Best Director in Literature Department of Huayu

Chapter 103 Premiere and Reviews (4K, Requesting Monthly Tickets)

Lin Ruiyang casually replied to Yang Mi with "I have a phone call, I'm logging off now," then moved the mouse pointer to the bottom right corner and decisively exited the Penguin account.

He picked up his phone and answered, but before he could even speak, Liu Yibing's loud voice boomed out from the other end: "You've really got some skills, kid. You came back to the country and didn't even go back to school to register. So you just sneaked home and went to rummage around?"

""

Hearing that familiar voice tinged with a hint of mockery, Lin Ruiyang chuckled and switched the phone to the other ear: "Teacher, you're so busy with your affairs, how come you have time to think of me, an unofficial staff member drifting outside? But you're really well-informed. I've only been here a few days, and I haven't even adjusted to the time difference yet, and you've already sent this death warrant."

"You brat, stop messing around with me." Liu Yibing spat on the other end of the phone.

"You think I want to care about you? If it weren't for the fact that the show is about to start, I wouldn't bother calling you."

Lin Ruiyang was slightly taken aback: "You went ahead with it?"

"Yes." Liu Yibing's voice was noticeably lighter.

"The premiere date has been officially set for January 12th."

"January 12th?"

"That's right, it's at the Grand Theater in Jinhua. We were originally going to put it on a long time ago, but during the final rehearsal, the stage effects for the White Bone Demon's three transformations were still just a little lacking."

At this point, Liu Yibing couldn't help but chuckle.

"It turned out that the dean was also stubborn. He said he'd rather postpone it than ruin his reputation."

"So the entire crew spent a long time polishing the script."

Lin Ruiyang could picture the scene: a group of veteran artists arguing around the stage, while the lighting technicians, costume designers, and directing team made repeated adjustments.

For commercial films, such efficiency is simply unacceptable. But for the world of traditional opera, what often makes a play endure is precisely this kind of almost obsessive dedication to refinement.

"Is it resolved now?"

"It's resolved. I just watched the last full rehearsal the day before yesterday, and to be honest, it was better than I initially expected."

"That seems really good."

"Nonsense," Liu Yibing said with a laugh.

A crisp click of a lighter came from the other end of the phone, followed by the old man's satisfied puff of smoke.

"So you, as the playwright, must be present at the premiere."

"I knew it."

"Knows nothing," Liu Yibing snorted.

"They've put in so much effort for this show, and you, the instigator, are trying to hide at home and relax?"

"The tickets have already been prepared for you. Go to Jinhua on the 10th, watch the final rehearsal on the 11th, and the official premiere is on the 12th."

Lin Ruiyang agreed without hesitation: "Okay."

"That's more like it."

The two then chatted for a while, mainly about school matters and the concern that older people have for younger generations.

It was nearly 10 p.m. when I hung up the phone.

I closed my laptop, and the intermittent buzzing sound of dialing up completely disappeared from the room.

He walked into the living room and saw his mother, Jiang Yuehua, sitting on the sofa wearing reading glasses, mending the holes in her clothes stitch by stitch.

"Mom, I have to go to Jinhua in Jiangnan in a couple of days."

Jiang Yuehua stopped what she was doing: "You've only been back a few days, why are you leaving again? Didn't you say you were finished with your movie?"

"I've only finished working on the film for now. In Jinhua, a theater has taken a liking to a script I wrote and is about to premiere, so they asked me to go see it with them."

Jiang Yuehua sighed, her eyes filled with heartache, but she was ultimately a reasonable person, knowing that her son's career was at a crucial stage: "Alright, a boy's ambitions lie in all directions. You wait here, I'll go find your thick coats and stuff you with two more pairs of thick socks..."

""

On the morning of his departure, when Lin Ruiyang got up, a bulging travel bag was already placed on the living room sofa.

Besides thick clothes and socks, there were also several packets of pickled vegetables and a large bag of fermented rice wine inside.

"Mom, I'm going to Jiangnan, not to flee famine."

"Nothing sold outside tastes as good as what's at home." Jiang Yuehua rolled her eyes at him. "Besides, you're always running around outside, it's good enough if you can eat on time. If you don't have time to eat, just have some steamed buns and pickled vegetables to tide you over, it doesn't take much time."

This kind of motherly care always carries an unreasonable stubbornness, so Lin Ruiyang was forced to take it along with him.

On January 10th, after two flights and transfers, I finally arrived in Jinhua near dusk.

Winter in Jiangnan is completely different from that in the mountain city. It lacks the damp and chilly fog of the mountain city, but carries a bone-chilling dampness.

Lin Ruiyang tightened the collar of his down jacket, picked up his luggage, and headed towards the guesthouse. The guesthouse was just across from the Jinhua Grand Theatre, only a ten-minute walk away.

