Knowing that "mountain" has "tiger", I prefer to "tiger mountain"
——The day and night of rehearsal of "Wise Tiger Mountain"
Zhang Ping
In 1970, there was a boom in singing "model plays" all over the country. In August of that year, the division held a "model play" performance. Immediately after the performance, personnel from various regiments were dispatched to set up a performance team to rehearse "Wise Tiger Mountain" and prepare to participate in the "model play" performance held by the Tibet Military Region in October, and treated this as a political task. At that time, the slogan put forward in the newspaper was "Learn from the model play, defend the model play." "Every line, every action, until the costume props, lighting sets, sound effects can not be out of shape at all, otherwise it is a political problem."
Before this, no one had ever seen a "model play", and I don't know what it looked like. The problem was that there was nothing but the script that had been published in the newspaper. One no score, two without a director, three without props, four without costumes, and five without lighting sets. In the face of this "five noes" situation, everyone was in a hurry and could not start.
However, in front of the comrades of the 11th Division's performance team, the method is always more difficult than the difficulty. Under the care of the division chief and the organizational leadership of Section Chief Wang Deming and Deputy Section Chief Zhang Feng, these seemingly insurmountable difficulties were overcome one by one.
"Key" the score in the tape
Coincidentally, since it was the peak period for the popularization of "model plays" at that time, the Central People's Radio and the Tibet People's Radio were broadcasting "model plays" day and night (there was no television at that time), so everyone thought of a way to record it, as long as there was a recording. This task was entrusted to three comrades, Wang Chengzhi, Huang Lusheng, and Yang Chongyuan, who asked for a radio and an old-fashioned large-scale tape recorder at the Propaganda Section. The radio is played here, and the tape recorder is recorded over there. Finally, there is a relatively complete tape of "Wise Tiger Mountain". In this way, there is both the script and the music. But this is not enough, the band wants to practice music, just by recording, it must have a score. The three comrades in charge of the recording wrote down the score of the whole play from the tape sentence by sentence with a pen. So many sheet music, they spent seven days and nights, and they had to compose all the music on paper. Later, everyone joked: "The three of you really did it, and the score of "Wise Tiger Mountain" was forced out of the tape. ”
In the movie, the "pickpocket" action
The score is there, and the band is headed by Wang Deming, and it is time to enter the practice. What about actors? Who will teach the actor's movements? "Model play" must have a "model", no one has seen this "model", what is it like, how to arrange the action? Coincidentally, at this time, there was a documentary-like 16 mm movie "Wise Tiger Mountain" released to the division, and having a movie was equivalent to having a director. Everyone can draw a scoop according to the gourd, and everyone can watch the actions of their respective roles according to the movie, one move and one style, and every move has a basis. At that time, only Comrade Qian Lin worked in the opera troupe in the crew, and after he had seen the movie many times, he taught other comrades little by little according to the "opera style". When imitating the actions of the actors in the movie, everyone is also teaching each other, you see my wrong point out to correct, I see his action is not right, but also openly and honestly say it, in short, the action in the movie shall prevail. In those few days, the idlers were busy, and they couldn't do it again and again until everyone remembered their movements. The singing voice is also concocted in accordance with the law, followed by film learning, followed by recording. Repeat and repeat until you learn. More than 50 years later, if you ask who the director who rehearsed "Wise Tiger Mountain" was, the answers are all varied, in fact, in the final analysis, it is a movie - this is a statement that everyone recognizes.
Costume props "made" by themselves
"Wise Tiger Mountain" is a big drama, is a "model", after the singing, music, performance problems are solved, there are a series of problems - costumes, guides, effects, sets, etc. How to solve it? Let's first listen to what the witnesses of that year had to say.
Li Dianjun (the actor of the bandit chief of staff): "The costumes and props used in the wisdom drama are all made by the troops themselves. For example, the costumes were all pieced together from the old Tibetan clothes and old coats found in the (cultural) Corey storehouse, and were restructured by the family members of the military chiefs at that time (whether they were called the Military Service Agency). I remember that the hat of the chief of staff of the bandits was covered with a layer of fur removed from the old Tibetan robe with the cotton hat of the troops at that time, and the collar of the coat was the same, or I found it myself from the storeroom, as if it was otter hair, and in the winter it was particularly warm for the troops in the open air, the coat was modified from the old Tibetan robe, the boots were miserable, it was a pair of stockings made of black cloth, which were tied to the legs and stomachs with two ropes to prevent it from falling off, the bottom was very thin, and the foot was performed on the open air stage, and then a pair of cloth shoes were added to wear inside. ”
Xin Juanjuan (Chang Bao's actor): "I remember that the shoe I wore was also the kind of old man's shoe of the army, I added a belt myself, otherwise I would fall off on stage, a red dress inside, the leather vest outside, added a little wool edge, hahaha, all fake." "I remember the white edge of the wool that I sewed it on." The pants were black and I didn't know where I got them.
