The first heavy snow covered Tianjin in winter, and although the weather was cold and the flow of people plummeted, the atmosphere of some performing arts theaters was still strong.
Tianjin, at the bottom of the Nine Rivers, is a prosperous commercial port and is the hometown of quyi in the north of the mainland.
Once upon a time, Tianjin was the big wharf of Quyi. "Beijing learns art, Tianjin sings red, Shanghai earns silver." Peking Opera, Hebei Zizi, Xiangsheng, Commentary, Tianjin Time Tune, Tianjin Allegro, Jingyun Drum, Commentary... At that time, if artists could win the recognition and pursuit of Tianjin audiences, it was equivalent to passing the "trial", and the northern and southern artists who wanted to become "horns" had to perform on stage in Tianjin.
Today, Quyi is still an indispensable cultural taste in the lives of the people of Tianjin. From rapping to teahouse theaters, from stage screens to mobile networks, Haihe water has given birth to a group of literary and artistic people, who keep pace with the times and interpret their love for art and life with outstanding talents and novel performances.
Cross-talk artists: inheritance and innovation, solemn and harmonious
On the stage, one side woke up the wood, a folding fan, and learned to sing; offstage, a cup of tea, a plate of melon seeds, laughter continued. Going to the tea house to listen to crosstalk is not only a must-have item for foreign tourists, but also an important leisure method for the people of Tianjin.
Tianjin is a cross-talk nest. At the beginning of 1930, the first venue in the mainland to perform cross-talk, the "Lianxing Tea Society", was built in the Dongxing Market in Nanshi, Tianjin, and gathered many cross-talk artists at that time: Zhang Shouchen, Hou Baolin, Chang Baoting, Ma Sanli...
On May 3, 2021, at the West Bank Cross-Talk Theater in Hexi District, Tianjin, the audience lined up to collect tickets. Xinhua News Agency
Wei Wenliang, an 82-year-old cross-talk performance artist, is an authentic Tianjin native. In 1954, the famous cross-talk actor Yin Shoushan partnered with 14-year-old Wei Wenliang to perform at the Lianxing Tea House. At ten o'clock in the evening, Wei Wenliang yawned in the middle of the performance, and was glared at by Yin Shoushan, who did not care and opened his mouth again. Yin Shoushan grabbed the fan and hit him hard, turned around and stepped down. In the end, the tolerant audience broke the siege and shouted yin Shoushan to continue the performance. Since then, the word "Yide" has been engraved into Wei Wenliang's heart. "Whoever treats the audience as a fool is a fool!" He often put this sentence on his lips, reminding himself and admonishing the younger generations to treat the audience with reverence.
Few art disciplines, like cross-talk, have undergone many changes in a century and a half, and are still highly sought after by the public to this day. Cross-talk actors who are popular in the new media era, while wearing coats, playing three strings, and telling traditional passages in small theaters, synthesize a variety of performance forms and make good use of social platforms to gain popularity and attention.
"Don't eat peaches", "Civilization uses high beams"... On the short video platform, two young people who called themselves "red carp and green carp", dressed in traditional long shirts, used Tianjin Allegro, cross-talk and other forms to criticize and satirize the unhealthy trend of society, because the content was fresh and the language was humorous, and in less than two months, the number of fans exceeded 250,000.
"Red Carp and Green Carp" is a play performer Liu Jiming and Wan Yifu of Tianjin People's Art Theatre. On weekdays, they rehearse dramas; in their spare time, they watch the news, follow hot spots, and create short video products on topics that the people care about, which are well received by netizens.
