It will be published in China Youth Magazine, No. 22, 2021
Editor's note: In October 2021, the Wuzhen Drama Festival is back. With the continuation of the epidemic, the cultural public field has been lost, and in the "era of digital metaverse", how do young people in the cultural field encounter, how to fantasize and speculate? And on the day of returning to the theater, are the dreams still colorful?
Wuzhen Drama Festival: Several kinds of broken chapters
@Text/Reporter Han Dongyi
On the seventh day of the opening of the Wuzhen Drama Festival, the light rain finally stopped. Silence and cinnamon are surging together, and the weather is overrun by the weather.
The eighth Wuzhen Theater Festival seems to have run aground bustling – although 25,000 tickets are still empty, although people put on raincoats to watch the play at midnight.
After the epidemic, foreign plays and performances have been temporarily hidden, which is inevitable. "We thought the world was flat." Li Jianjun, director of the specially invited play "Between the World and the Sunset", said.
"Digital migration" is like a boiling 2021, and the drama is like the obstinacy of the "metaverse" era.
The LakeSide Theatre screens the world's best plays from six major theatre festivals. People sat huddled together, looking at stacks of dismantling, fragile speculation, flocks of sheep and ice cream. The screen is gone, it is a nostalgic dream butterfly.
The youth competition scene is still the most exciting. This year, young creators are keen to talk about women, technomy, death and love. On the live screen outside the final, the signal was delayed for several seconds, and the young people held their breath and laughed and sighed, chasing a tide on the ground.
"There may not be an industry as direct as the impact of the performing arts." Ding Naizhu, chief planner of wuzhen drama festival, said, "From stage to stage, from front of the curtain to behind the scenes, it is the connection of people. ”
Let's reunite for a long time, for people who are good at it or not good at loneliness.
Wuzhen Drama Festival main visual poster
Shadow: In the dance theater
Many stories will be outside the frame stage, especially this year.
For example, the "Story of the Chicken Farm" created and interpreted by the variety show "Drama New Life", such as the new version of the carnival performance that shaped the relationship between the audience and the performance, as well as the dance section in the extension, "Sunrise", "Weeds", "Five Sounds", "Seven Tricks of Smoke" ... "This year, it was difficult to open the dance theater." Lai Shengchuan, initiator and permanent director of the Wuzhen Theater Festival, sighed.
In fact, although dance variety shows are azure, dance theaters with artistic expression as the main purpose account for very little of the domestic performance market.
On the night of the premiere of the specially invited play "Wild Grass" at the Wuzhen Theatre Festival, the night wind was cold and the actors' limbs fell. On the Suyue installation of the outdoor theater, Lu Xun's words were thrown: "Everything is cold, everything is green and white." "There is even more frostiness.
Stills from "Weeds"
"I don't, and I don't want to throw a few stories on stage to the audience." Wang Yuanyuan, choreographer of "Wild Grass" and head of the Beijing Contemporary Ballet, said. However, in the audience on this day, she dragged a corner of the warm blanket to the girl sitting next to her.
"Feeling is the greatest strength." Wang Yuanyuan said, "There is no story, just the state and the metaphor under the work." ”
"Weeds" is a dance work, just a dance. Wang Yuanyuan said that there may not be a concrete projection.
"What matters is the overall psychological feeling. In fact, we convey a message, an atmosphere, in physical expression. As for Lu Xun's "Collection of Wild Grasses", it is not a direct correspondence, it means more of a spirit, a signal, or the driving force of growth, just like there is passion in the text, there is pessimism, and there is also self-deprecation, which is closely related to the experience of each of our times. She said.
Since its premiere in 2012, he has traveled to Germany, Mexico, Chile, and has performed at the BAM Theater in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and the Harris Theater in Chicago. Wang Yuanyuan said: "The audience may not have to understand Lu Xun. ”
Nor is the parable vague.
"For example, the first movement presents the impact of glaciers and tinder, and obtains a sense of image and sensitivity; the second movement, "Farewell of shadow", self and shadow, active and passive, has the possibility of ridicule. In fact, Mr. Lu Xun himself has cold humor, wonderful metaphors and self-deprecation, which can only be understood. "The point of creation is real." ”
As for our perception of space and body, it comes from imagination, and it is not exclusive to dancers or athletes. In Wang Yuanyuan's view, the body is an endless universe, and perhaps you have known nothing about its mystery for a long time.
