Chapter 10 8. Performing on stage

In the early autumn of 1940, classmates from the Shanghai Opera School performed at the Shanghai Golden Theater (now the Public Theater). After only 9 months of entering the school, he was able to perform, and no one expected that there would be a scene of empty streets. The first poster of the opera school performance announced the list of teachers, the stage names of all the students of the "Zheng" generation, and the repertoires of the three cannon plays, which immediately attracted the attention of the audience of Peking Opera in Shanghai.The theater tickets were sold out in three days. Not only were the seats full for the first performance, but all the extra seats and standing tickets were also sold out. The theater was packed.

In order to select these three "cannon scenes", Mr. Guan Hongbin really racked his brains and painstaking efforts.He and teachers such as Rui Debao, Liu Songqiao, Zheng Chuanjian, Liang Lianzhu, Guan Shengming, Chen Tongyun, Xu Ziyun, Chen Binyu, Mu Shenglou, Shi Xiaoshan and other teachers decided after careful consideration that the first stage will be "Blessing of Heavenly Officials", "Second Entry into the Palace" Three Pirates of Nine Dragons Cup" and "Eight Five Flower Cave"; the second channel is "Fugui Changchun" and "Siro Visits His Mother";These three operas can fully demonstrate what the opera school students have learned. The operas are novel and unique, and they can show the skills of actors in various professions such as raw, female, pure, and ugly.

The first play "Heavenly Official's Blessing" means auspiciousness.The protagonist Tianguan is played by Zheng Zhengxue, and there are also five gods, Yuntong, and fairies.In the compact "battlefield" of gongs and drums, the Yuntongs first came up with two Yuntongs holding "cloud pieces" props, and followed the gongs and drums to show their waist and legs rhythmically and skillfully.After the waist and legs are completed, two Yuntong will be introduced to the other two, and then there will be 4. After scheduling changes, it will gradually become 8 and 16. After the formation is changed again, 16 will be introduced again. There are 32 cloud boys, each holding a cloud piece, just a little bit of effort, the audience received an unexpected effect.Afterwards, the clouds were arranged in order into the four characters "Tian, ​​Xia, Tai, Ping", with consistent movements and neat formations. There are "Golden Rooster Independent" rising and falling three times, and "Exploring the Sea and Shooting Swallows" and "Kite Turning Over". ", there are also difficult skills such as "flying somersaults" and "tumbling tendons", which are very exciting!This is a group dance that highlights basic skills.The audience in the audience were all happy and responded with prolonged applause.Before the protagonist "Tianguan" came on stage, these students who played Yuntong had already fired the first shot and became popular! The 16 female students who played the role of palace ladies were not far behind. When the fairies (court ladies) stood in class without a single line, they entered the stage in two pairs, two by two, and followed the standard steps very seriously, stepping on the co-timed gongs.Every time they stand still in the center of the stage, they will smile at each other, and then separate into groups, standing on both sides.Such a neat and pleasing stage scene was rare at that time, and the audience also gave warm applause to the fairies.

Followed by "Two Entering the Palace", "Three Stealing Nine Dragon Cups" and "Eight Five Flower Cave". It is worth mentioning that "Eight Five Flower Cave" can not only show a powerful lineup of 4 true and 4 false 8 Pan Jinlian, but also Zhang Tianshi, Wusheng Judge, Jingxing Baolongtu, ugly 8 Wu Dalang, 4 One donkey driver, two Wu Dapao, all kinds of professions are complete, and they can give full play to the advantages of the opera school and their specialty in all aspects of singing, reciting, acting, and fighting.The purpose of choosing this repertoire is to allow more students to practice and practice on the stage, to show their skills, to let the audience know the students well, and to enhance students' confidence in their careers.