Is there a difference between online performances and traditional stage performances? Liu Jiming said: "The short video is only two minutes, if you can't grasp the audience's interest point at the first time, you will be abandoned." For professional actors, using the Internet requires research and learning. ”
"We don't dare to call our performance on micro-videos cross-talk, the cross-talk industry has a teacher, we don't worship the teacher." Liu Jiming and Wan Yifu were very worried. Indeed, the cross-talk industry pays attention to the inheritance of teachers and generations. But Wei Wenliang affirmed their works: "The small passages created by these two young drama actors are very good, which are educational and good. In comparison, some cross-talk actors perform sensationalism and please the audience. 'Find fun', this is absolutely wrong. The purpose of cross-talk works is not only to make the audience laugh, but also to let the audience reflect in the laughter and figure out some life principles. Inheriting innovation and living in harmony is the internal reason why cross-talk has been passed down for a hundred years and has endured for a long time. ”
Professional audience: Mutual achievement with famous artists
Tianjin audiences love literature and art, understand literature and art, and are known for being harsh on actors.
Wei Wenliang said: "When I was a child, I often went to see Peking Opera and learned the singing voice of Peking Opera actors. A famous actor of Peking Opera went to Tianjin to perform, and when he appeared, he sang badly, and the audience immediately drank well and showed no mercy, but in the later performances, the more he sang, the better, and the audience immediately applauded. ”
Tianjin Baodi, located in the hinterland of the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Center, has a deep accumulation of more than 800 years of history and culture, and the prestigious commentaries and Jingdong drums have originated here. The amateur jury in Tangzhuang Village here has a history of more than 90 years and is the "hometown of Chinese folk culture and art".
According to incomplete statistics, in Tianjin, there are dozens of Peking Opera and opera critics' organizations, and there are more in the far suburbs, and the ticket holders have to get together every two or three days to sing opera, and these fans have led many opera fans. "When the traditional drama "Beating the Dog and Persuading the Husband" was performed this year, the theater was full of people, and the backstage was full of people." Xia Dong, a researcher at the Tianjin Institute of Arts, said.
In 1991, tianjin Heping District Cultural Center held the country's first audition - the first "Peace Cup" Chinese Peking Opera Fan Invitational Competition. After 30 years, the number of ticket holders who signed up for the competition has expanded from China to the world, and more than 50,000 Peking Opera fans have participated in the activities.
After experiencing the "Peace Cup" for 30 years, Kou Yuan, the former director of the Tianjin Heping District Cultural Center, was very pleased, the skills of the ticket holders became more and more exquisite, and the Peking Opera performance also brought the spirit to life.
Wu Huafei, the winner of the 15th "Peace Cup" Top Ten "Famous Tickets", suffered misfortune in her early years, and she raised her children while working. Remembering those days, Wu Huafei smiled bitterly: "Physically and mentally exhausted, it is difficult to support." "Working as a cleaner in the Peking Opera Troupe gave her more opportunities to contact Peking Opera, and her singing and dancing nature was released." Peking Opera was like a ray of sunshine shining into her life, and after studying hard, she stood on the highest platform displayed by the ticket holders.
Zhang Zhiguo, who won the 14th China Peking Opera Top Ten "Famous Tickets", is a taxi driver in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, he often listens to Peking Opera while driving a taxi, and when there is no one, he lights up his voice and sings; Tianjin Metro Driver Zhi Shuai is a young man in his early 30s, who was influenced by his father from childhood, and became fascinated by singing Lao Sheng, he sang the excerpt of "Catch and Release Cao", and the typhoon was calm and old, and was rated as one of the top ten "famous tickets".
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Source: Weibo @ Tianjin Youth Peking Opera Troupe
The audience is an expert, and the "famous tickets" are lined up, so that the actors who perform on the stage in Tianjin compete in artistic virtue and artistic level.
At the Mei Lanfang Grand Theater in Beijing, the commentary "Revolutionary Family" is being performed as an "excellent stage art exhibition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China". Zeng Zhaojuan, a two-time plum blossom award winner and director of the Tianjin Critics Theatre, starred in the spotlight to perfectly interpret the life of a revolutionary. Who would have thought that at this moment, there were still two steel nails buried in her legs.
