After 75, Yang Xiaodan: "Writing the Second Generation" is a variation of the creation

Yang Xiaodan, a young writer in Guangzhou after 75, is a screenwriter at the Guangzhou Academy of Literature and Art Creation. At present, he is mainly engaged in the script creation of drama and Cantonese opera, of which the large-scale Cantonese opera "Xiema Xiucai" has become the first work of the Guangzhou Drama Creation Incubation Program, and the modern drama "The Rhapsody of the Rookie" has also received praise in the college tour. Her large-scale fairy tale puppet show Hi, Toto is scheduled to premiere at the end of this year.

On the table was a cantonese opera dictionary, no messy as expected, and more scripts in that desktop computer. This is the office of the Guangzhou Institute of Literature and Art Creation, located next to the former central axis of Guangzhou, and Yang Xiaodan is freely creating in the regular office. After nearly 13 years as a freelance writer, Yang Xiaodan joined the Guangzhou Academy of Literature and Art Creation for a theatrical dream.

■ Leave

I did accounting in college and did public relations for 5 years

At the age of 14, he wrote the award-winning play "The Wish of the Frog at the Bottom of the Well" and was put on the stage at the age of 19, however, this did not strengthen Yang Xiaodan's determination to engage in screenwriting in the future. On the contrary, she is a little resistant to the direction of life that seems to be choreographed for her "writing the second generation".

Yang Xiaodan, whose father is a screenwriter and grew up in the atmosphere of drama creation since childhood, knows very well that writing is a lonely road, but she is not afraid of loneliness, and she also loves to create, but she is not willing to take this well-framed road. She wanted to understand the world in ways other than writing.

She majored in accounting at university. But her thinking was wild, and before she stepped out of the ivory tower, she clearly realized that this was not her career direction. After graduation, she went to a foreign company to do public relations.

There is no living in writing, but this hobby grows spontaneously with the years.

Because of her father's relationship, Yang Xiaodan has known many people in the creative circle since she was a child, and she has been writing and submitting articles without interruption for more than ten years. At the age of 27, she was invited to write two episodes of the TV drama script for the Guangzhou local TV series "Happy Twenty-Four Tastes", and her exhilarating creative pleasure made her realize that she would eventually inherit her father's creative path.

"Writing is a complex, and it is always inseparable." After 5 years as a publicist, Yang Xiaodan resigned. She was one of the first to obtain a senior PR qualification, a decision that surprised and regretted the people around her.

■ Regression

Became a freelance writer and also wrote a novel

"My mother was very opposed, and my father asked me to try for two years, but I couldn't go back." But Yang Xiaodan now recalls that once he resigned, there was actually no way back, "leaving an industry is leaving, it is difficult to pick it up again."

Only creation, she has not put down. Creation is tiring, but what line of work is not tiring? "If you like it, you won't feel tired, for example, if you are tired, you will not feel tired, and creation is a kind of 'play' for me." Yang Xiaodan enjoys the "tiredness" of creation.

Yang Xiaodan, who became a freelance writer, quickly had a door-to-door appointment with the creative network accumulated over the years. Spontaneous, she began to have bigger dreams: to write a novel.

In 2006, she began writing and writing, and the story is based on her local memories, including grandparents and grandparents in her hometown and the food cooked by her elders. "Local memories are a part of me, and while the memories are still there, writing novels is the best way to record them." In 2008, the novel Oyster Gate was published. The food is used to connect the love and hatred of the two families and the customs and customs of the countryside. Later, when people from cultural companies came to buy copyrights, Yang Xiaodan politely declined, because the memory could not be sold.

Yang Xiaodan believes that the source of every story is always "people". She loves to observe people, has a library of characters in her mind, and has seen all kinds of people around her, no matter how long or short they stay, she will store their characteristics. Even when she goes to a restaurant to eat, she runs to the bathroom and chats with aunt cleaning, and she is her "interviewee" from all walks of life.

If she meets a character with a glittering point, she will write a biography for them. "A character biography may not really be the protagonist of the script, but superimposed more than a dozen character traits to create a character, the audience will find their own shadow from it." 」

Personality determines fate, Yang Xiaodan said that every character created has its own vitality, and the plot in addition to what she conceived often changes because of the character's personality. "Sometimes I imagine ending like this, but if I write it, it will become a character to take you with me, and it will evolve into a different ending." 」 And this is exactly what Yang Xiaodan thinks is interesting about writing a script, and occasionally has to go back to the previous article and modify the plot that does not conform to the personality of the characters, "a script usually has to be changed four or five drafts."

As a result, she said, screenwriters are more schizophrenic than other creators such as painters and musicians, and in the same play, you have to constantly switch identities and think about dialogue and behavior patterns from the position of the characters.

