This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of Beijing People's Art Theatre (hereinafter referred to as "Beijing People's Art").
I have spent 37 years in this theater since I was admitted to Beijing Renyi in 1985.
From a literary youth who yearns for the stage, to becoming an actor on the stage, to serving as an actor captain and vice president, along the way, this theater has carried the glory and dream of my career, and I have also witnessed her generation. Another generation of firepower and artistic inheritance.
Keep the spirit, keep the awe of art
In 1952, at the beginning of the establishment of the Beijing Art Institute, the four founders, Cao Yu, Jiao Juyin, Zhao Qiyang and Ouyang Shanzun, had a famous 42-hour talk in the history of contemporary drama.
At that time, they hoped that the future Beijing Renyi would be like the Moscow Art Theater and become an internationally renowned theater.
Today, Beijing Renyi has not only become a world-class theater, but has also stepped out of the road of nationalization and formed a distinct artistic style, which is inseparable from the practice, exploration and inheritance of generations of artists.
Our generation of actors is very fortunate as actors who have staged the same stage as artists of the older generation, such as Yu Zhi, Zheng Rong, Lan Lanye, Zhu Xu, and Lin Liankun.
Because we know what the art of the elderly is like, what the older generation of artists are like acting on stage, and how they create.
My first role in Renyi was Zeng Wenqing in Cao Yu's "Beijing People".
That year, I was 24 years old, and I was still studying in the art student class, and was chosen by director Xia Chun to play this role.
Zeng Wenqing's first appearance, there was a movement of pulling the curtains. At that time, I waited for a whole morning and did not pass the customs. I was very aggrieved, so I asked the director what was wrong.
The director replied, "You're not wrong." Then he looked at me and said, "Zeng Wenqing is behind, you go and buy some oil. You can't even wear leather shoes. You have to wear old round-mouth cloth shoes. You can borrow one from the costume team. Take the coat home." So, I followed the director's request, and I always dressed like this every day except for sleeping.
After a period of time, the coat seemed to grow on me, and I understood the director's intention. He wanted me to experience Zeng Wenqing's life bit by bit. When I got used to wearing a coat, When you carry your hair back and your round-mouthed cloth shoes fit your feet, the characters in the play will naturally form on you.
"Peking Man" is the play that made me grow up the most. It took a crucial step for me to become a human actor and had a great impact on my life.
I have learned a lot from it. The methods, spirit and traditions of Renyi are all in touch with this drama.
The older generation of artists didn't tell us how to behave or how to say lines, but they taught us: don't act, be the character itself.
Many viewers watching Renyi's dramas have a feeling of how the actors "live" so much on the stage.
This is the style of art.
If an actor wants to "live", he must walk into life and observe life.
When I was studying in the art student class, Mr. Lin Liankun was my head teacher and taught us for more than two years.
He would come to give us morning exercises almost every morning, and he also taught me to observe life.
Once, teacher Lin Liankun assigned a performance practice homework and asked to observe life.
My classmates and I didn't have time to observe, so we made up a temporary one, and I felt pretty good after finishing it.
The next day the homework was handed in. After the performance, the classmates laughed, and so did he.
When commenting, he said: "You acted very well, I laughed, but it was made up? Although it was made well, this is not to observe life. Tomorrow, you two will give two exercises to observe life. Let's Let’s go to class again.” After class, my classmates and I hurried to Beijing Railway Station to observe life.
The homework is not completed until the practice is handed in before class starts the next day.
From that moment on, I realized that there are no shortcuts in this job, and I must not be lazy. Observing life is always a required course for actors.
The guidance of the older generation of artists does not depend on giving us a handbook with "one, two, three, four..." various regulations written in it, but more on teaching by words and deeds.
The charisma they exude, their handling of their roles and their serious attitude towards their careers influence us subtly.
When I was young, I acted with two teachers, Yu Zhi and Zhu Xu, and found that they would always have a book in their hands.
Therefore, when there is no rehearsal, Teacher Zhi always sits in the corner, keeps writing in his notebook, and keeps recording his understanding of the characters and his feelings about the performance.
The book that Mr. Zhu Xu is holding is the "script" he copied.
He believes that copying the script once is equivalent to reciting it again, so before rehearsals, he will copy the script on a notebook, one stroke at a time, and then bring the notebook to the rehearsal room, and the other blank spaces are filled with understanding of the characters and inner subtext. And some on-the-spot creative inspiration.
The older generation of artists never regarded themselves as masters and stars, but always regarded themselves as actors and took every role seriously.
On the wall of the Beijing People's Art Rehearsal Hall, there are four characters - the drama is bigger than the sky.
When I first arrived at the theater, I always heard that an actor or a colleague still had to endure grief and stick to his post when his or her family member died or became seriously ill, and the actor even performed some cheerful scenes on stage.
Stories like this really happen to every generation of art workers.
Now, whenever a new actor enters the theater, I inform them about the nature of the industry.
The more holidays are, the more the actors have to work. As long as there is a performance in the theater during the Spring Festival, the actor must take the completion of the performance as the first priority.
After entering the gate of Beijing Renyi, everything must be performed and the audience is the center, and other important things must be discussed after leaving the theater.
We often talk about "keeping upright". In my opinion, keeping upright is not to clone the performances of old artists, but to keep their spirit of reverence for art, stage, audience, and profession.