The four real Pan Jinlian are played by Gu Zhengqiu, Tong Zhengmei, Sun Zhenglu and Zhang Zhengfang. The four fake Pan Jinlians are played by Zhang Zhengfen, Lu Zhengmei, Shen Zhengxia and Jia Zhengyun.Zhang Tianshi Zhou Zhengrong, Bao Longtu Zhou Zhengli, Justice Wang Zhengkun, and the two Wu Dapao are Sun Zhengyang and Guan Zhengliang.Eight students including Xing Zhenghao and Peng Zhenglin are responsible for the true and false Wu Dalang. The 24 little demons are played by Jing Zhengfei, Ma Zhenglong and others. When the four Zhenwu Dalang said "Aha" in the background, before the sound of "Ha" fell, the four dwarves had stepped onto the stage and stood firmly at the "Jiulongkou". They read "short stature—" and counted the boards in this passage, "brighten the soles of the shoes and take short steps" rhythmically to the entrance of the platform in a word-by-word manner. Four in one, and very neat, four people are like one person, It's really like a collective short step dance, it's so beautiful!This kind of treatment was unprecedented at the time, so the audience applauded once the number of boards was finished.

Then, 4 real Pan Jinlians came on stage to the accompaniment of the small gongs of "Five Strikes to the Head". unanimously received warm applause from the audience.It was even more difficult for the 4 fake Pan Jinlians to appear on the stage. They covered their faces with fans, and they had to raise their hands at the same height. The distance and standing position of each person must be accurate. Since they all cover their faces with fans, it is difficult to see each other. They can only rely on the skilled steps they have practiced and know their positions in order to find the correct position.A "Boom Teng Teng", the soles of the feet followed the gong sutra to match a "small step" as a pause standard for the appearance, and then with the drumbeat of "tearing the edge", the neatly unified fan covering the face slowly descended Move to reveal the face, follow the "clang" sound of the gong, put the fan on the chest and light it up, and follow the gong sutra of "Phoenix nodding", cooperate with the performance of hands, eyes, body, method and steps, and put the fan on the face. Bu first smiled, suggesting to the audience that I was transformed from a monster; then he turned the fan around in the "cloud hand" and closed it in the "cloud hand", with a "small step" under his feet, and changed to another standing posture At this time, the folding fan is clamped by the "orchid finger" of the right hand, and the left hand rests on the right elbow, showing a beautiful face—the still movements of the four fake Pan Jinlians are extremely graceful, just like "people in the painting".The performance at the end of the game is even more exciting.In order to show that I was transformed by a monster, sometimes I show my original shape, showing a big face, and sometimes I pretend to be a charming Pan Jinlian, pretending to be shy and coquettish. This kind of dual character transformation is very dramatic and very effective. Room for talent.

When Wu Dalang hired donkeys for Pan Jinlian to go to Yanggu County to find Wu Song, the four donkeys were played by classmates. They were dressed in donkey shapes. , although it may not be suitable, but acting as a child, it is mainly lively, novel, and curious. It is unique and loved by the audience. There was also a scene of "complaining against the government". When Wu Dapao came down to judge the real and fake Wu Dalang, there were 10 short men standing on the stage, and he read out: "Huh? Let's be as tall as 10 people! Chachacha... When chanting "chachacha", the band played with rhythmic rapping, and all 10 people jumped up with short steps and jumped up and down three times, shaking from side to side according to the beat.The audience had never seen such a neat and funny scene, and they not only roared with laughter, but also gave warm applause.

When 8 Pan Jinlians, 4 true, 4 false, met together, there was an "ah".With the sound of "Alas", all eight Pan Jinlians held handkerchiefs in their left hands and folding fans in their right hands, and made a circle around their left hands with their right hands.In this small hand-wrapping movement, the 8 people made it uniform and neat, the colors of the handkerchiefs were flying, and the sound of "pop" was loud, and the audience was suddenly silent and concentrated.Immediately afterwards, the eight Pan Jinlians read: "Where did this start?" When reading the word "Shuo", they all use their right orchid fingers to start from their left shoulders, with the back of their hands facing inward and the palms facing outward. , following the word "qi", the long sound is dragged, and the gesture is also slowly pointed at the other party along with the long sound. 4 true means 4 false, 4 false also means 4 true, 1 to 1, a set of 8 golden lotus, the gestures are very uniform, the long sound of the word "Qi" is also dragged for a long time, each golden lotus complained from the heart Sound (blaming each other is false).This scene is very beautiful, full of sound and emotion.Every performance to this point, will be able to get thunderous applause.Later, the school went on tour in Nanjing, Bengbu, and Tianjin, and they also used "Eight Five Flower Cave" as a hit, and it was very popular wherever it went.