After checking in, Lin Ruiyang tossed his mother's overflowing bag onto the bed. Before he could even wash his face, his phone vibrated violently again.

No need to look, it's definitely Liu Yibing.

"Have we arrived yet?" The old man's hoarse voice was incredibly penetrating on the other end of the line, and in the background, you could hear the rapid beat of gongs and drums and the sounds of actors practicing their singing.

"I just put my luggage away at the guesthouse." Lin Ruiyang tucked his phone under his shoulder, walked to the window, and pulled back the curtains.

"Then hurry up and come down, don't tidy up yet. There's a local restaurant in the alley behind the Grand Theater, a private room on the second floor. Dean Dai is there too, just waiting for you." Liu Yibing hung up the phone with a click.

The local restaurant wasn't big, and Lin Ruiyang quickly found the corresponding private room on the second floor. Pushing open the wooden door, a rich aroma of Shaoxing wine was bubbling out from the charcoal stove.

"Oh, our chief designer has arrived." Liu Yibing flicked his cigarette ash on the edge of the porcelain plate when he saw Lin Ruiyang come in.

"Old Dai, this is the unreliable student I often tell you about, Lin Ruiyang."

Dean Dai looked to be in his early fifties, with most of his hair already gray. However, unlike the theater leader Lin Ruiyang had imagined, he had no airs of officialdom about him; instead, he seemed more like an old artist who spent years in the rehearsal hall.

Upon hearing Liu Yibing's introduction, he immediately stepped forward and extended his hand.

"Finally, I've met the real person."

"Hello, Dean Dai."

"What dean or not dean?" Dean Dai waved his hand. "We're not talking about official positions today. I mainly want to meet you, young man."

The air outside was bitterly cold, but inside it was warm and cozy. After a few rounds of drinks, the atmosphere gradually relaxed.

"To be honest, when I first saw this proposal submitted, I wasn't very supportive," Dean Dai said, taking a sip of his drink and opening up.

"Is it because the changes were too drastic?"

"It's more than just big." Dean Dai shook his head.

"Your script is different. The play contains elements of good and evil, obsessions, and choices. If these things are not handled well, the audience will feel that it is pretentious and profound."

"But if it's handled well, you can stay," Liu Yibing chuckled beside him.

Then he looked at Lin Ruiyang.

"But don't get too excited yet. Tomorrow is the final rehearsal, and the day after is the premiere. Whether it will be a success or not still depends on the audience."

Lin Ruiyang raised his glass: "That's right."

In the world of traditional opera, all the praise before the premiere is just internal evaluation; the audience always determines the fate of a play.

The dinner party lasted until after 9 p.m.

When Lin Ruiyang came out of the local restaurant, the wind on the street was noticeably colder.

The Grand Theater is not far away, and a promotional banner for "The Three Battles with the White Bone Demon" is hanging at the main entrance. Several staff members are busy adjusting the position of the display boards.

The theater entrance was brightly lit, and the faint sound of gongs and drums could be heard coming from inside.

Liu Yibing asked from the side, "Shall we go in and take a look?"

Lin Ruiyang thought about it and agreed, so the two of them entered the backstage area through the side door.

Upon entering the backstage area, the unique smell of sweat, paint, hot water, and mothballs mixed together filled my nostrils.

The back-end is always chaotic and noisy, seemingly disorderly, but actually orderly within the chaos.

"Teacher Liu."

"Teacher Liu is here."

People kept greeting us along the way.

When they learned that Lin Ruiyang was the screenwriter, their eyes showed a clear increase in curiosity.

After all, many people had never seen him before, especially since Liu Yibing had been coming frequently recently, so he should have given people the impression of being an old scholar.

Suddenly, cheers erupted from deep backstage.

"good!"

"pretty!"

Lin Ruiyang looked in the direction of the sound.

On stage, the final martial arts scene was being rehearsed. The actor playing Sun Wukong landed with a somersault. The golden cudgel drew a sharp arc in his palm, followed by several high-difficulty moves executed in one smooth motion.

Even though it was just a rehearsal, it still won a standing ovation.

The final rehearsal officially began the following morning.

The entire theater operates according to the standards of a formal performance.

.

Lights, sound, smoke, and all mechanisms were activated.

Lin Ruiyang sat in the center of the audience, with Liu Yibing and Dean Dai sitting next to him.

The curtain slowly rises, and a familiar story begins to unfold.

Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3... As the plot progressed, Lin Ruiyang gradually became more serious.

He discovered that many parts were different from his original version. It wasn't about making it worse, but about making it more suitable for the stage.

The actors' singing, the director's direction, the supplementary stage design, and so on, all combine to give the story real life.

Especially during the intermission, with the White Bone Demon's second and third transformations and the final break between master and disciple, the tension on stage was instantly pushed to its limit.

