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First time watching a play
In the new era, even our small village of river beaches, which is "far away from the emperor of the mountains", has also been connected to the Internet. Smart TVs are available in every household, and men and women are playing with the constantly changing smartphones. People's horizons are suddenly open to no edges, Chinese, foreign, heavenly, underground, historical, today's massive information, up and down five thousand years, across thousands of miles, only you can't think of it, nothing you can't see. Since then, people's spiritual and cultural aspects and concepts have undergone subversive changes. Many years ago, the villagers' ten-minute love of the theater troupe, movies, literary and art propaganda teams, storytelling, monkey play, gun dancing stick juggling and other activities, with the passage of time, gradually faded out of people's vision. Even if there are sometimes free movies screened in the village, there are very few people who are willing to watch them off the screen. Village drama, especially at the moment when the new crown epidemic is raging, has almost disappeared.
Nostalgia has never been thought of by all people; but all people who enjoy modern civilization should not forget the road they have traveled, nor can they erase the memories of the past.
When I was six or seven years old, it was a period of great change not long after the founding of New China and the great changes that awaited the revival of all kinds of waste. At that time, there were only a few dozen families in the village, more than two hundred people. On both sides of the narrow dirt streets and alleys, there are some old tile houses with adobe green brick structures and thatched houses built of dirt blocks that are not known in what era, and the villagers still continue the traditional living habits of the ancestors "working at sunrise, living in the day". Poor countryside, isolated beach villages, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, almost no rare things happening in the outside world can be heard.
Our peasant children with dirty heads and brains are even more lonely. Often in the help of adults to cut grass, collect firewood, feed chickens, sweep the yard can get together, male dolls and mud, wrestling "wow", wrenching, rolling iron rings; female dolls smash the tiles into finger-sized pieces, and then polished into smooth small square blocks or round ball shapes, sitting on the ground to grab the "five sons of Aoi" game. They sang as they tossed: "Sieve the basket, make a trip." Grind the noodles and send them to the old lady. The old lady is not at home, and the concubine laughs haha..."
There is an ancient ferry port outside the west gate of the village, and people who often cross the river walk through the village street. On a dark winter night, there were outsiders walking down the street carrying packages. He was holding a round iron cylinder in his hand, and the front of the iron cylinder actually emitted a polished light, and the explanation was bright, and the dark was dark. Our children thought it was amazing, calling friends and shouting at the man. This scene was just seen by Uncle Li Shuhua, who came out of the village office, and he stopped us and said, "That's called a flashlight, it's not a rare object." He glanced at the person holding the flashlight, seemed to be very embarrassed, the mood was a little heavy, and said to himself: "The village is too backward, the material spirit and cultural life are too poor, really have to change quickly!" ”
At dusk the next day, someone stood on the roof of the village office and shouted with an iron horn: "Folks, in order to enrich everyone's cultural life, after the study of the village cadres, it was decided that our village should invite the troupe to perform, and when we have contacted the troupe, please come to see the play!" It was Li Shuhua, the secretary of the village party branch, shouting, and the elderly people on crutches did not pass through the village to sing opera, and everyone was overjoyed and rushed to tell each other, hoping to watch the village drama at the door of the house as soon as possible.
After Li Shuhua and several village cadres came forward to run, they finally contacted a group of puppets and shadow puppet bowls and bowls in Jixiang Village, Qucun Town.
On the sixteenth day of the first month, it was a good day, and early in the morning, the village appointed two drivers to catch the rubber wheel truck to pick up the box and cast members. The troupe entered the village, and the village boiled over in an instant. Li Shuhua and the village cadres and a few young men found more than ten door panels and began to build a stage in the South Gate Cave. A few wooden rafters were planted on the left and right sides of the platform, several thick ropes were tied, and a few pieces of reed foil were wrapped around, and a simple stage more than one meter high appeared in front of everyone.
The small troupe consisted of 7 people, both men and women. The leader of the regiment, a burly bald old man, came to the edge of the stage, personally and directed others to unload the box, set up the curtain, set up the musical instrument, and put puppets, shadow puppets and other props on the rope. While he was busy, he asked the village cadres to provide cotton butter and cotton strips and prepare lighting equipment.