The trend of physicalization of drama is becoming more and more prevalent. "There are no clear boundaries between drama and dance, they are both body performing arts." Xie Xin, a dancer known as the ceiling of modern Chinese dance, said. Zhan Li, the choreographer of "Seven Tricks of Smoke", defines the work as "light, modern and contemporary creation", "no longer blindly pursuing things that are too abstract, we pursue some things that can be touched in life, emotions that can be relied on, and then abstract it." ”
The dancers' trickiest question is only one: What does this movement mean?
"Dance is not mime." Wang Yuanyuan said.
Rainbow: "Inventing the Theater"
Before knocking on the door of the no. 68 door of the homestay, Yan Xia, the old audience of the drama festival, had already experienced quite a twist and turn.
"HEY! Cherry Orchard", three hours in line, the time was adjusted twice, sold a popular ticket for the time conflict, and she finally "entered the shortlist".
"Immersion drama, there were only 14 people in one, and there were a few industry guests in the one we went to. Assigning character scripts first does feel stressful at the beginning, such as... Director Cao Baoping played my father in the play. Yan Xia is a regular visitor to the theater, but this time she is overjoyed, "everyone is immersed in it wholeheartedly, and three hours are fleeting." ”
"The whole time and space is a theater, and this year I feel more deeply." Yanxia said, "In the past, I only ran around to catch the play, but this year's carnival repertoire is also attractive, while checking in advance on the list, and random encounters on the other." ”
Some people meet, and some people break into the curtain.
Carnival's "shared actor program", there are passers-by girls invited to perform, a section of "July and Ansheng", a section of "Crush on Peach Blossom Garden", if you ignore her teleprompter mobile phone screen and travel tiredness, it is like a special kick to the museum. She said she had never performed and was a history teacher at a middle school in Shanghai. The clip ended, and I hurriedly said goodbye.
Outside the stage, 130 ancient town carnival performances, 10 town dialogues, 10 reading sessions, music, movies, tide play, reading, installation, food in the drama market... It's for the dream.
Youth competition poster full
"Inventing the theater," the playwright Zhang Xian said in a small-town dialogue, "theater is not just a house, pan theaters exist everywhere." People from various fields changed the concept of theater. ”
Even so, crossovers are lighter or bumpier?
Talk show actors Yan Yi and Yan Yue's "Female Twins" is one of the popular tickets for this year's Wuzhen Drama Festival, and the response after the performance is uneven.
In an interview after the premiere, Yan Yue said more, "So the personality and distress reflected in the play are real." ”
Stills from "Female Twins"
Speaking of the moment when the talk show expresses the fiery cooking oil, the twin sisters say that drama is a way to "kill yourself and reach the next stage".
"Talk shows are truly cute, and in this day and age, everyone is looking for comfort in spiritual release. However, talk shows only talk about a limited self, and drama has countless scenes and ways, you can write poetry, you can read a eulogy or a wedding speech. Yan Yue said, "Talk show is the process of expression, and drama is performance." ”
And "creation is far less than life drama", they quote the critic James W. Bush. Wood's words, "Life is a satire. Just like the lines in the play - no matter how hard you try, you can't change the ending, is this play in vain... But expression is perhaps the best way to help us regain our personality. ”
"Don't underestimate your own expression." They said.
The atmosphere of the last midnight reading session seemed to be more subdued than before. Someone shared a 19th-century letter, "A work of art is as useless as a flower." ”
At midnight, in addition to two restaurants and a pharmacy, there are still hanging lights in the alley. The old man who guarded the shop said that it was open 24 hours. The wind and smoke are clean, and there are several kinds of healing.
Pillow water street alley, Wuzhen Drama Festival hanging deputy jagged This magazine reporter Han Dongyi photographed
Producer: Pi Jun
Final Judgement: Lin Yuhong
Reviewer: Chen Min, Liu Xiao, Liu Bowen
Editor-in-charge: June 1