At the beginning of 2023, Beijing People's Performing Arts will open the new year with the Beijing-style opera "Under the Red Flag". From the end of 2023 to the present, the historical drama "Zhang Juzheng" has just concluded its first round of performances as a New Year's Eve drama. It's the beginning and end of the year, and the directors of two new plays are Feng Yuanzheng, the current director of Renyi. As an actor, he also played the role of Zhang Juzheng, a reformer from five hundred years ago in "Zhang Juzheng" who led the "Wanli New Deal". It can be said that I am very busy.
During the first round of performances of the drama "Zhang Juzheng", Feng Yuanzheng led all the actors to take a curtain call. Photography Wang Zheng
In recent years, the Beijing People's Art Theater, as a benchmark in the national theater industry, has also experienced repeated impacts of the epidemic for three years, and has also added to the Beijing International Theater with two brand-new theaters (Caoyu Theater and Renyi Theater). The Drama Center will celebrate its 70th anniversary in 2022. However, during the 70th anniversary of the hospital, the former director Ren Ming died of a heart attack. This theater, which had performed countless joys and sorrows on the stage, itself became a footnote to the impermanence of the world.
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Beijing People's Art Institute in 2022, the model in the Capital Theater gives a panoramic view of the four theaters of the People's Art Institute today.
On September 14, 2022, three months after Ren Ming's death, Feng Yuanzheng took over as the chairman of the Beijing People's Art Theater. The news of the fifth president was officially announced. This is not without trace: he has been working here for nearly 40 years since he joined Renyi in 1985. Renyi is the only unit he has worked for, and it is also where his passion for performing and his family and country rest. More recently, in 2016, Feng Yuanzheng served as the captain of the People's Performing Arts Team; in 2020, he took over the position of vice president. Regardless of his personal artistic achievements and reputation, or his familiarity with various theater tasks, he is well-deserved to take over the position left by Ren Ming.
On September 14, 2022, in the Beijing People's Art Rehearsal Hall, Feng Yuanzheng was interviewed by the media after the announcement of his appointment as director. Photography by Wang Zheng
On January 18, 2023, the night of the premiere of "Under the Red Flag". Feng Yuanzheng took the stage to deliver a speech at the curtain call, and choked up at one point: "In the past three years, we have experienced closing the theater, returning to 30%, 50%, and 75% (attendance rate), and today is the first day... the capital The theater welcomed 100% of the audience on the first day. I hope that the 71st Beijing People's Art Festival will start again. After 70 years, the Beijing People's Art Group will not only inherit but also develop. She will appear on the stage with a new look. I also hope that all audiences will continue to support Beijing People's Art. Thank you, dear audience!"
A brand-new look, as evidenced by Beijing People's Art's outstanding report card throughout 2023: 11 new plays were created and arranged, and 35 performances were performed This drama was performed for 503 performances. The number of plays, number of performances, number of new plays and box office revenue have all reached the highest level in the history of the theater since its establishment 71 years ago. More than a year after taking office as dean, Feng Yuanzheng has made changes happen. And this, in turn, forms a certain polyphonic resonance with the theme and topic of the current "Zhang Juzheng".
Stills of the drama "Zhang Juzheng" Feng Yuanzheng plays Zhang Juzheng Stills of the play are photographed by Li Chunguang and Wang Xiaoning
On the stage, Zhang Juzheng, who he plays, implements the examination method and rectifies official administration for reform; implements a whip law to reverse the financial crisis; implements the New Border Defense Policy, "Foreign Defense" "Show restraints, build internal defenses" to organize the border... Even though there are tens of thousands of people, I will go. In reality, Feng Yuanzheng is also worried that Beijing People's Art has entered a critical point of "new and old alternation". For this reason, he launched the "Young Actor Training Program" to focus on the artistic assessment of young actors, and held two sessions in 2019 and 2022. The "Acting Student Training Course" even interviewed more than 20 screenwriters outside the academy last year to work on the creation of a play.
