In this way, another eight years have passed. In these eight years, Li Zhengcheng not only won awards, but his youthful dream finally returned to the track and headed towards success; more importantly, his efforts in martial arts and his singing finally complemented each other, slowly allowing him to form his own His unique style truly brings out his exciting life movement.
A sharp tool for good deeds
In 2006, Li Zhengcheng served as the leader of the Yangzhou Opera Troupe. From the leader of the drama to the head of the group responsible for the livelihood of the whole group, Li Zhengcheng has his own ambitions. However, he has always been very clear in his heart that the difficulties faced by Yangju Opera are first and foremost economic problems, because before Li Zhengcheng took office, the cast and crew in the troupe could only receive 60% of the planned salary. Therefore, Li Zhengcheng feels that the problem of income is a worry for the cast and crew of Yang Theater. Therefore, "I have made up my mind. The first task is to make everyone in the troupe live a decent life."
In order to maintain the performance, Li Zhengcheng traveled around to win the support of entrepreneurs and expand the performance market. He said frankly, "I have a certain reputation in the local area. Although many people may not know what Yang Opera is, they have heard of the actor Li Zhengcheng. So I used my social connections to find relevant leaders to solve the problem and Not for myself, but to find subsidies for people in the group. Even when I solicited corporate sponsorship, I never thought about getting a penny in kickbacks. I wanted to become a representative of Yang Opera to promote Yang Opera. I hope everyone can understand Yang Opera through me. "This is my goal." Li Zhengcheng also said: "Of course I hope to get financial help, but the key is to do your own things well. Only when you do well can you get the attention of others." Here Li Zhengcheng said "do well." ” refers to the development of Yangju itself. Due to the limited market for opera performances and the high performance costs, theater troupes have always been in difficulty in generating income.
In 2005, at the suggestion of Li Zhengcheng, the Yang Opera Troupe began to brew "Yang Opera performances every week". This proposal received the help of the Federation of Trade Unions. The performance venue was set at the Workers' Cultural Palace, and the venue rental fee was very small. Li Zhengcheng recalled, "We set the ticket price at 10 yuan and 15 yuan, which should be said to be very cheap. It can be said that we are losing money and making money. There were really few people watching at the beginning, and we even had to invite people everywhere to watch the show. But I think this must be done slowly. As long as your play is good, people will naturally come to watch it." Although it was a difficult start, "Zhou Zhou Yin" has not lowered its standards because of this, and the performances are often new, ensuring that the audience is interested. Freshness. Sure enough, as Li Zhengcheng said, "Zhou Zhou Performance" gradually became famous in Yangzhou, and the number of audiences increased. Later, it became difficult to get a ticket and the audience watched the performance standing up. The audience has also evolved from old theater fans at first to young people who come here for the theater. For this reason, Li Zhengcheng said proudly, "I told my friends outside Yangzhou about this. They didn't believe that the box office of 'Zhou Zhou Xian' could be so popular. Audiences queued up to buy tickets, and sometimes the tickets were sold out shortly after they were issued." There is a 'Sold Out' sign, and Yangzhou opera fans from Nanjing, Shanghai and other places have chartered cars to watch it!"
The success of "Zhou Zhou Yin" has brought more actors in the troupe. With the performance opportunities, the influence of Yang Opera has been enhanced.
However, the "Weekly Show" is a semi-public performance after all, and it is obviously not possible to rely on the "Weekly Show" to solve financial difficulties. In addition, although the box office is popular, the small performance venue of the Workers' Cultural Palace seems to be somewhat stretched. Therefore, Li Zhengcheng wrote to the leaders of Yangzhou City, hoping to help solve the problem of performance venues. With the attention of Yangzhou city leaders and Li Zhengcheng's persistent efforts, in 2007, the right to use the Yangzhou China-Japan Friendship Hall, which had been idle for many years, was handed over to the Yangzhou Yang Opera Troupe. With the venue, Yang Theater Company can even save on rent. What surprises and comforts Li Zhengcheng even more is that now all the cast and crew of the troupe can get their salaries in full. He described that a big stone in his heart finally fell into place at this time: "Now that Yangzhou Opera is developing well in Yangzhou, I can also give bonuses to my cast and crew, and there are also year-end bonuses." At the same time, the popular "Zhou Zhou Yan" also attracts Yang Opera Troupe from other places, such as Yang Opera Troupe of Jiangsu Province, Yang Opera Troupe of Yizheng City, Yang Opera Troupe of Gaoyou City, and Yang Opera Troupe of Jiangdu City. These four Yang Opera Troupes have also joined "Zhou Zhou Performance". "Such a lineup can make theater fans People enjoy more genres and styles of Yangzhou opera. The "Five Troupes" work together to build "Watching Yangzhou Opera Weekly" into a brand of this type of opera. Of course, the performance of Yangzhou Yangzhou Opera Troupe is still the most important, and more importantly, the performance of Yangzhou Opera Troupe is the most important. We can’t give up on updating the repertoire.
