"90% of my friends in my circle of friends think I'm brave and fun doing this play, and 10% of my friends say I'm 'not doing my job', and I decided to challenge it once." The test work in the mouth of Shanghai opera master Hua Wen is the dialect version of the drama "Thunderstorm", which will be staged at the China Grand Theatre next month. Shanghainese interprets classic scripts, Shanghai opera actors act out dramas, and the main creative team is meticulously polishing works to open these two levels. At a time when the Shanghainese boom is surging, Hua Wen also hopes to take advantage of this shareholder wind to contribute to the popularization of local culture, and looks forward to drawing more attention to the "old line" Shanghai opera through this work.
In the 1960s, when the theater master Huang Zuolin was the director of the Shanghai People's Art Theatre, he wanted to start three troupes, the dialect drama troupe was one of them, and he also regarded Mandarin drama and dialect drama as two kinds of drama. Hua Wen was so impressed by the fiery scene of the Shanghainese stage play "Blossoms" that as a Shanghainese opera worker, she couldn't help but ask herself, "What else can I do for local culture?" "If there was still some trepidation at that time, the recent hit movie "Love Myth" pushed her forward again." The charm of Shanghainese can infect so many people, and I also want to explore this market. She told reporters. In the past few days, Hua Wen has been keeping an eye on the ticketing situation of the ticketing website, and Shangjia's results have also given her a reassuring pill. At the same time, Cao Yu's daughter Wan Fang was also looking forward to the Shanghainese version of the drama "Thunderstorm", saying that "we must come to the scene to see." ”
Although she won all the Wenhua Performance Award, the Plum Blossom Award, and the Magnolia Award, the difficulty of rehearsing a drama still exceeded Hua Wen's expectations, and the three-day sitting row made her laugh and say that she had "eaten enough hot sauce". "In the past, Shanghai opera used to spend a lot of time studying the singing cavity, but this time I thought it would be much easier to take away the singing part, but I didn't expect it to be more difficult," Hua Wen told reporters: "Shanghai opera actors can't sing, and the requirements for our performance are higher, which is a cruel performance training for actors." ”
In addition, in order to make the actor's lines conform to the context of the 1930s, Hua Wen specially invited Zhu Xinling and Wang Yan, two senior Shanghainese announcers, to cut the lines word by word, and strive to find the Shanghainese expression that best fits the original meaning of the script, just to discuss how to read the "four" of "four phoenixes", the crew struggled for half a day.
Whether "Thunderstorm", which says "Shanghai gossip", can impress the audience, how much potential the local cultural market still has to tap, and how much new attention such a bold attempt can bring to Shanghai opera, these are all questions that Need to be answered urgently in Hua Wen's heart.
The dialect drama "Thunderstorm", jointly produced by Shanghai Yidong Tianxia Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Baoshan Shanghai Opera Troupe, will land at the China Grand Theatre from February 9 to 14.
Author: Wang Xiaoli
Image: Courtesy of the performer
Editor: Guo Chaohao