Wu Dandan
Xu Fen’s recent photo. Photo courtesy of Xu Fen
A few days ago, the Peking Opera "Protagonist" of the same name, adapted from the Mao Dun Literature Award-winning novel, debuted in Wuhan, Hubei, and received favorable reviews. The person who took the lead in adapting this work is the 90-year-old playwright Xu Fen. In November 2023, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles.
I once asked Teacher Xu Fen, what is the "protagonist" of your life? The old man replied seriously: "This question is too big. I don't know what the 'protagonist' of my life is, but in this life, many things that I will remember throughout my life are related to drama."
's first memory was only five years old. At the age of six, my grandmother fell in love with Peking opera. She used her pension money to buy a complete set of costumes and asked her grandchildren to all sing in opera. Xu Fen was forced to learn the complete works of "Zi Gong" and "Yutang Chun", as well as excerpts of "Wujiapo", "Farewell My Concubine" and "The Phoenix Returns to the Nest"... The eldest brother was obsessed with drama and established a drama club when he was a student. Organize performances for students. As the younger sister of a member, whenever she has some free time, she rushes to the theater to watch the show. As I watched, I memorized the lines of each character, memorized the scheduling of each scene, and memorized every actor's movements, tone, and eyes. When she couldn't go to the city to watch a play, she would "act out" the whole play scene by scene in front of the full-length mirror at home.
This kind of life has developed Xu Fen's drama boy skills. "No matter what kind of work, I remember all the vivid characters. Therefore, I know that no matter what kind of work, writing about people is the most important, and writing about different people, writing about conflicts and conflicts "People give the audience something to watch and think about, and the actors have something to play with." Therefore, in his subsequent screenwriting career, Xu Fen "worked hard" to write different characters.
's first play "Yan Yan" was originally a comedy, but she saw the tragic fate of women in that era and wrote it into a tragedy. When writing "Wang Xifeng", she saw the bitterness behind the scenery of the most capable person in the Jia family and the bitterness deep in her heart. “I think playwrights must have a pair of eyes of the times, turn their understanding of the world and people into personalized creations of their works, have the courage to learn, constantly update themselves, break through themselves, improve themselves, and maintain their sensitivity to society and life. and the ability to think independently, and always maintain his own aesthetic character," Xu Fen said.
Xu Fen is a first-level screenwriter. Her works have so far produced 12 "plum blossoms". Many actors have won the Plum Blossom Award, the highest award for Chinese drama performing arts, by performing her plays, covering many opera types such as Jin Opera, Gui Opera, Sichuan Opera, and Qin Opera. Starting from the first award-winning Xiao Ting, "Mu Lian's Mother" has cultivated two generations of plum blossom awards, Chen Qiaoru and Yu Jia's masters and apprentices. "Splashing Water in Front of Horse" has cultivated two plum blossom award winners of Qin Opera Li Xiaoqing and Gui Opera Wu Siting. Famous operas such as Tian Mansha and Chen Qiaoru even won the "Second Plum Award" through her works "Lady Macbeth", "Still Water" and "Sea of Desire"... The theater industry has held many seminars for her works. Everyone fully appreciated her practice of pursuing the perfect combination of content and form. Xu Fen also has his own understanding: As dramatic literature, the literary nature of a script cannot be lost, but the theatricality and performance require more attention. The script must provide details and emotional support to the actors, and the characteristics of the drama, including stunts, must be maximized as much as possible. Put it in and give the actors room to show off.
"When writing a play, you must have an audience in mind." When working at the Sichuan Opera Theater in Chengdu, Sichuan, Xu Fen would ask for a work ticket every time a new play was performed, sit in the audience, and listen to everyone's discussions. Observe the audience's reaction, and as long as what she says makes sense, she will change it immediately. Especially when it comes to singing, often after a scene, the actor behind the scenes would be holding several pieces of paper, all of which were words that Xu Fen had changed on the spur of the moment. When the actors saw her, they said: "Mistress is good at everything, but she likes to change her lyrics too much!"
Her works have both a sense of the times and modernity. The proportion of adapted plays is not small and is determined by the nature of the play itself. Originality is important, but good adaptation is also important re-creation."Re-creation means that in line with the overall spirit of the original work and the character tone of the original work, the adaptor mobilizes his or her own subjective consciousness and creative talents, so that the adapted work can gain new artistic value and new meaning from content to form. Artistic life enables the adapted work to stand out from the original work and remain in the art world forever." It is under the control of this concept that Xu Fen expresses his thoughts about life, destiny and society with ease. . After
won the "Lifetime Achievement Award", Xu Fen wrote a limerick, which included the two sentences "I hope that the waves behind will push the waves ahead, and I am willing to listen to new songs to replace the old ones", which fully demonstrates her free and open-mindedness and high expectations for future generations of dramatists. .
棻, which means fragrant wood. When she was a child, her father's expectation for her was to become a writer like Bing Xin and hope that she could have her own career and pursuits. Perhaps as a response, she chose a lifelong career of dealing with words. In the fertile field of drama, she eventually grew into a strong tree with a charming fragrance.
"People's Daily" (April 04, 2024, Edition 08)
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