In an exclusive interview with The Paper, Feng Yuanzheng did not want to link the role he played with his current administrative status. He just said that after taking the leadership position, he had more empathy for Zhang Juzheng's reforms and "became more capable." Feel his difficulty." In his opinion, it is like Zhang Juzheng's line in the play, "History chose me, not the history I chose." "The same is true for me as the dean of humanities. If I had not been the dean , should have retired as an actor in Renyi."
This exclusive interview with The Paper was conducted in the director's room on the first floor of the Capital Theater. The original duration was one hour. On the afternoon of the interview, rehearsals for the drama "Under the Red Flag" began (the play was released on January 19 this year). (three rounds of performances), as the director of the play, Feng Yuanzheng couldn't move away from the rehearsal hall for a while. After arriving in the director's room, he first apologized for being "late" and said that the interview time could be extended, "Just ask, as long as Just don't delay tonight's performance. "As a result, we talked for nearly two hours. Taking into account the convenience of readers, the interview is divided into upper and lower parts.
"This drama focuses on reflecting the spirit of reform"
The Paper: First I still want to ask you to talk about how to polish the script with the screenwriter Xiong Zhaozheng. There were nine drafts of the script for "Zhang Juzheng", which is probably rare in drama creation.
Feng Yuanzheng: I filmed the TV series "Wanli Chief Assistant Zhang Juzheng" in 2005 "I got acquainted with Mr. Xiong Zhaozheng at the time, and I invited him to write the script for the drama "Sima Qian". At the same time, the TV series was also adapted from Mr. Xiong's novel. I also asked whether it could also be adapted into a drama in the future? So that's all. The idea for the play "Zhang Juzheng" came about 18 years ago.
The play "Sima Qian" was staged in 2015. About 6 years ago, Ren Yuan (Ren Ming) and I started discussing the script of "Zhang Juzheng" with Teacher Xiong. At that time, he was writing a new novel "The Golden Dynasty", so we should not push it too hard. It was not until the outbreak of the epidemic in early 2020 that Teacher Xiong was in Wuhan, and I sent him a greeting on WeChat. During the chat, he said that he After being locked up at home, I wanted to write about Zhang Juzheng, so I came up with four drafts one after another. In the fourth draft, the script made a major breakthrough, that is, it wrote about both the underworld and the underworld. In the past, costume historical dramas were basically based on characters. Biography, talking about people and history. Both Ren Yuan and I feel that what happened during Zhang Juzheng's lifetime was reform, but what happened after him is more dramatic. The two realms of yin and yang are set in the script. Such echoes give the room for interpretation. From the form It was said to be different from the previous historical dramas of Renyi. Because Teacher Xiong and I were very familiar with each other and our speech was relatively direct, I told him, "This version has not surpassed "Sima Qian" yet. "I hope he will make more adjustments.
By the fifth draft, the prototype of the drama has now taken shape, and it has truly broken away from the narrative mode of the novel, including the battle between Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong, and the lines between Zhang Juzheng and Yu Niang. Taking them all away was to focus on Zhang Juzheng’s reform spirit. Then we adjusted the script while rehearsing. Every adjustment was made by us and Teacher Xiong revised it in detail. The ninth draft was reached before the official performance. The teacher even said that he did not expect it (revised so many times). As a playwright, he really tried his best in this creation. And whether he was writing novels or scripts, he used a pen word by word. It was handwritten, which is particularly rare nowadays. Every time he made revisions, he had to give it to his assistant to print it out and send it to us.
Poster of the drama "Zhang Juzheng"
The Paper: I heard that in the revision of the last few drafts, You asked Xiong Zhaozheng to make some enhancements. Is this mainly for Zhang Juzheng's last long monologue?
