I'm just an actor

Chapter 445 Variety Shows
"The Han Dynasty is in decline and the world is in danger."

The season has just entered May, and one foot of the capital has entered midsummer. Even in the early morning, the breeze is wrapped in heat waves, and the lush branches and leaves under the terrace are rattling.

Xu Rong stood on the terrace, with his right hand swaying in front of his body: "The princes from all walks of life come from all directions."

Classmate Xiao Zhang was listlessly leaning on the recliner, listening to Xu Rong's "prosperity" endlessly, and when Xu Rong finally finished "prosperity", she had an idea and quickly sat up straight on the recliner. Beating the beat, she followed up with a certain art form of her hometown: "Get up, get up, get up!"

Xu Rong almost choked when he heard the words, and squinted at her, raised his foot, took two steps to one side, and said: "The old man always visits famous officials."

Xiao Zhang's mouth opened slightly, "Mingshifang" is not a combination of nouns and verbs, she is going to wait.

"Search all the virtuous people in the world."

Xiao Zhang picked it up again: "Search for a good man!"

Xu Rong stopped, looked at Xiao Zhang, who was staring at her with burning eyes, and asked, "Why don't you practice?"

Xiao Zhang took it for granted: "I have practiced."

"Huh? Are you thinking about it again?"

Xu Rong looked at Xiao Zhang's suggestion of "Don't you understand?", and swallowed the second half of the words. If he had to count, Xiao Zhang had indeed done morning exercises, and he still exceeded his quota.

"Boss Xu, come on again."

At this moment, an extremely abrupt shout came from downstairs, which startled both of them.

Xu Rong and Xiao Zhang looked at each other in dismay: "Did you call me?"

"Come on again, Boss Xu." A female voice urged again.

Classmate Xiao Zhang stooped, walked lightly to the edge of the terrace, poked his head and glanced down: "Oh my god."

She quickly withdrew her head.

"What's the matter?" Xu Rong took two steps forward, looked down, and at some point there were seven or eight people gathered downstairs.

There are men and women, old and young.

One of the gray-haired old men saw him poking his head out, and shouted loudly, "Boss Xu, come again."

Good guy, it's really like a theater to listen to an opera.

Xu Rong smiled, neither refusing nor answering, but said: "You can't sing well, I'm bothering everyone."

Wealth and quality are not absolutely proportional, but the undeniable fact is that the price of the community does screen out most people with low quality, and those who are not screened out, under the influence of the overall environment, tend to pretend The unique quality of a group of people gathering downstairs in another house rarely happened in the past.

"Boss Xu is humble!"

"Sings very well."

"thanks, thanks."

Xu Rong cleared his throat, and took out his best "Locking the Five Dragons": "When the command is issued to tie the tent, the hero can't help but smile."

"."

"If you can't get rid of your hatred in this life, you will be reincarnated in 20 years and come back again."

This is Xu Rong's favorite and best aria. It comes from "Zhan Xiongxin". It tells the story of Li Shimin's attack on Zheng. aria.

Although he is about to be executed, the aria is full of heroism to die generously.

After being quiet for about six or seven seconds, an energetic shout of "Okay" suddenly broke out downstairs.

This is the purpose of Xu Rong's hard work in learning this section. The reason why he likes it and is good at it is because this section is the most suitable for pretending.

It doesn't matter whether he is an expert or a layman, and it doesn't matter whether he understands opera or not, you can tell that he is awesome just by hearing it.

It's just a bit throaty.

Xu Rong smiled and looked at the neighbors downstairs who were looking up with their chins up, and said with a smile: "Sorry, I have to go to work later, and I will sing tomorrow."

However, the situation downstairs also made him think about a question. If he really followed Shang Changrong's words and practiced hard for three years before leaving the teacher, would he really only be able to perform on stage at the beginning of his career?

His original purpose of learning Peking Opera was to improve his overall level in terms of sound, stage, shape, and appearance. Among the many arts he has seen, Peking Opera is one of the few arts in which every singing voice and every physical movement contains a sense of beauty. form of performing arts.

Western drama originated from ancient Greek tragedies, and Chinese opera can be traced back to pre-Qin shaman rituals. Both have undergone more than 2000 years of development and transformation, and the development of both has shown amazing consistency.

As far as the creators are concerned, apart from the differences in presentation forms between film and television performances and Eastern and Western dramas, the biggest difference is that film and television performances are "one-time", that is, whether it is Western operas, dramas or Chinese operas, each actor's repertoire is different. is limited, even the top actors are often good at no more than ten repertoires.

