Huang Mei's play "Communist Manifesto" has been premiered for more than half a year, but the popularity of this play has not diminished, playing the mother Lin Yufei is Yuan Yuan, a young opera actor in Anhui Province, this time, she broke through herself and played the mother of an actor who is older than herself in reality.
Yuan Yuan, a national first-class actor, a native of Hefei girl, began to learn drama from a young age, the "drama path" is quite smooth but there is no lack of hardships, behind the flashing moments are sweat and tears. Now, like a seed in the soil for many years of strength, is finally about to break out of the ground, Yuan Yuan, after experiencing her own "red trilogy", will also embrace a new stage of her own.
Stills from "Tang Poems and Song Ci"
The "Red Trilogy" is three baptisms of life
This year marks the centenary of the founding of the party, and the Huangmei Drama Theater in Anhui Province launched a new compilation of the Huangmei opera "The Communist Manifesto," which tells that after the failure of the Guangzhou Uprising in 1927, communist Lin Yufei was arrested and imprisoned.
In the winter of 2020, the whole team began to work overtime and rehearse the play early in the dark, hoping to launch it in time for the beginning of the next year. Some of the crew members are invited from outside Beijing, according to the epidemic prevention and control regulations, after coming to the fat, they need to be isolated, director Tong Weiwei is the first time to cooperate with the Huangmei Drama Theater in Anhui Province, the run-in between the two sides takes time, and the rhythm of this play is very tight. Fortunately, the whole crew worked together, and finally before the Spring Festival in 2021, the Communist Manifesto was rehearsed for the first time at the Anhui Grand Theater.
Stills from The Communist Manifesto
The composer of Huang Mei's play "Communist Manifesto" is Xu Zhiyuan. At that time, I asked him, can you write a particularly representative singing voice? Just like "Heavenly Immortals" and "Female Pony". Then Teacher Xu joked about writing countless paragraphs. Indeed, the "with Ah Wei", "Don't blame yourself for decades" and "Have Faith in Your Heart" in Huangmei Opera's "Communist Manifesto" are all too classic, among them, "Heart has Faith" has been selected as the representative singing voice of China's Huangmei Opera Database. ”
In fact, this play is already the third time that Yuan Yuan has starred in the red drama. As early as the 90th anniversary of the founding of the party in 2011, Yuan Yuan starred in her first big drama "Red Mezan", and began to play the role of the girder at the age of 20, which was a big challenge for her. "In school, we learn about stylized performances, such as the 'Seven Fairies', which is a very traditional way of acting. "Red Mezan" was my first contact with modern drama, when I was rehearsing, where to put my hands and feet? No water sleeves, no color shoes, how should I perform? Wearing high heels, how can the momentum of the communists be expressed in this kind of drama? Huangmei drama itself is feminine, and how to use this femininity to express heroic characters requires us to think. ”
Premiere of the Communist Manifesto (Photos)
"At that time, the singing voice of "Red Meizan" written by Teacher Bai Lin was a classic, 'look at the Yangtze River', 'cold wind blowing', 'spring silkworm to death', 'embroidered red flag', today can be used as an independent singing section, the music is also particularly perfect. For me, the first time I came into contact with this kind of classic repertoire, the most regrettable thing is that Master Yan Fengying sang before and did not leave any video materials for our descendants to learn and learn from. I went to shi lao's house and asked him to tell us how Teacher Yan performed at that time, and he also took out some very precious audio materials for us to listen to repeatedly; my master Wu Yaling also gave me a lot of guidance to help me portray characters; I also read novels, borrowed some other dramas, and integrated them into my own Huangmei opera performance, which was indeed a challenge at that time. ”
Ten years later, on the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the party, to perform another large-scale red play, for Yuan Yuan, it is actually a baptism of herself, "plus "Youth as a Companion", they call this the 'red trilogy', for me, these three plays are actually a baptism of my own, I am also a Communist Party member, through playing different roles, I really appreciate the greatness of my ancestors. Although I look back at "Red Mezan" now, I feel that the performance at that time was still a little immature, but it was also a performance from the heart. ”
From "Five Thunders" to "Unashamed"
As early as 1996, Yuan Yuan began to contact Huangmei opera performance, for her at that time in primary school, it was just an extracurricular interest class course, every weekend, her parents sent her to an amateur interest class located on Xuancheng Road in Hefei.
