From July 1st, Beijing Renyi's new classic drama "Death of Famous Talents" will meet the audience again at the Caoyu Theater. This round of performances will last until July 10th. Since the Beijing International Drama Center was completed and opened last year, this is also the first time that "Death of a Famous Actor" has appeared in the Cao Yu Theater in the center. In the history of Beijing art, the play was publicly staged twice in 1957 and 1979. 
The rehearsal and performance of this round of "Death of a Famous Celebrity" is a great challenge for the crew and even the arts. The sudden death of Ren Ming, director of Renyi and director of Renyi, put the main creative team under great pressure. For director Ren Ming's last talk in the rehearsal hall, the creators are still fresh in their memory - "Every rehearsal must have a rehearsal meaning, many plays are going to be new, just like those traditional old plays, but This new play is to find the old taste after innovation, so that it can last." Starting from such a request, everyone in the crew is also looking for the "old taste" in the play.
The biggest attraction in the whole drama "Death of Famous Talents" is undoubtedly the perfect fusion of Peking Opera and drama. Different from the use of opera elements in previous dramas, this play allows the audience to see the narrative method of drama and the core story of Peking Opera, both in form and sublimation of theme, and the combination of the two has become a brand new style on the stage.
Yan Rui, a young actor who once co-directed the play with director Ren Ming and played Liu Zhensheng in the play, has undertaken all the directing work for this round of performances. "In addition to scheduling, speaking, catching characters, etc., going back to that era and looking for the ideas of that industry, and even the people in that industry, this is the state that this drama is going to pursue." He told The Paper reporter that Liu Zhensheng's in the drama Motto: I live to sing. "This finishing touch was proposed by Mr. Ren Ming back then. The famous actors in the play are both inheritors and martyrs. Outside the play, this is actually a portrayal of the practice of Dean Ren Ming's personal artistic creation."
"Every time you rehearse, you must bring out new ideas, instead of single-swing and floating, doing a job, this is the consistent requirement of Mr. Ren Ming. And each rehearsal actually feels different, this time brings Our whole group has gray memories... Fortunately, the show is there, and people are talking. Mr. Ren Ming is gone, but his drama is still there, and he is still with us. This stall (Beijing Art Institute Seventh 10th anniversary), we performed this play well, not only representing the younger generation of artists standing on the stage, but also comforting the spirit of Teacher Ren in heaven." Yan Rui said.
Yan Rui said that Tong Chao, a senior in the theater, had played Liu Zhensheng before, "In order to deepen life, Peking Opera artist Tan Fuying took Tong Chao to the backstage of the troupe to observe the behavior of the theater owner. It was really 'dancing with shackles'. It turned out that this play was not long and was suitable to be performed in a small theater. Later, considering that it was an industrial play after all, the story behind the scenes of Liyuan and the life of the actors backstage were brought to the stage. We are not performing Peking opera on the stage of a drama. , but to present the essence and essence of Peking Opera's oriental aesthetics. What we want is the soul of the drama and the god of Peking Opera."
"Integrity and rules" are the key words of this edition of "Death of Famous Talents", and how to present such a theme ingeniously on the stage is extremely critical. "Subjectively, we don't hope that the audience can understand or learn something when they watch this, but by presenting a more natural state, the situation in the play can reflect our current industry." Yan Rui said that in the play, through the conflict between the main characters, the audience can fully understand the connotation of the play. , Liu Zhensheng has come to the end of his life, and a series of stage performances with a sense of ritual not only enhance the atmosphere, but also strengthen the concept of the creator.
"I live to sing!" Such a line is exactly the high-level summary of Director Ren Ming for the whole play. For everyone in the crew, this sentence is also enough to represent Director Ren Ming's character and belief. In this round of "Death of Famous Talents", Yan Rui, Li Xiaomeng, Yang Mingxin, Wu Yuchenning, Lian Xudong, Li Lin, Xie Tian, Zhou Jiayu, Su Hao and other young actors and actors Liu Chen and Zhao Yu are two foreign aids in the field of opera. Together on the stage, through this work, we show the inheritance and beliefs belonging to Beijing art.
Li Xiaomeng, a young actor who plays Liu Fengxian in this play, said in an interview with the media that although it was born nearly a hundred years ago, the content of this work is not completely unfamiliar to modern audiences. In society, sometimes you will get lost, so you need someone to provide you with a space and an environment, so that you can find your original intention and your original self. Our play is really simple and eternal, and simple can find the longest The most intriguing truth."
Recalling Dean Ren Ming, Li Xiaomeng also moistened her eyes. "When I was in my junior year, I worked with director Ren Ming for the first time in "The First Intimate Contact". That play was performed in the experimental theater on the third floor of the Capital Theater, and I still remember it clearly. At that time, Mr. Ming was very naive and very fat. Wang Lei (Li Xiaomeng's husband, a Beijing-based actor) said that I was like a red panda, and Mr. Ren was like a giant panda. During the rehearsal, Mr. Ren would take every action seriously. Demonstration... Teacher Ren has been the dean for several years, and his face is always tired and complaining too much. When I heard the news of his death that night, Wang Lei and I hugged each other and cried. Teacher Ren was our drama guide. ."