Finally, the curtain slowly fell amidst a sea of ​​red light and shadow, marking the end of the final rehearsal.

The stage lights came back on, and the actors stood on the stage, panting heavily, their paintwork already faded and mottled from the sweat.

Dean Dai looked at Lin Ruiyang beside him: "Director Lin, what do you think? Any suggestions?"

Lin Ruiyang withdrew his gaze, his expression extremely serious: "The overall completion rate exceeded my expectations, and I think it was worth it."

.

"With your words, I feel more at ease." Dean Dai immediately smiled.

On the day of the premiere, January 12th.

Before 4 p.m., audiences had already begun to appear at the entrance of the Jinhua Grand Theatre.

Despite the cold weather, the area around the ticket windows and checkpoints was becoming increasingly lively, with many people holding program schedules.

Many opera fans also came from neighboring cities.

The backstage area was bustling with activity, with bright lights in front of the makeup mirrors and paint, headgear, and costumes scattered everywhere.

The actors were noticeably more nervous than the day before. Even though they had rehearsed countless times, the premiere was still the premiere.

Liu Yibing and Lin Ruiyang stood backstage, watching the audience and actors coming and going.

Are you nervous?

Lin Ruiyang shook his head: "I'm kind of looking forward to it."

"It's good to be young; I'm actually more nervous than you are now."

Twenty minutes before the show was about to start, the audience seats were nearly full, and the lights in the second-floor boxes were gradually turned on.

Besides people from the local cultural system, many colleagues from the opera world came specifically to observe, and even provincial official media sent reporters.

Dean Dai stood at the side of the curtain and took one last look at all the actors: "Everyone, let's begin."

The moment the gongs and drums sounded, the air in the entire theater seemed to be sucked away instantly, and the original whispers were suppressed by the low-frequency resonance of the gongs and drums of Huizhou opera.

On the stage, a beam of light fell, and the curtain abruptly opened. Against a pure black background that seemed to swallow all light, the White Bone Demon slowly raised her head.

Looking at the dark mass of people below the stage, she ripped through the darkness with a clear, high-pitched Wuju opera voice: "The living all wear fur garments, as a sign of status. The noble wear silk robes, the lowly wear patched garments. But beneath these skins, who is not a skeleton?!"

The clear, penetrating voice sent chills down the spines of the audience.

Then, one actor after another took the stage, and with the help of lighting and props, they completed scene after scene of the performance.

As the final scene ended, the curtain slowly fell. One second, two seconds, three seconds, and then suddenly applause erupted.

People in the audience stood up, followed by a second, a third, and more and more people stood up and applauded.

The applause lasted for several minutes.

Dean Dai's eyes were a little red; he knew that his year of perseverance had not been in vain.

After the performance, the media interview area was immediately packed with people.

Many reporters interviewed the audience immediately.

"It's completely different from the 'Three Battles with the White Bone Demon' I've seen before."

"The figures are exceptionally three-dimensional."

"I never imagined that traditional opera could be performed like this."

"The last part gave me goosebumps."

Similar comments continue to emerge.

The next day, reports began to appear in newspapers one after another.

The Jinhua Daily was the first to publish a special report titled "A New Expression of a Traditional Story—The Premiere of Wuju Opera 'Three Battles with the White Bone Demon' Sparks Heated Discussion Among Audiences." The article highlighted the play's reinterpretation of character relationships and its innovative stage aesthetics.

Subsequently, the culture section of the Jiangnan Daily also published a commentary: "While preserving the foundation of traditional opera, the play explored aesthetics that align with the new era."

The reaction within the traditional opera circle was even faster; within two days, related discussions had appeared in many industry publications and forums.

Some believe that the greatest success of this play lies not in the innovation of stage design, but in the rewriting of the traditional villain White Bone Demon.

Some people believe that this adaptation is too bold and weakens the clear contrast between good and evil in the original work.

But regardless of support or opposition, everyone has to admit one thing: this play has brought Wuju opera, which has not been discussed for many years, back into the public eye.

For a newly adapted play, being discussed is itself a success.

The subsequent short commentary in the Cultural Daily, "How to Tell Traditional Stories to Today's People," further fueled the buzz.

The article specifically mentions "The Three Battles with the White Bone Demon": "Its value lies not in subverting the classics, but in giving the characters an emotional logic that modern audiences can understand while respecting traditional opera conventions. Good and evil still exist, but the characters are no longer just stereotypes."

This is already considered a very high level of recognition.

Liu Yibing immediately handed Lin Ruiyang a newspaper: "See this? You didn't waste your time this time."

Although the premiere has ended, and there has been applause, media coverage, and industry recognition, how far this play can go in the future, how many performances it can be staged, and whether it can ultimately become a repertoire piece of Wuju opera are no longer things that Lin Ruiyang can decide.