China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Shen Jiequn
Late at night, the drama came to an end, and a rain fell in the silent old city of southern Gansu. Every audience member who walked out of the "Hui Theater" held a hot meat bun and held an umbrella on their way home.
According to Lai Shengchuan’s practice over the years, buns will be distributed to the audience after every performance of "Treasure Island Village" - buns are an important image of this drama. The buns this time are made by the folks from Lai Shengchuan’s ancestral home, which has a special meaning.
Just after New Year’s Day 2024, the 100th performance of the exclusive version of "Treasure Island Village" was performed on the opening night of Huichang Drama Town and Huichang Drama Season 001.
"That Night, We Talked about Crosstalk", "Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land", "A Dream Like a Dream", "Treasure Island Village"... More than 40 drama works by the famous Chinese dramatist Lai Shengchuan have influenced the Chinese-speaking world.
Huichang, Jiangxi is the hometown of Lai Shengchuan’s father. In 1947, Lai Shengchuan's father left home to make a living and went overseas, but never had the chance to return to his hometown. In the 1990s, Lai Shengchuan and his brother began their journey back to their hometown to find relatives. In a letter to his hometown, Lai Shengchuan wrote: "We have opened a hazy window, and we are no longer a tree without roots."
Since 2015, Lai Shengchuan and his team have performed in Huichang every year with their works . Later, Lai Shengchuan took the Lai family's old house in Huichang as a starting point, re-planned the area around the old house in this place that has nurtured generations of outstanding talents, and established Huichang Drama Town.
Lai Shengchuan wants to conduct a social experiment, which may take 10 years. "What kind of changes will art bring to a small town like Huichang? Especially what kind of changes will it bring to the young people of Huichang?"
The word "change" belongs to a long timeline, and its meaning is engraved in the future. . But some of the shining moments are deeply gratifying.
In Huichang Drama Town, there is an eye-catching "Harmony Drama Technical College", which also has student dormitories and teacher dormitories.
Hesheng Theater Technology Institute is the first professional theater technical talent training base in China. The college offers comprehensive theater technology courses and builds an international standard scenery and costume practice base, aiming to cultivate professional theater technicians.
This school is exactly what Lai Shengchuan hopes, "drama will bring changes to local young people."
Lai Shengchuan Photo provided by the organizer
Lai Shengchuan introduced that Hesheng Drama Technical College has been taking classes for a semester, and young people nearby now have new universities and drama majors to choose from. Shanghai's "Shanghai Theater" is also stationed here. Many people come to ask how to sign up and how to participate? In the future, the Harmony School of Theater Technology will add more majors, “and this will become a very important place for the incubation of the theater industry.”
Jiangxi Huichang was once an old cultural town where poetry and rituals were passed down. In the town, two ancient banyan trees that are more than 300 years old, the Zhi Rong and the Hui Rong, spread their huge shades and bear witness to the rich cultural heritage of this place; nearly a thousand The ancient city wall of the Southern Song Dynasty protects the tranquility of the town. Thousands of years of human migration and residence have formed a unique Hakka culture. The ancient houses and inscribed bricks from the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties record the dust and smoke of the past.
On the premise of retaining the style of the old county town, Huichang Theater Town has renovated 4 theaters with different functions, an experimental theater, a garden theater and a rehearsal hall, which can accommodate international and diversified performances.
"Hui Theater" was renovated from a local old printing factory. The space is not large, with a total of 338 seats. Usually, theaters with less than 300 seats are called small theaters, so this theater can be considered a "medium theater" at best. The name "Hui Theater" not only refers to Huichang, but also means meeting.
During the Huichang Drama Season 001, the tea-picking song and dance version of "Secret Love in Peach Blossom Spring" presented by the Huichang County Tea-Picking Song and Dance Theater combines the famous local Hakka tea-picking opera to add a new look to this 38-year-old work; costume designer Huang Wei created a unique runway show on the Sanjiang Pedestrian Bridge in the town, staging a fashion feast between the mountain shadows and the gurgling river water.
Lai Shengchuan said: "The cultural and creative industry cannot be achieved by building a theater. It must be cultivated carefully and slowly, and it must be cultivated locally."
Judging from Lai Shengchuan's previous creations, he seems to be very good at integrating his work and The surrounding living space is transformed into a natural "theater".
In 2023, the Wuzhen Theater Festival has just celebrated its “10th birthday”. As the founder of the Wuzhen Theater Festival, Lai Shengchuan simply turned the long alley in front of his studio into a space for performing dramas.
"Long Alley", the 41st play in Lai Shengchuan's dramatic career, is performed in an alley with a history of hundreds of years in Xizha, Wuzhen: Hongchang Alley and the Shen Family Theater on the east side of the alley. The two protagonists of "Long Alley", an old man and a young man, form two stages of human life, as well as the roles of girls, clowns, watchmen, musicians, etc. who come and go between the two. They weave a story with a lot of humorous and philosophical dialogues. An unreplicable poem about time and life.
Lai Shengchuan said that in "Long Lane", he wrote a lot of things that the 30-year-old himself could not write and did not dare to write. In a dreamlike state, even in the most unlikely environment for acting - challenging creation in a space 81.5 meters long and 1.5 meters wide.
"Every place has a history, and I spent a lot of time understanding the rich history of the alleys and houses, borrowing history and space to create a play rather than a tourist work. The long alley itself is a metaphor, a metaphor for life."
In the New Year of 2024, Lai Shengchuan also brought a specially created new work "Flowers in the Mirror and Moon in the Water" to Huichang Drama Town, which was performed in the outdoor and indoor spaces of the garden theater renovated from the ancestral hall. He revealed that the old wicker chairs and wooden chairs in the audience seats of "Through the Looking Glass" were collected from local families. "These chairs are woven by local people with very skillful hands. They may last for decades if they sit on them."
From small town to small town, Huichang and Wuzhen have different existences in Lai Shengchuan's heart.
Lai Shengchuan said with a smile that Huichang Theater Town is really small, only 1/15 of the area of Wuzhen. The water system here is also different from that of Wuzhen. “Since ancient times, the temperament of the two places has been different, so it is impossible to make them the same. ". Huichang Theater Town is not a theater festival. His wish is that there will be performances all year round, and people can come to travel and watch the theater.
"Huichang is different from Wuzhen. Wuzhen still has its own value, but this town is really called a drama town. Many of the landscapes here will directly become the scenery in dramas. For example, we saw " During the rehearsal of the play "Through the Looking Glass," I was sighing: This is a fictional story, but they are all real walls."
Huichang Drama Town does not have tickets. Every day, local residents crowd every corner of the drama town. , whether you are sitting around watching a play in the open square in the afternoon, or strolling on the city wall at sunset, drama quietly flows into the river of life.
Lai Shengchuan said that in fact, during the rehearsal of "Treasure Island Village" the night before the opening of the drama season, he was "moved to death" by the concentration of the local audience.
“I have watched this play hundreds of times, so it shouldn’t be too touching. But it was performed in Huichang to more than 300 people. They had almost never seen a theatrical performance, but they watched it from beginning to end. , did not leave the position." Lai Shengchuan lamented that at least after this night, more than 300 people had been infected by the drama.
He firmly believes that "the power of drama is there".
Source: China Youth Daily client