Behind the "good at" is the practice of every movement, every line and even every expression thousands of times. Under this kind of non-mechanical repetition, it finally reaches the ultimate art of drama, opera and even performance. Pursue and complete the expression of the original intention of creation, while maintaining the beauty of 360 degrees without dead ends.

The stylization of word of mouth is the basic standard of this kind of "beauty", but because of the difference in materials from person to person, how to find the most suitable way of presentation is the actor's own practice.

The method Shang Changrong taught him was to practice more, and the more times he practiced, the more he would know.

Pu Cunxi's suggestion yesterday to focus on Cao Cao reminded him.

There is absolutely no need for him to study several different characters at the same time, but to study the character Cao Cao first, and thoroughly study all aspects of this character's hands, eyes, body, movements, steps, singing, reading, doing, and fighting.

There are many dramas related to Cao Cao in Peking Opera, but this role has very high requirements for actors, and some dramas have even been lost because they are difficult to perform and sing, such as "Wujie Mountain", "Anti-Xiliang", "Battle in Huainan", etc. The performances include "Drumming and Scolding Cao", "The Meeting of Heroes", "Huarong Road", "The White Gate Tower", "Xu's Mother Cursing Cao", "Catch and Release Cao", and plays like "War in Wancheng", " "Xiaoyaojin", a repertoire that was often performed in the past, is basically not performed much now.

If old books are lost, new books will naturally come out, such as "Cao Cao and Yang Xiu" starring Shang Changrong, but it emphasizes both singing and workmanship. It can be said to be a combination of copper hammer and shelf. On the basis of difficult characters, the difficulty has been increased out of thin air.

In the history of Peking Opera, there are three actors known as "Living Cao Cao". The first is Huang Runfu in the late Qing Dynasty, followed by Hao Shouchen, and then Yuan Shihai, Hao Shouchen's disciple. However, according to peer evaluation, Hao Shouchen's skill is obviously in Above Huang Runfu and Yuan Shihai.

Now in "Catch and Release Cao", the role of Cao Cao has almost become a supporting role, but the old students who have worked with Hao Shouchen are all reduced to supporting roles, even Gao Qingkui, Yan Jupeng, such old students, Gao Qingkui once said something like this: " Mr. Hao’s play is overwhelming Chen Gong in terms of style, and he can’t even lift his head if he doesn’t light it up!” Yan Jupeng once said to his son: “Boss Hao’s Cao Cao, When acting, I added a lot of old-fashioned things, the acting is very good, if it is not evenly matched in art, it will definitely not be able to play him."

This is the goal set by Xu Rong. After reaching a similar level, he can "comprehend by analogy", and even cross the line, to study, graduate, Dan, end and ugly.

After doing it this way, he will store a large amount of artistically beautiful shapes and lines in his reserve.

And these reserves will burst out huge energy in film and television performances.

Cao Cao is not only a problem in the face-making business, but also a big problem in the entire film and television industry. Not to mention perfect, there are very few actors who can be recognized by [-]% of the audience.

If he can really understand the role of Cao Cao thoroughly, to the point where everyone has to give him a supporting role, then the role of Cao Cao in the film and television industry will be his private area.

While Xu Rong was exercising in the morning, Pu Cunxi dialed Shang Changrong's phone number, and after a long time of pleasantries, he said: "Mr. , I thought he was a martial artist at the time."

After going back yesterday, the more he thought about it, the more wrong he was. Xu Rong was almost brought out by him. He really couldn't understand Xu Rong's nature. Either he didn't do it, or he did his best.

Although Xu Rong assured him that it was just for reference, he was really worried.

Shang Changrong laughed, and replied: "He was born to eat this bowl of rice. He has a good foundation. He can sing Bao Gong and play Zhang Fei. Li Yuanba and Jiang Wei are not difficult for him."

Bao Gong is also called Black Head, which is another name for Tonghammer Painted Face and Big Painted Face. He mainly focuses on singing skills.

Shang Changrong believes that Xu Rong will be an almighty master who thinks pure and good in the future.

Pu Cunxi's liver trembled when he heard it, he didn't care if Xu Rong was omnipotent or not, but Xu Rong was just an ordinary person, since he had to be distracted from film and television, how could he have so much time to study Peking Opera? After pondering for a moment, he expressed his own desire Worried: "Thanks to you, otherwise such a good foundation is really wasted. By the way, Mr. Shang, our school wants to arrange to study abroad, will there be no delay?"

