Tang Yan: Beijing Renyi is always young

I am a director who grew up under the cultivation of Beijing Renyi. In 1992, I was "borrowed" to the theater during the 40th anniversary of the celebration of the Beijing Renmin Academy of Arts, and it was 30 years since then. This year's 70th anniversary of the art of arts celebrated "Tea House". Many teachers who have performed on the same stage have returned these days. They are particularly emotional when they meet. In the "Tea House", I played the little flower in the third act. I remember a particularly clear details is a "snack" on the table of Chang Siye and Song Er's table. At that time, the teacher responsible for stage supervision told us that this "snack" was made of pears and cut out the snacks with pears. The shape of the "little red stamp" is like the Beijing pastry sold by Daoxiang Village. As for why it is a pear? He said that the real snacks will fall into the residue, and sometimes it will affect the actor's lines in the throat. If you use an apple, the "snack" is easy to change color -this really gives us a lesson. That year I arrived at the theater, and "Tea House" had performed more than 300 games. I think this "pear snack" must be studied by seniors.

After entering the art of "Tea House", I felt the professional and cultural heritage of this theater from all aspects. These experiences are very different from when they are in school. First of all, the division of labor in the theater is particularly meticulous. For example, you need a handkerchief -this is the object that often use in the drama of that era. The teachers will ask you, saying that your handkerchief is played in your hand or pretended to be in your pocket? If you are holding the props in your hand, you have to find a prop teacher. If you do n’t have in your clothes, you have to go to the clothing teacher, and the division of labor is special. At that time, "Tea House" was so big in the show, and the teachers responsible for the props in the impression were mainly one, but he would control these props clearly. Take a "common prop" that we often use as an example. For example, a copper coin was originally holding on the stage. I might go to the stage to buy something and give it to others. Before you wait for the two days, this thing must have returned to your table. I remember that at that time, we were particularly cordially controlled by this prop teacher called Mao Mao. Teacher Mao Mao would prepare a bag for everyone and put all what we wanted to use the next day into it. Before the performance, he also knocked on the door one by one and asked the teachers if there was any lack of things or could not be found or damaged. There are still many details that reflect the professionalism of the theater, and they have greatly inspired me to do the director's work in the future. In 2016, I directed "Western Maim Johs". Wei Le, who played by Teacher Cunxin, took a cane to play. When the crutches leaned on the table for a while, they fell down. The sound was particularly loud. The four sides of the table are sawn tooth like stamps. When the crutches are "relying on", Teacher Li gently put the crutch in his hand, and the crutches will not fall again. All these efforts and details are ultimately to present a "perfect" performance to the audience.

In 2019, Tang Yan (middle) was together with Wu Cunxin and Gong Lijun

Ren the drama "Yang Mahjong". Photo by Li Chunguang

I started with the actor in Renyi. Fortunately, I learned from Teacher Su Min not long after being an actor. Soon after arriving at the theater, the teacher of the Personnel Office talked to me and said what do you can "guide" the old artists? Go to the actor team first. So I started on the stage of artistic art from a supporting role. The first scene learned with Teacher Su Min was "The Pride of the Heaven". I played one of the maids. Teacher Su told us the actors that you have to watch a certain page of "Zi Zhi Tong Jian". "The palace girl "It also depends on the background of the society and the state of people in that era. At first we felt that this was difficult. Later, we slowly developed this kind of reading habits, and we usually accumulated consciously. Until I became a director, I would recommend some books I read to the young actors in the group, and even marked the pinyin or the annotations I checked on it, so that the actors read The style of the old artist to us.

There is also the "first incident" that we still adhere to our art crew to now: experience life. For example, in the face of the new coronary pneumonia in 2020, we created the drama "Community Neighborhood Committee". After the establishment of the group, one thing was to go to the grassroots level. "Lower the household", see what the state of their lives and work is; follow the director of the neighborhood committee to understand what the community cadres thinks ... Only in this way can we shape the living characters that the people believe in. Of course, there are also some plays that there is no way to "experience". For example, in the "Tea House", when Mr. Tong Chao played eunuch Pang, he visited six eunuchs and asked them to drink tea and eat, but now we act as Teacher Tong Chao. How does historical drama "experience life" is a subject that we need to solve today. According to different themes, we will invite some historians and linguists who have studied in related aspects to explain ancient texts and history to us. Ren the "Cai Wenji", we invite the teachers of the Academy of Opera to guide the actor; the "Guan Hanqing", and invited the artists of the Kunqu Theater in the North to teach Kunqu; last year, "Thunderstorm" was re -ranked. To explain, even the "Thunderstorm" of various versions and dramas is used for study and research. Through these tasks, we have a better understanding and different display of the characters. For example, how do you understand the last farewell of "Guan Hanqing", why do more than a dozen characters suddenly appeared in the play? After studying the background of character life and work creation, we knew that as a predecessor in the drama industry, Guan Hanqing had to write the suffering of the people and speak for the people with great pressure. There are as many as 25,000 people created by the drama, and his works will always stay in the hearts of the people. Photo by Wang Xiaoning, the drama "Thunderstorm" in 2021

Therefore, some people say that the director of human beings is good and difficult to do. What is good is that we have classic works that have been passed down from generation to generation, and all of the cooperation are some particularly excellent actors and artists; what is difficult to do is interpretation of your work in this era, so there are many homework to do. Essence We must first penetrate the characters and plots like the old gentleman, and then help the actors to produce their own unique creations rather than "forced" on the stage. The style of Beijing Renyi is a "collective" style. On the stage, our artists often have a variety of spiritual lights, and the creative atmosphere is particularly good. So how to put all the creations together and let them belong to all of them belong to In the style you need, the director must first eat through the work, to clearly understand the commonality and differences between the actors and the characters, and then to the greatest extent to affect the actor to find the expression that fits the most and the role.

Of course, as a director of art, what I feel the hardest over the years is still looking for excellent original scripts. For example, I have directed a drama "Beijing Neighbors" adapted from the original novel outside the hospital. However, the script is changed for 4 years. This number sounds like a long, but in our theater, this is also very common. As a member of the People's Art Committee, we have been reviewing various scripts over the years, and have also rehearsed some dramas that have some problems in the script. However, there are still some problems. The time and energy of the theater on the drama change are often more time than the duet time. However, the creation of script requires us to collapse, so I think these years also thank all the creators who can keep the stage and the creation, including all our actors and directors. With the development of the times, people's vision is opening, and the changes in theater are closely related to the development of the Great Age and the changes in society. The name of our theater is "Beijing Renyi", and the names have finished what we should do: we are the theater of the people, and we are not giving up art pursuit theater. As a native Beijing director, I have been paying much attention to Beijing's culture over the years. I hope that I can be a recorder of an era, tell the stories of Beijing in each era, the story of China, and express the life situation of Beijingers and Chinese in the current society and the times, and make a record of the times and society. Use drama to give people a kind of upward power and hope. This is the direction where all the works I directed. In the 70 years of Beijing Renyi, I hope the audience knows that this is a historic theater, but I hope they know that the art of art is still young. It will have more good works, new works and more possibilities. It will always be young.

(The author is the director of the Beijing People's Art Theater.

Content source: "Literature and Art", June 20, 2022, 4th edition

WeChat editor: Lu Yimeng

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