On June 12, 1952, at No. 56 Shijia Hutong, Beijing, a theater named after “The People” was born here. She is the Beijing People’s Art Theater (hereinafter referred to as “Beijing Renyi”).
Over the past 70 years, Beijing People’s Art Theatre has been committed to building a “people’s theatre, a palace of art”, with sincerity and sincerity, it has created a biography of the people’s portraits, and painted a stage scroll showing the changes in people’s lives and times. With a distinctive Chinese style and national characteristics, it constantly climbs the peak of drama art and tells the world a vivid and vivid Chinese story.
Stills of “Dragon Beard Ditch”, the foundation stone of Beijing Renyi.
Travel through the time tunnel and relive classic moments
“Although the plot lines are familiar, I still burst into tears at the last moment of “Tea House”, fully feeling the charm of the drama and paying tribute to the classics!” On June 12, on the day of the 70th anniversary of Beijing Renyi, when Beijing Renyi ” When “Tea House”, the treasure of the town courtyard, was first recorded in 8K technology and live broadcasted in ultra-high-definition, some viewers left an excited message online, expressing their respect for the classic works and Beijing arts and crafts.
Since the beginning of June, Beijing Renyi has launched a series of activities for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the academy with the theme of “The People’s Theater, the Palace of Art”. Celebration activities, online and social media set off a craze, the cumulative number of views reached 140 million.
“Ruan Lingyu”, “Birdman” and “Seagull” 3 episodes of script reading activities have been launched one after another. “Thunderstorm”, “Cai Wenji”, “White Deer Plain”, “Mutiny”, “Wotou Guild Hall” and other 5 classic plays representing different creative types and styles of Renyi are broadcast online. The main actors in the play will give a guided tour of the play and introduce the background and creative experience of the play to the audience. . Fragments from more than ten plays such as “Our Jingke”, “Hamlet”, “Sunrise”, “The First Floor in the World“, “My Poor Marat”, “Camel Xiangzi” and “Uncle Vanya” appeared successively. The appearance of works and artists allows the audience to travel through the 70-year time tunnel, relive every classic moment on the stage, and feel the artistic charm of Beijing Renyi Drama.
In addition, Beijing Renyi also held a symposium to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the academy, held special academic seminars, renovated and upgraded the drama museum, published “Beijing Renyi Actors Talking About Performance”, and launched special documentaries “National Memory – Beijing Renyi” and “Archives”. ——Looking Back at 70 Years of Renyi” and “I Learn to Perform in Renyi”, show the audience the 70 years of construction and development of Beijing Renyi in various forms.
In 1954, the “Thunderstorm” crew filmed.
Stick to the people’s stand and write the people’s epic
“Beijing Renyi’s greatest vitality is that she has always been a ‘people’s’ theater.” Ren Ming, director of Beijing Renyi, said.
Over the past 70 years, with the joint efforts of generations of artists, Beijing Renyi has adhered to the position of the people, shared the breath with the people, shared the destiny with the nation, and kept pace with the times. The audience is satisfied or dissatisfied as the highest standard for testing art, and more than 300 drama works from ancient and modern China and foreign countries have been staged.
“Longxugou”, which reflects the new life brought by new China to the working people, “Thunderstorm”, which deduces the impermanence of life, “Tea House”, which tells about the life of the old Chinese market, and “The First Floor in the World” which reflects the world‘s various states from the history of the rise and fall of time-honored brands. “, “Player”, which shows the living conditions of the people in Beijing in different periods… For decades, Beijing Renyi has been focusing on the people, saying things that the people can understand, telling things that the public can understand, paying attention to reality, taking root in life, and creating A fine masterpiece that the audience loves to see and hear.
“The central keynote of ‘singing for the people, walking with the times’ has always run through the development of Beijing Renyi.” said Wang Wenguang, secretary of the Beijing Renyi Party Committee.
In the past ten years, Beijing Renyi has adhered to the creative concepts centered on “people’s nature”, “nationality” and “time nature”, adhered to the path of realistic creation, and rehearsed 3,649 performances of 87 Chinese and foreign plays, including 56 major plays. 1951 performances, 1698 performances of 31 small plays, 413 performances of 41 domestic and foreign tours and in-depth grassroots performances.
