Duoduo Growing Up
Cui Keqin performed at the Davos Forum "Guangzhou Night" in the summer of 2019.
Hongde Road at the foot of Ren Minqiao is a typical old Guangzhou style. On weekends, there is always a burst of excitement in the Guangdong Puppet Art Theatre (hereinafter referred to as "Puppet Theatre") hidden in Qilou Street. This summer, the puppet theater is extremely busy, with performances, rehearsals and exhibitions … …
Recently, the puppet theater’s original puppet show "Garbage Wars" won the grand prize in Yangzhou — — "Guangling Cup" is one of the highest prizes in China’s puppet shadow play industry, including the best drama award for the national puppet shadow play (festival).
On August 11th, the performance team just returned from Yangzhou, and immediately added another original play "Duo Duo Growing Up". After the performance, the children surrounded the actors and took photos, unwilling to leave. This summer vacation, the average attendance rate of the theater that can accommodate 450 people reached 890%.
While many people still have an ancient and stereotyped impression of puppet shows, the puppet theater, which has been rooted in the old city for more than 60 years, has produced many excellent works that are both artistic and educational, and accompanied many children in their childhood. Puppet theater is no longer the scene of "more actors than audiences" many years ago.
Puppet, big world. On one stage for decades, old artists brought young people, and young people collided with new sparks, and puppet shows also stepped out of a new world.
Being an "occasional idiot" in the long silk dance
Puppets in their hands are all breathing, so we can’t let them be lifeless.
Every day, Cui Keqin goes through the training room of the theater to find his partner — — A puppet that has been with him for more than 20 years. As long as it is in Cui Keqin’s hands, it will "live" immediately.
"He is already an idiot." The disciples said this about him.
Cui Keqin, 63, has been in the Puppet Theatre for 45 years, which is like a "treasure of the town". As the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of puppet shows, Cui Keqin served as the puppet performance director of almost every play in the theater.
The puppet theater inherits the Southern School’s staff-headed puppet. Puppets are lifted by people, and people control them with sticks. Because of the large puppet, it is difficult to perform, and it requires high arm strength and waist strength of actors. Cui Keqin bought a chest expander and a stretcher and practiced it day and night. After several decades, my arms were much thicker than those of ordinary people.
Touching the wooden pole in her hand, "she" danced with her arms and threw out several meters of red silk. This is Cui Keqin’s original puppet long silk dance, which is famous all over the country.
It is not difficult for national dancers to dance long silk, but Cui Keqin can make puppets throw long silk in their hands. Inside and outside the red silk, people and I look forward to each other and are affectionate.
"In the eyes of many people, puppet shows are very old, but I want to make puppet shows as advanced as ballet." Cui Keqin succeeded, and the puppet threw out a long ribbon, which was beautiful, smart and meaningful. He evolved the long silk dance into the Guangzhou Grand Theatre, and took his disciples to the "Guangzhou Night" of the Davos Forum in the summer of 2019 to share with the guests from all over the world.
The hardest part of the long silk dance is at the end. People lift me to a high place, turn me back, and look me in the eye. Every time he goes here, Cui Keqin will bow his head shyly, and the muscles on his face can’t help twitching. At that moment, he and I became one. Cui Keqin said: "The stage has a kind of magic for me, especially at the moment when the actor made a curtain call, the applause from the audience thundered, and all the hardships and tiredness were worth it."
After more than 30 years, the long silk dance is still changing. Dance a long silk, with the charm of China opera; Doll interaction and drama performance; Lift and rotate, dancing out the lightness and beauty of ballet.
Whenever he is free, he will go to the theatre and watch the heavy performances of Guangzhou Grand Theatre. Having no money to buy a ticket in the front row, he bought a telescope for more than 1000 yuan and watched it with relish in the back row. Chasing Korean dramas or hit variety shows with young people, telling the story to the emotional place, and still choking. "Everything that touched me was absorbed in the performance."
I am a person, regardless of dolls. "As soon as I came to power, I was in the show. The puppets in my hands are all breathing, and they can’t be lifeless. " Cui Keqin often told his disciples that neither man nor woman manipulated me, so that the audience would forget that they were watching a puppet show.
Puppets have a big world.
There are children sitting under the puppet show, but there is not a "children’s play" on stage.
Pan Daqing, chairman and general manager of Puppet Theatre, recalled that he once went to Xiamen to perform "Garbage Wars". After the performance, a little girl asked her mother to take her backstage, found the actor of the protagonist Little Pea, and cried with the actor.
There are children sitting under the puppet show, but it is not a "children’s play" on stage.
"Our play is from the perspective of children, but it is not a childish play." In Pan Daqing’s view, every child is a philosopher. They will ask many questions that adults can’t answer.
