Lai Shengchuan and Ding Naizhu found each other in "play" and kept working hard in it because the final direction is to train people.
Lai Shengchuan and Ding Naizhu (2019) Photo by Guo Yanbing
One is a director born in the United States and is now the best drama director in Chinese-speaking regions; the other is a drama producer born in Hong Kong, China and raised in Taipei, China, with a background of philosophy, education, and Buddhism. They were eventually stationed in Shanghai. After establishing the "Shang Opera Hall" 6 years ago, they recently opened the "Shang Opera Hall". They are Lai Shengchuan and Ding Naizhu. Ask them how they found each other in the vast crowd? They laughed and said, "In Play, you can find people." Play - not only refers to drama, but also play, games, and competitions. They can also play and perform as verbs... They always feel that they have been working hard, because in playing, the final direction is to create people.
01 "The first time I saw him, he was playing"
Ding Naizhu, who dyed rainbow hair, recalled the first meeting between the two: "The first time I saw him, he was playing." Back then, Lai Shengchuan studied in the English Department at Fu Jen University - this is somewhat "pedary school" for him, who was born in Washington, USA. Because Lai Shengchuan's native language is actually English, and when he returned to Taiwan at the age of 12, he had to "start from scratch again in the Chinese environment." He spent his adaptation period in the fun of forming a band. Ding Naizhu studied in the Department of Philosophy at Taiwan University. She has been a top student since she was a child. When talking about major choices, she always believes that "this major is to find a reason for life, otherwise it is to live with the following people." But she did not work hard at all as a top student: "Because I brought something to the nature of playing with it."
Both of them are famous for playing, and they will occasionally encounter them at Idea House, which gave birth to Taiwanese campus folk songs and even the Taiwanese pop music and film scenes that emerged later. Lai Shengchuan sang on the same stage with Hu Defu, Hu Yinmeng, Yang Xian and others. Among the audience were Cai Qin, Luo Dayou, Lee Zongsheng... Lai Shengchuan also played basketball with Yang Dechang. The wedding of Yang Dechang and Cai Qin was held at Lai Shengchuan's home. Ding Naizhu's eldest sister Ding Naijun married Yang Xian, the "father of Taiwanese folk songs". In the drama "Treasure Island Village", there are the youthful shadows of Yang Dechang, Zhang Aijia and others in the military village...
Lai Shengchuan and Ding Naizhu's wedding photos
Interestingly, Lai Shengchuan and Ding Naizhu have different memories of the "first meeting" between the two sides. Lai Shengchuan felt that it was in Adia, while Ding Naizhu felt that it was in the dormitory where Lai Shengchuan shared with his friends: "We have a common friend, so we went to their dormitory to play. That day, as soon as we entered the door, we saw a man wearing a plaid shirt sitting on the ground playing the guitar. When I saw me, I said 'Hi' like an old friend I had known for a long time..." Then, he continued to immerse himself in playing and singing. Ding Naizhu was immediately infected by his immersed in it and enjoying music. He felt: "This person is so pure." As for Lai Shengchuan, it was really pure: "I saw her at first sight and thought it was her."
02 "The first Yun Zhifan is Naizhu"
"Secret Love in Peach Blossom Spring" is a drama that can be recorded in the history of Chinese dramas. The reason why it attracted Huang Lei, Yuan Quan and others to star in is because it was "an honor of playing the leading role in textbooks" - in high-level art colleges such as the Central Academy of Drama and Shanghai Theatre, this drama is a compulsory course in the performance department, the director department, and the opera department. The preciousness of this is that it has created a new drama structure - a troupe who is sad and "Secret Love" and a troupe who is noisy "Peach Blossom Spring". Two troupes grab a stage and create a new order in the chaos, giving Li Shutong a sense of "sadness and joy" between sadness and joy. Li Liqun, who plays Lao Tao in the "Peach Blossom Spring" part, once mentioned in an interview in Shanghai, "The sound of the audience laughing can form a wave of air, and it pounces on me..." After laughing one after another, you will slowly realize the intersection of sorrow and joy, which is actually the norm in life.
The first version of "Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land" starring Jin Shijie and Ding Naizhu
Lai Shengchuan's dramatic method is collective improvisation - for the director, this is a very luxurious rehearsal method, requiring the actors to have rich experience and superb acting skills and "approaches" with each other. At that time, it was also the time when Taiwan’s modern and contemporary drama was booming, but everyone’s material conditions were far less than that of now. Ding Naizhu remembers that when "Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land" premiered in Taiwan in 1986, the theater leaked, and there were still little and little "water curtains" hanging in front of the stage. Just under this "water curtain", Yun Zhifan played by Ding Naizhu opened the show: "It's so quiet. I've never seen such a quiet Shanghai... Look at the lights in the water, it looks like a dream..." This simple condition seems to make people lose their dramas, and it seems to make people get involved in the drama - it seems to be true but not good, happy but sad, which is also the essence of the drama.
has a widely circulated photo, confirming the front and behind the scenes. The photo is in front of Lai Fanyun sleeping on the sofa, who was only 5 years old at the time; the middle view is the living room of Lai Shengchuan's house, where Jin Shijie and Ding Naizhu play Jiang Binliu and Yun Zhifan in their "secret love". 10-year-old Lai Fanyun also starred in the masterpiece "The Guling Street Boy Murder Incident" directed by Yang Dechang, in which he played Zhang Zhen's sister. "Secret Love" gradually took shape in the living room of Lai Shengchuan's house - at that time, Ding Naizhu was still managing a computer software company. Yun Zhifan is naturally the "incarnation" of Ding Naizhu. There is even a saying that "Fanyun" means "cultivator", and it is also "a cloud that descends to earth".
