On November 11, 2001, Chen Peisi starred in a stage play for the first time, and a month later, he brought this "Childcare" to the Shanghai Grand Theatre to sell out. 20 years later, Chen Peisi returned with the second annual drama of the stage trilogy, "Frightening Dreams", and set a record of breaking the million box office in one hour. From November 18th to 21st, the Shanghai premiere of "Amazing Dreams" will come to the Shanghai Grand Theatre as the opening drama of the "Performing Arts World • 2021 7th Shanghai International Comedy Festival", and participate in the "Performing Arts World Art Gathering in Shanghai" National Stage Art Exhibition Season hosted by the China Shanghai International Arts Festival Center.
"This is the play I am most looking forward to"
In 2015, the stage comedy "Drama Stage" starring Chen Peisi became popular all over the country, and this time Chen Peisi joined hands with "Drama Stage" screenwriter Yu Yu and some of the original team members to launch the play "Frightening Dream". Talking about the original intention of the creation of this play, Yu Yu bluntly said that everything is "a natural progression". As the second of the stage trilogy, "Frightening Dreams" does not have coherence in the plot and "Theater Stage", but chooses the period near the end of the Kuomintang civil war and focuses on the fate of the life and death of a Kunqu opera class and Chunshe in the chaos of the war. The repeated seizure of an ancient city by the Kuomintang and the Communists provided an opportunity for several forces in the play to entangle and intertwine, and also laid the dramatic style of the story.
"It can be said that this is the play I am most looking forward to." As a director, Chen Peisi summed up his feelings about the play this way, "It is very solid, but it is very special, and even until the moment of final formation, no one knows what it will look like." So I especially like this play, and I am especially looking forward to picking it up little by little. ”
In "Opera Stage", Chen Peisi tried the integration of Peking Opera and drama art for the first time, and "Frightening Dream" is more difficult than "Theater Stage", not only weaving Kunqu opera as one of the art forms, but also choosing the "Frightening Dream" in the Kunqu opera "Peony Pavilion" as the core of the entire work, and the weight of the play in the play is self-evident. To this end, Chen Peisi specially invited the famous Kunqu performance artist Wang Xiaoyan to do one-on-one on-site training and action design guidance for the actors, including Chen Peisi, Liu Tianchi, etc., the actors in the drama class should study carefully, and even if there is no singing section in the play, they must "carry the charm that people in that industry should have." Chen Peisi recalled: "When Teacher Wang gave a demonstration for the actors, as soon as she opened her mouth, our entire crew followed the devil, and no one dared to breathe. The beauty of Kunqu opera is like a dream, a kind of transformation, which is very important in this play. ”
"A transcendence for myself in 20 years."
As the most creative work of the producer Avenue Culture in recent years, "Frightening Dreams" has a rich cast. Liu Tianchi, a famous actor and performance director who rarely performed on stage, was invited to the acting class "Inner Master", and will be paired with the head of the Hechun Shetong class played by Chen Peisi in the play; and the famous actors Wu Gang and He Yu have also joined in, playing the commanders of the Chinese Communist Party respectively.
What is more special is that the play is also the first time that Chen Dayu has performed on the same stage with his father Chen Peisi. When introducing his son's role in the play, Chen Peisi humorously defined the son of the richest man as "the second generation of the rich with special hobbies", and Chen Dayu immediately corrected it to "is a hobby of opera". The two sang together to fill the interview scene with laughter.
Talking about his father who guided him to the road of comedy, Chen Dayu said: "If he wants to change the book, I have to stay up late, and if the change is not rehearsed, he does not want it; he wants to change the stage scheduling, the row, he feels bad, and he has to change it again." "Stage scheduling, set processing, rehearsal schedule changes, are all things that Chen Dayu worries about," he (Chen Peisi) is a particularly passionate, idealistic, artistic feeling of a person, dare to try different ways to create, a sentimental person always needs a more rational and pragmatic person to drag a little. ”
From "Childcare" to "Balcony", from "Balcony" to "Stage", and then to today's "Frightening Dream", over the past 20 years, Chen Peisi has insisted on providing high-quality stage drama works to the audience. "This play is a new difficulty for me, a transcendence for me." Chen Peisi said, "This is a brand new work different from the past, and I hope that the aesthetic experience that the audience gets in the theater is energetic, extremely impactful and unforgettable." ”