《gladiator in the theater》Zhang Yishan plays a famous Peking Opera actor across age groups

 —gladiator in the theater—is currently being broadcast on Hunan Satellite TV and Mango TV.Peking opera actor Meng Jinfu, played by Zhang Yishan, goes from being a child to middle age, experiencing changes in the industry and setbacks in life.This is the role with the widest age range he has ever played.In an interview on September 30, he talked about his hesitation when joining the team, learning during filming, and how to keep a person who is getting older and still has the energy to refuse to admit defeat.

This TV series is based on the life of Peking Opera master Tan Xinpei. It is a key project funded by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Radio, Film and Television and a key cultural project of “Beijing Audio-Visual”.The character's life passes through the troupe, stage and family. The audience follows his growth and also sees the ups and downs of an industry.The range of performances that Zhang Yishan needs to deal with expands, and singing and acting on stage and life off stage must fall on the same character.

When he received the script, he first felt pressured by the arias and body movements.He has almost no opera foundation. His past experience of studying at Shichahai Martial Arts School provided some foundation for physical training, but it could not directly replace Peking Opera lessons.There is still a gap between martial arts experience and opera performance. How to complete each action and how to combine it with the character's state needs to be relearned.

The crew arranged a long period of pre-study and practice time for the actors, and professional opera teachers were also there to guide them after filming started.The whole play uses 276 Peking Opera arias and performance scenes. This number determines that the opera will not only appear at a few key moments.The professional details on the stage must be continuously presented, and it is difficult for actors to complete all tasks with a small amount of surprise training.

For Zhang Yishan, the difficulties also extend beyond the stage.The way opera actors sit, lie, and walk, and the way they pronounce words when speaking, often leave traces of years of stage training.After the character takes off the costume, the habits in body and language remain.How to integrate these traces into daily performances became a question that he pondered over and over again when searching for Meng Jinfu.

He was given direct help by his fellow actors on set.More than half of the actors in the crew have opera backgrounds. Zhang Yishan observed them during the scenes, learned specific sequences, and felt their temperament.In addition to practicing martial arts, the characters gradually have a basis for life.A sitting posture, a way of standing, or the fall of a line can help him bring the character from the script to the camera.

Meng Jinfu's career path is also constantly changing.From Wu Chou to Wu Sheng to Lao Sheng, the characters need to face artistic choices at different stages.Delisting, reversing positions, being ostracized by his peers, and changing careers made his experience far beyond the smooth path to fame.The stage has provided opportunities and also brought setbacks. How a person continues to stand firm in it constitutes the tension of this character line.

The core of Zhang Yishan's character is his dissatisfaction.He used Sun Wukong to describe Meng Jinfu's spirit. When he was in his forties, fifties, fifties or sixties, he would still challenge others and still want to continue to advance.Growing older has changed his situation, but it has not worn away his confidence.Therefore, the performance needs to retain both the weight of experience and the momentum of action, and avoid leaving the middle-aged state with only a deliberately old appearance.

In the plot that has been aired, Meng Jinfu suffered the double blow of liquidating his stock and losing his son, and fell into depression for a time.His wife Yu'er is played by Tan Zhuo, and her company helps him get out of the gloom.The rivalry between husband and wife brings the character from the stage back to his family. The pain of losing a loved one is overlapped with professional frustration. His original stubbornness also needs to find new support in this relationship.

When acting out this middle-aged experience, Zhang Yishan still looked for the character's youthful spirit.Meng Jinfu is still upright and still has hope for life. Even if he is temporarily depressed, his inner energy has not completely disappeared.Characters with a wide age range need a character line that runs through the front and back; he chose to let “ dissatisfied” become this line, so that the young and middle-aged Meng Jinfu can be recognized by the audience as the same person.

This also allowed Zhang Yishan to re-understand the connection between traditional opera and film and television performances.In the process of working with opera actors, he felt the impact of stage expression on today's performance methods.TV dramas put the history of an industry into the fate of characters, and actors, through specific training, are exposed to the physical and verbal experience accumulated in this industry over the years.

《gladiator in the theater》 was filmed two years ago, and Zhang Yishan later starred in the online mini-series Serious Crime Group 6: The Lost Siren--.Two works were aired one after another in September. One entered the Peking Opera industry and the other played a policeman. The themes and expressions are obviously different.For him, looking for different roles and trying out performances that he has never been exposed to before are the directions he has continued to pay attention to when taking on roles in recent years.

He did not regard his aging as a countdown to the need to immediately complete the transformation.The impulse brought by a good script and a good role is still what drives him to work.Meng Jinfu's tenacity also gave him new experience: no matter how many twists and turns a character goes through, the performance must find the basis for standing up again, and love cannot stop at an attitude.

As the plot continues to unfold, the audience sees Meng Jinfu repeatedly finding his place between the stage and life.Singing, body, family relationships and career changes all make up this character.Zhang Yishan's longest-running performance has also gained shape through these specific parts: the years have changed, but the opera singer's habits and unwillingness to admit defeat have always remained.