Almighty painter

Chapter 614 Ghost
"When my mother was studying dance in Thailand, the dance troupe of Glam University rehearsed Cats, and my mother played the role of Baluruina in the show."

Koko said.

Gu Weijing thought for a while.

Baluruna is a carefree girl cat from Cats.

It is the kind of sexy girl role that is always present in Western musicals, dancing with her breasts shaking violently and full of hormones.

It can be said that this kind of role is tacky.

But today, Broadway and London's West End are full of great glories.

In the early years, more than half of them started out by relying on sexy female dancers and their seductive dance moves.

To be honest.

In the general public's impression, most people always think that watching operas, musicals, and stage plays is a very elegant thing. This is a subjective filter that adds the idea of ​​"outside monks are good at chanting sutras".

From the perspective of historical origins, there may not necessarily be any distinction between highbrow and lowbrow singing of musicals and singing of Errenzhuan.

Most of the time, Europeans walked into the theater.

Especially when ordinary people who are completely drained by their jobs walk into those start-up theaters with poor experience and teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and sit on the squeaking seats with yellowed fabric.

Not many people go there expecting to see a soul-stirring performance of "Hamlet" or a touching, master-level performance of "Romeo and Juliet".

All they want is a moment of mental relaxation after busy work.

Even the classical ballet of the early Tsarist era, its stage movements are more or less tied to physical desires.

These character types are part of the glorious historical tradition of stage drama.

At least in terms of the appeal of selling tickets on a small stage, Shakespeare, Hugo, and perhaps even Shaw combined cannot compare to a single hair of a sexy, youthful dancer.

In the musical Cats.

The role of Baluruina varies depending on the version design, but she is often played by an actress who is beautiful, a good dancer, but lacks experience on stage.

She is an important supporting role.

The lines are slightly less than those of Bastof and Jenny.

The new tour of "Cats" places more emphasis on the all-age and family-friendly characteristics, and the "sexy" element is like a dispensable vase.

Especially when performing in countries with relatively conservative social atmosphere.

Therefore, Baluruna was not on the list of seven cats that Party A was required to complete in the design contract.

It is just like the Magic Cat, Warrior Cat, and Pirate Cat, all of which are characters that you can draw casually.

Koko took off the long rubber butterfly knot she used to tie her hair at the back of her head.

Cats' ears are rich in nerves and sensitive.

It may be painful when the rubber band is put on.

Therefore, Koko did not tie it on Awang's head, but hung the little butterfly loosely on the soft fur on Awang's chest like a bell knot.

Then she picked up Awang.

The girl waved towards Gu Weijing and stretched out her hand, waving it like a little claw.

"Baluruna, Baluruna, she's a beautiful girl." Koko shook her head left and right, her hair swaying like waves, imitating the famous singer Taylor Swift who played Baluruna in the movie version of "Cats".

Swift's temperament can almost be regarded as a synonym for sexy and sweet girl in the Western society's impression.

It's really suitable for her to play the role of Balurina.

"Meow! Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow..."

Awang was completely stunned.

Under the bow.

Its big, round yellow belly rippled, and its four paws struggled and waved in Koko's arms, with its eyes rolled back.

The Cat King looked like he was about to be broken by the little sister.

“It’s a lovely scene, I think.”

Gu Weijing was amused by Koko's appearance.

Gu Weijing had no chance to see what Koko's mother looked like when she played the role of Balurina.

But Koko looks really cute at this moment.

"Cute, right? I think she's cute too. My mom...when she's normal, she's a very girlish person."

Koko hugged Awang again and tickled his belly with her fingertips, signaling him not to be nervous and to lie down obediently.

“But the role she most wanted to play was actually always the theatre cat.”

"Not the Charm Cat? She's the lead actress, right? Isn't the Theater Cat a male cat?"

Gu Weijing asked.

"In the industry, both men and women can play roles without emotional scenes like this," Koko explained.

"Of course, who doesn't want to play the leading role? If possible, everyone wants to play the Charming Cat." She shrugged, "But that role is assigned to the most experienced senior students, who may even have signed contracts with famous opera companies. For stage plays, the best choice is to become the leading role, and the second best choice is the role that is most attractive to you. Almost all theater actors, if they cannot play the Charming Cat, will think about whether they can try to play the Theater Cat. Because..."

Koko paused.

"My mother said that every theater actor can find his or her own shadow in this role."

"Playing this role is like going through an actor's life in a dream."

“Go on stage, become famous, and then be forgotten.”

Koko said faintly.

"It tells the story of an impossible fate that countless actors, no matter how great or small, will eventually face."

"The only difference is that some people never bloom in their entire lives, while some people bloom for a moment like spring flowers. But in the end, whether they bloom or not, they will all wither into the soil." Koko sniffed.

She concluded: "Theater Cat is a ghost." "You said that Theater Cat likes to brag to others in the club about the time when it played a ghost on the stage?" Gu Weijing didn't quite understand.

"No, not the lines. I mean that most actors' careers are short. The moment their roles, their moments in the spotlight, are forgotten, they are dead. All that's left is a ghost."

"Any character that the audience usually sees on stage is the actor's most glorious, vivid and lively side. The theater cat is the only special one in the whole play. It is played by a 'living actor' who plays a 'dead actor'. It is the only ghost of a dead body... wandering on the stage."

Koko looked up at the evergreen branches and leaves of the locust tree and said softly.

"You know what? When my mother was studying in Thailand, there was an American teacher in the dance troupe of Gulao University. She was a fat old lady, not very tall, liked to smoke, and didn't teach seriously. It was hard to imagine that she was a dancer."

