Tian Qinxin: Actors go back to Kung Fu, the troupe goes back to creation
The National Theatre’s new work, “Live Broadcasting of the Founding Ceremony”, which will be staged at the National Centre for the Performing Arts on “October” this year, although the name is grand, the history behind the story has rarely been involved in art works before. The glorious moment remembered by every Chinese, the hidden humanity is still waiting to be discovered.
Following the new version of “Hurricane”, the screenwriter and director Tian Qinxin once again applied real-time video technology to the stage of the drama, tracing the traces of history, and acting out a story, which was expressed in China 72 years ago, which was waiting to be flourished. A group of broadcasters How to use sound to record and spread the great historical moment of the founding ceremony.
A few days ago, Tian Qinxin accepted an interview with Beiqing Art Review on topics such as the creation of the play, creative philosophy, and theater development.
About “Live Broadcasting the Founding Ceremony”: That arduous “Tianzihao task”
Beiqing Art Review: Why did you take a fancy to the theme of “Live Broadcasting the Founding Ceremony”? It seems that there are not many well-known “legends” about this period of history?
Tian Qinxin: This year marks the centenary of the founding of the party and the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the Republic. At this glorious moment, the National Theatre was commissioned by the National Centre for the Performing Arts to produce and perform the original drama “Live Broadcasting the Founding Ceremony”, reflecting the announcement of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949. Set up such a solemn historical moment.
The protagonist of the drama “Live the Founding Ceremony” is a group of technicians from the former Yan’an Xinhua Broadcasting Station and the former Kuomintang Beiping Broadcasting Station who completed the live broadcast of the live broadcast of the founding ceremony. The starting point for the creation of this theme was Luo Bing, who was the former host of the Beijing People’s Broadcasting Station. He mentioned the live broadcast of the Founding Ceremony a few years ago, but only a few short sentences. The words talked about such a thing. He said that in those days, in such a big square, live broadcast must be very difficult.
I thought it was so interesting. I entrusted him to check some information for me and learned that in mid-August 1949, the group of broadcasters who came to Peking from Xibaipo to the original Yan’an Radio Station received the task of live broadcasting the founding ceremony. How to pick up the sound in the square, how to design and arrange Chairman Mao’s microphone, and how to pick up the password issued by Commander-in-Chief Zhu’s military parade are all difficult problems they face, and time is very tight.
Later, we checked a lot of materials and consulted Bi Lianzhu, a radio expert, Shi Bohua, a broadcast history expert, and Wang Junwei, an expert on party history, for the entire creation process. Out of the need for confidentiality, when the technicians received the mission, they didn’t know that the live broadcast was the founding ceremony. They always called it the “Tianzihao mission” and didn’t know where it was held. They could only tell from the drawings that it was an ancient system. At the end of the square, there were two or three days left before I knew more complete information about the venue and content of the event. But in order to show the artistic effect, our drama will say in the first scene that it is receiving a live broadcast of the founding ceremony of the country, and then use the “Tianzihao mission” to refer to it.
The most difficult part in the creation of “Live Broadcasting of the Founding Ceremony” is the “technical” part, especially important is the two-line technical research: one is how to realize the live broadcast within one and a half months, and the other is to prevent spies from sabotage. There are some spy wars. The characteristics of the play, the composition of these two lines is very interesting in itself.
As a national theater, we have the cultural responsibility to tell Chinese stories well in the new era, to make stories with excellent realistic themes and themes look good, so that more audiences can feel the combination of ideology and artistry, and get a more enjoyable viewing experience . It is hoped that “Live Broadcast of the Founding Ceremony” can represent the performance level of the national dialect. A national theater troupe with a population of 1.4 billion should be the best in content. We are a cultural and artistic content production unit, and we still want to produce good works in content production.
Regarding the creation of the main melody: express the characters truthfully and express the story sincerely
Beiqing Art Review: You rehearsed the drama “Hurricane” with Tian Han as the theme 20 years ago. Later, there was a large-scale epic “The Great Journey” to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, as well as “China in Stories” and “China in Classics” “” and other CCTV programs, how do you grasp the creation of the main melody works?
Tian Qinxin: The first edition of “Hurricane” was born at the turn of the century. It is a biographical drama about Tian Han, the author of the lyrics of the People’s Republic of China. If it were the main theme, the starting point at the time was to look back at the journey the dramatist had gone through a hundred years ago. Tian Han likes to innovate, and we also want to innovate in the drama about him. There are elements of drama in “Hurricane”, which was very novel at the time, still with the style of Mr. Tian Han.
To express the main melody well, enthusiasm is necessary, but the most important thing is how to express the characters more truthfully and sincerely express the story. For example, to show a hero is not to show the result of the person becoming a hero, but to show the person’s growth process and the person’s own personality.