20 years ago, Zeng Zhaojuan, as a young actor, participated in the first drama festival with her mentor, and when she performed the excerpt of "Dinor", the applause was thunderous and non-stop for a long time... This scene has always been engraved in Zeng Zhaojuan's heart: "I want to be worthy of this stage, I want to be worthy of the audience." ”
Open the mobile phone WeChat, search for the word "Yi Yan", you can see the tianjin Peking Opera Theater experimental troupe leader Wang Yan registered the public number. The public account has set up four columns to introduce the history of Peking Opera, traditional repertoire, performance dynamics, and teacher-student friendship. She said: "In the past, the audience of Peking Opera was mostly middle-aged and elderly, but in recent years, under the promotion of the government, the performance environment and market of traditional arts have improved, and young people's acceptance of traditional arts has continued to increase." ”
Wang Yan is a national first-class actor, and she proudly said: "As long as the performance is listed as 'leading the performance of Wang Yan', the theater will be full." The audience values the horns, and the horns have to be upright and upright. ”
"Tianjin's performing arts market is more positive, in this soil, artists strictly abide by the rules and value face. The horns are good, first of all, the virtues are good. Xia Dong and Wang Yan's views were completely in agreement.
Young artists: The audience is a confidant and forces good works
Tianjin people are humorous and open-minded, and language performing arts take root here. Li You, a 25-year-old girl from Hebei, gave up her major after graduating from university and performed a talk show in Tianjin. Without the help of fans in the network virtual space to earn traffic, no rice circle, no brokerage company to intervene, she is on fire!
Ren Bo, director of the Marketing Center of the Northern Performing Arts Group, used the box office to support Li You's "fire": "The Tianjin Talk Show Club represented by Li You has 150 yuan of performance tickets, and the tickets can be sold out in 10 minutes." From the box office point of view, Li You should be the iconic figure of Tianjin talk show. ”
Although "talk shows" are imported products, because of their natural affinity with Chinese cross-talk, the content is inspired by life and is quickly favored by young audiences. Unlike professional cross-talk actors, the actors of the Tianjin Talk Show Club are almost all part-time, with teachers, lawyers, housing agency sales staff, college students, takeaway brothers, and taxi drivers... Most of the performance content is the feeling of their respective work areas or life, which is very grounded.
After the recovery of the offline performance market, the Tianjin Talk Show Club welcomed a large number of guests.
Taking advantage of the East Wind of Tianjin Wenhui Card Policy, Li You and his partners boarded the official website of Tianjin Performing Arts Network and entered the theater, which officially became a kind of performance for the benefit of tianjin culture. "It's been six years since the release of Wenhui card, the audience is very picky, not to continue to create good works, may be just a flash in the pan, we just set up a platform, who works hard and who succeeds." Ren Bo said.
"What I remember after watching a talk show is not laughter, but opinions, expressing the perspective of the world in a happy way. A wealth of personal experience can provide a large amount of material for creation. Li You was originally attracted by the views thrown by the talk show actors, "the same tragic thing, the talk show actors can see its humorous side, haha a smile, let people feel that tomorrow is still beautiful, full of positive energy." ”
Li You and his partners performed very successfully, but the income was not ideal. "A ticket of 150 yuan, a full seat of 305 audiences, half of the income to the theater, the rest of the money, the 6 actors participating in the performance are divided equally, two or three times a month."
Ren Bo suggested that Li You introduce a brokerage company, package it later, and was willing to help her contact the relevant companies, but Li Youwan refused.
Li You said: "Tianjin has the best audience, the audience is humorous, forcing the actors to come up with the best works, the audience interacts with the actors on the stage, forcing the actors to improve their stage performance and reaction." This kind of interaction between actors and audiences is impossible to get in online short videos, although the investment in theater performances is high and the 'fans' are slow, but the feeling of 'the audience is a confidant' still encourages young actors to create and perform steadily. ”