Author: Song Baozhen (Director and Researcher of the Drama Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Arts)
Beijing People’s Art Theatre (“Beijing People’s Art” for short), as the palace of Chinese drama art, will celebrate its 70th anniversary in 2022. Over the past 70 years, they have kept upright and innovated, and kept advancing. They have cultivated a large number of outstanding drama professionals and formed distinctive characteristics of the times and national art styles. They have created a unique school of drama, and left a large number of long-lasting classic plays. It has become a well-known drama art palace at home and abroad.
The drama “Ruan Lingyu” performed to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Beijing People’s Art Institute Photo by Li Chunguang
1. Build Beijing Renyi into a theater with ideals, pursuits, culture, characteristics and style
70 years have passed, 70 years of struggle and quest, and 70 years of artistic accumulation have created a historical chapter in Beijing’s art. In the past, the new China was like the rising sun, and the cultural giant of the people set sail. In the autumn of 1951, the Ministry of Culture put forward requirements for the professionalization of literary and art groups according to the new cultural development needs. Under the personal care and deployment of Premier Zhou Enlai, after consultations between the Ministry of Culture and the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, and instructions from Beijing Mayor Peng Zhen, it was decided to establish a professional organization for drama performances. On the afternoon of June 12, 1952, in a courtyard house at No. 56 Shijia Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing People’s Art Theatre was announced.
A good theater must have good leadership. Since its birth, Beijing Renyi has been highly valued by the party and the government. Cao Yu, a famous playwright, is appointed as the director, Jiao Juyin, an excellent director, as the chief director. The vice president, Zhao Qiyang, who was the secretary of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Area Cultural Association, served as the secretary of the party committee. They are affectionately known as the “Big Four of Beijing’s People and Arts”. At the beginning of the establishment of the academy, the “Big Four” were full of ambition and high-spirited. With 42 hours of sleepless talks, they set a goal for the theater, that is, to build Beijing Arts and Crafts into a place with ideals, pursuits, culture, characteristics and characteristics. style, world-renowned theater like the Moscow Art Theater. It should be said that today’s theater, as they wish.
Pu Cunxin said, “Beijing art has three treasures: theater, works, and people.” Under the personal instructions of Premier Zhou, the construction of the Capital Theater started, and the building materials were given priority to the construction site of the Great Hall of the People. Premier Zhou personally participated in the design of the front hall and columns of the theater. After the Capital Theater was completed in 1956, Premier Zhou instructed that the largest and best-equipped theater at that time should be allocated to Beijing Renyi. Today, the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government attach great importance to the innovation and development of Beijing’s humanities. On Wangfujing Street, where an inch of land is expensive, the expansion project of the Capital Theater has been successfully completed and put into use. In 2021, a theater cluster with five theaters will be opened. From the ground up, it provides favorable conditions for the innovative development of Beijing Renyi.
Beijing Renyi’s 70th Anniversary Celebration Series Script Reading “Birdman” Photo by Li Chunguang
2. “Take the people’s satisfaction or dissatisfaction as the highest standard for testing art”, with more than 300 outstanding plays, moving towards the artistic goal of “profound thought, exquisite art, and excellent production”
Over the past 70 years, Beijing Renyi has adhered to the characteristics of the times, the people, and the artistry, and has embarked on an artistic path that promotes the national spirit, embodies the meaning of Chinese aesthetics, and has the tradition of poetic realism. They are at the same frequency as the times, share the same heart with the people, and always care about the feelings of the people and the destiny of the nation. There are major national events, people are in danger, and they have never been absent. “Longxugou”, which sings praises of new Beijing, presents “life in Taiwan”, “Teahouse”, which buries the old world, reflects “the spirit of a vegetable”, “Li Bai” and “Du Fu” reflect historical culture to create a “poetic mood” and “foreign”. “Mutiny” and “Mahjong” for “Chinese Use” have achieved a gorgeous transformation, and “Night of Fragrant Hills”, which reflects the eve of the victory of the revolution, continued to write a red epic… Over the past 70 years, Beijing Renyi has established its heart for the world and the life of the people, just like Beijing Ren Ming, the former dean of Renyi, said during his lifetime that “taking people’s satisfaction or dissatisfaction as the highest standard for testing art”, with the performance of more than 300 excellent plays, it is striding towards the artistic goal of “profound thought, exquisite art, and excellent production”.
Beijing Renyi’s classic dramas have always maintained good social benefits and public reputation. At the beginning of the reform and opening up, the audience crowded the walls of the theater to buy tickets for “Cai Wenji”, and now “Tea House”, which has performed more than 700 performances, is still hard to find. Holding a parasol, the queue was two miles long, and the tickets were booked online and sold out within minutes.
