Firmly advocate the pursuit of virtue and art (adhere to the "two innovations" and pay attention to literature and art in the new era)
Pu Cunxin
Core reading
Whether standing on stage or through the screen, the actor is facing the people. Without love for the people, awe for art, and sincerity to the profession, it is impossible to play the realism of the character and enter the hearts of the audience
Caring for the audience, so constantly tempering art to better serve the audience; Caring for the audience, so he is always cautious and modest, and strictly self-disciplined in his style and morality. This is a model that we should learn from today
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in his important speeches at the opening ceremony of the 40th National Congress of the China Federation of Literary and Artistic Associations and the <>th National Congress of the China Writers Association: "The vast number of literary and art workers should have a heart of awe for art and a sincere heart for the profession, and make real efforts, practice true skills, and seek true reputation." "After more than <> years of acting career, I have come to realize more and more that whether standing on the stage or through the screen, actors face the people. Without love for the people, awe for art, and sincerity to the profession, it is impossible to play the realism of the character and enter the hearts of the audience. Putting in real effort, practicing real skills, and seeking true fame are the right path and avenue for actors to take.
The basic skill is the lifeline that determines how far an actor can go
In recent years, in addition to working as an actor, I have become a teacher and director. He served as the artistic director of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Drama Ensemble Team, taught the Beijing Renyi Performance Trainees Training Course, directed the graduation drama "Hamlet" of the first Tibetan undergraduate class of the Performance Department of the Shanghai Theater Academy, and rearranged the drama classics "Thunderstorm" and "Seagull" with the young actors of Beijing Renyi... In the past, I was a descendant of the outstanding actors and artists of my predecessors, and now, I want to use the skills I have learned and the lessons learned in decades of professionalism to inspire these young actors in their twenties and thirties, and stimulate their energy and vitality.
Many art trades have clear and rigorous basic training. Drama performances have always emphasized the hearts and feelings of individuals, and lack unified training standards in basic skills. I try to figure out summaries and test them in teaching and rehearsals. For example, lines can be said to be the most important basic skills of drama performance. Only when the words are round, the breathing is smooth, the four tones are in place, and the meaning is accurately achieved, can the language have power and be sent far, and can the audience hear, hear, understand, and listen to the heart. After I joined the Chinese Dramatists Association, I began to learn from opera. Every time I perform, I will watch the opera actors perform in the side curtain, and then go back to hone my lines and basic skills, and I feel that I have improved. Actors are also language arts workers, and they have to speak Chinese well on stage. Beijing Renyi has always insisted on using the original sound on the stage, without the help of microphones, microphones and other amplification equipment, in order to retain the original taste of the stage performance as much as possible.
The older generation of actors have a self-confidence on stage, and behind them are solid basic skills, a lot of time and energy investment, and also the intuition and improvisation of performance. In the field of opera, there is a saying that "three shapes and six energies have eight hearts, and unintentional performances are ten". There are appearances, three points; The words are accurate, the cavity is round, the strength is full, and the points are six; Walking heartwarming, eight points; Do whatever you want, how to act right, ten. When it comes to the stage of "unintentional ten", it is not the actor who sings along with the strings, but the drums and strings that follow the actors. Being both me and no, being an actor and a character, is the charm of stage performance.
From the accumulation of life, it forges a unique role on the stage
"Actors who can act, actors who can't act", this is the understanding of Chinese drama pioneer Hong Shen on acting. Director Chen Xinyi also said this sentence when rehearsing the drama "Field" to Beijing Renyi: "The actor's line is normal to play a person." "You can be light and relaxed, or you can be shouting and passionate, but it's all normal for people in a given situation.
I still remember that in the second year of entering Beijing Renyi, in "Thunderstorm", which was learned by junior actors, I played the role of Zhou Ping, played by my father, without much personal true feelings, and did not understand enough, basically learning my father like a red model for the first time calligraphy. Therefore, teacher Ren Baoxian said to me: "How can you act so clearly!" "It took me a long time to realize that I was just acting out my father's understanding of the characters, only acting out the results of the emotional surface.
Many old actors in Beijing Renyi can both act and live, and behind every move on stage, there is a deep accumulation of life. Be comfortable in life, and acting must be comfortable. Mr. Lin Liankun, who played Changgui in "The First Floor of the World", is not the protagonist, but as long as he is on stage, he can attract the attention of the audience. When "The First Floor of the World" was already scheduled for the second act, he replaced others in the rehearsal. Mr. Lin took the script while answering the lines, while adapting to the scheduling that the opponent actors had arranged, and in some places he was uncomfortable walking, so he stopped to try other methods. Suddenly, he changed his movements while saying a large line, leaned against the doorpost, wiped the table twice, and then supported the corner of the table with his fingers. Mr. Lin's role is the head of the hall, I don't know how many customers I have to pick up and how much work I have to do all day long, so when I can spare a few words to chat, I will have the physical feeling of relying on and supporting it, especially with life, and the role is also standing. At that time, the actors in the entire rehearsal hall were amazed by Mr. Lin's performance.
