The first domestic drama talent show "Drama New Life" was broadcast for three weeks and received continuous praise. At the beginning of the first program, the planner Huang Lei threw out a very realistic and very sharp question: "Can you make money simply by relying on drama in reality?" "With the development of the program, a group of talented artists who chase ideals not only make many audiences interested in the art of theater, but also make more people curious and concerned about the real living conditions of theater people." Are dramatists really so poor? "What keeps them going?" For these persistent theater people, doing drama is by no means to make money, because theater is not just life for them.
Liu Xiaoyi: Make the most international Chinese original drama
Liu Xiaoyi, known as "Wuzhen Luban" in the show, is a treasure boy. Born in 1985, he has been versatile since childhood. He first went to a sports school, then liked dance and transferred to an art school, and then was admitted to the Beijing Dance Academy with the first professional score. He likes dance, painting, puppetry, music, diving, sculpture, and video, and believes that drama is the art that best integrates his various hobbies.
Liu Xiaoyi loves art and freedom, and after graduating from university, he gave up entering the literary troupe, gave up many stable job opportunities, and formed his own troupe with several like-minded partners. They rented a venue in Changping to do rehearsals and creations, but everyone was very poor, eight people slept in a chase bunk, and once relied on a friend's relief of 1500 yuan for a few months. When I was the poorest, I also set up a fire with my buddies and sold kebabs on the street. Because of his authentic skewers and warm service, he was nicknamed "The Little Prince of Kebabs".
Liu Xiaoyi's body drama "Monster" has been performed twice in Peking University, which is very sensational, but it was also suspended because the form was too exciting. But it is because of this play that many people have discovered his talent and creativity. In 2014, he stood out from more than 1,500 applicants and entered the crew of the Chinese version of the stage play "War Horse", becoming the puppet director of the play, and led a group of little brothers to play the puppet Joey, winning the appreciation of the Chinese and British creative team and the audience, thus appearing on the stage of the 2015 CCTV Spring Festival Gala.
As a result of the performance of "War Horse", Liu Xiaoyi learned the concept and technology of European puppet performance, and together with his partners, he created a novel form of "Little Planet", "Little Soldier Zhang Ga Fantasia" and other stage plays suitable for both children and adults, which won awards at the Edinburgh Arts Festival in the United Kingdom. He believes that the coolest thing in life and the most wanted thing to do is to make the best chinese original children's dramas with the best and most international style for children. During the epidemic, Xiaoyi's team once again underwent cruel tests. With no revenue from the show, only layoffs and suspensions were possible. "In previous years, we had more than 120 performances a year, but last year there was not a single performance for many months, and we all had family and life pressures, some had to pay loans, some had to pay rent. Life is really cruel, there is no way to do it. ”
Therefore, Liu Xiaoyi participated in the variety show "Drama New Life", he said: "I hope that this show can let more people understand what we are doing every day, and let more people enter the theater!" I hope this show brings me good luck and allows my team to have more opportunities to perform! I used to think that acting abroad was great, but now I hope to bring our works to more Chinese audiences, so that children who have not seen the play can watch the play, so that the gap between urban and rural areas of art education can be narrowed, this is my dream! ”
Ding Yiteng: Drama gives me strength, and theater is my lair
Usually shy and humble and calm, but as soon as he took the stage, he was radiant, able to play and sing Ding Yiteng, who was known as the "Golden Boy of Stage Drama". The audience who has watched his performance can hardly not be moved by the energy of his body: both debauched and sincere and moving; both absurd and serious; both philosophical and grounded; able to compose lyrics and compose music, play and sing without authorization, and speak in foreign languages as authentically as Beijing films.