Feng Yuanzheng: Yes, in fact, the changes in the later drafts are not major. Teacher Xiong is a cultural person and likes to add in the scripts Rhetoric and parallelism are used in it. As an actor, after all, I am the one who has to interpret this character on the stage. The rhythm of the lines needs to be adjusted according to the stage experience, so that the audience’s emotions will not drop while watching the play. In the last line, Xiong and I The teacher's consensus is that this is not what Zhang Juzheng said, but what the author and we want to tell the audience. Teacher Xiong's lines were written heartily, such as the last sentence, "The Ming Dynasty has died, but this nation will last forever. Prosperity continues. God bless China, Zhang Juzheng has disembarked, and the giant ship of China will still ride the wind and waves and move forward. "Historically, the origin of the four words "God bless China" is Zhang Juzheng, which was also unearthed by Teacher Xiong.This collaboration between
and Teacher Xiong is like confidants. There is no need to go around the bush when talking to each other, and there is no need to hide any ideas about the script. They are all for the sake of making this drama a good one. The play "Sima Qian" took ten years. If I had known that it would take such a long time, I might have given up. But after "Sima Qian" was staged, I felt the power of time. If "Zhang Juzheng" had been released six years ago, we might not have dared to use multimedia technology in it. At that time, the technology was not yet mature, and the animation production was not as high-quality as it is now.
The Paper: You are both the lead actor and director of the drama . What was the biggest difficulty in the process of arranging it?
Feng Yuanzheng: After the script was finalized, the biggest difficulty was still in the presentation of the play. The script is written once, how do you present it on the stage? This is the second creation we want to do. Because this play contains two parts: a realistic temple and an unrealistic world, I hope that the scene changes will not be too complicated and that the stage should be ethereal. As a director, I don’t like to create too grandiose things on the stage, which will actually reduce the expressiveness of the story. There are also very few props this time, all in order to highlight the actors’ performances and highlight the connotation of the script.
When communicating with the stage designer Chang Jiang, I recalled my visit to the Forbidden City when I was a child. At that time, you could also enter the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Except that you were not allowed to touch the dragon chair, you could walk around the hall at will, and you could also touch the red sandalwood cabinets on display. , cloisonne copper tire heating stove. I remember that the pillars were so thick that no one could wrap their arms around them, and the gold bricks in the temple were black and shiny. The smooth, simple and solid feeling of dark green left a deep impression on me. The whole group also went to the Forbidden City and the Ming Tombs to collect the scenery. In the process, they gradually determined that "pillars" and "gold bricks" are the elements that should be included in the stage setting this time, and other elements can be omitted. Chang Jiang's design drafts at the beginning were quite stacked, and they were very large scenes. Although he was very imaginative, I asked him to revise six drafts.
The empty stage photography after the show "Zhang Juzheng" ended , the "Great Emperor" (adult Zhu Yijun) has the smallest dragon chair - it has always been placed in the right corner of the stage, with a beam of overhead light always shining on it - symbolizing that although the imperial power has always been there, specifically for the emperor Zhu Yijun, During the ten years of Zhang Juzheng's reform, he felt that he had been ignored. Empress Dowager Li, Zhang Juzheng and Feng Bao were regarded by Zhu Yijun, who was just in adolescence, as the "three big mountains" above his head. They encountered the problem that every adolescent young person encounters: those who are constantly growing but have nowhere to put them. "Anti-bone".
It can be said that the stage presentation this time is eight pillars, three dragon chairs and a wall in the background. On this wall, multimedia projections were used this time, which greatly helped the visual transformation of the stage presentation, and also helped the actors express their emotions. For this set, my requirement is to be transparent. When the curtain is opened, the audience can see what is happening in the palace. And this time, because there is a transition between the real world and the non-real world, I also asked that the curtains not close between the seven acts. I used a word to say that the scene changes are "very silky". Some comments said that this time "Zhang Juzheng" The stage performance is "one shot to the end".
Stills from the drama "Zhang Juzheng" The palace wall in the background of the stage is used for projection display
The Paper News: The eight pillars on the stage have symbolic meaning. They can move "silk-smoothly". How is this achieved?
Feng Yuanzheng: This is thanks to our stage props production team. After repeated trials, they installed pulleys under the eight pillars, which are driven by human power. In this way, the scene change between each scene does not rely on cutting off the light and then lighting it up again. This is achieved by moving large props - each pillar weighs less than 200 kilograms, and has a counterweight at the lower end to ensure that it will not tip over during movement, and the actors have a corresponding rhythm when pushing, and they must be " "Push" out of play.
The Paper: Xiong Zhaozheng's novel "Zhang Juzheng" has more than 1.5 million words. After his adaptation and rewriting, the drama presented on the stage is only two and a half hours. Compared with the simple and concise stage design this time, please also talk about it The arrangement of plot clues.
