What's the top priority? Is it marriage, career, family or health? Let the burlesque "Top Things" tell you. In the play, every ridiculous "paragraph" revolves around one thing - garbage classification. As the country's first light comedy work with the theme of garbage classification, "Top Priority" tells the rules and practices of garbage classification to the residents in the form of rap through the burlesque performances that Shanghainese like to hear, and uses simple and easy-to-understand language to publicize, guide and promote the importance of domestic garbage classification to the audience. Today, the play has been performed in a total of 52 performances, from the theater theater to the community street, and is well received by the resident audience.
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On July 1, 2019, the Shanghai Municipal Household Waste Management Regulations came into effect. On the same day, the burlesque play "Top Priority", created by the Shanghai One-Legged Opera Art Heritage Center (Shanghai People's Burlesque Troupe), premiered in the auditorium of the Party School of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee. In the face of the laughter and applause of the audience, as the head of the Shanghai One-Legged Opera Art Heritage Center, Wang Rugang was not surprised at all: "Our creation, as long as it is close to life and keeps up with the times, will certainly be able to tell the Chinese story well." ”
This is exactly what happened. Under the guidance of the Municipal and District Greening and City Appearance Management Bureau, the main creative team began to write the script 4 months in advance. Wang Rugang took the screenwriters and protagonists into the community to "squat" at the garbage drop station and communicate with the residents. In order to play the role of sanitation workers, actor Chen Liang rushed to the Nanpu Bridge sanitation station to "learn art from the teacher", and the "post-90s" sanitation worker JuFen became his "master". Starting from the broom, the broom has three layers, from the inside to the outside, from short to long, to ensure that the broom can be "fully balanced" when it is cut to the ground. The life experience of sweeping the street for two whole weeks made Chen Liang feel a lot: "They are too hard, and everyone really can't throw garbage at will." In addition to empathy, he also brought the "sweeping song" into the play - "Pu Sweep", "Machine Sweep" and "Pressure Chin Sweep (Ah Qing Sister-in-law)", which became one of the most explosive paragraphs in the play.
"Top Priority" is not only "energetic", but also resonates with the audience. In order to make the whole drama more vivid, the play has added nearly ten kinds of opera singing sections that are popular with the people of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, including Yue opera, Shanghai opera, rap, minor key and other music and art categories. When the familiar melody sounds, it can instantly trigger a chorus of the audience.
Looking closely at the performance lineup of "Top Priority", there are wang Rugang and Yao Qi'er, two inheritors of the national intangible cultural heritage one-legged play, as well as young and middle-aged actors who have considerable influence in the audience, such as Chen Liang and Zeng Yi. Wang Rugang revealed that "Top Priority" does not have a B corner, and all the actors in 52 performances are never absent.
In the past two years, "Top Priority" has not only toured Fengxian, Minhang, Pudong, Baoshan and other districts, but also pushed the story of garbage classification to the Yangtze River Delta region. Wang Rugang still remembers that once after performing in Fengxian Street, the audience surrounded them and said that the plot was too good, and some volunteers even held the hands of the actors and refused to let go, thanking them for describing the sweet, sour and bitter spicy encountered by the volunteers to the fullest. "Volunteers often encounter people who don't understand them, including their own children. They want us to go to the show again, and then we must bring our families to see it! ”
In the more than two years since the implementation of the Shanghai Municipal Household Waste Management Regulations, the stories related to it continue. "Top Priority" is not idle, Wang Rugang revealed that the script will continue to be polished, the goal is to perform to 100 scenes. "Whether it's a theater or a community cultural center, no matter how many audiences there are, we will continue to perform, and the quality of the art is not relaxed, so that the concept of garbage sorting can penetrate into every household." Wang Rugang told reporters.