To be a good Hua Dan actor, the basic skills are very important, and the basic skills mentioned here, in addition to the common learning of the general industry, the unique basic skills of Hua Dan itself are even more important. Hua Dan's unique basic skills, the upper part should practice oral eyes, as well as facial muscles; the middle part should practice arms, hands, fingers; the lower part should practice legs and feet. Simply put, the whole body has to be practiced, practiced to live, and practiced to convey the spirit, as if it can talk to the audience.
Hua Dan is different from Tsing Yi. In the past, those who sang Qingyi had a good voice, they could read and sing, and the style of work was not very exquisite, but now, the artistic requirements have increased, and Qingyi cannot rely solely on the voice, and still have to pay attention to the drama, but it is not exactly the same as Hua Dan's play. Hua Dan pays great attention to small actions, to seize these small festivals to make a play, to make the audience nod and say yes, smack the taste and say good, that is called kung fu.
It is very important for Hua Dan actors to be articulate and speak clearly. The plot is mainly expressed through chanting, and in singing, chanting needs more attention than singing, as the saying goes: "Four or two singing, a thousand gold and white." "This aspect shows that it is more difficult to read than to sing, and there are instruments to sing along, and they are supported by each other, and there is a responsibility. White, all two lips. The actor who speaks cross-talk has a saying: "Meat mixed with dry firewood, no worries, good is good, bad is bad", there is no cover-up. On the other hand, it also shows the status of mind in the play. The actor's white reading is clear and good, and the frustration is clear, and the audience will be energetic when they listen. Swallowing dates will not attract the interest of the audience.
Xun Huisheng's "Spring Fragrance Study"
The tone of the recitation is also very important, whether it is to read Jingbai, to pronounce the rhyme white, to pronounce the high and low tones, to pronounce the tone of light and heavy. It is also necessary to experience the emotion and allegory of the words and sentences, so that the white that is pronounced is in line with life and colloquial. Although there is no board eye, but it must be rhythmic, can not be pronounced into a rut, a soup, must be the same as the dialogue between people in life, only in this way can the gods be transmitted, there can be close emotional exchanges between the characters on the stage, and the characters on the stage will also have emotional exchanges with the audience offstage.
The words and phrases on the script are literal things, no matter how well written, they are always dead, and they must be read alive by the actors. Actors who can read white can read the original plain words and sentences brilliantly and move the audience; actors who can't read white, even if they are very vivid words, will be pronounced to death, and they will be listless.
How to practice oral articulation? It is necessary to shout through the throat, but the shouting voice of the mouth is different from the general shouting voice, do not just shout "Ah" and "ah", nor can you just shout sentence by sentence, but focus on the recitation. Find a longer introduction, a large section of "white", including Jingbai, rhyme white, often read, constantly read, so that the mouth will fall from unfavorable to neat. When you read it, you still have to let go of your throat and shout without any scruples. It would be even better if you could combine it with something like a tongue twister. In the performance, in order to show naughtiness or irony, Hua Dan often adds a ton of the white, and must hold the flexibility of the tongue. Sometimes to perform some stunts, such as "Fan Jiang Guan" in Xue Jinlian in the persuasion of Mrs. Xue not to be angry with herself, when Mrs. Xue is still angry, Xue Jinlian wants to learn the chicken to coax her mother to laugh, this kind of chicken call is to use the ventriloquism in the art of music, learning well will add color and atmosphere to the play.
The use of chanting white and chanting the introducer to shout the throat can not only practice the mouth and achieve the purpose of clear and powerful words, but also greatly help the throat. An actor with a bad voice, his voice is low, horizontal, hoarse, if not physiologically morbid, generally can be shouted out by constantly shouting and chanting, its effect is better than just shouting "Ah", "Ah" or single practice singing. When shouting in the throat, you should pay attention not to use death, tilt your head, and shout around your neck. When shouting, it should be natural, let the muscles of the whole body relax, and use dantian jin and the back of the brain. Reading white, white is completely five tones, suppressing and frustrated, reading a high and a low, plus some elongated cavity, calling the head, crying head of the white tail, it is closer to singing.
Xun Huisheng's "Picking Jade Bracelet"
Not only should we use crying when singing to sad places, but we must also cry when we read white to sad places, and there must also be laughter when we read happy places. For example, in "Kan Yu Ju", Yu Suqiu was not satisfied with his father's suspicion of being poor and loving the rich, so he dismissed Zhang Shaolian's marriage with him, consulted with his mother, and asked Yahuan Luanying to secretly give his jade to Zhang Shaolian, thinking that it was a fee for marriage. When Luan Ying was about to leave with Yu Jun, Yu Suqiu stopped her and said something to her. This passage describes the melancholy and sorrow in his heart, and when singing, he must maintain his deep feelings, and when he calls out, "Luan Ying! "Three words, also have to be low and with a crying sound, to follow the low, the end of the sentence is close to crying, and can not go high.