Going deep into life and experiencing life is a fine tradition of Beijing Renyi's role shaping. But experiencing life is not about staring at life, hard looking for it is not found. Art comes from life, and it must be the image of many experiences and memories slowly superimposed, coupled with the actor's personal character, habits, etc., together "transformed" into the unique role on the stage.
In order to play Bai Jiaxuan in the drama "White Deer Plain", I once went to the prototype of the story to experience life and pay attention to the image of Bai Jiaxuan. What is he really like? I think of Luo Zhongzhong's "Father", but that image is flat and fixed, and there is no dynamic of characters talking, walking, and treating people. After eating and living with the villagers and working in the fields for many days, Bai Jiaxuan's shadow could not be found. Finally, when I was having dinner with the original author Chen Zhongzhong, I suddenly found that Chen Zhong was not a "Bai Jiaxuan"! He is simple and humble, calm and humble, with an air of unbiased integrity, and even the lines on his face are extremely sculptural. From then on, I began to pay attention to him, observe him, and when I performed, I would think of him imitating him, and finally achieved character development.
Life is everywhere. To be an actor with a heart, you must always rely on what you see, hear, and think to literary and artistic creation, and after many years, these will become the inspiration for actors to create roles and understand the background of characters. Drama is like literature staged in a stage frame, it shows life and shows people, and also causes the audience to think about life and people. Correspondingly, the learning of our actors is to know the world, understand things, and cultivate the ability to interpret life, characters and various things.
Guard the duty of an actor, care for the audience and serve the audience
Recently, people always recommend the animated film "Chang'an 30,1991 Li" to me, probably because I have played Li Bai for more than <> years. The drama "Li Bai" has been performed since <> to today, not only I am shaping Li Bai, but Li Bai is also shaping me. As I grew older and more experienced, I continued to ponder Li Bai's life, and constantly understood and integrated into Li Bai's role. The pattern and angle of the movie "Chang'an <>,<> Li" are not the perspective of historians or big artists, but the perspective of young people and children. To play Li Bai, he wants to show his naked heart, and show the exuberance and ease of his life. I remember once performing the drama "Li Bai" in Shenzhen, and I just watched the animated movie "Zootopia" before the performance. The wild imagination of the movie influenced me, allowing me to happily interpret the real side of Li Bai on stage.
In addition to Li Bai, I have also played the roles of Master Cao Cao, Cao Zhi, Lu Xun, and Hongyi, recited the beautiful texts of many masters such as Su Dongpo, Lu You, and Wen Yiduo, and also played characters written by literary giants such as Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen, Cao Yu and Lao She. Their lives and hearts influence me, and I feel and act in the name of the characters. In the process of shaping the character, changing yourself and improving yourself is the luck of being an actor.
I am an actor who has been promoted by the role, an actor who has been promoted by the senior artists, and an actor who has been promoted by the audience. In my heart, it is the audience that accompanies me the most. Just like Chekhov borrowed Terry Goolin's line in "The Seagull": "In order to collect the most beautiful flowers and create honey to give to people, even I don't know who these people are..." But I am sure that in every performance, with eyelashes covering the light, facing the audience, I am confessing to them my understanding of the work and the characters. In this sense, I will always be a candidate for the audience.
Lyricist Yan Su once said that "talent, diligence, fate, duty, duty is the most difficult". Keeping my duty as an actor and not "misplaced" myself is my admonition to myself. Peking Opera performance artist Li Shaochun every time he performs in a venue, first look at the depth of the venue, see if there are pillars on the second floor to block the audience, if it is deep, his appearance will consciously take half a step more to ensure that each audience can see their own moves. Caring for the audience, so constantly tempering art to better serve the audience; Caring for the audience, so he is always cautious and modest, and strictly self-disciplined in his style and morality. This is a model that we should learn from today.
The theater space is a beautiful landscape of modern life. Different plays and different themes have different audiences, and people-centered creative performances must think what the audience thinks, aim at the needs of the audience, attract, satisfy and enhance people with excellent works, so that the audience is still willing to enter the theater in an era of increasingly rich aesthetic methods and literary and artistic life, and want to come back after watching the play. Dramatists continue to inherit the tradition of Chinese theater, tap the potential of contemporary theater, consolidate the accumulation of academic experience, and firmly pursue virtue and art, all of which give us reason to look forward to a better prospect for the theater career.
(The author of People's Daily is the chairman of the China Dramatists Association, and this newspaper reporter Hu Yanyan interviewed and collated)