Among these plays, there are not only large-scale historical dramas “Sima Qian” and “Du Fu”, but also “Beijing-style dramas” and “Player”, which emphasize both freehand and realism. The anti-epidemic drama “Community Neighborhood Committee” and the major revolutionary historical drama “Night of Fragrant Hills”, one drama after another and one performance, profoundly demonstrated the life of the people, reflected the profound traditional Chinese culture, and reflected the motherland. The rapid development and changes demonstrate the spirit of Chinese literature and art in the new era.
In 1980, “Tea House” went abroad.
Not only does the works focus on the lives of ordinary people, but Beijing Renyi has always put serving ordinary audiences in an important position.
In recent years, Beijing Renyi has initially built a public drama matrix of “performance + exhibition + popularization + education”, insisting on popularizing drama. It has developed a number of self-owned public welfare programs such as “Theatrical Eternity”, “Juyin Art Collection”, “Theatre Art Class – Face-to-face with Everyone”, “New Opera Creation and Sharing Session”, “Salute and Inheritance – Mass Drama Public Welfare Performance” and “Script Reading”. The brand has held hundreds of events; actively linked with grass-roots organizations, and jointly launched the “Love Culture Community” activity with the territories, and has trained nearly 400 leaders of drama popularization projects in 17 streets, benefiting more than 500,000 person-times; It has carried out in-depth cooperation with many schools, and systematically carried out drama education through teaching, tutoring and arranging plays, establishing a drama curriculum system, and masters entering the campus. In the past 10 years, it has entered more than 30 schools.
Form a unique style and inherit the artistic spirit
At the beginning of the establishment of Beijing Renyi Institute, Cao Yu, Jiao Juyin, Zhao Qiyang and Ouyang Shanzun, known as the “Four Giants of the Institute”, used a 42-hour conversation to draw a clear picture of how to build Beijing Renyi Institute. The blueprint is to build a world-renowned cultural theater with its own national characteristics, a unique style and theoretical system.
How to build a drama art and drama system that meets the appetite of the Chinese people on the Chinese stage?
Over the past 70 years, generations of artists from Beijing Renyi have been diligently searching, and with the accumulation of long-term artistic practice and aesthetic theory, they have formed a genre of drama with distinctive artistic characteristics, explored the theoretical system of drama with Chinese characteristics, and left Beijingers. The spirit of artistic creation has established Beijing Renyi’s unique position in the field of Chinese drama.
Beginning with “Dragon Beard Ditch” at the beginning of the establishment, Beijing Renyi created “Tea House” and “Thunderstorm” under the high standards and strict requirements of “a profound life foundation, profound inner experience, and vivid character image”. “Cai Wenji” and other classic drama works, they have the feelings of compassion, have a sharp insight into the world, have a thorough analysis and sharp depth. These drama classics not only bloom on the stage of human art, but are also forever treasured in the long history of Chinese drama, marking the innovation level and artistic height of Chinese drama in different periods.
A still from “Family Portrait” (2005).
“In the formation of Beijing Renyi’s performance style, a very important point is to attach great importance to the profound accumulation of life.” As the first batch of actors at the beginning of the establishment of Beijing Renyi Academy, Beijing Renyi Performing Artist and director artist Lan Lanye said.
“You perform, don’t float there, the most taboo is false and artificial. Your plays must fall on the ground.” “You all learn performance methods. More important than performance methods, one is cultural accomplishment, the other is life accumulation, Even life accumulation is more important”… This is what Lan Lanye often teaches younger generations, and it is also Beijing Renyi’s request for generations of actors.
In this art palace, there is a saying that “the drama is bigger than the sky” that has existed for 70 years, and it has always been deeply rooted in the hearts of every actor. Actor Gong Lijun, who has created many classic characters, was once the youngest “Feng Yi” in “Thunderstorm”. She sighed, “‘The drama is bigger than the sky’ is the teaching by words and deeds of the old artists of art and art. The old gentlemen never left, and their spirits are always there.”
The spirit of “One Vegetable” is also the artistic spirit that Beijing Renyi has inherited from the beginning of the establishment of the academy. “One vegetable” not only has green leaves, but also has roots, so it is a complete vegetable. The same is true for a play, without anyone. Therefore, Beijing Renyi has no stars, but actors. Only small actors, no small roles.