Over the past 70 years, Beijing Renyi has adhered to inheritance, creativity and uniqueness, attached importance to the complementarity of life and art, attached importance to the close integration of theory and practice, adhered to integrity and innovation, and kept pace with the times. The theater has gathered a large number of outstanding artists with both virtue and art. In terms of creative concept, they adhere to the artistic beliefs of Jiao Juyin’s “infinite loyalty to the art cause” and “the drama is bigger than the sky” and “excellence”, emphasizing tradition and keeping bright Virtue, climb the peak, follow the rules of stage art creation, and abide by the artistic norms created by generations of people; in terms of creative attitude, on the one hand, they continue the excellent Chinese cultural tradition, on the other hand, carry forward the innovative spirit of the May Fourth New Culture Movement, Learning from the old does not obscure the old, innovation is not new; in terms of creative methods, it not only draws on the strengths of others, absorbs and adapts various performance methods represented by the Ezekiel-style system, and at the same time explores and experiments various performance methods and art forms of nationalization of drama. , insist on creating typical characters with flesh and blood, rich emotions, distinctive characteristics, and philosophical aesthetic connotations, so that the performance has a harmonious, unified, beautiful and moving artistic charm; “Character Image” artistic practice, and strive to create and refine the classics of drama art.
In the past 70 years, Beijing Renyi has created theater legends in plays such as Teahouse, Thunderstorm, Cai Wenji, etc. At the same time, plays such as Li Bai, Sima Qian, Du Fu, Wotou Guild Hall, and Player continue to write epics of national art. On the basis of Beijing-style drama, the development and creation of new Beijing-style drama; on the basis of inheriting the artistic tradition, reinterpretation of reserved plays, classic plays and foreign plays, new interpretations, high standards and strict requirements, so that classic plays can often be The performance is always new, so that the newly created repertoire can be refined and purified, reflecting the new look of national drama in the new era, and highlighting the Chinese style and national spirit.
The 70th anniversary commemorative edition of Beijing’s classic drama “Tea House” Photo by Li Chunguang
3. Tell Chinese stories with love and diligence, and effectively spread Chinese drama overseas, so that the world can perceive a lovable, respectable and lovely image of China
Over the past 70 years, Beijing Renyi has attached great importance to talent training, repertoire construction, experience summarization and cultural accumulation. It has both an open artistic vision and an artistic style of poetic realism. They come out with a play and experience, discover and cultivate young talents in the way of “group leading a class”, and create conditions to cultivate outstanding young actors who “fit in” with the theater style. They are good at finding and excavating literary resources, from the “Guo Lao Cao Theater” to Mo Yan, Liu Heng, Guo Qihong, He Jiping, Xiong Zhaozheng and others writing plays with their pen, with the endurance of “grinding a sword in ten years”, they keep the stage art created by them. The first pass. With their excellent director, performance, stage art and other comprehensive strengths, they have created a series of typical images with infinite meaning, some of which can be said to be unforgettable. They strive to achieve the organic unity of natural agility and grandeur, Beijing-style characteristics and Chinese culture, historical background and realistic reflection, typical image and ideological philosophy, empirical rationality and poetic artistic conception, inheritance of tradition and pioneering and innovation.
Over the past 70 years, Beijing Renyi has not only insisted on going deep into life and taking root in the people, but also paid attention to telling Chinese stories with affection and diligence, opening up a path for cultural exchanges through the overseas dissemination of Chinese dramas, and letting the world perceive an amiable, respectable and lovely image of China. As early as 1953, “Dragon Beard Ditch” was performed by the Japanese “Peking Art Troupe” in Kyoto and Kobe. In 1980, “Tea House” was invited to visit Germany, France, and Switzerland for visiting performances. In 1983, “Tea House” performed in many places in Japan, in 1986 in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Canada, in 2005 in the United States, in 2015 in Belarus, and in 2018, “I Love Peach Blossom” in Kazakhstan. The performance… While “going out”, “please come in” with a cultural attitude of tolerance and reference, not only invited internationally renowned directors such as Arthur Miller, Charles Heston, Oleg Yevremov, etc. He has directed plays for the theater, and since 2011, he has created the first “Invitational Exhibition of Fine Repertoires of the Capital Theater”. Adhering to the standard of “famous troupes, famous plays, and famous directors”, he has invited 32 people from 12 countries and 22 internationally renowned troupes in the past 9 years. This drama is performed by people.
In the past ten years, Beijing Renyi has rehearsed 87 ancient and modern Chinese and foreign plays, with a total of 3649 performances, including 56 large theaters and 1951 performances, with a high degree of cultural awareness and mission, with the creative attitude of “Dragon Horse Fengshen, Camel Stepping”. 1698 performances in 31 small theaters, 413 performances in 41 domestic and foreign tours and in-depth grassroots performances. The people need good theater, and the people’s theater strives to realize the common prosperity of the people’s spiritual life.
People often say that Beijing Renyi is a cultural theater. The artists of Beijing Renyi often describe their theater as a big family, where celebrities gather, work together, and do their best for the art of drama; Brilliantly, climb the peak of art. Its history is the footsteps of every artist moving forward with mutual help and continuous relay, and its art palace is the continuous accumulation of excellent drama works one after another.
At the beginning of the 1970s, my heart has remained unchanged, and the 70s have been timeless. The struggle has no end. I believe that I will come back next spring. Beijing people’s swords of art are not old, and they will surely overcome difficulties, forge ahead, and create new artistic miracles.
“Guangming Daily” (July 06, 2022, 16th edition)
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责编：孙宗鹤 ]