In "The Second You of the Red Chamber", Second Sister You was poisoned by Wang Xifeng and Qiu Tong, and when she was dying, Second Sister You said to Wang Xifeng, "Big Lady, I have no wrongs with you in the past, and I have no hatred in recent days, so you will spare me!" At this time, her mood was extremely miserable, making people look very pitiful, and the white that was read out should be close to crying and pleading. Whenever I read these words, I don't use Jingbai completely or completely rhyme white, because complete Jingbai is too fluttering, completely rhymed white and too plated, so I combined the two to read them in order to fully express the sad and sad feelings at that time.
Whether singing or chanting, pay special attention to the shape of the mouth. The shape of the mouth is related to the correct pronunciation, whether it sounds good or not, and whether the image is beautiful or not. As soon as you sing it, you open your mouth quite wide, or your eyebrows and facial muscles move wildly, which is detrimental to the performance effect, no matter how delicious the singing is, it always gives a bad impression. Dan horns are different from flower faces, old students and other horns with hair, they can shake the chin in order to line the cavity, they can open their mouths to sing, there are hairs to cover the stage can not see the mouth shape, the relationship is not big. Danjiao was originally the embodiment of beauty, the face was dressed up beautifully, did not cover up, and when singing, it did not care about the face and mouth shape, it was greatly reduced. Don't get into the problem of not having a beautiful mouth when singing.
Xun Huisheng's "Thirteen Sisters"
Opera pays attention to "singing, reading, doing, and playing", so Hua Dan actors should also have a certain martial arts foundation. Hua Dan's playing is relatively simple, because most of them still show women in boudoir, of course, there are also some plays that show women with rich martial arts, such as Di Luanying in "Proud Edge", Zhou Fengying in "Xin Anyi", and Chen Xiuying in "Yingjielie". For example, Zou Shi of "Battle Wancheng" and Pan Qiaoyun of "Cuiping Mountain", although they do not know martial arts themselves, they also need to fall down in the play to show the dying struggle. In addition, He Yufeng of "Thirteen Sisters" must have a horse, the village girl of "Little Cattle Herding", and Xiao Suzhen of "Little Tomb", who must have all kinds of dance bodies and have a foundation in martial arts. Moreover, the most important thing about Hua Dan is that he is lively and clever, and his arms and legs are stiff, which cannot be done. Hua Dande's whole body is full of drama, and his whole body will do drama. Can do drama to have drama, will not do drama, the original place to sing is gone.
In addition to the lips, tongues and mouths related to chanting, Hua Dan's "workmanship" requires effort in eyebrows and facial muscles. First of all, the eyes are sufficient, let the audience look at the spirit, although it can not play a role in seducing the soul, but it must be able to catch the audience, the eyes can not catch the audience, the audience's spirit is scattered, unstable offstage, and the drama on stage is not sung well. To practice looking, staring at something, looking far away, looking into the air, looking for a target in the air, or a cloud, a bird, the line of sight goes with it, this is the way to practice the eyes. Not only to practice the eyes, but also to practice the eyeballs, often said "the eyeballs turn, count the heart", a person thinks of ideas, must be in the heart, carefully pondered. At this time, the eyeballs must also be certain, indicating that they are not used in two minds, and they are indeed thinking. When the idea is almost ready, the eyeballs can slowly turn.
The rotation of the eyeballs is also step-by-step in terms of usage, and if you immediately roll your eyes at the thought of an idea, it is unreasonable, and the result becomes a simple technical show, rather than the art in the drama. In short, the blink of an eye bead must be practiced, but it cannot be abused after practicing, and it cannot be turned if you want to, and it depends on the need to use it. From the emotional point of view, it is necessary to carefully observe all kinds of women in daily life, women of all classes and classes, older and younger women. Study and experience their expressions of expression and face in joy, anger, sorrow and happiness, and refine the focus on artistic creation.
If you show the admiration of an ancient woman for a strange man, she must peek at the other party from time to time, in order to show the dignity of women, she can not look directly, but when sitting upright, she will squint her eyes. After a little look, the gaze quickly withdrew, and after a while he glanced at it again, showing that she was both shy and delicate. But as soon as the man looked at her, she immediately sat down with her head bowed and indifferent. This shows that she really has a crush on this man in her heart. The more I admire it, the more I avoid suspicion. This has a basis for life, and such a performance on stage is to distill the truth of life into the truth of art. Therefore, technical exercise and experience feelings must be combined in order to practice the eyes. There is God in the eyes, and naturally there is a communication of thoughts and feelings with the audience, which is the eye speaking.