Li Xiaomeng recalled that after this round of "Death of Famous Talents" was formed, Dean Ren Ming held a meeting for everyone for the last time. "He said that a drama like "Thunderstorm" is an old drama, and "Death of a Famous" should be a new drama and an old drama. It is necessary to find an old drama. Mr. Tian Han's three-act drama was originally more than half. When we were young, we later enriched our plays a lot. This 'flavor' is what I was looking for in the performance, and it was also something that we needed very much in this play. In this round of performances, I have further improved in terms of stage posture, I hope that the audience can see the professional sense that opera actors should have."
"You can't just play the characters cute, the important thing is to play them realistically. It's like the lines in our play. Is it good? It's up to the audience to decide." Li Xiaomeng said that this rehearsal rehearsal , Everyone still vacated Director Ren Ming's table and chairs, "We looked at his position, as if he was looking at everyone with a fan, still showing a childlike smile. I later posted the rehearsal photos in the circle of friends, Shi Niang (director Ren Ming's wife) also gave me a like and left a message saying: "Teacher Ren will definitely see this masterpiece in the sky."
"The Death of the Famous" poster
In 2018, on the occasion of Tian Han's 120th birthday, the new layout of the play was co-directed by Ren Ming and Yan Rui, who met with the audience at the end of that year (it has been staged at the Capital Theater since then), and the stage of exploration and innovation is presented as this drama. The play has accumulated a good reputation. Not only to cherish the memory of the dead Chinese drama masters, but also to express the artistic persistence between drama and opera. Looking back at the beginning of the play in 1927, Tian Han felt the experience of Xu Sheng Liu Hongsheng's untimely death in the late Qing Dynasty. He wrote the play and won wide acclaim.The rehearsal and performance of this round of "Death of a Famous Celebrity" is a great challenge for the crew and even the arts. The sudden death of Ren Ming, director of Renyi and director of Renyi, put the main creative team under great pressure. For director Ren Ming's last talk in the rehearsal hall, the creators are still fresh in their memory - "Every rehearsal must have a rehearsal meaning, many plays are going to be new, just like those traditional old plays, but This new play is to find the old taste after innovation, so that it can last." Starting from such a request, everyone in the crew is also looking for the "old taste" in the play.
"Death of the Famous" stills. The stills in this article were taken by Li Chunguang.
"The soul of drama, the god of Peking Opera"The biggest attraction in the whole drama "Death of Famous Talents" is undoubtedly the perfect fusion of Peking Opera and drama. Different from the use of opera elements in previous dramas, this play allows the audience to see the narrative method of drama and the core story of Peking Opera, both in form and sublimation of theme, and the combination of the two has become a brand new style on the stage.
Yan Rui, a young actor who once co-directed the play with director Ren Ming and played Liu Zhensheng in the play, has undertaken all the directing work for this round of performances. "In addition to scheduling, speaking, catching characters, etc., going back to that era and looking for the ideas of that industry, and even the people in that industry, this is the state that this drama is going to pursue." He told The Paper reporter that Liu Zhensheng's in the drama Motto: I live to sing. "This finishing touch was proposed by Mr. Ren Ming back then. The famous actors in the play are both inheritors and martyrs. Outside the play, this is actually a portrayal of the practice of Dean Ren Ming's personal artistic creation."
Ren Ming and Yan Rui chat on the steps of Beijing International Drama Center. The picture is from director Yan Rui's circle of friends.
Yan Rui recalled that director Ren Ming participated in the rehearsal of the big play "De Ling and Cixi" before he graduated from Chinese opera. "So I always called President Ren Ming as teacher Ren, and it was the same after arriving at the theater. A teacher, You shouted very kindly..." Facing the media's long guns and short guns, Yan Rui's eyes turned red."Every time you rehearse, you must bring out new ideas, instead of single-swing and floating, doing a job, this is the consistent requirement of Mr. Ren Ming. And each rehearsal actually feels different, this time brings Our whole group has gray memories... Fortunately, the show is there, and people are talking. Mr. Ren Ming is gone, but his drama is still there, and he is still with us. This stall (Beijing Art Institute Seventh 10th anniversary), we performed this play well, not only representing the younger generation of artists standing on the stage, but also comforting the spirit of Teacher Ren in heaven." Yan Rui said.
Stills of "The Death of the Famous", Li Xiaomeng (front) plays Liu Fengxian, Yan Rui (back) plays Liu Zhensheng.