Chen Yongxi (Luan Ping's actor): "Luan Ping's black top seems to have been sewn by Madame Ma Enran's sister Mou, with a black single layer of cloth, and white wool strips on the collar and cuffs and the edge of the clothes, which are wider. ”
Liang Chaomeng (the actor of the mountain sculpture): "In addition to the hand crank (windmill) said by the dianjun, the wind sound effect is also tied to a long bamboo piece with a rope and thrown hard, which produces a sharp wind sound effect." ”
"The set I remember seems to have been painted by a veteran of the film team or the anti-aircraft artillery battalion, and it seems that it is also a Shaanxi person, and I can't remember the specific situation." Another 32 regiments wu Tianping also painted, and later how to remember. ”
Li Dianjun: "Chao Meng is right, the original set was painted by a Shaanxi veteran of the 32nd Regiment, and he was not tall. ”
For more than 50 years, from the scattered memories of the veterans who participated in the exercise, we can fully see the difficulty of rehearsing the Peking Opera "Wise Tiger Mountain" in 1970. Empty-handed and with nothing, he had to "build" all the costumes, props, effects, and sets with his own enthusiasm. Thinking about it today, this is really a miracle!
There are no shortcuts except desperately
Without a score, you can "cut" from the tape; without a director, you can watch the movie over and over again; costumes, props, sets, and effects can all be "made" by yourself. But there is one thing that you have to train hard to get, that is, the difficult actions in the Peking Opera "Wise Tiger Mountain".
In just over a month, it is necessary to discharge a big drama like "Wise Tiger Mountain", and it must be acted like a "model", and every line and every action cannot be deviated from the pattern. There are no shortcuts, only death. Let's hear again what they had to say about that experience —
Li Dianjun: "Teammates still remember Yang Zirong's actor Ma Enran, in the empty house where the performance team is stationed in the middle of the night, his wife practiced the difficult action of playing the tiger up the mountain over and over again with a flashlight..." "Some teammates let other team members use backpack straps to bind their legs to sleep in order to practice as soon as possible. ”
It's a desperate effort! Yes, what if you don't work hard? From the creation of the 11th Division to the present, are there still fewer people who are desperate? This can't help but remind me of the counter-rebellion hero Tian Dulai, and think of Zhang Daiyuan and Zhuang Shiwen in the battle of Theodula Pass. It is this spirit of desperation that has shaped a steel team. Today, they also used their desperate spirit to create another miracle on the battlefield of "Weihu Mountain", and after more than a month of hard work, they finally succeeded.
Sweat in exchange for sweet fruit
In October, autumn is high, and a truck is traveling on the road from Jiage to Lhasa. The sun was shining on the car, and everyone's faces showed a look of joy, looking particularly energetic.
This is the 11th Division's performance team of more than 40 people on the road to Lhasa. After more than a month of sweat and painstaking efforts, they will be tested by the head of the military region and the audience in Lhasa, who are full of confidence and high morale one by one.
After arriving in Lhasa, after watching several performances by the brother troops, they were more aware of their "Wise Tiger Mountain".
On the night when it was the turn of the 11th Division to perform, the comrades had made all the preparations, and Deputy Section Chief Zhang Feng came to the front of the backstage battle to mobilize, and his mobilization was so simple that everyone was caught off guard, two words: "Desperate!" "After saying that, I turned around and left. At this moment, the word "desperate" means, and the fighters participating in the show know it.
With the prelude to the majestic "People's Liberation Army March" sounding, the noisy people in the theater "brushed" and quieted.
"Good guys! Where did this band come from? So imposing? "Someone in the audience began to talk.
"No, the military will perform, who dares to invite an outside band." It is said that someone specially went to the stage to find out, and it turned out that in the band, there were bandits and warriors. So he quietly walked down the stage and said to his companions, "No, the band is all their own people." ”
The discussion is the discussion, and the drama must continue to watch.
In the first scene, the soldiers' neat and professional movements are exactly the same as in the movie, and the audience is stunned, as if they are not watching an amateur performance.
Later, "deep mountains ask bitterness", "fixed plans", "fight tigers on the mountain" ... One after another, the audience has been introduced into that "environment" by the development of the plot, and can no longer care about what to say. Only a burst of praise during the change of scenery between the scenes.
At the end of the play, the audience stood up and paid tribute to the success of the 11th Division's performance team with unceasing applause!