Xun Huisheng's "Iron Bow Edge"
Not only the eyes must speak, but the eyebrows must also speak, the muscles on the face must also speak, and the whole face must change with the plot of the play. Although the muscles on the face should be active, be careful to use the muscles in the lower part of the face as much as possible, not the muscles on the forehead. When the horns are staring, it is especially necessary to use the orbit and the muscles between the eyebrows and the eyes. If you use the muscles above the eyebrows and forehead to widen your eyes, not only does it look beautiful offstage, but it also affects Le's head and the film. Every glare, the eyebrows are raised upwards, the forehead is followed by a vertical, vertical and vertical, the pasted pieces open their mouths, the good head is also loose, the forehead will be tattooed, the eyebrows that are hanging up will also fall, originally it was inverted eight characters, very spiritual, singing and singing the eyebrows become the right eight characters, the audience took a look, yo, how just now a very beautiful little girl, so will work to become ugly. As for the mouth, in the case of not reading or singing, it should be slightly closed to appear to have spirit. If you keep your mouth open, you're stupid, stupid, and it's not beautiful to look offstage.
Hua Dan's waist worker should practice from the lower waist, playing the handle, and even running the round field, etc., both soft and lively, but also hard and straight, that is, there is softness and rigidity in the rigidity. Danjiao pays attention to "standing like a pine, sitting like a bell". It can only be soft and not hard, it seems weak and loose, but soft and alive is indispensable. Hua Dan flows uncertainly on the stage, and must live to look good. In "Drunk", "Rainbow Pass" and other plays, there are also lower waist, playing with the performance of the plate, waist kung fu is indispensable.
Xun Huisheng's "Rainbow Pass"
Arms, hands, fingers, in the hua dan used a lot, wear pants jacket, skirt jacket role, half of the arm always to be exposed outside, some actors do not often play this role, go to the water sleeve, the arm appears stiff as soon as it is exposed, there is no place to put it, how is not appropriate, had to pull the placket for a while, a tear to tear the handkerchief, but this action is done more, the audience looks unnatural, and even hinders the plot. Sun Yujiao in "Picking Jade Bracelet" has the performance of shaking threads, recognizing needles, and embroidering flowers, and Chunlan in "Flower Field Mistake" has the performance of nailing nails, rubbing hemp rope, and nadizi, all of which must use their hands and fingers to practice kung fu, and usually practice fingering, not only to practice according to the needs of the play, but also to make the fingers move from time to time, like playing the piano is a good way to exercise finger activities.
Speaking of legs and feet, the beauty of Huadan Typhoon is not beautiful, not flattering, and the relationship between the two is extremely close. In the past, in order to express the posture of women, Yuanna, there were many stilts under her feet, and the stilts were of course three inches of golden lotus that expressed women in ancient times in form, but from the perspective of basic skills, it was practiced with leg and foot kung fu, rigid and soft, and achieved the beauty and charm of the steps. Now do not step on stilts, but when practicing should also be practiced according to the steps of stilts, by walking the round field, walking the flower pole rubbing steps, twisting steps, etc., will put the legs and feet alive, walk up to be personable. Under the feet should practice touching the ground with the soles of your toes. With the kung fu on the waist and legs, when walking on the stage, first touch the ground with the tiptoe and the soles of the feet, and then step on the whole foot, and there is a kind of elasticity when walking, especially light and graceful. If you walk up and completely flatten the whole foot, the step is dead, if you first use the foot to follow the ground, it will become a color dan. None of this is aesthetically pleasing. Therefore, when practicing footwork, you should pay attention not to relax and try to save trouble.
Special mention to be made here is running round field, which is the most important one in the basic skills, no matter which line must be known, and it is widely used in the play. Running round field to stand up the waist board, the upper body can not move, can not shake, all rely on the legs and feet to go forward, the feet must land on the ground must be the front foot, the tip of the foot first landed, the heel with the landing. Running like this is alive, you have a good grasp of the size, run steadily, run round, run beautifully. If you don't hold up your waist, you will inevitably run slowly. When the foot lands on the ground, the foot is followed by the ground first, and the force of the upside down is great, and the upper body must also be dangling. The large tendon on the heel is connected to the back of the human neck, and the strength of this large tendon is very large, and there is a kind of backward retreat force when running, which is not fast and unstable. Medically speaking, with the heel first landing on the ground, the concussion force is large, the brain will be damaged, and it is not in line with the principle of hygiene. The shoes we often wear, the heel is always higher than the front foot, which is also the same reason - in order to increase elasticity.