I am a director who likes to innovate. Originally, my innovation is the personal expression of the artist. Now the innovation is the expression of the mission and responsibility of the National Theatre of China. The National Theatre of China is responsible for the creation of excellent works of realistic themes and the creation of traditional Chinese culture and art. Carrying forward and other tasks, the content of creation includes real-world drama and drama works, re-interpretation of Chinese literary masterpieces, autonomous and experimental exploration repertoire, and excellent foreign themes. I hope that the audience will recognize that the National Theatre is a brand-new theater with the same pace of the times by watching the “Live Broadcast of the Founding Ceremony”.
Regarding technology and art: it must fall on the mastery of Chinese freehand spirit
Beiqing Art Review: In 2017, you revamped and upgraded “Hurricane” and used real-time imaging technology in your work for the first time. In this “Live Broadcasting of the Founding Ceremony”, real-time shooting technology is still a very important artistic method and form. What breakthroughs and changes have been made?
Tian Qinxin: The node for the rehearsal of the new version of “Hurricane” is a century-old Chinese drama. At that time, a new technology that I think is relatively new-real-time shooting was used. 8 cameras were used on the stage and a semi-cinematic real-time filming of “Hurricane” was made on site. “.
This version is not as strong as the first version of the cast. The lead actor is Jin Shijia, and the other actors are all students. But it’s hard to get a ticket for the show, especially the post-90s and post-00 audiences. They like the new technology we use, instant shooting and instant editing. At that time, there was no 5G. We only had one switcher. The most feared thing is that the signal is dropped or dropped. There will be color screens and color bars. We have about 20 or 30 performances. It seems that we have dropped the number once, most of which can still guarantee the quality.
The “Live Broadcasting of the Founding Ceremony” has a strong technical temperament. We will have some technology-related installations, and some installations will be invisible to the audience, and there will be real-time shooting. In fact, it may not be very clear through the video. We still adopt the stage-based video style this time. The art of stage play is hypothetical. The interesting thing is that it is not as true as film and television. We strive to distinguish from film and television images, not reality. To shoot.
But it is really a very good drama. Drama performances account for 60 to 70%. The installation is a supplementary method. After watching it, the audience will not say what you are doing this evening, do you do scientific research? The continuity of watching a play is interrupted, which is absolutely not allowed, and it must be a play that the audience can understand.
Beiqing Art Review: Why do you like to use image technology on stage?
Tian Qinxin: Nowadays, the combination of technology and art is widely appearing and applied in various industries and art categories. The film industry has a post-production company for a long time. The current virtual idols, the continuous expansion of VR and XR, are all products of the combination of technology and art. . “China in Stories”, which I serve as the general director of the drama, is an immersive presentation of “drama + film and television” that is filmed on multiple cameras and non-stop. It broadens the field of drama expression and contributes to new television with technological means. The form of the program.
Around the world, Jobs, Lucas, and Spielberg are all adapting to the times, connecting sensibility and rationality, creating a new form of combining technology and art.
I am also obsessed with this road. My father worked in the Institute of Communication School of the Ministry of Railways. When I was a child, I had a lot of science and technology-related things in my family. , Interested in spatial composition.
Most of the stage multimedia we see is a scene on the stage, with a little shadow on the scene, a little multimedia. But in my opinion, the application of image technology in stage plays is not a relationship on the stage, but a relationship that drives the whole audience to play on the stage, and it has a relationship with the whole audience.
So at the stage when there is no video method, what I think is how to form the relationship between the stage and the audience. “Life and Death” actually adopts the spatial form of the movie; “Hurricane” realizes that five in-play scenes can be embodied in one play; “Red Rose and White Rose” is completely a victory of the script structure, two Tong Zhenbao, two Red rose, two white roses, the space of the red rose in the past and the space of the white rose in the current ongoing simultaneously; “Beijing Fayuan Temple” creates a three-dimensional space on the same stage.
The interaction between the stage and the audience is not a superficial interaction. Sometimes the interaction will make the audience sad, saying that you interact with me you are too fake. Especially the small theater artists are so close to the audience, I am really embarrassed. There may be no interaction in a play, but you feel that you have watched a very interactive play, because the audience has always had a close relationship with the actors on the stage.
I have been exploring the way of structured drama, but now I have added the technological means of real-time shooting. I think drama can explore more and more advanced spatial and time compositional relationships.
Beiqing Art Review: In what direction will you continue to explore the application of images and technology on the stage in the future?
Tian Qinxin: I really like the freehand spirit of Chinese people, pretending to be dragons and tigers, instead of real dragons and tigers coming to power. Between reality and fiction, it is completely different from Western realism.
Chinese creators don’t need to learn from the West in terms of structural space. They only need to return to cultural self-confidence, especially when it comes to the integration of technology and art. Five thousand years of civilization is really better than them. , This is how I feel.
I stayed in Los Angeles for a while when I was studying film in the United States. I was very moved. Los Angeles is a place where I don’t even dream. If there is no Hollywood film industry, it would be enough to stay for a week. The houses look the same, like plastic. It seems like, but there are so many stories carried in the houses in Shanghai. China’s five thousand years of civilization, this freehand spirit is used in our structural space, like the Three Realms of Man, Buddha and Demon in “Journey to the West” and the Three Realms of Man, Buddha and Demon in “The Legend of the White Snake”. The spatial structure is incredible. All Chinese art Spirit is all related to artistic conception. If the combination of technology and art is mastered, saying that mountains are mountains and water is water, Chinese people can understand, art will be very smooth.
