Yang Ruiyu (right) in the performance. (Image from the Internet)
Yang Ruiyu (second from right) studied drama with Li Yali (third from left), a teacher at the China Academy of Performing Arts. (Photo courtesy of respondents)
Many years ago, when I saw Zhang Huoding perform on stage at the Taiwan Academy of Performing Arts, Yang Ruiyu, a first-year boy at the school, only "knew that there was such a person who seemed to be particularly powerful", and when this Peking Opera Chengpai Qingyi sang the excerpts of "Spring Dream" and "Dragon and Phoenix Chengxiang", he who studied at the Taiwan Opera School for 9 years was impressed, "but I was stunned."
After the teachers and students of the China Academy of Performing Arts organized a group to perform in Taiwan, Yang Ruiyu, who was deeply shocked, planned to "start over", immediately applied for the China Academy of Drama, and gave up the small student profession of studying for many years, and embarked on the path of seeking art in the male Wudan that is now rarely visited on both sides of the strait. Later, he ran the dragon suit in Zhang Huoding's performance of "Spring Girl's Dream", and even shined at the 8th China Peking Opera Arts Festival with the long-lost Wudan opera "Chao Jinding" in the mainland.
"Mainland students are much higher than us"
"Taiwan's environment is limited, and the vision here is not broad enough, nor is it long-term enough." Yang Ruiyu told reporters that when he entered the Taiwan drama school at the age of 11, he once thought that he had special abilities, but in fact, he was not. "Mainland students of the same age are much higher than us."
When I attended classes at the Taiwan Academy of Performing Arts, there were more than 20 students, but there were more than 50 students in the class of the China Academy of Performing Arts. The competitive pressure is not only from the doubling number of students, as the highest institution of opera education in the mainland, the Chinese Opera Academy admits good seedlings from all over the world, and they are also very strict with their own requirements.
After class, most mainland students will choose to stay in school to "train independently" or ask their senior classmates for advice, and they will not relax for a moment. Unlike Taiwan, mainland Chinese opera teachers are relatively abundant, the teaching level is also better, and if the results are among the best, there is still a chance to get one-on-one guidance.
Yang Ruiyu, who ranked seventh in the first semester after entering the school, redoubled his efforts to overcome the disadvantage of "starting from scratch" when changing his profession, adjusted his mentality, played steadily, and twice passed the first place in the class in his junior year and near graduation, and thus got more hand-in-hand guidance from his teacher.
Taiwanese young martial arts actor Xu Tingfang and Yang Ruiyu entered the China Academy of Performing Arts in the same year, and he "practiced hard in a magic way" for four years of college: there was not a single weekend when he was not studying drama with his teacher, and the routine was practiced with his classmates thousands of times before performing on stage. He regards practicing and learning drama as all of his daily life, and his grades do not come out of the top two in the class every year. "That very good martial artist from Taiwan," his classmates called him.
At the "Peking Opera Folding Theater Special Session commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Goldman Sachs Lin's birth" in Beijing, Xu Tingfang shared the stage with Xi Zhonglu, Liu Ziwei and other well-known martial arts actors in mainland China to pay tribute to the famous martial artists. He also represented the school in the "Gai (Called Tian) School Peking Opera Martial Arts Talent Training Class". Yang Ruiyu represented the school in the national Peking Opera competition and performed on stage at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in China.
The Taiwanese theater troupe invited famous teachers from the mainland to pass on their art
Xu Tingfang, who originally decided to "drift north" to beijing and enter the troupe after graduation, eventually returned to Taiwan and joined the "Guoguang" troupe. Fortunately, the Taiwan drama school and the troupe spared no effort in inviting famous mainland artists to come to Taiwan to pass on their art, and he and many youth troupe members still had the opportunity to continue to ask famous teachers.
In 2013, the "Guoguang" Troupe officially launched the Peking Opera Talent Cultivation Program, hired famous mainland artists to teach intensively, and set up plays according to people on the basis of comprehensively assessing the current situation and needs of young members, looking for suitable teachers and repertoire, in order to enhance the basic skills of young troupe members, polish and accumulate good repertoire.
The completeness of the pure and ugly profession of Shengdan, the combination of Beijing and Kunming, and the combination of culture and martial arts are all characteristics of the previous teachings. In addition to the members of the troupe, the "Guoguang" troupe has also recruited students from the Taiwan Academy of Performing Arts and traditional opera performers outside the troupe, and the number of students was once as high as 36, and the troupe and the non-troupe personnel were half. Regardless of you and me, taiwanese troupes that work together to pass on the art and abandon the view of the portal jointly contribute to the inheritance of opera, which is reflected in the study and performance of opera.