The first time a remote village performed, it can be described as an earth-shattering event. The people in the village picked up their grandmothers, summoned their daughters, invited relatives, invited friends, smiled and smiled, and were very busy. After noon, small traders from eight neighboring villages heard the news. Selling mash, fried peanuts, selling oil and cold powder, picking sour persimmon fruit dan peel to sell melon seeds, knocking on a copper gong to blow candy people, selling glass giggles, selling colorful ice jelly beans, all smiling and squinting at the stalls on both sides of the theater, pulling their throats to solicit business, for a time, the streets and alleys of the village were also lively. At this time, the cast and crew who had eaten the pie meal at the farmer's house had come to the stage, only to see the bald old man roll up his sleeves, spread red paper on the eight immortals table, and write couplets with a splash of ink. The upper link is: "Blue sky and white sun mud monster", and the lower link is: "Deeper midnight skin into essence". The pen is vigorous, the clouds flow, and the two sides of the stage are pasted, which makes people's eyes light up and reverie.
The bright moon came out of the east mountain and sprinkled a soft silver light on the earth. Men, women and children dressed in new festive costumes came to the stage one after another. Opening the maza, putting down the bench, laying the grass mound, the old men took off the cigarette bags to be pinned to their waists, took out the fire sickles and cotton, and leisurely lit the fire and smoked dry tobacco; the women called for their children and daughters, and shouted in a high and low voice; the cries of the merchants began one after another. The master on the mash stall, hu da da, hu da da, cheerfully pulled the small bellows, the mash in the iron scoop on the small stove boiled, poured in the frangipani, lifted the iron scoop, only to listen to the "bang" a loud sound, a bowl of steaming mash was brought to the customer, put a white porcelain spoon for the customer to taste while it was hot.
On the stage, the opening gong and drum of the three-way agitation have sounded, and the play is about to start. Uncle Li Shuhua came to the stage and spoke: "Folks! This is the first time I have seen the village singing since I can remember, which is gratifying and congratulatory. The new society is to enrich the cultural life of the villagers. We believe that under the wise leadership of Chairman Mao of the Communist Party, the lives of our common people will certainly get better and better! Today, our village sings a small drama, and in the future, we will sing a big drama and act in a movie. As soon as the words fell, the audience responded with warm applause.
The puppet show "Pauline Lamp" began. In the melodious and pleasant music, Liu Yanchang, the Three Virgins, Agarwood, Yang Jian, Sun Wukong and other dramatic characters have appeared, rap recitation, one scene after another interprets the true love story of the human world; moving and leaping, imitating real people in one move and one style, can be described as a wonderful portrait, vivid. The audience was fascinated, and when they entered the play, some people even hummed along with it.
The puppet show "Pauline Lantern" ends with agarwood splitting Mount Hua to rescue the Three Virgins, and the shadow puppet play "Flame Mountain" is staged immediately afterwards. Under the illumination of cotton strips dipped in cotton butter oil, the white curtain reflects the landscape figures. Sun Wukong's disciple who learned the scriptures from the Western Heavens encountered the Flame Mountain, and in order to relieve the people's worries, Sun Wukong borrowed a fake fan to take the real fan, bitterly fighting the bull demon king and the red child, and finally eliminating the flames, the heavens descended on Ganlin, and relieved the suffering for the people. Vivid and realistic pictures, moving storyline, I was stunned to see it offstage, and I was deeply moved by the spirit of Sun Wukong in the play to eliminate harm for the people and fight indomitably.
Seeing the figures on the curtain riding the clouds and jumping up and down, I felt curious, so I went to the side of the stage and opened the reed foil to peek. I saw that some of the men and women in the troupe moved and walked, some of them changed the set and their hands and feet were not idle, and some of them held musical instruments while singing, and they were busy sweating. Uncle Li Shuhua was also busy working inside, carrying a bamboo skin warm water bottle to pour water for the bald old man and other actors, handing water, handing towels to wipe sweat, and became a waiter. The two warm water bottles were all drunk. He stepped out of the gap where I had lifted the reed foil, nodded and smiled at me, and went home to fetch water. The bright moonlight coated his figure with a layer of silver.
Later, I watched countless scenes, but the impression of any time I watched a play was not as profound as the first time I saw a play. I will never forget it.
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