Ding Yiteng's growth experience is somewhat special. Born in Beijing in 1991, he followed his mother to the United States for two years in elementary school. Rap music became a big hobby of his. Ding Yiteng returned to China to study in middle school and began to contact drama, and in high school, he took his class to rehearse "The Lion King" and tried to compose his own music. In 2010, Ding Yiteng entered Beijing Normal University as a "theater student" and joined the Beiguo Drama Club, becoming the "pillar" of the drama club. He starred in "The Last Joker" and participated in the college student drama festival performance, he also participated in the drama "Halogen Boiled" directed by Huang Ying, and entered the drama "Alive" directed by Meng Jinghui as a non-professional actor, playing Youqing. For Ding Yiteng, the most important thing is that his performance in the play touched his mother, who had always disapproved of his choice of drama as a career, "After watching it, she shed tears for my concentration." ”
After acting in "Alive", Ding Yiteng participated in Meng Jinghui's two famous works "I Love XXX" and "Opinions on the Life of Two Dogs", and also formed the "Two Dings and One Laugh" drama boy group with Guan Xiaotian and Ding Boxuan to explore a more personal style of creation. In 2014, Ding Yiteng was admitted to the graduate school of the Department of Chinese Opera Directing, and his starring role in "The Maid" participated in the Wuzhen Drama Festival. After seeing Ding Yiteng's performance, eugenio Barbara, the then honorary chairman of the Wuzhen Theatre Festival, sent him an invitation to the Odin Theatre in Denmark to study and exchange, and joined the Danish Wind Bridge Theatre Company, and also participated in the Odin Theatre's global tour of the play "Chronic Life".
After returning to China, Ding Yiteng's first directorial work "Embracing Macbeth" participated in the Beijing Youth Theater Festival, and after that, he wrote and directed his own performances such as "Dou E", "Drunken Dream Poetry Immortal", "Wound Disappeared in the Vast Night" and so on. "I have a lot of questions about life, and drama gives me strength, even gives me 'meaning of existence.'"
Ding Yiteng, who is now a doctoral student in Chinese opera, frankly said that participating in the "New Life of Drama" program is for his own drama team. "Whenever I flinch, I think of the actors and crew in the theater who have been with me for many years. Regardless of the final effect of this show, even if only 10,000 more spectators enter the theater, it is a harvest for us theater people. Ding Yiteng said that he would always do drama, "because the theater is my lair, how far I fly, it is to find my way home." ”
Liu Tianqi: Use drama to make everyone feel love
Liu Tianqi, who often gagged with anxiety and vomiting because of his sensitive nature and excessive pressure in the "Drama New Life" program, is also a newcomer even in the theater circle. In 2019, he and his partner Cai Lihao co-created and starred in "Chicken and Rabbit in the Cage" to participate in the 7th Wuzhen Drama Festival Youth Competition and won the Best Drama Award, which received everyone's attention. This unique perspective also appeared in the second episode of "Drama New Life", which touched countless audiences.
Liu Tianqi graduated from Tianjin Polytechnic University majoring in film and television performance and cultural management. After graduation, he worked as an acting teacher in a performance agency, more often interviewing crews, making short films, and writing scripts. "When I was a small actor in Hengdian, every night I would receive conversations from the assistant director to various small people and small characters in the work group, and these dialogues did not seem particularly interesting, so I wondered if I could change the form to make the meaning more clear." It is precisely because of his simple personality and ability to observe and think, in the first episode, he told the story of "Chicken Carmela Looking for the Sea" that he often told to his children, which immediately moved everyone and promoted him as a director and screenwriter.
Liu Tianqi, who is already a pair of dragon and phoenix fetus fathers, in the face of huge life pressures, often feels confused and wants to withdraw, and even bluntly said "I don't want to be a dramatist". He was a father who loved his children very much, and when he learned that his wife was pregnant with a dragon and phoenix fetus, he once hid in the toilet and cried because he had no money. Then run to Hengdian as a dragon set actor, look around for the crew, and play some small roles bits and pieces. Seeing the registration notice of the Wuzhen Drama Festival Youth Competition, the drama dream in his heart burned up again, and together with his partner, he created "Chicken and Rabbit in the Cage", integrating his love for children and understanding of life into it. He said: "I want to tell my children through this story that Dad loves them. ”
The 200,000 yuan prize received by the Wuzhen Drama Festival Award, he wants to use his own part of the prize to give his children a better kindergarten. At that time, when he took the stage to receive the award at the Wuzhen Drama Festival, Liu Tianqi especially thanked the two-year-old child. "I will continue to write stories in the future, insist on directing and acting, acting for everyone in the world, so that everyone can feel love."
Although most of the time, the embarrassment of life tormented Liu Tianqi. But because he loves theater and stage, he has always insisted on creating. Liu Tianqi's wish is very simple and real: "Before, no one looked for me to rehearse a play, I hope that I can have more opportunities to audition in the future, and I hope to have the funds and acting opportunities to create my own story and film." (Reporter Wang Run)