Huang Junsheng, a veteran member of the "Guoguang" Troupe, said that in the summer of 2012, due to the cross-strait exchange and study meeting, he was fortunate to be sent to the China Academy of Performing Arts for further study, and met Mr. Zhang Hongsen of the Beijing Opera Theatre. "The appearance of the teacher made me start to like Peking Opera and understand what an old student is." Teaching hand-in-hand in the troupe has made Huang Junsheng's drama art more refined.
"When you study drama, you can't just pass it casually, you must meet the requirements of the teacher before you can pass the pass." The members of the "Guoguang" youth league were touched by the dedication of the famous teachers on the mainland, "Usually the class is not enough, after work or holidays do not let us go, want us to go to the residence to learn drama, the teacher said that he is not afraid to learn, I am afraid that you will not learn." ”
Chen Shufang, a famous actress in the National Peking Theatre, has been teaching drama in the "Guoguang" Troupe for several consecutive years, and she jokingly said that "I am a doctor to see the doctor", not only teaching new dramas and new styles, but also repeatedly speaking out and checking the basic skills of young Danjiao actors. Zhou Xuewen, a famous teacher of Zhejiang Kun Opera Troupe, is also a regular visitor of the "Guoguang" troupe, teaching "Peony Pavilion • Dream Hunting" to adjust the complex and simple movements according to the conditions of the members of the troupe, and what remains unchanged is the beautiful body of the flow.
Take advantage of cross-strait exchanges to enhance the level of young league members
After graduating the year before, Yang Ruiyu entered the Taiwan Academy of Performing Arts as a teacher, teaching students the basic skills of opera in middle school. "Teaching is generally in the morning, the class starts at 6 o'clock in the morning, and there are 4 basic skills." From 1:30 p.m., he would come to work at Taiwan's Contemporary Legend Theater to rehearse for the troupe's performances, and the rest of the time he would practice on his own, usually not leaving until 9:30 p.m.
Yang Ruiyu, who joined the contemporary legendary theater for a short time, played "Little Li Guang" Hua Rong in the "Electronic Rock Peking Opera" "Water Margin 108 Zhongyi Hall". In 2011, the Contemporary Legend Theater cooperated with the Shanghai Theater Academy, composed by the well-known musician Zhou Huajian and written by Taiwanese writer Zhang Dachun, and in the first round of performances, the teachers and students of the Shanghai Theater Academy and the Taiwanese actors each accounted for half.
"The play was performed in Taipei at that time, and most of the actors were middle school students, and the Taiwanese actors watched the students of the Shanghai Theater Academy perform very prominently, all of them were peers, which stimulated them a lot." Lin Xiuwei, executive director of the Contemporary Legend Theater, told reporters that in the future, he hopes to find a mainland Peking Opera troupe to perform jointly and improve the performance level of Taiwan's members through cross-strait exchanges.
Although internationally renowned for its cross-border mix-and-match new choreography, Contemporary Legend Theatre has always focused on the cultivation of the traditional skills of young members. "In the future, we will create more contemporary works, but we must first start from tradition." Lin Xiuwei said that in the troupe's usual performances, traditional plays account for a large proportion, and there will be a plan to find teachers to teach them.
Since 2007, the Contemporary Legend Theater has founded the Legend Academy, and every winter and summer vacation, it invites first-class actors from many parts of the mainland to teach, taking into account the content of Beijing and Kunming, and some members of the troupe come to study at the age of 12. "I hope that Peking Opera and Kunqu opera can stay in Taiwan and flourish." Lin Xiuwei said.
Yang Ruiyu attended the Legendary Academy in 2009, and as a student at the Taiwan Academy of Performing Arts, he also met Xu Bao'ang, who taught at the school and later went to the China Academy of Drama to study for a master's degree. In 2007, Xu Pyongang established the troupe "Oak Youzuo" in Taiwan, and Yang Ruiyu has participated in many performances based on Peking Opera and striving for diversity.
Yang Ruiyu, who holds several positions, will return to Beijing in May this year to participate in the short-term training course for talents in Peking Opera Wudan, his alma mater, and he also plans to apply for graduate school at The National Taiwan University of the Arts to continue to enrich himself. "I want to take the educational route and teach Taiwanese students well, so that they can see that there is still hope in learning Peking Opera, as long as they are willing to do a good job."