Feng Yuanzheng: This play is not about Zhang Juzheng’s life, nor is it an exhaustive account of the content and process of Zhang Juzheng’s reforms. It focuses on reflecting his reform spirit. In fact, there are three clues in the whole play that advance in parallel in the real and unreal worlds. One of them selects the important events in Zhang Juzheng's life as a node to connect his entire reform path; the other boldly imagines and uses unrealistic techniques to unfold his story. Some thoughts behind the scenes connect reality and imagination; at the same time, a third clue is added to allow the boy and the adult Wanli Emperor to communicate through the air.
’s last long monologue, “I fully mobilize my emotions to scream”
The Paper News: I noticed that your costume this time, if you look closely, it seems to have signs of fading. It is not a brand new costume. Why is this?
Feng Yuanzheng: The costume design this time is our external teacher Peng Dinghuang. When I was talking about the design with her, I just told her the historical background of the script: the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli period was only superficial, and the interior of the court was already in a state of decay, exuding a sense of decay. After Teacher Peng and us went to the Ming Tombs to collect the scenery, we came up with our own ideas on clothing design. It seemed to be a gorgeous palace style, but also had a mottled feel similar to the murals in the tombs, as if the unearthed cultural relics had been infiltrated by mineral soil. , must have the texture of the passage of time and traces of historical vicissitudes. Teacher Peng defined the color of this costume as "curry light". It is not new. This is especially obvious in Zhang Juzheng's costume.
Of course, this is just a "seeming" feeling. In fact, the costumes are very well-made and heavy. We also draw lessons from traditional opera in our performances. The last scene of the play is about the world behind Zhang Juzheng. The other actors on the stage have changed into light-colored and elegant clothes. Only Zhang Juzheng has not changed. He is still wearing the mottled court clothes. He also wants to show that he has always carried a lot of love in his heart. the ideal of reform.
Stills from the drama "Zhang Juzheng"
The Paper News: In addition to playing Zhang Juzheng this time, you have also starred in many historical dramas produced by Renyi in recent years, such as Sima Qian and Du Fu. As an actor, can you talk about the emphasis on performing different characters?
Feng Yuanzheng: so-called "one play, one style". Beijing People's Art Theater's costume historical dramas range from the earliest "Cai Wenji" to the representative work "Li Bai", and then in the past ten years I have performed "Friends", "Sima Qian" and "Du Fu", The same lineage but great changes. In recent years, I have played many ancient celebrities. Gu Zhenguan in "Bosom Friend" is elegant and persistent. My performance on the stage needs to be more "handsome", and I use the method of bringing opera to life to reflect the literati. A sense of lightness; Sima Qian was a historian who spoke uprightly. He suffered castration and became actually a disabled person. In the second half of the performance, I will make some adjustments to his gait, making his walk staggering and heavier; Du Fu is what later generations called him. "The Saint of Poetry", when he was alive, his life was very unsatisfactory, so he wrote "The Song of Thatched Cottage Broken by the Autumn Wind". He took his children to beg for food, and even fought for food with monkeys. I couldn't follow Pu Ge (Pu Cunxin)'s acting style in "Li Bai", but I wanted to act in a more down-to-earth way.
Stills from the drama "Sima Qian" Feng Yuanzheng plays Sima Qian
Zhang Juzheng is a politician, with a deeper city and greater courage. During the rehearsal, I didn't know his state correctly at first. He looked sad when he came up, "The Ming Dynasty has gone through more than two hundred years, but our Taicang is empty." Later, I felt that he generally knew the country's financial situation, and he took office. The first assistant visited Taicang on the first day, just to find out what the family's financial situation was, and also to seek legitimacy for his subsequent reforms. So when he comes up, he needs to be imposing and sulky, and he must speak his lines crisply and clearly.The challenge for me as an actor this time is to memorize the lines (laughs), especially the last long monologue. I don’t want to recite it with a beautiful voice, but fully mobilize my emotions to scream. I have to adjust myself to the best condition before every performance. This breath has to be pushed forward, just like sprinting.