Zhou Zhengli, who played Bao Longtu, was hailed by the audience as "Little Jin Shaoshan" for his brass hammered face and deafening voice.In the back, the monsters descended to fight, and the whole martial arts was dispatched, which was compact and thrilling.Zhang Zhengfang and Gu Zhengqiu rushed to play the banshee, and participated in the "Two Guns and Five Plum Blossoms" with two guns (10 people fought on stage with two guns), which was very popular. The most popular one is "Arranging the Array to Capture the Demon", which gathers all the demons into the array.At this time, somersaults and small platoon competitions began. The male students showed their skills. The most outstanding one was Jing Zhengfei. He was the last one to enter the battle. , one rhythm, the audience applauded before turning 20, but he was never lazy, always insisted on turning again, with the encouragement of the audience's applause, he turned more than 30 in one go, making the whole audience excited up.As soon as the small turning stopped, an empty head (handstand) was used instead of walking, walked around the stage, returned to the middle of the stage, and then put the legs close to the head and clamped the head with the legs.There is a feature on the top of his head, that is, he has a lock of hair, which is braided into a small braid with a red headband.At this time, he faced the audience, looked left and right, his facial muscles moved, and he winked, making a funny and ugly look, and the little braid on his head was dangling, and the audience burst into laughter.Because he played Yang Xiangwu's "stealing cup" in the previous "Three Stealing Nine Dragon Cups", and he has the martial arts skills of turning over two tables, he has already won high praise from the audience. He performed vigorously for the audience, so the audience was so happy that they almost shouted at the same time: "Good little braid, let's have another one!" With a "Yuan Bao Ding", he was still walking in Taichung to perform various martial arts such as "Waist Transformation" and "Tiger Climbing in the Sky".The audience in the audience were all feasting their eyes and shouted in unison: "That's great! That's great!" The teachers and students in the backstage were also attracted by this lively and extraordinary scene, and crowded the upper and lower doors to watch.When the judge played by Wang Zhengkun uttered the last sentence "receive the majestic one", he still spared no effort when he appeared in the last "four blows to the head", and walked five consecutive "kite turnarounds", and finally "stomped the mud" to shine the golden rooster independent modeling.At this time, the end began, the curtain fell, and the task of the first performance was successfully completed.

Outside the curtain, the audience applauded thunderously and loudly. "Geban's little girl is so nice!" "Shanghai has never seen Jiege's good little girl show!" The good show is over, and the audience is reluctant to leave. The teachers who are busy in the background, seeing the sprouts cultivated by themselves, The buds have just bloomed, and they are all extremely happy, showing extremely satisfied smiles.Teacher Guan Hongbin was even more delighted. He was very busy. In addition to thanking the teachers for their hard work, he also encouraged the students: "You are very uplifting today, and you showed your face to the school. Very good, very good." At this time School director Xu Xiaochu, Principal Chen, and other school directors present also flocked to the backstage to praise the students...