■ Screenwriter

Focus on the local stage To gain and lose

In the Spring Festival of 2013, Yang Xiaodan's "Xiema Xiucai" was premiered at the Jiangnan Grand Theater as the first work of the Guangzhou Drama Creation Incubation Program. In 2014, the small theater drama "The Rhapsody of the Rookie" that she created received a good response after its premiere, and then rehearsed it through the theater party and the Shunde Pioneer Experimental Theater Company, "different interpretation methods, consecutive years of performance, its life has been extended." The third edition of the drama has toured sun yat-sen university, Jinan university and other universities. "What surprised me was that this drama about young people's confusion and struggle, while harvesting the laughter of college students, actually resonated with many college teachers, perhaps because they were people who came over, so they had a deeper understanding."

The staging of "Xie Ma Xiu Cai" allowed Yang Xiaodan to see the municipal government's support for local Cantonese opera dramas, and there was a more open stage than when he was a freelance writer. In 2015, she joined the Guangzhou Academy of Literature and Art Creation, became a professional screenwriter, can access a broader artistic world, have more opportunities to observe and learn, interact with more peers, broaden her horizons, and her screenwriting path is getting wider and wider: her "Meiling Qingfeng" was premiered by the Hongdou Cantonese Opera Troupe under the Guangzhou Cantonese Opera House, which achieved a good response; in 2016, her "Inside and Outside the High Wall" was staged at the Lingnan Theater of the Guangzhou Song and Dance Theatre, hoping to use art forms to sound the alarm bell against corruption.

Of course, not all plays are so lucky to be presented on stage. Yang Xiaodan also has another award-winning Cantonese script, "Drunken Cat", which has not been able to take the stage from paper.

"Although there are not many screenwriters, there is only one stage, and the production volume is much lower than that of film and television dramas." Yang Xiaodan said that there are many entertainment methods that the audience can choose, in addition to movies, television, the Internet, etc., walking into the theater, as well as concerts, dramas, operas... Especially in first-tier cities such as Guangzhou, there are many famous masterpieces brought by foreign performance teams. It is not easy for local original theatrical works to win over audiences.

"As far as script creation is concerned, the old screenwriters who are too old to be old are still working hard, and new works are multiplied, not to mention the famous masters who are in their prime, and more screenwriters who are born later are also rising, and young screenwriters like me, who are sandwiched between the front wave and the back wave, can only work harder to fight for the opportunity to get the work on the stage."

■ Puppet show

Hatching children's plays can fly around

However, there are regrets. Compared with other forms of performance, the promotion of local drama is very low-key. "Insufficient cost is the main reason." Even if there is a government-funded incubation program, the funds provided by each play, in addition to various costumes and props, actor labor, etc., the remaining money is not enough for publicity fees. The publicity is not in place, the audience is limited, and it is naturally difficult to attract investment, so that the creators are a little helpless. "But local drama is reviving." Yang Xiaodan said that the incubation plan has given creators confidence, and a new batch of Cantonese drama actors are also being trained, yang Xiaodan hopes that through the official promotion, more people can enter the theater.

Drama is the brainchild of a group of people, the script is only the foundation, to make the drama come to life, it is necessary for directors, actors, and artists in front of and behind the stage to work together. If the script is once created, then the performance on the stage is the superposition and integration of the first creation and the second creation and the third degree of creation, and the presentation on the stage will make Yang Xiaodan have a new understanding of his own script, so the freshness makes Yang Xiaodan never tired of the script creation.

This year, Yang Xiaodan has a new attempt to ——— children's puppet drama. "In 2016, I began to try to create puppet dramas, compared to dramas, puppet dramas have more room for imagination and can fly in the sky." Speaking of expectations for the puppet show that premiered at the end of the year, Yang Xiaodan looked excited.

Although the road of creation is lonely, it will not be boring, more than ten years have passed, Yang Xiaodan feels that she is still in the ascending period, the biggest dissatisfaction is that there is not enough time, there are too many books and movies to watch, too many people want to contact, too many places want to go to the wind, these are the nourishment that gives her creative inspiration.

Fight, Fight, History

●At the age of 14, he created a new fable drama "The Wish of the Frog at the Bottom of the Well", which won an award, and was later put on the stage to perform, and then won the award. He studied accounting in college and worked in public relations at a foreign company after graduation.

● After 5 years, he became a freelance writer, published many articles in newspapers and magazines, and participated in the screenwriting of many local TV series such as "Happy Twenty-Four Tastes", "Dragon Strange Son-in-Law", and "Seventy-two Tenants".

●In 2008, he personally created a novel "Oyster Gate" published by Guangzhou Publishing House, and has been active in the theater stage in recent years.