Koko said: "All troupes have extremely strict requirements on weight. If you are not a good dancer, it can be said that it is a talent problem, but if you are out of shape, it is obviously an attitude problem. If you are overweight, you will be terminated directly. Cigarettes are the natural enemy of dancers. Movie stars may smoke, but those who want to dance cannot."

"Tobacco will make your teeth yellow. More importantly, cigarettes will affect the rhythm and smoothness of your breathing. People who are addicted to smoking will not have enough breath and will be out of breath after dancing for a few minutes."

"Weight management, hair management, smoking and drinking control, and refusing junk food... these are the basic professional attitudes of an excellent dancer. If you can't do these things well, good teachers won't even bother to look at you, and won't be willing to teach you no matter how much money you are offered."

Koko snorted.

"My classmates all thought she was just a teacher who was randomly picked up by the school to show that it was 'international' and they would make up some jokes to make fun of her."

"When the teacher was smoking in the tea room, she didn't get angry when someone was being sarcastic. She would blow a smoke ring every time and say with a smile that the little girls were ignorant. You don't know how beautiful I was when I was a dancer with JOHN at the Garden Theater in New York 20 years ago."

"Who?"

Gu Weijing asked.

"John, John Travolta." Koko explained: "My mother only found out later that the John she was talking about was the legendary John Travolta."

Looking at Gu Weijing's puzzled eyes.

"Dancing King Travolta. Saturday Night Fever? Grease?" Koko mentioned several names in a row. "You must know Face/Off or Pulp Fiction, right? He's the male lead. He's a top-tier Hollywood actor, and he started out dancing in musicals on Broadway."

"I saw the last one. It's Quentin's masterpiece. It competed for the Oscar that year along with Forrest Gump and Schindler's List and won the Best Screenplay."

Gu Weijing finally realized who Koko was talking about.

The scene where a short barefoot woman in a white shirt and a cool uncle in a black suit shake their arms and dance face to face on the stage is almost the most representative shot in Quentin's movies.

"If it were him, decades ago he could get $2000 million for a show. At his peak, he was more famous than Brad Pitt and Nicolas Cage."

Koko nodded.

"Your teacher is so amazing that he even knows Travolta?"

"She must have really danced with him, but she probably knew Travolta, but he didn't know her. Even if they could nod to each other in the theater, so many years have passed... you know. I guess, even if Travolta walked past her face to face, he wouldn't be able to recognize who that fat lady was." Koko shrugged. "Even though she likes to call people John to show familiarity and closeness, it's probably just a human background. If there was any ambiguity between the two of them, according to the trend of the entertainment industry, she would have wanted to shout it out to the whole world. It's impossible for her to run away to a Thai university and be a dance teacher to make a living."

"Working in a place like Broadway, there is always one lucky person out of 10,000 who becomes a superstar. Travolta is one, but unfortunately, my mother's teacher has only become a fat aunt with yellow teeth and an out-of-shape figure."

"That's not the point I want to make. What I want to say is... the way my mother described that old lady when she talked about the past."

"She said, JOHN——"

Koko moved her fingers away from her lips and imitated the action of blowing a smoke ring.

Gu Weijing had to admit it.

Miss Koko is the most talented actress he knows.

The temperament is ever-changing, and you will become like whoever you imitate.

When she was imitating Taylor Swift just now, she seemed like a youthful, playful and lively girl.

And this moment.

The way she slowly blew out "smoke rings" and her eyes looked into the distance were misty, hazy and trance-like, but for a moment, an extremely clear light bloomed between her brows.

This feeling is like a person who has spent many years in a dream suddenly waking up, or like an old and mottled soul worn down by reality, falling back into a dream in an instant and returning to the most glorious moment in the past.

Zhuang Zhou dreamed of butterflies.

Butterfly Dream Zhuang Zhou.

"You don't know how beautiful I was at that time."

Koko said softly.

After she finished her imitation, she turned around and looked at Gu Weijing: "My mother told me that at that time she couldn't believe that a person's temperament could change so much in a short period of time. In the dance world, fat people have no self-esteem, even if she is a teacher."

"But at that moment, the person in front of her was no longer a fat, old, ugly old lady who didn't get angry even when students secretly laughed at her. In the breath between the flame on the cigarette butt burning and extinguishing, an extremely charming and beautiful soul blossomed between her pupils."

"In a blink of an eye, she crossed over twenty years of wasted time and thousands of kilometers, and became the stunning girl who once attracted the attention of all New Yorkers under the spotlight of Broadway."

"My mother said that she only looked into those eyes for half a second. She believed that the teacher was not lying. She must have been a very charming person when she was young."

"Ghosts always repeat their actions in life unconsciously and without feeling, just like the actors in the theater who have lost their glory."

Koko took a deep breath.

"Perhaps she danced with Travolta for only 30 seconds in front of the camera in her entire life. Those were the most glorious and beautiful 30 seconds of her life. In the following 30 days, 30 weeks, 30 months, 30 years that were forgotten by others, she lived like a ghost in those 30 seconds."

"Only when she called out John did she feel that she was alive and radiant."

Koko's expression was a little vague.

Gu Weijing's heart moved slightly, and he thought of the sketch on his sketch paper again.

"In the entertainment industry, it is really full of hardships for an actor to succeed." Gu Weijing sighed.

"Do not."

Koko actually shook her head.

"This is the bitterness of an actor, but it has nothing to do with wanting to succeed or not. It has nothing to do with whether you are a great actor or a failed actor. Theatre Cat describes the ghost of an actor. Any actor will eventually become a ghost, no matter if he was once high-spirited and brilliant, just like everyone will die."

“Every actor fears the day when he or she will be forgotten by the times.”

Koko gently touched Awang in her arms.

"Whether she is a dance teacher who lives in the memory of dancing with John Travolta, or John Travolta himself, it is the same. Just like beggars and emperors will die equally."

(End of this chapter)