Chapter 11 Also talk about civilized drama

On March 24, Mr. Pei Kequan wrote an article about civilized dramas in the "Human World" section of "China Times", which brought back all the old stories of listening to civilized dramas in my mind.In the early years of the Republic of China, Zhu Yaodong, the Deputy Minister of Finance of the Beiyang Government, celebrated his mother's 80th birthday by singing operas at his apartment to entertain relatives and guests. The author has been a standard theater fan since childhood. I remember that Gui Junqing and Lu Sanbao's "Huanhuaxi" had just finished, and all the cultural and military fields on the stage died down, and they went backstage.The play prompt came on stage and reported: "The following is a new civilized play given by a celebrity in Shanghai, "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" starring Mr. Liu Yizhou, all guests, relatives and friends, please sit down and enjoy it?" The noisy sky suddenly turned into a civilized drama that talked but didn't sing. Everyone seemed a little awkward, but when Hong Xiuquan, the king of heaven played by Liu Yizhou, appeared, with a red silk scarf on his head and a loving girl with rhinestones on it, Wearing a pure red flowerless cloak with no sleeves, straw sandals on his feet, and a gold Ruyi that is more than a foot long in his hand, his face is rubbed red and thick eyebrows are drawn, his nose is black, and his mouth is big. and the Cantonese mandarin with the sound of Hong Zhong (it is said that because Hong is from Huaxian, Guangdong, he speaks Cantonese mandarin), exhorting the four princes is like the Yangtze River, and it really can quiet the scene, and the audience is stunned.At that time, some people said that Liu Yizhou was born with a talent for speech, and it was true. This was the first time I listened to a civilized drama and left an impression in my mind forever.

Within a few years, the Beiping municipal government opened up the area around Qianmenwai Xiangchang as a new community on Wanming Road. First, a new world was built, and then an amusement park was built. These two playgrounds, apart from Peking opera, movies, juggling, and magic, are both popular. Each has a civilized play that people in Peking consider a novelty.The civilized show in the New World is the same venue as the juggling show, with the juggling first and the civilized show after the day and night shows; the amusement park is the same venue as the magic troupe's civilized play, and the civilized show takes over after the magic.

The civilized play in the New World is called "Xing Zhong Club", hosted by Qin Haha, Jiang Xiaoxiao, etc. who sing Shanghai funny plays. Most of the plots focus on laughter and amusing.In the early years, juggling was mainly based on big drums, single strings, octagonal drums, and Shibuxian. Most of the customers in the audience were audiences of a few years old. When the civilized drama comes on stage, the audience will always be thin and thin, and it is almost impossible to call for a seat.Not long after, Bai Yunpeng, who sang the big drum, had another sex incident, and was expelled from the country by the police station, and the juggling performance was suspended because of it.The civilized drama of Xingzhong Society was even more difficult to support the building alone, so they had to withdraw their troops. Qin Haha and others followed the sea to the south and went back to Chongli, Shanghai to perform their funny one-man shows.

When it comes to the Yishishe Civilization Play in Chengnan Amusement Park, I never expected it to be a sensation in Nine Cities, and it has been lively for several years, which can be considered lucky or unfortunate.Their Yishi Club is in the same place as the magic masters Han Bingqian and Zhang Jingfu. Han Zhang’s big magic tricks are much more novel and fascinating than Kuaishou Liu’s old Chinese tricks. Everyone is welcome, and every day when the show starts, the audience is always packed.Yishishe received such a popular backcourt, and it got a lot of money from the beginning. Yishishe was presided over by Li Tianran and Hu Huahun. At that time, the police department stipulated that civilized dramas prohibited co-acting between men and women, so Yishishe was an all-male organization, and all female roles were played by men. Later, the drama club allowed men and women to co-star. Difficulty makes a difference.The biggest difference between civilized drama and drama is that drama has a script and lines. Although civilized drama has an outline and is divided into scenes and scenes, the lines are freely developed by the actors in the drama based on their eloquence and wit.

Li Tianran and Hu Huahun played the roles of old students and young students. Their performances of Shi Kefa in "Plum Blossom Ridge", Lin Juemin and Xu Xilin in "Autumn Wind and Autumn Rain", and Zhang Wenxiang in "The Thorn Horse" were all impassioned and vividly played.Later, two new roles were added, one named Liu Yixin and the other named Zhou Lang. Zhou's play had some martial arts moves. "The bearded man played by Hou Xirui is burly and magnificent, which can be called a double masterpiece.Xia Peizhen's uncle who plays the role of Dan, he has no Adam's apple, long hair, graceful and charming, and has good moves. Some women watched it several times, but they never realized that Xia Ren was a man disguised as a woman.Xue Pingqian specializes in tragic dramas, she is as beautiful as jade, with a natural face, Zhang Henshui has a very delicate description of Xue.Chen Qiufeng's body is well-fitting and slender, coupled with his bright eyes, he is a talented female role.Although Zhang Shuangyi is not very good at Mandarin, he specializes in Podan, and the powerful and arrogant female tiger shows off his might, making everyone afraid of him.Zhang Huiying is known for playing maids. She speaks Tianjin dialect and walks like a modified foot. No one can see that he is a man in disguise.The author heard that he acted in plays for two or three years, and only then did I know that he was a man when we met outside the park by chance.

