stage. The last time I went to the rehearsal hall, I saw that everyone had all kinds of states, eating breakfast, talking on the phone, walking, and then the director told me, this is it now, it's not the time before. Now there are so many temptations in society, for many actors, without my play to go, it is my turn to play, it is difficult to see the rehearsal field as sacred as before, which is also the motivation for me to write this book.
On March 29, 1958, after the rehearsal of "The Tea House", screenwriter Lao She (third from the right) and director Jiao Juyin (first from the right) discussed with the actors
The Paper: In the book, you write a very comprehensive picture of the Renyi Compound, from the communication room to the directors and actors in it. But there are still some people we are familiar with who have not appeared, such as Lin Zhaohua, Li Liuyi, Lu Fang, Gong Lijun, etc., how do you choose your writing object?
Fang Zichun: Let me first talk about my original intention of writing. I like to write, in 2008 that will be the rise of blogs, I was just retired at that time, began to write blogs, writing that I found that my blog posts are quite high hits, I will divide my various blog posts into several levels, family, work, neighbors and neighbors Several sections, in the left neighbors and right houses this piece wants to write about the renyi compound. So I started writing from the front yard, from the communication room all the way to the backyard. Then write horizontally, and write all the aisles. After writing some, the publishing house has the intention of publishing, after several twists and turns, to complete today's book, the publishing house mentioned "A Vegetable" as the title of the book to ask me for advice, I think it is very good, but we must add "Beijing Renyi in my eyes", because the people and artists written in the book are only known and familiar to me.
Therefore, there are some people who are also very famous figures in today's renyi, but I am not familiar with them, such as Li Liuyi, and the current renming dean of renyi, I did not know them before, for example, when Ren Ming came to the renyi compound, I had already moved away from renyi. There were many familiar ones, but by the time I wrote about them it was too late, and some of my uncles and uncles were sick and couldn't speak clearly. I wrote about everything I interviewed, such as an uncle who asked him if he had a good relationship with my dad. He said, okay. I asked if there was any conflict with my dad? There is no contradiction, he said. I asked again what was the fun between me and my dad? He said he was good to me and gave me good food. I really feel sad that I can't write such material.
In this book, there are not too many people I have written about, and there are too many helplessness. After all the trade-offs, this final appearance is presented.