"Garbage Wars" is bold and innovative, completely surpassing the plots of traditional puppet dramas and time-travel dramas, and with strong sound and photoelectric technology, it has created a shocking visual impact. Just the puppet type in the play is an eye-opener. The mutant mosquito is a puppet that has never existed before. It consists of eight parts, with six legs, a head and an abdomen. When eight people perform, they are both independent and combined. Even garbage bottles, batteries and plastic bags are played by people, just like watching a "science fiction film".
Pan Daqing has an idea. He doesn’t want parents to take their children into the theater, only the children watch the play and the parents are playing with their mobile phones. "Puppet drama is a mirror, children can receive growth education, and parents can also see their children’s psychology." He hopes that every play in the Puppet Theatre can promote a dialogue between parents and children. Some parents cried when they watched "Nezha" created by the theater.
"Who I will be is far more important than who I am." When I sang this sentence on the stage of "Growing Up", I touched many parents in the audience. Wrapped in a fairy tale of a puppet show, this drama tells a story of bravely breaking through oneself, overcoming cowardice and fear and pursuing ideals.
In the puppet theater, every performance has a host. Sometimes, when there are not enough people, Pan Daqing will make a guest appearance and talk with the audience about hot topics related to growth education. "Children often have golden sentences, and parents like this way."
"Puppet, Big World" was inscribed by Liao Bingxiong, a famous cartoonist, when the theater celebrated its 50th anniversary. Few people know that since the late 1960s, Liao Bingxiong has worked as a choreographer in this theater for 18 years. At that time, Pan Daqing, with theater actors, performed a puppet show specially for Liao Bingxiong on the rooftop of his home, which touched many people present. A few months later, Liao Bingxiong died.
A small puppet show, like a small cartoon, is always rooted in the most ordinary joys and sorrows of ordinary people, behind the scenes, inside and outside the painting, and seeing the world and all beings.
Undergraduate students came to the theater.
Young people persist, mostly because of their true love for the stage and puppet show.
Born in the 1980s and 1990s, The Story of Duo Duo’s Growth has become the most popular play in puppet theater recently, with four consecutive performances, with the attendance rate exceeding 80%.
Young people are active in thinking, from script, music, beautiful dance design to dance movements, all of which are brainstorming, "just play and come out". Pop elements such as rap and Tik Tok’s "Dangdang Dangdang" sound effect are also introduced into the song. The lines are fresh and interesting, and parents are also interested in watching them.
"The main force in the theater is young and middle-aged people." Pan Daqing said that young people persist, mostly because of their true love for the stage and puppet show. Cui Keqin attaches great importance to the new batch of undergraduates in the theater. "Recruiting undergraduates is something that the puppet theater never dared to think about before."
Zhang Xu, who plays the role of "Stupid Baby" in "The Growth of Duo Duo", graduated from the vocal music department of Shenyang Conservatory of Music. He is the singer of the songs in the play. From the singer who received applause in front of the stage to the actor who hid behind the puppet, Zhang Xu also felt the gap at first.
However, after learning, he found that the puppet show was very particular, and the seemingly simple movements, but how to press the wrist, how to twist and how to angle, were actually asked by the university. It takes at least half an hour to practice a lift, and it is common for fingers to blister and grind. "Although it is difficult, I really like the puppet show slowly. The more I play, the more I feel, and I want to learn it well." Zhang Xu said.
After graduating from the Dance Department of Xinghai Conservatory of Music, Wang Zexin, 34, met Cui Keqin, a talkative puppet theater, at the Spring Festival Gala in 2009, and was attracted by the "magic puppet show". He gave up the opportunity to teach at school and entered the puppet theater after many twists and turns.
In the puppet show, Wang Zexin felt a broader artistic expression. Although he has studied dance, puppet shows can stimulate his creation and thinking more and more. "Puppet shows can be all-encompassing, and elements of drama, opera and ballet can be absorbed."
These young people are safely stuck in a downtown corner, silently sticking to this traditional skill between the rehearsal room and the stage. "I think the actors needed for puppet shows in the future are quite complex, and it has unlimited research and development space," said Wang Zexin.
At present, the Puppet Theatre is rehearsing a new drama "You Xi" with a red theme. Cui Keqin followed the actors and listened to the director’s play. The rehearsal time was from 2 pm to 9 pm. When the performance is devoted, the actors will secretly cry.
Young people from different majors, such as dance, vocal music and drama performance, have gathered together because of their common love and expanded the space of puppet show with their own professional skills.
"The artistic life of the puppet show can be very long. Teacher Cui is 63 years old, and the long silk dance moves for more than ten turns, and she still insists on performing." Zhang Xu said. The old artists’ obsession with art deeply moved the young people in the theater. Some parents thanked them and brought joy to the children. However, Wang Zexin said that this kind of persistence is also for oneself, for the sake of inner persistence.
A joystick, which connects the puppet feelings, also draws young people from generation to generation, making the puppet show constantly change new faces in the square of the stage.
Nanfang Daily reporter Li Pei Xu Zikai
Trainee reporter Wan Hao Intern Roman
Planning and Coordination: Wu Qing