There are two good clowns in the supporting role, one is Wang Daigong, and the other is Qian Chifo.To play a clown, you need to be cold, silly, and deep, and you should avoid hard and funny vexatious troubles, and you have both.It's a pity that there was no TV back then, otherwise Wang and Qian would be the best couple in modern bridge dramas! Around the Spring Festival in the 12th year of the Republic of China, a Miss Yansan collapsed in the theater building of the amusement park and died.Until now, for those who have visited Chengnan Amusement Park and listened to Wenming Opera, when you mention this group of entertainers, you still feel a little bit nostalgic!

Because I was fascinated by civilized dramas for a while when I was a child, I can never forget civilized dramas.When I came to Shanghai at the beginning of the 16th year of the Republic of China, I always wanted to relive my old dreams, reminisce about the past, travel and listen to civilized dramas.At that time, Shanghai New World, Great World, Xianshi Amusement Park, and Yongan Tianyun Building all had so-called civilized plays, but those entertainment venues were too crowded for fear of causing trouble, so they dared not set foot in them.Later, I heard that Zheng Zhengqiu and Zhang Shichuan were performing civilized operas on the Laughing Stage, and that Xin Wenmingxi also wanted to make reservations for Beijing operas.The so-called cases are scalpers that are released in theaters, so I asked relatives and friends to try to find familiar cases to reserve seats to watch. After a lot of effort, I only got eight or nine rows of seats.There were no microphones at that time, and some actors had weak voices, and they couldn't hear their lines very clearly when they sat in the back seat.

As for the seats in the front row, they are all the famous ones in the north, with few Zhangtai seats. They are either monthly subscription seats, or they are reserved for regular customers. We outsiders are not regular customers, so we have to take the back seats.At that time, the civilized dramas on the stage had made great progress compared with before, and men and women were allowed to perform together. The actors in Beiping, such as Xia Ren and Chen Qiufeng, all changed to play Xiaosheng. The most popular female roles included Li Yongcui, Ji Zhujun, Huaguoli The famous sixth child of Fuchun Building and Xiao Hong, the president of Huaguo, went to the laughing stage every day to invite guests to book seats to join him, and even formed a handkerchief exchange with Li Ji.Later, due to the expiry of the lease on the laughing stage and the booming film industry, Zheng and Zhang devoted themselves to developing the filming business, and the civilized drama on the laughing stage has become a historical term.

On the eve of the Anti-Japanese War, Gu Wuwei, a tycoon in the entertainment industry in Nanjing, thought that Tang Huaiqiu and Tang Ruoqing's China Travel Service performed in the Pingjin area, which was extremely sensational, so he organized a Great China Theater Troupe with a brainstorm.Actor You Gu's wife Lu Cuilan, Ying Baolian, Chen Qiufeng, Qin Haha, etc., as well as the supporting cast of civilized dramas, about 20 or 30 people, made a mighty expedition to Beiping. It was staged in two theaters, True Light and Xicheng Central.Although their theater troupe is under the banner of drama, it is actually not out of the mold of civilized drama, so it is quite popular with some wealthy families, leisure and wealthy classes.

Unexpectedly, not long after the performance, a few scumbags in the troupe had a sexual affair, and were caught by the police at the Oriental Hotel, and the whole troupe was punished by deportation.The group fled to Tianjin to open another pier. Later, the old habits did not change, and because of misbehavior, they were ordered to stop performing, and the Great China Theater Troupe died without a problem.I heard that this time Gu Wuwei was greatly hurt, and he has never recovered from it. The Anti-Japanese War was prospering. In the early days of the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, the British and French concessions suddenly became a golden area on an isolated island, and the concessions suddenly showed extraordinary prosperity.The China Travel Service hosted by Tang's father and daughter at the Xuangong Grand Theater was very popular, and Shi Hui and Sun Jinglu were not weak in their appeal in Lafei Garden.During that period, the development of the drama was in full swing, which was exciting and exciting.Ordinary old people who stayed in Shanghai to perform civilized operas were delighted to see Liexin, so they also organized a troupe in the Lubao Theater in Xinxin Company to stage plays between Wenyin operas and modern dramas.The raw roles include Gu Menghe and Yu Yang, and the female roles include Wang Xueyan, Fan Xuepeng and others. Fan is now the wife of the old drama Humanities Yimin who is hospitalized in Taipei. Back then, she was the most popular heroine with bright eyes and charming looks.

Later, the film became popular, and the actors of the Emerald Theater joined the film industry to act in films. At that time, everyone did not know how to make plays, so the actors scattered and the manpower was insufficient. The so-called bright play in everyone's mind ended from then on.The above are all old things around this century. There may be mistakes and omissions in people, places, things, and things. However, the clouds and smoke pass by, and the past feels old. In the hearts of middle-aged and elderly friends, gurgling thoughts and vicissitudes of life may still arise in the hearts of middle-aged and elderly friends!