Chapter 235 Convinced
Everyone clapped their hands on the table in agreement. Director Hu was overwhelmed and covered his lips with his hands and asked in a low voice: "Teacher Xiao An, we can't be too confident. We are an activity group and we follow the arrangements of the leaders. These little actors can't decide whether they obey or not. Please don't act on impulse."
"Are you afraid that I'll lose face?" An Zhixia leaned back, avoiding the microphone and asked with a chuckle.
"They don't have much acting ability, but they definitely have a lot of ideas to make things difficult for people. I'm afraid you'll suffer a loss," Director Hu sighed and said, "This is your first step into the public eye. We have to do it well, otherwise others will use today's incident to stab you. As a screenwriter, once your momentum is suppressed by others, it will be difficult to establish your authority in the future!"
"Then you'll have to wait and see," An Zhixia sat back in front of the microphone and asked the audience in a cold voice, "Have all these cobblers not figured out what questions to ask to stump me?"
"You can't attack us personally!" Everyone blushed and shouted.
"I'm complimenting you. As the saying goes, three cobblers are better than Zhuge Liang. It shows that the IQ of a cobbler is one third of Zhuge Liang's. Or do you think you are not even as good as a cobbler?"
"Kunqu Opera!" A tall and delicate female comrade stood up and said loudly, "Didn't Teacher Xiao An say that we don't understand the essence of the nation? Then please show us the essence of the nation! We don't ask for much, just use the loudspeaker to play the most classic excerpt from The Peony Pavilion, A Dream in the Garden."
"Yes, it's 'Dream in the Garden'," everyone responded in unison.
They were all in the entertainment industry, and they knew more or less about these operas. If we were to talk about the more difficult types of operas in Xia Huaguo, it would definitely be Kunqu Opera. Kunqu Opera has beautiful singing, and is known for its lingering, gentle, and long-lasting singing. It requires extremely strict control of the sound, and the rhythm, speed, and pronunciation are all very particular.
Even laymen can hear the twists and turns of Kunqu Opera, and it is difficult to sing without professional training. In the past few years, opera was also affected by this movement, and it was only in the past two years that leaders named it and promoted it. It just happened that it was not something that An Zhixia should be able to master at her age.
"Okay, but what about the accompaniment?"
"We can," a group of veteran artists leaned over and raised their hands.
This is the National Theatre, which was rebuilt from the Qingdai Theatre, so there is naturally no shortage of veteran artists who play traditional musical instruments and sing.
An Zhixia smiled and nodded, then turned her head and said to Director Hu, "I'll have to trouble you to host the show and show them the process. I'll go backstage to change my clothes."
Director Hu nodded helplessly, then turned to Chief Artist Zhang and said, "Could Chief Artist Zhang please help our teacher Xiao An pick out clothes and put on makeup?"
Chief Artist Zhang crossed his arms and said, "I can help, but I'm afraid that Teacher Xiao An will dislike my poor aesthetic taste and that I can't meet her high standards. Besides, this is not within my scope of responsibility!"
"Director Hu, Chief Art Director Zhang is very self-aware. I really don't think highly of her skills. I'd better do it myself," An Zhixia nodded with a smile, then turned around and followed the staff to the backstage dressing room.
"If you have the ability, just draw it yourself. Don't seek help from outside, otherwise you will fail to perform well and blame it on the clothes and makeup not matching!" Chief Artist Zhang was so angry that he shouted at the top of his voice without caring about anything else.
The actors in the audience were full of gossip. They were also the regulars of the Spring Performance Group Competition. They all had at least two or three years of experience. How could they not know who Chief Artist Zhang was? In the past, they would only hear Chief Artist Zhang's roaring and scolding. She claimed to be an artist and would not curse, but her words were particularly unpleasant, making the old guys so ashamed that they wished they could dig a hole and crawl into it.
Her name is Zhang Qianli, and people nickname her Zhang Qiandao!
Teacher Xiao An was amazing. He had already confronted Zhang Qiandao so domineeringly without any mass support. Just for this reason, they felt a little more balanced and prepared to let down Teacher Xiao An's performance later.
Director Hu took the microphone, looked at the information and continued, "What Teacher Xiao An said just now is correct. This time we expanded the 20 official programs to 22 because two programs did not meet the standards, but for various reasons, half of the comrades in the event group voted for them.
I won’t name any names here, but I hope that each of your performance groups will show their due strength, listen to the guidance of Teacher Xiao An, and work together to make this unique performance group a success! ”
Then he explained the whole process again.
This mode of cleverly and diversely stringing together 22 programs into a large-scale stage play was enough to surprise and excite all the actors. They could already foresee that the group competition would be highly praised by the leaders.
All of this was still proposed by An Zhixia, the director, and everyone had mixed feelings. They could accept everything and agreed to praise An Zhixia's talent. The only thing they couldn't accept was that she was still as beautiful and young as ever!
An Zhixia asked for a dressing room for herself and didn't ask anyone for help. She counted the cosmetics on the table and started washing her face. She took out skin care products and primer from her bag and applied them on her face layer by layer.
Knowing how to put on makeup is a must for all stars, and theatrical makeup is different from ordinary ones. Thanks to her experience in playing the leading female role in a Huadan role, and the classic song "Dream in the Garden", Du Liniang's makeup was not difficult for her, and she visited a master to practice for two weeks before she could finally perform this part.
As soon as Director Hu finished speaking, the veteran artists came on stage with their chairs and gear, while the junior staff quickly removed the tables and chairs from the podium and placed microphones on it.
The sound of a flute rose up, and An Zhixia, dressed in powder, holding a paper fan, walked up from the backstage in small steps. Her graceful figure made her appearance, and she said, "How can you know how beautiful spring is if you don't go to the garden?"
The audience couldn't help but groan. They were all ready to let her go. Couldn't she give them a way out? She could make a living with her looks, so why did she have to compete with them with her talent?
"It turns out that the flowers are in full bloom,
Like this, all are left to broken wells and dilapidated walls.
Beautiful scenery, but the weather is bad
Whose courtyard is the place for enjoyable pleasure?
Flying in the morning and rolling up in the evening, the clouds and green pavilion
Raindrops, wind, and a painted boat on the misty waves.
The people of Jinping think this time is worthless!"
With just four short sentences, An Zhixia sang and sighed in the music for a full three minutes, expressing Du Liniang's melancholy feelings while visiting the garden vividly, as if she was the elegant and beautiful girl who was confined in the boudoir.
The music stopped and the audience paused for three full seconds before someone started to applaud. Others also came to their senses and clapped excitedly. They were all artists with a deep pursuit of beauty. Even professionals could not necessarily bring Li Niang to life!
"Teacher Xiao An, we are convinced!"
I will try to update before 12 o'clock. I was late today because of something else. . .
(End of this chapter)
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