Shang Changrong heard the words, chuckled, and said: "Good thing, good thing, he told me earlier in the morning, learning opera is to learn from each other's strengths and make up for weaknesses, so we can't delay the business."

Pu Cunxi was a little uncertain for a while, he always felt that Shang Changrong had a lot of schemes, but judging from his attitude, he seemed to have a dispensable attitude towards whether Xu Rong should continue to learn opera.

After Shang Changrong hung up the phone, he sighed silently. In fact, he never expected Xu Rong to give up drama or film and television.

That's not realistic.

The purpose of actors singing opera is to survive, even the original witchcraft ceremony is to survive in the harsh environment. If Xu Rong abandons film and television as the mainstream art form for Peking opera, it will be contrary to the original intention of the birth of opera.

But it is not that he has no other ideas.

Pu Cunxi's guess was right, he did have the plan to make Xu Rong silent, and then he would become a blockbuster.

And according to his inference, the possibility of this plan being implemented is very high.

First of all, Xu Rong's various talents are far beyond normal people, and the foundation has also been solidified by sister art. For example, to train newcomers, it takes a year or two to teach Qikou, but Xu Rong does not need it, as long as the expression "Qikou" Explain to him the connotation of unclear nouns, and he will know what to do.

And that's the equivalent of ten years of hard work.

What he values ​​is Xu Rong's huge fan base and good market reputation, which is incomparable to any Peking Opera performer.

Even if Beijing opera practitioners collectively speak out, the publicity effect is not as effective as that of Xu Rong, a public figure with great influence.

He always felt that with Xu Rong's fame, Peking opera might really be revived.

Because the root cause of the small audience of Peking Opera and drama is not that the audience really hate it, but that most people subconsciously resist to understand this art form that seems to be labeled as "traditional", "backward", and "ignorant".

Although both drama and opera are relatively "advanced" arts in the West.

If the audience is willing to put aside the prejudice caused by various external factors in the past, and choose a really good-looking drama, like "Wotou Clubhouse" and "Thunderstorm" that Renyi has become popular among young people in the past two years, I am afraid that they will immediately Change the inherent concepts that many viewers have formed in the past ten, twenty or even longer years.

But just now Pu Cunxi's guard on the phone was still Changrong. He realized that although Xu Rong had not yet reached the stage of "blockbuster" at this time, he couldn't wait any longer.

He picked up his cell phone and sighed. I am afraid that half of his peers in the Peking Opera circle will hate him if he makes this call.

But if you don’t make the cake bigger, no matter how big the bowl is, how much can you take away?

"Hey, it's me, Shang Changrong."

At the same time that Shang Changrong made up his mind, Xu Rong came to Renyi with a handbag. He had no memory of when he bought the handbag, and he hadn't used it a few times anyway.

It is similar to the air fryer and oven bought by Xiao Zhang.

As soon as he opened the office door, a phone call came: "Xiao Xu, you've changed your mind, it's not easy."

Xu Rong closed the door, put the hands-free mobile phone on the table, and pulled out a copy of "Three Kingdoms" from the bag. Hearing Zhu Tong's words, he asked in confusion, "What do you mean, why should I change my mind?"

"Didn't you say you want to be on our stage's variety show? I heard that the stage has already arranged for you, just the Spring Festival Gala."

Xu Rong's movements stopped abruptly: "Wait, when did I say I'm going to be on a variety show, and what's going on with the Spring Festival Gala?"

As the deputy editor-in-chief, Zhu Tong's news is definitely not groundless. Since he said that it has been arranged, then this year's Spring Festival Gala must have his own quota.

The other side of the phone was silent for a few seconds, and said, "I just came to ask you because I don't know."

"Wait a minute, I'll ask what's going on."

After a while, Zhu Tong's voice came again, saying, "When did you learn Peking Opera?"

After Xu Rong was stunned for three seconds, he vaguely figured out the cause and effect. If there were any programs, he would definitely be able to go to the Spring Festival Gala. One was the countdown to zero, and the second was opera, which was equivalent to recommending students.

But just like the quota of recommended students, the competition within the drama association for this quota every year has reached the point of life and death.

Especially in opera, which is not profitable in the first place.

For [-]% of domestic artists, the Spring Festival Gala is an excellent stage. Being on the Spring Festival Gala is not only an honor, but fame and fortune will follow.

But to him, the Spring Festival Gala is just an ordinary and time-consuming variety show.

(End of this chapter)