In order to provide some reference materials for young people to practice, I will briefly talk about the situation of running round fields and practicing stilts when I was studying drama in my childhood. When I started practicing stilts at the age of nine, the teacher didn't teach the students as kindly as they do now, and always had a very strict face. After we practiced, after tying the stilts to our feet, we stood against the wall and were not allowed to move. This station will stand for most of the day, standing with sore waist and legs, and sweating profusely. This is still a preliminary practice. Practice until the tiptoe, thighs have strength, can not stand against the wall, let us tie stilts all day long, no matter what we have to step on, even when sleeping will not let you untie. The most sinful thing is to perform outside the school. Sometimes it's a long way to go, and we have to walk all the way on stilts, which is the second step. Practice to a certain extent and start standing bricks. First there are two bricks lying flat under both feet, exactly the same as those standing on the flat ground; then standing bricks further; standing firmly, and then standing up two bricks upright, which is one higher, and the surface where the bricks and the ground are in contact is smaller, and it is even less likely to stand firmly. When I first went up, I was always afraid in my heart, worried that if I didn't pay attention to falling, I would not only fall and fight, but I would also be beaten, but the more I was afraid, the softer I was under my feet, the softer I was under my feet, the more unstable I was, and then I simply ignored him three seven twenty-one, stood single-mindedly, didn't think about anything, concentrated my spirit, but stood firm.
Xun Huisheng's "Meilong Town"
After standing firmly and sure in this way, a new trick was added, first practicing touching the sideburns, touching the left hand, touching the right hand, all according to the appearance of the performance on the stage, and then making various figures and movements, playing with handkerchiefs, throwing handkerchiefs, etc. Must also be practiced, and finally the lower waist, climbing on the brick, bending backwards and downwards, bending until the hands and feet are leveled, and then bending down, until the hands can reach the ground, together a flexible and clean volt, can not swing a little. Practice these to the fullest, and then further practice the rubbing steps, twisting steps, playing small five sets and throwing down kung fu. It's really "freezing three feet is not a day's cold!" "You can't practice hard work without a few years.
Speaking of practicing running round field is more difficult, it is also divided into several steps. At the beginning, I first practiced empty man running, requiring the upper body to stand up, not moving, the lower body to live, and walking like the wind. Run out of the circle steadily, the feet must always follow a circle, no matter how many times you run, you can never leave this circle. After running like this, I slowly added something to my body. The first is to pick up the burden, run up the burden can not fall, can not shake, this is to practice stability. After being able to carry the burden and run steadily, it is followed by more arduous exercise. In addition to the burden on the shoulders, put a bowl of water on each of the two shoulders, so that running, requiring the bowl not to fall, the water not to spill, only to maintain the balance of the body, the line does not move, can do it. A further bowl of water is added to the top of the head, and in addition to the balance of the upper body, the head cannot be shaken slightly. These are all practiced well, and only by running the round field can we learn it. In the future, it is to further practice hard to run the round field. In winter, leaning on the ice, stepping on the ice to run the round field, and in the middle of the run, you also have to add harriers to turn over, add pad steps, add bends to pick up money, pick up handkerchiefs and other tricks. These tricks are not prepared in advance, but in the middle of the run, listening to the teacher's password, the teacher suddenly shouted, you have to make it immediately, which depends on improvisation, in order to do quickly and accurately. The basic skill of running round field is very important, it is the basis of waist and leg kung fu. If the round field is not running well, other kung fu cannot be learned well. In the literary drama, it means rushing to the road, and it is necessary to use the running round field; in the martial arts drama, it means that they must chase and kill each other, and they must also use the running round field. An actor who runs in a circle is not good-looking, and no matter how well he sings, he cannot meet the requirements of the audience. Everyone in the round field will run, run well or not, beautiful or not, lies in instability, neat and not neat. Running up, the upper body is completely flat and stable, and there is no unbeautifulness; on the contrary, the upper body trembles and shakes, and it is absolutely not beautiful. If the circle field is to run beautifully, it should be a flat line, and if the head is taken as the standard, the head should be drawn in the air as a flat circle. The head can't be drilled one by one, and it is wrong to look like a wave. In the past, the older generation of actors were called "Nine Gusts of Wind" and "One Gust of Wind", which is precisely for this reason. One is to describe fast, and the other is to describe "stable". It's very hard for us to practice like this, but it's still far from the efforts of the older generation of actors.
After you have the basic skills, you must further use it in the play. This is like to stir-fry the vegetables must first prepare the ingredients, oil, salt sauce and vinegar sugar, vegetables and meat are prepared, what should be used by the master chef to stir-fry vegetables, in order to fry delicious dishes. Singing is also like this, the basic skills are all learned, which play should be used, how to use, depends on personal experience, the requirements of teachers and directors.
(Guangming Daily, December 4, 1961)