Pioneering and innovating, continue to climb the peak of art
In the past 70 years, Beijing Renyi has staged more than 360 ancient and modern Chinese and foreign dramas, including classic works such as "Dragon Beard Ditch", "Tea House", "Thunderstorm", "Sunrise" and "The First Floor in the World".
Every generation of actors is in the repeated stage tempering to inherit the classics.
I remember when the performance of "Tea House" ended in 1992, and when the older generation of artists called their curtains, I cried a lot after returning from studying abroad.
At that time, Beijing Arts and Crafts was in a stage of transition between the old and the new. The older generation of artists had retired, and the new generation of us had not grown up. What should we do?
The seniors told us to carve the mold first, learn the superficial things of the old artists first, and then search for the inside of the characters little by little, and deeply study why they act like this.
We inherit "Tea House", not to say how Yu Zhi, Lan Lanye, and Zheng Rong perform, but I will play it. It is not to inherit a group of Xiao Shizhi, Xiao Lanye, and Xiao Zheng Rong, but on the basis of old artists, Shape the characters we understand according to the aesthetic needs of the audience.
When we first took over "Tea House", the audience was not optimistic about us, and the new team encountered a lot of scolding. Now "Tea House" is sold out every time the tickets are issued, and the version we played seems to have become a classic.
Today, "Tea House" has not changed in stage beauty, costume, style and make-up, only the actors have changed.
Our generation of actors has surpassed themselves in terms of technology, perception of life, and grasp of characters, which is different from the interpretation of old artists.
The inheritance from the older generation of artists gives us the confidence and confidence to make different attempts and explorations.
During the celebration of the 70th anniversary of Beijing Renyi, due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, there were not many offline performances, so we launched online performances.
The live broadcast of "Tea House" has accumulated 140 million views from June 5 to June 12, which is called "the ceiling of the live broadcast of dramas".
The number of hits in the script reading has reached more than 9 million, which is also a number that is difficult to surpass in similar performances.
These all reflect the audience's recognition and love for us.
In recent years, Beijing Renyi has entered a period of alternating old and new.
Doing a good job in cultivating a new generation of drama talents has become the top priority of the future development of Beijing People's Art.
In fact, in recent years, we have been gradually training new people.
In 2016, I served as the actor captain of the theater, and began to change the strategy of recruiting actors and restarted the trainee class model. After a year of training and internship, they grew rapidly. Of the 14 actors, 10 stayed in Beijing. Art has injected a large amount of fresh blood into Beijing Renyi.
This model continues to be implemented.
Today, the "post-90s" actors have begun to stand in the center of the stage. The three leading actors of the new versions of "Sunrise", "Thunderstorm" and "The Wilderness" are all 24-year-olds.
They are the hope of theater development.
Actors take over from generation to generation, and so do audiences.
From the beginning of watching dramas, to gradually falling in love with Beijing Renyi and drama, audiences from generation to generation followed Beijing Renyi into the theater with one play after another.
Now "Tea House" is being played by the second generation of actors, and the third and fourth generation actors in "The First Floor" are also "rising". The new version of "Thunderstorm" has the fourth and fifth generation actors participating. Audience acceptance is still very high.
There are reasons why young actors grow up, and there are also reasons for the audience.
The "post-90s" and "post-00s" audiences have begun to become the mainstream of theater viewing. They enter the theater frequently, have many choices, and have higher requirements in all aspects.
While we have cultivated audiences from generation to generation, changes in audience structure are also constantly promoting the development of Beijing Renyi.
Beijing Renyi has always had a pioneering spirit.
Over the past 70 years, we have blazed a path with Chinese performance characteristics and formed the Beijing Renyi School of Drama. This is innovation.
In the 1980s, China's first small theater play "Absolute Signal" was born in Beijing Renyi, and the representative plays "Wild Man" and "Station" of avant-garde dramas were also born here.
Throughout the history of Beijing Renyi, there will be innovative moves in every period.
These innovations may not be earth-shaking, but they are moving forward step by step, breaking through themselves little by little.
Beijing Renyi has a rich family background, and at the same time spares no effort to promote the creation of original plays.
At the nodes of major events in the country, Beijing Renyi will present corresponding works from its own unique perspective.
For example, "North Street and South Courtyard" was created with the background of fighting "SARS", the earthquake relief work "Life", and the latest "Community Neighborhood Committee" created with the theme of fighting against the new crown pneumonia epidemic, created to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party The "Night of Fragrant Hills" and so on.
For a long time, Beijing Renyi has stood at the forefront of the times and recorded the changes of the times with the audience.
70 years has entered a rare age for a person, but it is youth for Beijing Renyi.
In 2021, with the completion of the Beijing International Drama Center, Beijing Renyi has also opened a new era.
Today, we have 4 theatres and a public theatre.
New theaters, new plays, new actors, and new audiences mean new opportunities.
In continuing to carry the classics to the end of the "upright" and "innovation" to explore the infinite possibilities in the future, Beijing Renyi will always adhere to the people's position, show artistic style, cultivate family and country feelings, and move towards the next 10 years with a more high-spirited attitude. year.
(The author is a performing artist and the vice president of Beijing People's Art Theater, interviewed and organized by our reporter Zheng Na)