In 2002, Yuan Yuan entered the Anhui Provincial Art Vocational College and systematically studied Huangmei opera. "At that time, my enlightenment teacher told my parents that because the previous Huangmei opera was a 4-year or 5-year secondary school, the provincial art school recruited the first junior college class that year, hoping that I would try it. No one in my family is engaged in the art industry, and they don't know what the future road is, so my parents don't quite agree, but I am very insistent, and then my mother said to me, if you get into the top three, I will let you try, and as a result, my initial re-examination is the first place, so I went. "Yuan Yuan's Huangmei drama life is what she chose for herself when she was still young.
Yuan Yuan and Master Wu Yaling (right)
After really starting to study systematically, Yuan Yuan tasted the "bitterness" of learning drama, no matter whether it was spring, summer, autumn or winter, every morning at five o'clock to practice, body, singing, leg pressing, splitting, handstanding, etc., "I really don't know how many times I have cried." When I first entered the school, I heard about a kind of 'blanket gong', and I heard the brothers and sisters say that it is to train your body to be as soft as a blanket, constantly turning over and fighting, doing various skills, and taking a big top every morning (handstand)... In the past, when I went to the amateur training class, at most it was the body exercise and the like, after systematic learning, I realized the feeling of five thunderbolts, but it was these five years of study that laid the foundation for me, which is also the only way. ”
In 2006, Yuan Yuan began to intern at the Huangmei Drama Theater in Anhui Province, until 2011, before starring in "Red Meizan", most of her performances were still traditional plays, such as "Female Horse", "Liang Zhu", "Husband and Wife Watching the Lantern", "Peony Pavilion", etc.; in the following ten years, Yuan Yuan starred in "Tianxian Match", "Dream of the Red Chamber", "Peacock Northwest Flying", "Tang Poetry song ci", "Moonlight Everywhere", "Youth Companion", "Communist Manifesto", etc. This decade can be said to be Yuan Yuan's golden growth period.
Daily rehearsals
For the future expectations, Yuan Yuan said very calmly, "There is nothing too big (expectation), I think I can stick to this industry, do my favorite work, it is already very satisfied." In the future, we still have to do a good job of ourselves, do everything that the theater gives me, just like my master Wu Yaling said to me, 'What you have to do is to stick to here, what you are is yours, not yours, and don't force it', more is that we have to shoulder the mission of this inheritance, pass on our Huangmei opera in Anhui, and do it without shame! ”
Inside and outside the play is real life
When the epidemic broke out, the Huangmei Drama Theater in Anhui Province, which saw all performances as a pause button, was busier than usual, because all the performances were online. "At that time, there would be a new play every week, broadcast live once a week, the other six days we rehearsed at home, last year's annual assessment of young actors was also changed to online homework, once dissatisfied again, this is actually a very good opportunity for our young actors, including live interaction with netizens, breaking our previous way of communication on and offstage, very exercised." It also allowed some young actors in the troupe to accumulate a lot of experience and slowly move from the edge of the stage to the center of the stage. ”
Yuan Yuan
Some of the fans who accumulated on the Douyin platform at that time have now become followers of offline performances, will pay attention to the new drama trends of the Huangmei Drama Theater in Anhui Province, and will also buy tickets to watch their national tour.
On social media, Yuan Yuan is an approachable teacher who will teach netizens some basic knowledge of Huangmei opera; on the stage, she will also play some negative small characters, making the audience sigh and sigh "how is it so bad"! In life, she said that she is actually a particularly stuffy, homely, quiet person, a fixed three or two friends, in addition to writing, playing the piano, taking English classes, exercising and exercising, there is basically no other entertainment activities.
Thirty only. How do actresses see age? Yuan Yuan smiled, "Thirty-year-old me must be better than twenty-year-old me, it must be so." ”
(Images in this column are provided by the interviewee)
According to Anhui Pictorial