Stills from the drama "Zhang Juzheng" Feng Yuanzheng plays Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Pei plays Empress Dowager Li
The Paper News: In the play "Zhang Juzheng", there seems to be an ambiguous relationship between Zhang Juzheng and Empress Dowager Li. What do you think as a director?
Feng Yuanzheng: The point you mentioned is that in the last scene between heaven and earth, Zhang Juzheng and Queen Mother Li are no longer alive. They meet in another world. Queen Mother Li says these words, "I hope we can meet again in the next life." In fact, it mainly fleshes out the image of her character. In my opinion, rather than saying that this is Empress Dowager Li talking about her feelings for Zhang Juzheng, it is better to say that she is expressing the feelings and emotions of a woman after shedding her earthly identity.
Empress Dowager Li has always been the staunchest supporter of Zhang Juzheng's ten years of reform. This trust does not come from the relationship between men and women, but from her vision as a politician. She knew that she could only rely on this to save the Ming Dynasty from collapse. A capable and loyal minister. In the interaction between the two of them, she was a woman after all, and she also said something like "The emperor is an orphan, and I am a widowed mother." When she arrived in another world, she was willing to talk to Zhang Juzheng about her true feelings and tell him what she had given to the emperor and herself. This cannot be simply understood as the relationship between men and women. In my opinion, the understanding of this emotion should be broader. This is true on the stage of human art. We will not put the empty shell of a character on the stage, but are more willing to explore the deeper things in human nature. Specific to this drama, even if there is affection between Empress Dowager Li and Zhang Juzheng, it is based on love and not on etiquette.
This scene has another function. Why did Emperor Wanli liquidate and confiscate Zhang Juzheng’s house after his death? It is precisely because to a certain extent, Zhang Juzheng not only replaced his role of giving orders during the reform process, but also replaced his biological father's role of accompanying him, guiding and disciplining him everywhere. This seemed to the emperor in the rebellious period. It is a double act of substituting. Therefore, the emperor's hatred for Zhang Juzheng and his mother was also complicated. Since childhood, his mother had always maintained Zhang Juzheng's authority, and they did not take into account their own face as the ninth emperor. These are not developed too much in this drama, but with this plot, it will be easier for the audience to understand and straighten out the relationship between the characters.
Stills from the drama "Zhang Juzheng" Liu Zhiyang plays the adult emperor Zhu Yijun (middle)
"Creating characters on the stage is inseparable from the insights in life"
The Paper News: You must be familiar with Zhang Juzheng's life and deeds. He has appeared in the show before In the TV series "Zhang Juzheng, the Chief Assistant of Wanli" (playing Feng Bao), during the preparation for this drama, I also saw a collection of relevant biographies and critical essays studied by the crew in the showcase in the lobby of the Capital Theater. What do you think of Zhang Juzheng?
Feng Yuanzheng: I am actually not qualified to evaluate Zhang Juzheng. I am just a literary and artistic worker to complete the mission of this drama creation. Furthermore, if I comment on him, no matter how good I am, I am just picking up the wisdom of past historians.
I think that Mr. Xiong Zhaozheng did not deliberately exalt his portrayal of Zhang Juzheng this time, but instead wrote about the complexity of the character. For example, if Zhang Juzheng wants to realize his ideals, he can only reach the pinnacle of power. For this reason, he could not avoid "clothing himself in filth and trying to please others". His reforms were to prolong the life of the precarious Ming Dynasty and turn the rugged road into a broad road. That line, "I dare not tell the truth, but I don't blush when telling lies." Every time I perform this, my voice is choked with sobs, and the depth of it is enough to touch me.
Stills from the drama "Zhang Juzheng" (1)
The Paper: In the play, Zhang Juzheng promoted reforms. In reality, you have also brought changes to human art since you became the dean.Will this allow you to have more empathy and resonance when playing this character?
Feng Yuanzheng: is just like Zhang Juzheng's line in the play, "It was history that chose me, not the history I chose." The same is true for me as the dean of Renyi. If I were not the dean, I should have retired as an actor in Renyi .