We have not contributed a new art form to the world for a long time. In the spirit of Chinese freehand brushwork, if our technology and art can be combined ingeniously, new forms of expression will be produced. We Chinese must continue to work hard to produce new art forms for the world in the era of more advancement and development of science and technology. . This is what we want to do in the future, and we especially hope that China will have a group of outstanding artists and scientific and technological workers to do this.
About stars: Actors go back to Kung Fu, the troupe goes back to creation
Beiqing Art Review: At present, the issue of celebrities’ artistic style and morality has attracted the attention of the whole society. You can often see celebrities appearing in your works. How do celebrities perform in the creation and management of Mandarin Chinese?
Tian Qinxin: I think it’s very timely to rectify the moral character of stars, chaos in the rice circle, yin and yang contracts, capital operation and other chaos. It reminds us to strengthen the management of the troupe. It is also an opportunity for the theater to gather artists. We will also introduce some related management measures, all of which are currently in the process of formulation.
The National Theater is an important town of director art, with many stars, dozens of first-line actors, and more than a hundred familiar faces. Like teacher Li Xuejian, he returned to the theater and greeted our guardian and the aunt in the mail room, leaving a deep impression on me; senior teachers like Liu Peiqi and Ni Dahong have a very rigorous working style; Mr. Liu Wei, one of the leading actors of “Dictionary”, will communicate with young actors in the background, reminding them of what is wrong and how they should be. Some actors love to look at their mobile phones, and sometimes he reminds them that the director is talking, what are you doing! Our artists will say that we are actors in business processes outside of the theater, but back to the theater, this is a place where we can forge ourselves to become an excellent performing artist.
We will say these things to young people, because we think that the actors in national theaters must have standards. It is hoped that the actors of the National Theatre will have a higher standard in terms of artistic ethics and pursuit of art, and they must be serious when returning to the theater to create.
Beiqing Art Review: Do you think the artistic level of some stars can meet the requirements of the national dialect or the standards of the stage?
Tian Qinxin: Britain, Germany, and Russia are all major theater countries, and the performance ecology is theater. If you don’t play drama, you can’t perform film and television works. For example, the United Kingdom has the tradition of Shakespeare and the theater environment is very good. Many good actors are graduates from famous universities and have been trained in theatrical traditions from childhood. “Volume” as Sherlock Holmes, you can feel that the lines are very good with one mouth, and the acting skills are extremely superb. It is hard to get a ticket for his drama.
I watched in the UK Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter, played a play in a Chinese theater. The people who were on the same stage with him were old British dramas. After the two performances, the audience disappeared. There are no people chasing at the entrance of the theater, their drama ecology is just like that. I have seen a Tennessee Williams play. Many celebrities stand in front of the theater and chat. Several of them are world-class celebrities. There are no British onlookers. The celebrities are more comfortable living in that country.
Film and television rely on traffic and capital to operate. Seeing that young people are beautiful, they push him out. Children are quite swollen. Capital operation is good for making quick money. However, if actors don’t have the skill to do, they will fall very quickly. There is no meaning and value, just like walking dead, and then buying a house and land. The big guys are all rushing to do this. I think the quality of people doing this is very poor.
Therefore, we need to correct our attitude, respect the ecology, return to the essence of art, return the actors to your kung fu, and the troupe return to creation.
Beiqing Art Review: The basic skills of Chinese drama actors are a criticized shortcoming. What do you call “returning to their own kung fu”, what should the actors do?
Tian Qinxin: In our two neighboring countries, Korea and Japan, the requirements and standards for actors are very strict. No matter how famous an actor is, he must take an exam to get a role, including reading aloud, modern dance, singing musicals, and Korean traditional dance and traditional singing, etc., can also perform special skills. Some young Korean actors look fashionable with their dyed yellow hair, but they will be a traditional Korean musical instrument, and their actors will perform Korean traditional dances every day they train to warm up.
Kabuki in Japan is not spread, so the stage performers practice simplified kabuki moves, which is a bit like practicing a set of Peking opera. You may not know Peking opera, but you can summarize a set of training methods. Actors have this ability to perform on stage.
I call on the students of our drama school to be able to sing twice in Peking opera, so that they can be flexible with their hands, eyes and body, and have a sense of rhythm and style. Otherwise, our drama actors have learned a lot of Western and will not establish China. has a problem. I also mentioned a few foreign names just now, as if they were familiar friends. This phenomenon is now the norm. I don’t think it is good. We should be able to say something about China. We still have to establish our way, and then use our way to make friends, otherwise we will always make friends in other ways. People say that you imitate pretty much, but you can’t really make friends. We have to show our director’s artistic spirit, do our work well, and communicate with the world drama, and the collision between the East and the West drama can produce the iteration of the world drama.
Text/Yu Jing
【Edit: Bian Liqun】
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