On the stage of Beijing Arts and Crafts, many outstanding characters are just small roles. The drama artist Huang Zongluo is famous for his supporting roles, and the “Second Master Song” in “Tea House” is still talked about. Although actor He Bing often plays the leading role in film and television dramas, as long as “Tea House” is staged, “Liu Mazi” and “Little Liu Mazi” are still in high spirits.
“Beijing Renyi has always insisted on producing high-quality products and talents. Especially in the aspect of talent training, generations of artists have been nurtured and born from the art palace of Beijing Renyi, which is also the most worthy of Beijing Renyi in the past 70 years. A place of praise and pride,” said Feng Yuanzheng, vice president of Beijing Arts and Crafts. In his view, the “magic weapon” of Beijing Renyi for cultivating talents is to uphold the fine traditions of the older generation of artists and fundamentally inherit the performance style and artistic spirit of Beijing Renyi.
Going out and bringing in, promoting exchanges and mutual learning
As the most prestigious professional theatre in China, it has always been the mission and pursuit of Beijing Renyi to let the world see Chinese stories and appreciate the charm of Chinese culture.
In the 1980s, “Tea House” represented Chinese drama going abroad and brought Chinese drama into the European field of vision. This work, known as the “miracle of the Eastern stage”, was performed 23 times in 14 cities in three countries, Germany, France and Switzerland.
Since then, a number of high-quality plays with Chinese characteristics, such as “The First Floor in the World“, “Confidant”, “Li Bai”, “Our Jingke” and “I Love Peach Blossom”, have toured overseas alternately, becoming the messengers of Chinese drama dissemination.
A still from “Neighborhood Committee” (2020).
In 2013, at the invitation of the Edinburgh International Arts Festival, Beijing Renyi brought Shakespeare’s book “The Great General Koliu Lan” back to Shakespeare’s hometown. When the wild guitar strums and the bursting drums roared, the emotions of the audiences from all over the world boiled. This is the first drama from mainland China to be invited to participate in this exhibition. Once staged, it will refresh all British audiences and let the world feel the charm of oriental culture.
In 2015, China started the “Belt and Road” construction, and Beijing Renyi also embarked on the “Belt and Road” journey. On October 12, Beijing Renyi was invited to bring its original drama “Our Jingke” to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, to perform at the local Yankee Kupala National Model Theater. This theater, which has a history of more than 100 years, staged a Chinese drama for the first time. The costumes, music and stories from the East amaze the audience.
In addition to “going out”, there is also “bringing in”. In the past 70 years, a large number of outstanding foreign plays have been staged in Beijing Renyi. A number of foreign classic plays represented by “Death of a Salesman”, “Mutiny” and “Yangmajong” continue to be staged, and stage boutiques from all over the world fuse and collide here to exchange dialogues.
Since 2011, Beijing Renyi has launched the “Invitational Exhibition of Excellent Plays of the Capital Theater”. With high-level artistic quality as the standard and “famous troupes, famous plays and famous directors” as the selection principle, it has successively launched the “International Exhibition and Performance Unit”. The four major sections of “Domestic Performance Unit”, “Original Invitation Unit” and “Special Video Unit” can meet the audience’s viewing needs of outstanding plays from foreign provinces and foreign countries, and have built a useful platform for promoting diversified theatrical exchanges.
A still from “Night on Fragrant Hills” (2021).
In September 2021, the Beijing International Drama Center was officially opened, and the stage space of Beijing Renyi was expanded again. The Drama Center has two theaters, “Caoyu Theater” and “Little Renyi Theater”. Together with the Capital Theater, Experimental Theater, and Juyin Theater, they form a well-proportioned theater group, providing more possibilities for the theater’s future creation and performance. , will also further promote the international and domestic drama art exchanges, and live up to the audience’s expectations for this drama art palace.
“It is hoped that Beijing Renyi will use heart, emotion and hard work to produce high-quality dramas, make greater contributions to promoting the construction of a national cultural center, enhance the spiritual strength of the people, and release dazzling brilliance in the exchange and mutual learning of civilizations.” Member of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, Propaganda Minister Mo Gaoyi said.
70 years of exploration and accumulation, set off again. In walking with the people, resonating with the times, and communicating with the world, the curtain of more wonderful Chinese stories is slowly opening on this stage of Beijing Renyi.Zheng Na
Image via Beijing People’s Art Theatre
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责编：张晓荣 ]