【Approaching the artist】
Guangming Daily reporter Hao Zehua Guangming Daily trainee reporter Fan Tianpei
In the past 17 years, she went to Tibet five times and helped the local to create the Peking opera “Princess Wencheng”, the Tibetan opera “Tibetan Nostalgia”, the Tibetan opera “Tsering Ram”, the drama “Barkhor Street North Courtyard”, and the song and dance drama “Tianbian Gesanghua”. ” and many other stage art works, and cultivated stage lighting design talents for Tibet. Tibet has been integrated into her life and has become a concern that she cannot let go of. She is always ready for the next encounter with the blue sky, white clouds and snow-capped mountains in Tibet.
Recent photos of Zhu Dan Photo by our reporter Hao Zehua/Guangming Pictures
After the midsummer rain, everything is cool. Zhu Dan, the lighting designer of the National Peking Opera House, wore a dark green dress and opened the door with a kind smile. She is in good spirits, but her skin is tanned, because she has just completed the lighting design work for the folk song and dance drama “Gesang Flowers in the Sky” in Tibet.
The interior furniture is quaint, cats, parrots, large and small paintings and decorative objects on the walls reveal the attitude of this art house to life and art. Zhu Dan greeted reporters to taste yak jerky while chatting about his own Tibetan story. Since 2005, Zhu Dan has worked in Tibet five times before and after, designing and guiding the stage lighting for the creation of local plays, and cultivating lighting design talents. Over the years, Tibet has been integrated into her life and has become an inescapable concern in her heart.
“I originally studied painting. When I was admitted to university, I was assigned to the stage lighting design major. The canvas became the stage, and the brush became the light.” Zhu Dan said with a smile. The job of a stage lighting designer is to use light and shadow to present the dramatic emotion to the audience in the most appropriate color and form. The hardships behind it are far beyond ordinary people’s imagination. “When there are many times, a performance needs to have four or five hundred cues (scenes), and when there are few times, it will be more than a hundred.” A teacher from the Central Academy of Drama once told Zhu Dan: “If you can’t last three days and three nights, you can’t make a stage. Lighting.” From the stage installation, the lighting and the scenery, the rehearsal, the rehearsal, to the final performance, the lighting design needs to run through. Just needing to carry more than 50 kilograms of lamps, climbing to a high place to install equipment and other heavy and dangerous work, “dissuaded” many girls, but Zhu Dan took it all down. After graduating from university, Zhu Dan joined the National Peking Opera Company with his outstanding performance. So far, Zhu Dan is the only one of the classmates who still stick to the field of stage lighting design.
In 2005, the National Peking Opera Company cooperated with the Tibet Tibetan Opera Troupe to plan a large-scale Peking Opera Tibetan drama “Princess Wencheng”. Zhu Dan was ordered to come to the Snowy Plateau to participate in the stage lighting design. When entering Tibet for the first time, the blue sky and the holy snow-capped mountains made Zhu Dan linger. But in the warehouse of the Tibetan Opera Troupe, she was really surprised, there were only a dozen primitive conventional lamps there. “If we hadn’t brought lamps from Beijing, it would have been difficult to do that job.” Talking about the past, Zhu Dan smiled. Due to language barriers and inexperienced local installers, many of the jobs required Zhu Dan to do it himself. She also has to carry an oxygen bottle with her, always beware of the “raid” of altitude sickness. The local equipment did not match the equipment brought by Beijing, so Zhu Dan and his colleagues set up four lighting consoles on the spot with walkie-talkies, while generally only one is needed.
“Princess Wencheng” was finally successfully sung with Tibetan rhythm in the Beijing accent. The professional lighting design of Zhu Dan and his colleagues added a lot of color to the stage. Later, this work was selected into the National Excellent Stage Art Project. When she first met Tibet, Zhu Dan didn’t quite understand the concept of “aiding Tibet”, but a seed of Gesang flower quietly took root in her heart.
In 2018, Zhu Dan was invited to Tibet again to do lighting design for the Tibetan drama “Tibetan Nostalgia”. This time, Zhu Dan was delighted to discover that the actor Ban Dian Wangjiu, who played Songtsen Gampo at the time, has served as the head of the Tibetan Opera Troupe. The troupe, which had backward facilities 13 years ago, also has a new look and complete equipment. Although the hardware is available, the troupe people are not very good at using it, and they can only hire people from outside to operate each performance. “Give a man a fish, it is better to teach him how to fish.” Zhu Dan realized that it is urgent to help the local training of stage lighting design talents.
Therefore, when he was the lighting design director of the realistic Tibetan drama “Spring Thunder on the Plateau” (later renamed “Tsering Ram”) in 2019, Zhu Dan accepted his first apprentice, Tenzin, on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. “Tenzin is a shy Tibetan boy. At the beginning, ‘Teacher, I didn’t understand’ was what he said most often.” Zhu Dan gave Tenzin the lighting design textbook he had written, and started from the English letters needed for lighting programming. Start teaching slowly, and take Tenzin step by step into the magnificent world of light and shadow. In 2020, Zhu Dan went to Tibet for the fourth time. While helping “Tsering Ram” polish and improve and serving as the lighting design for the drama “Barkhor Street North Courtyard”, she seized the time to continue to take apprentices. “I teach theory in the morning, and practice in the afternoon. I do every lighting design and programming, and Tenzin follows it.” Can feel his progress.
“Stage lighting design is a collective art and a visual art. With the help of gorgeous light and shadow, I hope the audience can see what I see and feel what I feel.” This year, Zhu Dan went to Tibet to do lighting design for the song and dance drama “Gesang Flowers in the Sky” . The play is based on the true story of Sanjie Quba and Zhuoga in Yumai Township, and the father and daughter of Yangzong, who are grazing and guarding the border. Zhu Dan was deeply moved by the story and was also infected by the enthusiasm of the actors. She specially designed the stage lighting to be brighter than usual, and used warm colors: “This stage is for the Tibetan people, it must be brighter and brighter, I want everyone to see the appearance of every actor, they It’s so sincere.” In addition, Zhu Dan also ingeniously used lights to “paint” countless small flowers on the stage: “This is the appearance of Gesang flowers I saw in Tibet. It blooms in full bloom.” During the performance of “Gelsang Flowers in the Sky”, when the Gesang flowers composed of countless lights and shadows bloomed, the audience’s warm applause merged into the sea of flowers. The Gesang flower planted 17 years ago in Zhu Dan’s heart is also Then bloomed brilliantly.
Friends in Tibet are also concerned about Zhu Dan. A cold-proof down jacket, a thermos cup full of hot water, and a refrigerator full of yogurt… Every time she enters Tibet, Zhu Dan is wrapped in warmth. Set up two prop tables and invite everyone to eat hot pot: “They like to make friends with me. You warm them, and they will warm you.”
A few days ago, when Zhu Dan just returned to Beijing from Tibet, she did not take a rest and devoted herself to the lighting design of the folk dance drama “Sing a Folk Song for the Party”. This dance drama, which tells the story of the peaceful liberation of Tibet and the support for the construction of Tibet, will meet the audience in October, and Zhu Dan is always ready for the next encounter with the blue sky, white clouds and snow-capped mountains in Tibet: “When they need me, I will definitely be there. go.”
“Guangming Daily” (August 24, 2022, version 13)
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责编：张悦鑫 ]