Yan Rui particularly mentioned the view of drama that Ren Ming often talked about when he was alive: a drama must first express people, express people's souls, people's emotions, people's destiny, and the rest are external forms that should arise. A good drama is not about how beautiful the lighting is, how grand the setting is, and how many strange methods are used, but about creating vivid and vivid characters." He said that living images create ideas, and ideas do not. Don’t create images. Only vivid images can convey ideas, not ideas that lead to a good show.”Yan Rui said that Tong Chao, a senior in the theater, had played Liu Zhensheng before, "In order to deepen life, Peking Opera artist Tan Fuying took Tong Chao to the backstage of the troupe to observe the behavior of the theater owner. It was really 'dancing with shackles'. It turned out that this play was not long and was suitable to be performed in a small theater. Later, considering that it was an industrial play after all, the story behind the scenes of Liyuan and the life of the actors backstage were brought to the stage. We are not performing Peking opera on the stage of a drama. , but to present the essence and essence of Peking Opera's oriental aesthetics. What we want is the soul of the drama and the god of Peking Opera."
"Integrity and rules" are the key words of this edition of "Death of Famous Talents", and how to present such a theme ingeniously on the stage is extremely critical. "Subjectively, we don't hope that the audience can understand or learn something when they watch this, but by presenting a more natural state, the situation in the play can reflect our current industry." Yan Rui said that in the play, through the conflict between the main characters, the audience can fully understand the connotation of the play. , Liu Zhensheng has come to the end of his life, and a series of stage performances with a sense of ritual not only enhance the atmosphere, but also strengthen the concept of the creator.
"Death of Famous" stills
"I live to sing""I live to sing!" Such a line is exactly the high-level summary of Director Ren Ming for the whole play. For everyone in the crew, this sentence is also enough to represent Director Ren Ming's character and belief. In this round of "Death of Famous Talents", Yan Rui, Li Xiaomeng, Yang Mingxin, Wu Yuchenning, Lian Xudong, Li Lin, Xie Tian, Zhou Jiayu, Su Hao and other young actors and actors Liu Chen and Zhao Yu are two foreign aids in the field of opera. Together on the stage, through this work, we show the inheritance and beliefs belonging to Beijing art.
Li Xiaomeng, a young actor who plays Liu Fengxian in this play, said in an interview with the media that although it was born nearly a hundred years ago, the content of this work is not completely unfamiliar to modern audiences. In society, sometimes you will get lost, so you need someone to provide you with a space and an environment, so that you can find your original intention and your original self. Our play is really simple and eternal, and simple can find the longest The most intriguing truth."
Recalling Dean Ren Ming, Li Xiaomeng also moistened her eyes. "When I was in my junior year, I worked with director Ren Ming for the first time in "The First Intimate Contact". That play was performed in the experimental theater on the third floor of the Capital Theater, and I still remember it clearly. At that time, Mr. Ming was very naive and very fat. Wang Lei (Li Xiaomeng's husband, a Beijing-based actor) said that I was like a red panda, and Mr. Ren was like a giant panda. During the rehearsal, Mr. Ren would take every action seriously. Demonstration... Teacher Ren has been the dean for several years, and his face is always tired and complaining too much. When I heard the news of his death that night, Wang Lei and I hugged each other and cried. Teacher Ren was our drama guide. ."
Li Xiaomeng recalled that after this round of "Death of Famous Talents" was formed, Dean Ren Ming held a meeting for everyone for the last time. "He said that a drama like "Thunderstorm" is an old drama, and "Death of a Famous" should be a new drama and an old drama. It is necessary to find an old drama. Mr. Tian Han's three-act drama was originally more than half. When we were young, we later enriched our plays a lot. This 'flavor' is what I was looking for in the performance, and it was also something that we needed very much in this play. In this round of performances, I have further improved in terms of stage posture, I hope that the audience can see the professional sense that opera actors should have."
"Death of Famous" stills
In 2018, "Death of a Celebrity" took a full four months of rehearsal before seeing the audience. "At the end of the rehearsal, Teacher Lan Ye also came to watch the play, which gave us a lot of affirmation. He especially told me that acting as a role player, How to build self-confidence is the key. What I perform on stage is behind the scenes of opera actors, but I want to bring out the style in the bones of Jiao'er. This scale is really difficult to grasp. It only depends on practice. And I am usually a mezzo-soprano, playing the role of Dan Jiao. To speak in the soprano area, you have to speak in a hoisted voice all the time, and use a small squeaky voice to bring out the feeling of chanting.”"You can't just play the characters cute, the important thing is to play them realistically. It's like the lines in our play. Is it good? It's up to the audience to decide." Li Xiaomeng said that this rehearsal rehearsal , Everyone still vacated Director Ren Ming's table and chairs, "We looked at his position, as if he was looking at everyone with a fan, still showing a childlike smile. I later posted the rehearsal photos in the circle of friends, Shi Niang (director Ren Ming's wife) also gave me a like and left a message saying: "Teacher Ren will definitely see this masterpiece in the sky."
Beijing Renyi set up an exhibition board in the theater - "Always miss Comrade Ren Ming". The picture is from director Yan Rui's circle of friends.
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