On October 14, Liu Tianchi updated the video dynamics of the social platform, which is a vlog recording the performance of the stage play "Dream". Makeup, going on stage, curtain calling... An ordinary daily vlog can still feel her cherishment of every detail.
"Shocking Dream" is the first stage play in which Liu Tianchi returned to the stage after a gap of 13 years, telling the story of a Kunqu opera class struggling to survive during the Liberation War.
starring in "Dreams", not only because of the strong invitation of idol Chen Peisi, but also the overlap of the experience of the characters and grandma in the play is also an important factor.
Liu Tianchi's grandmother is a drama critic actress, and after leaving school at the age of 14, she became the head of the class and went all the way north, and later founded Jiju. After seeing the script of "Dreams", Liu Tianchi felt that his role in the play was very similar to his grandmother's experience of upheaval and displacement, and if he could pay tribute to his grandmother on the stage, it would also be a very meaningful thing.
For Liu Tianchi, grandma has always been his spiritual pillar on the road of art. Since she was a child, my grandmother has told her that to do one thing, you must do it the best, and roasted sweet potatoes should be better than other people's baked potatoes. Grandma's words have always influenced Liu Tianchi, and she has become an excellent acting teacher in the industry.
After becoming a teacher, in addition to daily guidance training, she also served as an acting instructor in some variety shows, such as "Annual Comedy Competition" and "I am an Actor"... She enjoys this way of co-creating with the actors.
Chatting with Liu Tianchi is not only comfortable, but more of a "sense of gain", she is explaining to you, but not a high preaching, playful expression is a bit like the vivid Xiu'e in the next dinner god drama, most of the time, she is still the gentle and tough Chi mother.
——The following is compiled from Liu Tianchi's self-statement:
It is more appropriate for me to be a teacher
Many people say that the profession of teacher is boring, but I don't think so.
As an actor, you need to put all your attention into developing yourself, more like working alone.
And as a teacher, what you have to do is to sculpt and inspire others. It's a process from self-development to developing others, which looks boring, but in fact you get another kind of happiness.
After choosing the profession of teaching, the students gave me new strength, and it was all the students who made me feel that I was more suitable to be a teacher.
Accompanying them and watching more audiences get laughter and touching because of their performances is more fulfilling than the satisfaction I felt when I went to act, and I knew that for me, this was the right profession.
I just debuted and filmed "Alive" directed by Zhang Yimou. At that time, I asked the director, what do you think I should choose in the future direction of development? He asked me at the time: What kind of actor do you want to be?
At that time, I really wanted to be an actor like Gong Li, but the director said that I thought too much. He said that if you want to be an actor as dazzling as Gong Li, you may be hindered in appearance.
But the director also told me that although I can't become a star actor like her, it doesn't prevent me from being a good actor. The director also reminded me that I can deepen my inner things and possibly become a good teacher.
That was in 1995. In 2011, filming "Jinling Thirteen", I helped director Zhang Yimou tutor those actors. I said to him, I have the courage to sit next to you today and help you train 30 actors, all because of what you said to me back then.
After 15 years, I suddenly found that being able to tutor more people like a teacher did not make me lose the ability to perform, but made me have a deeper understanding of performance.
Director Zhang Yimou said that when one door was closed, another window opened. Actually, for me, the door was still open, but another window was opened.
As I came into contact with more and more students, I found a phenomenon that many students after graduation, when they go to work, there is no way to adapt quickly.
Any profession has an internship period, and someone with more experience than him needs to take him. But the profession of an actor is very special, and many students have to take on very important roles as soon as they graduate, and it will inevitably be difficult to quickly integrate into the entire crew.
So I wanted to make a studio to accompany these kids. So in 2016, I founded Liu Tianchi Performance Workshop to send some better actors to the industry.
Drama is a set of tools that everyone needs. We have all kinds of scenes in life, and everyone will play a variety of roles in their lives. Therefore, I especially hope to popularize drama, so that drama is not limited to the stage and screen, but also integrated into life, and solves the anxiety of modern people.
I want to play theater with the public, so that more people can feel themselves in theater. For these two reasons, I did the performance workshop.
I'm not a competitive person, but if I want to do something, I have to do my best to make it clear. The purpose of my work is actually very pure, it doesn't matter if it's an actor or a teacher, as long as I immerse myself in it and get pleasure, it's the right thing.
Others remember Xiu'e
I am very happy, and there are still people who remember "Xiu'e". Accompanying the audience with the role and leaving such a deep impression in the hearts of the audience is a great honor for the actor.
The script of "Parental Love" itself is particularly good. When I saw the script, I laughed there. Director Kong Sheng asked me, what do you think of this role?
I said the character was so cute. Since this character is so cute in itself, I have to make her a little more cute.
To perform is first and foremost to love the person, to love the person or the character to be performed. Only after loving someone can you interpret her well.
At that time, I especially loved Xiu'e sister-in-law, because she was really an ordinary person, but so kind, with the simplicity that Chinese people often have, and the kind of little chicken thief. Not the kind of character who has been tainted by high education, she is a bracken that grows in our land, fresh and tough.
Such a role that can be "retained" is indispensable to the screenwriter, director and actor.
A work of art is not a lonely appreciation, it is a joint participation and serves the audience. If a character doesn't leave a deep mark on the audience's heart, all three should be beaten.
Many people ask me, do you want to create such a flesh-and-blood character again? For me, I'd rather meet the characters than look for them.
It's almost like falling in love. You said that you have to find someone to fall in love, and although some marriage agencies can also facilitate you, it also takes you many blind dates to determine the person you love. Of course, there is also the kind of love at first sight, unexpected encounter.
I'm going to keep that way, and I'm looking forward to meeting that character.
Acting is delicate and silent
Sometimes I'm scared to hear the acting ceiling, or the acting skills explode. You can't misread the acting skills, and the acting skills that can be seen are not necessarily good performances.
Everyone is nervous when acting. Performing technology is to put aside those conscious distractions and use technical ability to hide "me" as another person.
The audience feels that the acting skills exploded, it must have moved you, you were "hit" by it, so sometimes they misread the techniques presented by some good actors. The performance we see must not be explosive, the acting is moist and silent, you can't see him acting, that's the real technology.
The profession of actor is relatively speaking, with a halo, and everyone is willing to go to places with light. But what I'm trying to say is that if you want to work in this profession, I think you should pause and think about what this profession is really for.
If you don't know what this profession does, what it needs to train, what technology it needs to master, and it comes in with only a passion, and in the end it is a mess, I especially want to say to these people, you must be calm, the more you choose to enter this glamorous industry, the more calm you must be.
Last year, I started sharing some of my views on short video platforms. If these feelings of my life and work, or can be said to be experiences, can resonate with netizens when they grow up, or in the process of appreciating works of art, then I think it is enough.
Many netizens asked me, what kind of experience is it to teach so many "stars"? In fact, for me, it is still a teacher and a student, there is no three, six, nine, etc., it doesn't matter who he is. One of the things I often say to my students is that there is a standard for acting, and the two of us are measured by this standard, not the relationship between you listening to me or me listening to you. Art itself has its creative law, and it is good that we follow this law.
Planning | Zhang Qiang
Written by| Rei-chan
Editor| Bozai
Proofreading | old monster