With the performance of Chang Xin, the audience’s appreciation habits, especially the proportion of civil and military dramas in Yangju opera, and their acceptance of transplanted repertoires have also changed. I had this experience even more after performing in Shanghai. I found that the Shanghai audience recognized the traditional Yang opera repertoire more and felt that the more traditional the better, while the local Yangzhou audience preferred to watch new operas. "Li Zhengcheng said.
Fighting for "Not Alone"
The stage was set up and the survival problem of the cast and crew was solved. Li Zhengcheng had new worries: "By 2006 It has been 10 years since the Yang Opera major stopped enrolling students in 2017. The latest batch of actors to join the Yang Opera Troupe are now in their thirties. It is an indisputable fact that talents are out of stock and there are no successors. I have made two proposals for Yang Theater Company. One was about venue issues, and the other was about enrollment issues. I also hope that the government can help solve the problem of students' study fees. "To this end, Li Zhengcheng started a new round of running.
What pleased Li Zhengcheng was that the leaders of Yangzhou City attached great importance to his suggestions and invited Li Zhengcheng several times to discuss and study practical measures. In the end, it was decided to adopt a training model with government funding, school education, and theater troupe participation, that is: the municipal government will bear tens of thousands of yuan in tuition and miscellaneous fees for students every year; Yangzhou Culture and Art School will be responsible for systematic teaching, and will appropriately subsidize living expenses and provide scholarships; Yangzhou Yang Opera Troupe Providing professional guidance and assistance to the students, the Yangzhou Yangzhou Opera Troupe selected the best among them after graduation.
In 2007, 45 students from the Yangzhou Opera Troupe were selected into the intense study life. Li Zhengcheng put the revitalization of tradition into practice. The hope of drama culture is pinned on this group of students, and a lot of efforts have been devoted to them. Li Zhengcheng, who suffered a lot due to partial subjects when he was young, now pays special attention to the all-round development of students. The rhyme and tone of the opera are its own traditional characteristics, which must be adhered to. As a local opera, Yang opera lacks the standardized system and basic skills of Beijing and Kunming, especially in "doing" and "playing". Said: “Teacher Pei Yanling’s words have always stuck in my mind. There is no sect in opera, and good things must be learned. Although Yangzhou opera has a history of three hundred years, it does not have many traditional operas, and it emphasizes literature over martial arts, so the foundation is very uneven. When I was learning opera, I often consulted teachers of other operas. Therefore, I hope these students will not fall behind in these basic skills. For example, in the play "Double Descending the Mountain", Yang Opera itself only has arias and no designed movements, so I learned the movements of "Double Descending the Mountain" from Beijing and Kunming Opera, plus the singing of Yang Opera. There are also plays such as "Night Run", "Shen Jiang", "Wild Boar Forest", etc., which were not originally included in Yang Opera, but were completely transplanted. "Zhou Zhou Yan" has become the opportunity and motivation for this "transplantation learning method". Li Zhengcheng said: "Zhou Zhou Yan's repertoire must be updated basically every month, and it is basically updated." The repertoire that is now commonly performed in Yang Opera is not enough.
So over the years, we have restored many old Yang Opera plays, and also transplanted and adapted plays from other types of opera. "The reason for doing this, Li Zhengcheng explained: "The purpose is to better promote Yangzhou opera through a model that integrates local characteristics with major operas. This is just like practicing regular script when writing calligraphy. It is a basic norm and a way to learn other operas. The basis of skills. The audience already recognized Beijing and Kunming, and now this method is used to attract them to appreciate the most regionally distinctive vocals and rhymes of Yang Opera. "In order to achieve his goal, Li Zhengcheng used various methods to invite famous teachers and friends from all over the country to teach, among which there are 4 "Plum Blossom Award" winners. Li Zhengcheng believes that art is interlinked, and he just wants students to learn what famous teachers are good at. After two and a half years of study and hard training, these Yang Opera students are growing very fast. Now he is able to perform some traditional Yangju operas. Speaking of these achievements, Li Zhengcheng was very proud of his efforts for Yangju opera. The leader of a drama genre is also the head of the family. He has this responsibility to make Yangzhou Opera prosperous and develop based on the genre. To put it more closely, I chose the art of Yang Opera, and of course I hope that other people can like it and cherish it, because I don’t want to see myself alone. So I have this selfish intention, hoping that Yangzhou opera can come out of small places little by little, so that when others mention Chinese opera and local opera, they can also mention Yangzhou opera. ”