03 "The first exclusive theater is going to the theater"
From the living room of your home to the leaking Taipei Theater... Any director's dream is to have an exclusive theater. In Shanghai, Lai Shengchuan owned the first exclusive theater - Shang Theater, which prompted him to finally move the drama creation base from Taiwan to Shanghai. Lai Shengchuan's elegance over the years will only be occasionally broken by his bright laughter: "Shanghai refers to both 'Shanghai', 'top' and 'highest', and also has the meaning of 'shanghai' and 'fashionable'. It can also be understood as a verb, allowing everyone to 'go to' theatre to watch the play." Shangheat is located on the 5th floor of Meiluo City. It was affiliated with the Xuhui District Cultural Bureau many years ago, and it happened to be the location of Xuhui Theatre.
Lai Shengchuan's mother is from Ningbo. She lived in Shanghai when she was a child. She now lives in Shanghai. She likes to read the Xinmin Evening News and the comics of Yao Mushuang and Zhou Baichun. She is nearly 90 years old and has a white skin and her hair is still combed back meticulously: "'Ala' is a Ningbo dialect." Therefore, Shanghai is also Lai Shengchuan's "homesickness". Therefore, the first line of "secret love" contains "Shanghai"; there is more than 2 hours of drama in "Dream of Dreams", which takes place in Shanghai. When they were performing a "secret love" in Taiwan in their early years, they never thought they would really move their company to Shanghai. "Secret Love" has been premiered in the mainland since 2006, and has grown several versions. Now there is a resident version in the theater...
Stills from "Dream Like a Dream"
Lai Shengchuan even held a tape measure in his pocket every day like before the Wuzhen Drama Festival was founded 9 years ago. In the theater with more than 600 seats, even the seat spacing was calculated: "If someone of my height is not crowded, he is 1.8 meters tall. He is even a mathematician: "More than 30 actors in "Dream Like a Dream" walk around the audience. Who should walk from which position to walk how many meters to play against another person, of course, are all calculated..." The more complicated the time and space of the drama are, the more math problems you have to do. At the beginning, in order to combine his own expertise, he and Ding Naizhu tried to apply for a graduate student at the University of Berkeley, California. Lai Shengchuan chose drama: "It looks like a comprehensive art, including all the music, language, art, photography, etc. I like. Later, I found out that it just 'look' is a comprehensive art..." Ding Naizhu chose pedagogy: "I have always been very interested in people."
Lai Shengchuan and Ding Naizhu
04 "The first exclusive school is Shang Opera Hall"
Theater and school are places for casting souls.Ding Naizhu said: "Usually, we don't have time to look back while running; the epidemic makes us stop and think - since ancient times, the theater has shouldered social responsibilities, ceremonial holdings and spiritual healing functions." On this point, Lai Shengchuan and her ended up at Shangju Hall at the same time - this is a theater education venue several hundred meters away from Shangju Hall, which is for both children and adults.
Lai Shengchuan and Ding Naizhu's 40th anniversary photo
"Today's education system is the product of the industrial revolution," Ding Naizhu said, "These education system makers are social elites themselves, so they cultivate students according to elite standards. After the 21st century, we found that the dropout rate in the United States is as high as 30% to 40% - every life is like a seed, how could it not sprout silently?" Ding Naizhu said, "Okay," There are four Cs in education - Curiosity, Creativity, Compassion, and Collaboration. "And these four Cs are all in dramas - creation requires empathy from others' perspectives, curiosity about everything and people in the world, collaboration between screenwriters and directors, up and down interaction between audiences and creators, etc. to finally complete the drama," said Lai Shengchuan.
December 5, 2018, the third anniversary of the theater,
What you need most in the future is creativity, which is far more important than the knowledge printed on reference books. In the era of information explosion, it is not difficult to obtain information at all, but how to form your own personal insights in chaos becomes a more important ability. Ding Naizhu revealed that she knew about a test that 97% of 3-year-old children are creative, and will decline sharply at the age of 5 and 9. Only 30% of children at the age of 12 have divergent thinking ability... Therefore, how to protect people's creativity and divergent thinking is very important in childhood.
The soil is good enough to sprout; the world is so big that it requires all kinds of people. "In Play, you can see a person clearly; in Play, you can find people." Lai Shengchuan and Ding Naizhu agreed: "The drama itself is also grown from playing. When playing to a certain level, the child will devote himself to solving problems actively. 100% of his work and 100% of his play." (Zhu Guang)