Zhang Zhengfang said: "Recalling the scene at that time, the never-before-seen happiness and pride are beyond description." The first performance was a success, and the audience exchanged news, attracting more attention.The next day, at the entrance of the Golden Theater, those enthusiastic audiences knew that the tickets had already been sold out, and tried to try their luck. They came early in the morning to wait for the refund, and the box office was crowded.For the second scene, there were even more people holding standing tickets. Before the show started, the arena was already full.Due to the extremely high attendance rate, the front desk has to sign a contract with the theater school, and must perform twice a week to ease the current crowded situation and take care of the emotions of the audience who have not yet bought tickets.On the third day, the attendance rate was also very high, and the play was also very exciting. After several performances in Shanghai, the first Shanghai drama school in the south of the Yangtze River to cultivate Peking opera talents has almost become famous all over Shanghai.And it caused a shock in the opera world. The topic of the opera school's large number of talents and successful performances was widely praised, and the students of the opera school received a lot of praise. Since then, the theater school has two matinee performances every Wednesday and Saturday. As long as the posters are posted, the pre-sale tickets are always sold out. This still cannot satisfy the "appetite" of the audience, and still hopes to increase the number of performances.Therefore, it was later changed to three performances every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday during the day.Even so, it is still unable to meet the strong market demand. At that time, there were 4 theaters in Shanghai dedicated to Beijing famous actors. In addition to the Golden Theater and Xinxin Stage, there were also Tianchan Stage and Queen's Theater.Faced with the audience's request to increase the number of performances, opera schools generally choose to update the stage first, and use the time when Jingjiaoer is free before the future and after the performance to perform at night.Strange to say, wherever the students perform, the audience will follow wherever they go, and every performance must be full of audience.Under such circumstances, other theaters have also come to invite students to "fill in the gap".As a result, the children of the opera school took turns performing performances in these four theaters in Greater Shanghai, and they were very busy.The students are young and energetic, spare no effort on the stage, and their appeal is increasing day by day, and there have even been some phenomenon that some Beijing corners are not as popular as the students. Performing is also hard work.Usually, before the performance, students rehearse uninterruptedly from morning to night, three times a day, and they need to bring their own luggage and live in the school temporarily for about half a month.Because there is no dormitory in the school, all the boys can only sleep on the floor; 20 girls live in the attic in the back room (formerly used as the backstage). The attic is very low. After going up, they have to crawl. be full.There is no canteen in the school, and the students still have to go home to eat every day. Life is very difficult and the arrangements are very tight.But no one complained, because everyone saw hope, knowing that after the performance, if the audience likes it, they can sell tickets to earn money and receive food subsidies.At that time, these children had no greater pursuit, but only wanted to practice their skills and earn money to eat.It is also this simple idea that has been supporting them. With the increase in the number of performances, the repertoire of the students has also been continuously enriched.The key students who acted as four beams and eight pillars in the three cannon scenes naturally occupied the main positions in each line of work, and also gained more learning and performance opportunities through this.Over time, they have accumulated a lot of acting dramas, and they have gradually taken root in the hearts of the audience.When you mention drama schools, you will think of these representative repertoires and the students who starred in these repertoires.As for most of the other students, although the conditions are good, but because they don't have as many practical opportunities as the students who act as the leading actors, the leading actors have an advantage in comparison. They act in more plays than ordinary students and become famous before them. During the five and a half years since the opera school was opened, more than 1,000 performances have been performed in Shanghai alone. The students have accumulated rich practical and stage experience before graduation, which is an important factor to ensure the rapid development of an opera actor. After the performance, Gu Zhengqiu and Zhang Zhengfang were sought after in Shanghai.The school managers and teachers often take them with them when they go out for dinner and banquets.At that time, there was still the habit of holding church meetings, that is, for those who had the conditions, they always invited opera troupes to sing in the lively hall for weddings, birthday celebrations and other festive events.Because Zhang Zhengfang and others are very popular, so many people invite them to perform in the hall. The "auspicious plays" in their repertoires such as "Blessing of Heavenly Officials" and "Longfeng Chengxiang" are very popular.In Shanghai at that time, it was even considered a fashion to invite well-known students from opera schools to sing a concert. If they were not invited, it seemed that the host would not be honorable enough.Zhang Zhengfang remembers that when he was the busiest, he accepted invitations to perform in four halls in one day, from "Kangle Restaurant" to "Da Fugui", and then from "Ningbo Association" to "Yipinxiang" restaurant. Zhang Zhengfang said: After performing on stage, I saw and heard the enthusiastic response of the audience on the stage, and I deeply felt that this kind of enjoyment is by no means a substitute for a bite of rice, and my artistic value is far higher than a bite of rice. Much, much more "expensive"!Due to the increase in the number of business performances, the time for cultural classes and reading was washed away. Looking back today, it can't be regarded as a great regret. After all, it is a big loss after all!