Feng Yuanzheng: Experience the Journey of Poetry with Du Fu
Our reporter Li Li
Indulge in the temples and enjoy the rivers and lakes of poetry.
From September 23, the historical drama "Du Fu" in Beijing will be staged again.
With a unique perspective and a poetic stage, this historical drama fully demonstrates Du Fu's spiritual world and personality charm.
Director and starring Feng Yuanzheng said that everyone is familiar with Du Fu's poems, but they may not know much about how he can write these lines. The journey of poetry.
Let every line be deeply rooted in the heart
"Du Fu", which premiered in 2019, is another play by Renyi screenwriter Guo Qihong that focuses on the poet's fate after works such as "Li Bai" and "Confidant".
On the stage, along with the ups and downs of the poet's fate, one after another well-known poems flowed out naturally, blending the poet's life experience and great personality into one.
In order to let the audience hear the half-written and half-white language in the play clearly, the creators put a lot of effort into the lines.
"The poems in the play are not to be recited, but to be used for dialogue and communication like speech." Feng Yuanzheng asked the actors to strive to convey the unique classical charm and rhythm of the play to the audience on the basis of thorough understanding.
"Mr. Guo Qihong read 187 materials about Du Fu before he wrote a script of tens of thousands of words, so it is very important to understand the script thoroughly. I did the same myself." During the first rehearsal in 2019, Feng Yuanzheng brought the actors along with him. I read the script 24 times in 12 days, "In the beginning, most young people struggled to read the script. For example, the word 'official career' is very difficult for them to say. We even thought about it, if it really doesn't make sense. , it was changed to 'official career', but after reading the script for 12 days, the young actors all said, 'rubbing' seems to be more accurate and more cultural than 'hardship'."
As the actor of Du Fu, Feng Yuanzheng's large monologues performed with passion in the play are even more contagious.
He emphasized pauses and blank spaces, not pursuing the smoothness of practice makes perfect, but more pursuing a reasonable psychological basis. "We must lift weights lightly to make every line deeply rooted in people's hearts and play a real person well."
The most thought-provoking play is a dream within a dream
The drama "Du Fu" selects the poet's rough life trajectory from the "An Shi Rebellion" to his death, and shows his great spiritual world through the ups and downs of life situations.
In Feng Yuanzheng's opinion, "Actually, the poet is not a high-ranking poet. Teacher Guo Qihong chose Du Fu's most bitter experience to write, and even wrote that he was going to grab food with monkeys. This is the real Du Fu. It is precisely because there are With such an experience, he can become a 'poetry saint' who cares about the people and people's livelihood."
It is necessary to tell the story well, carry the cultural connotation, and at the same time be ornamental. To this end, "Du Fu" has made various attempts.
As a historical drama, "Du Fu" has a classical atmosphere, beautiful and romantic stage.
The freehand lines, the metallic structure, and the "sacred fire and secluded flowers" flying all over the sky create a sense of space that combines tradition and modernity.
"Du Fu's life was too hard, and the stage presentation must be beautiful." Feng Yuanzheng revealed that in the early stage of creation, he put forward requirements for stage design, "I never want a thatched hut to appear on the stage, and when the wind blows, the stage is full of Thatch. Later, we used a video to show it, and it also became the finishing touch on the stage.”
"The last scene is the favorite of many young audiences, and it is also the scene that I spend the most time with." At the end of "Du Fu", Feng Yuanzheng designed a dream-in-dream scene, using a dream to make Du Fu and Su Huan , Li Bai, Gao Shi, Yan Wu and other celebrities in the Tang Dynasty were able to "meet" across time and space.
In their dreams, Du Fu and his friends directly expressed their hearts and minds, discerning right and wrong, and also led the audience to wander in the spiritual home of ancient Chinese scholars and officials.
New round of performances gives young people a chance
It is not only necessary to fully schedule the entire performance, but also to complete the most core performance tasks, which makes Feng Yuanzheng, who is also the director and starring, extremely hard, but the feedback from the audience also makes him very happy: "During the first two rounds of performances, we found that Many parents bring their children to watch the play, especially when we play Du Fu's poems during the intermission, many children read along with them. I think this kind of transmission is very good. The audience can experience a journey of poetry with "Du Fu". Interesting too."
In order to complete the third round of performances this time and present the best state to the audience, Feng Yuanzheng convened the crew to rehearse a month in advance.
He said: "Rehearsal is not about restoring the state, but about rediscovering the characters and understanding them again. Every round of performance is a perfect process." I still took the time to read the script, and carefully crafted every word.
At the same time, the crew of "Du Fu" also made their debut with a group of young actors who have just entered Beijing Renyi. Such an arrangement is also quite meaningful.
"Young people have more experience and see how Beijing Renyi is created, which can help them integrate as soon as possible." Feng Yuanzheng said that this is also the tradition of Beijing Renyi's "passing and guiding", "My generation is led by old actors, Those who have struggled on the stage have to take young people with them and give them more opportunities so that they can grow up."
It is reported that this round of "Du Fu" performances will run through the "November" Golden Week until October 9, accompanying the audience to appreciate the charm of Chinese excellent traditional culture on the stage.