Of course, actors cannot create characters on stage without their own perceptions in life. Zhang Juzheng's reform included the entrance examination method, and the humanities and arts also had provisions for annual assessment of actors. When Zhang Juzheng took office, he was worried about the emptiness of the national treasury. As the dean, I also have to pay attention to whether our plays are selling well? The box office of the performance is our "treasury", how can we allow the audience to continue to pursue human-art dramas? It is these thoughts that made it easier for me to enter this character when I played Zhang Juzheng.
The Paper: Both the new version of "Sunrise" directed by you and this time "Zhang Juzheng" used multimedia technology as stage scenery. Regarding new imaging technologies, such as incorporating LED screens into stage performances, current comments are divided. Some people question whether such imaging technologies detract from the purity of the drama theater itself. What is your attitude towards this art?
Feng Yuanzheng: We used projection in the two dramas "Sunrise" and "Zhang Juzheng". Some viewers thought it was a large LED screen, but it was not. I personally dislike LED, but I don't dislike projection, because projection, as a technical means, can help the performance achieve some effects that traditional matte painting cannot. In the past, matte paintings were used. Our theater also has very good matte painters who have been unknown all their lives. They are definitely artist-level works. Later, there was spray painting, where real scenes were sprayed onto the curtain, which actually lost the meaning of matte painting.
I think it is inevitable for theater to integrate new technologies. German theater introduced these technologies more than 20 years ago, including real-time broadcasting. The key is to see whether the use of multimedia technology is appropriate and whether it helps the development and presentation of the plot. In the play "Du Fu" (2019), Renyi introduced multimedia technology for the first time, using projection to show the animated scenes of "The Thatched House Broken by the Autumn Wind". If it were to use real scenes, how many straws would have to be placed on the stage? Blowing? And it had to be cleaned before the next act could begin. In the play, the scene in which Du Fu walks into the mountains and rivers at the end cannot be accomplished simply by painting the scene. It must be achieved with the help of new technical means. The same is true for "Sunrise" (2021) and "Zhang Juzheng". Why this scene is used is based on plot advancement or used as a psychological suggestion for the character. Specific to the finished effect, we will discuss every frame with the multimedia production teacher to ensure the consistency of the overall style and not make the audience feel abrupt or even out of touch after watching it.
Stills 2 of the play "Du Fu" The stage background clearly uses projection technology
The reason why multimedia technology is used in some historical dramas or new performances of old plays, including changes in costumes, music, and lighting, is very modern. , also in order to meet the current aesthetic needs of the audience, as well as the development trends and trends of the drama stage. Is it always good to stay in the same state forever? After all, we are not "museum art" - of course, "Tea House" and the classic version of "Thunderstorm" cannot use multimedia technology, and they still have to be presented authentically. But why can’t we introduce multimedia into the new layout of “Thunderstorm” (2021)? In this sense, the newly typed "Sunrise" and "Zhang Juzheng" have the same origin.
Stills from the new version of the drama "Thunderstorm"
The Paper: I have watched several dramas directed by you, and the stage style is relatively simple and ethereal. Is this related to your experience of studying in Germany?
Feng Yuanzheng: Some people may think that because I studied in Germany, I like the Bauhaus style and prefer the simple style. Not entirely, I just like the stage presentation to leave more things for the audience and actors, so I hope the stage can be simple.
Stills from the new version of the drama "Sunrise"
The Paper News: Let's switch to a lighter topic and enter the second half of this interview.I noticed you were wearing two watches today. "Time" may be your most important concern after taking office as the director of Beijing People's Art Institute. Can you talk about daily time management, such as what time do you usually go to bed and wake up now? How to allocate time between administration and artistic creation?
Feng Yuanzheng: time? (Laughs) The time doesn’t belong to me now, it belongs to the theater. Now I basically get up before seven o'clock every morning. I go to the theater from home around 7:30. I have a simple breakfast at the theater. In the morning, I basically arrange administrative work, hold meetings and discuss things. Rehearsals are held in the afternoon. Previously, they rehearsed "Zhang Juzheng." Now, "Under the Red Flag" is about to be performed again. This is the play they have been rehearsing. In the evening, there is a performance. When I get home, it's 11 or 12 o'clock. I tidy up and go to bed at 1 o'clock.