Treat every performance with the spirit of Yang Zirong
After reporting to the convention, they began a months-long performance of the next troop. The first is in Lhasa, the General Courtyard of the Military Region, the 16th Automobile Regiment, the Logistics General Depot and the Cultural Palace of the Working People.
After returning to Jiage, after a little adjustment, he began to rush to the regiments under the division, the regiments belonging to the 52nd Division, the 115 Hospital, the Shannan Military Sub-district and other units, with a total of more than 100 performances.
During the course of several months of performances, the team leaders put forward the request to "treat every performance with the spirit of Yang Zirong". And that is what the comrades did,
In a performance, Yang Zirong and the mountain eagle fight, Liang Chaomeng, who plays the mountain eagle, accidentally stabbed at the leg of "Yang Zirong", and the pants have shown blood spots, but no one has insisted on finishing the performance as if nothing happened. It is strange to say that Yang Zirong and The Mountain Eagle are destined to be a pair of wrongdoers. In another performance, "Yang Zirong" slashed another knife on the head of the "mountain eagle", and Liang Chaomeng, who played the mountain eagle, was blindfolded at that time, fortunately, the play was almost over, and he bit his teeth until the end. Liu Lugui, who played the deputy commander of the bandit, had an action of jumping up and wearing a chair in martial arts, and during a performance, due to too much force, he suddenly suffered a waist injury and the pain was unbearable, but in the subsequent performance, he kept gritting his teeth and insisting, and never affected the performance. Once, Comrade Qian Lin had a cold and fever of 40 degrees, his face was red, and he had to fight on the stage, and people were already dizzy, and a heel fight came down, and the southeast, south, and northwest could not be found. Li Dianjun has been diarrhea for several days, and in order to ensure a normal performance, he does not eat a mouthful of food and drink a sip of water. In rehearsal, they are "desperate"; in the performance, they are also "desperate". Desperate - has become the mental norm of the 11th Division's performance team.
In addition to desperately working on the stage, they also specially sang a few paragraphs to the comrades on duty, standing guard, cooking, etc. who had not watched the play after each performance, and tried their best to meet the requirements of each soldier. To serve the soldiers is to speak of "complete thoroughness."
In particular, it should be mentioned that in the past six months, there has always been a group of unknown devotees within the performance team, some of them only play a crowd or a warrior, some only have one line, some do not even have a line, but everyone is willing, should play, should move the set to move the scene. Meticulously doing what you have to do. Because they understand that the performance team is a whole, and no one can perform this play without anyone.
At this point in the article, I seem to have two lines from "Wise Tiger Mountain" ringing in my ears:
Communists always heed the Party's call,
Pick up the burden on your shoulders——
Attached: 11th Division Performance Team
List of the main members of "Wise Tiger Mountain":
Yang Zirong... Ma Enran Chief of Staff... Wang Zheng
Li Yongqi... Zhou Guoan Chang Bao... Xin Juanjuan
Mountain carving... Liang Chaomeng Luan Ping... Chen Yongxi
Mother Lee... Sui Shujun often... Yan Xinmin
Lee wife... Dai Yuehong Shen Dehua... Zhang Lansheng
Hygienists... Chief of staff of the Deqin bandits... Li Dianjun
The lieutenant commander of the bandits... Liu Lugui Bandit Company Commander... Zhang Baoyin
Warriors... Qian Lin Ancient Town Quan Tang Liqing Wang Jiansheng and so on
The crowd... Wang Xiuqun, Li Yiping, Qi Yangxing, and so on
Bandits... Cast of the team
Band members (partial):
Wang Deming (Conductor, Viola)
Wang Chengzhi (Jinghu)
Qu Junmin (Jing Erhu, Tweeter Hu)
Hao Yongsen (Yueqin)
Wang Jianji (trumpet, horn)
Cao Guiqing (trumpet, trombone, three strings)
Huang Lusheng (double yellow pipe, accordion, alto trumpet, oh na)
Yang Chongyuan (Trombone, Yangqin)
Zhang Guoping (Flute)
Liu Zhizhong (clarinet)
Zhang Shoude (cello)
Zhang Feng (Erhu)
Gao Zhixin (Zhong Nguyen)
Fan Wanbao Wang Jiansheng (Si Gu)
(The illustrations in this article are all from the Internet)
About the Author:
Zhang Ping, pen name Bow Chief. A native of Qianxian County, Shaanxi Province, he joined the army in 1966. He served as a propaganda officer for the Artillery Regiment of the Eleventh Division. He began writing in 1972. Over the past few decades, he has published and published more than 300,000 words of literature and journalism. He is the author of "Notes on the Chord Cavity".
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