2024-01-21 01:27:00
Original title: Has appeared on dozens of stages, large and small, and the musical she participated in won the first place in the drama category of the Municipal New Artists New Works Exhibition (Quote)
The “unreliable” band formed by visually impaired youth is very reliable (theme)
Liberation Daily reporter Wu Yue
Every Saturday afternoon, along with laughter, familiar tunes will always be heard from a room in the administration building of Nobao Center on Caobao Road, including “Love” by the Little Tigers, “Blue and White Porcelain” by Jay Chou, and “Blue and White Porcelain” by Queen. “Bohemian Rhapsody”… That’s the electroacoustic band “The Unreliable Band” rehearsing again.
The name “unreliable” is not a joke, but because the band members are all visually impaired, and the rehearsed songs really do not rely on music scores. The band is affiliated to the American-Ai Fusion Art Charity Development Center. Since its establishment in 2018, the band has appeared on dozens of stages, large and small. It has performed on the same stage with Olympic champions and held special performances in top jazz bars. The public welfare film “Miracle Band” based on the band will start filming in Shanghai in 2022. In 2023, the musical sketch “Unobstructed Love” in which they participated won first place in the drama category of the Shanghai New Artists New Works Exhibition.
A series of achievements come from the unremitting pursuit of this group of philanthropic youths, and they are also inseparable from the instructors who have guided and cared for them all the way. They love music and believe that the power of art can reach people’s hearts.
they did it
The music faded out, the lights came up, and there was thunderous applause. At the end of May 2023, Han Xingchen could not conceal his excitement on the stage of the exhibition and performance of new works by new writers in Shanghai. He is the lead guitarist of the band Unreliable. He is completely blind. Like the other 9 members from the American-Irish Fusion Art Troupe, he completed his first musical performance.
With solid content and outstanding performances, the musical sketch “No Barrier Love”, which tells the story of visually impaired people opening their hearts and inviting sighted people into their world, won first place in the drama category. The on-site judges commented that “it’s quite shocking, this is real mass culture.” Actors from other participating teams shed tears silently after watching it. After receiving this feedback, director Wang Lihe breathed a sigh of relief, “They did it.”
Wang Lihe graduated from the Directing Department of Shanghai Theater Academy. Her works as a director have won the gold medal in the National Sketch Competition, and she served as screenwriter of the musical “The Hidden Corner”. In her view, taking over “Unobstructed Love” is a challenge in her career. “Musicals are an art that combines singing, dancing, and acting. Stage scheduling requires a high degree of cooperation between actors and cast and crew. And they don’t have this foundation like professional musical actors, and they have to perform on a two-meter-high stage. The difficulty in positioning is self-evident.”
Ordinary people really can’t imagine how these 10 visually impaired young people, who are either completely blind or have low vision, can overcome these difficulties. People with sight can determine their personal position according to the director’s instructions, confirm each other through eye contact with other actors, quickly adapt to stage lighting, and use simple props without problems. But the visually impaired have to work harder.
Their experiences in band and acapella groups gave them a singing foundation, but dancing and acting were new to them. Because they cherished this opportunity, they were extremely serious and devoted themselves to the 10 days of living and eating with the director and choreographer, practicing their movements and positions over and over again until they formed muscle memory.
The director’s original concern about distance judgment caused by formation changes was solved through teamwork – low-vision members and fully blind members were paired up one by one, and the former led the latter to move, and props and chairs also became a part of the auxiliary judgment. . “Li Minzhong, the group leader who suffers from congenital cataracts, is as worried as a big brother, correcting movements and picking up details of singing. Everyone trusts him and listens to his instructions,” Wang Lihe said.
The excitement in front of the stage is also inseparable from the hard work of the people behind the stage. In order to arrange this musical, teachers who have long been concerned about the American-Irish Fusion Art Troupe have contributed. Foley artist, dubbing director, and dubbing actor Su Dongsheng of Shanghai Film Studio served as the actor’s line guide. Tu Chuanfa, leader of the language teaching and research team of Shanghai Blind Children’s School and expert in theater guidance for the visually impaired, guided the stage positioning for the actors. Shanghai’s veteran music producer and electric guitar player Zhou Zifeng composed the singing tracks in the play.
A strict teacher produces a good disciple
This year, “No Barriers·Love” will continue to polish the details and prepare to participate in national exhibitions and reviews. Letting the children of the art troupe move to a broader stage is the goal pursued by Yu Huan, the founder of Meiai Fusion.
In 1992, Yu Huan graduated from Shanghai Xingzhi Art Normal School (now the Shanghai Normal University Conservatory of Music) and entered the Shanghai School for Blind Children to work. Later, he served as the leader of the music teaching and research group. Since 1996, he has organized a folk orchestra for children. He also directed the choir and once brought students to the United Nations stage.
Over the years, she has seen many students with musical talents who achieved excellent results in schools for the blind but were trapped in life after graduation. She began to think, is it possible for these children who have received a good music education to continue to enjoy the joy that music brings? In 2017, the Mei-Ai Fusion Art Charity Development Center was established to recruit music students and lovers who are currently studying or graduating from schools for the blind to form an art troupe and start a journey of artistic exploration.
Han Xingchen is one of the first members of the art troupe and the first captain of the Unreliable Band. Born in 1991, he learned the traditional musical instrument sheng while studying at a school for the blind and reached level 10. Rhythm guitarist and bassist Xu Renyu is completely blind. He is the first blind college student at East China Normal University School of Law. He plays the pipa at level 10 and can play ruan. Keyboard player Yu Tianli has low vision and has loved playing piano and vocal music since he was a child. Bassist Lin Miao also has low vision, has level 10 pipa, and likes to imitate various sounds. Drummer Chen Zheyu is completely blind and loves to sing. He was only 14 years old when he joined the band. Lead singer and guitarist Bian Yiting has low vision and is the only female member of the band.
Although the members have their own strengths, if they really want to perform on stage as an electroacoustic band, they must have professional guidance. At the beginning of the band’s establishment, Yu Huan asked Zhou Zifeng with the mentality of giving it a try, but he did not expect that the other party agreed immediately. “I have taught many students, and I have never encountered visually impaired students before, but I like to challenge the ‘impossible’.” Zhou Zifeng recalled.
In order to lead this group of students well, Zhou Zifeng made great efforts to develop teaching methods according to their characteristics. The visually impaired cannot learn through sight, but they have the advantage of hearing and have absolute pitch. He took the music apart, recorded separate audio tracks for the guitar, keyboard, and drum parts according to independent parts, and gave them to the members to practice individually. He likes to talk about underlying logic and pays attention to methods. Anyone who makes mistakes during the ensemble will inevitably be scolded. Zhou Zifeng’s strictness is his true nature as a musician. “Whether you are familiar with it or not, you will know it as soon as you hear it. It is a matter of attitude. Once you have a method, you will reap what you sow. Quantitative changes will eventually lead to qualitative changes.” He treats everyone equally and does not take care of the band just because it is composed of visually impaired people. This is also his consistent behavior. Attitude. “For a band to gain recognition from the audience, it can only rely on its own performance.”
Over the past few years, compared to the band’s achievements, Zhou Zifeng has paid more attention to the members’ subtly developing the habit of making music. Every time he sent them a package of music files he had compiled, everyone would download it immediately, listen to it over and over again, and study music theory and harmony arrangements until their cell phones ran out of battery. The members are no longer satisfied with covering other people’s songs. They collaborate to create their own songs. “Creation is the greatest meaning. Now their wings have grown and they can fly by themselves.” Zhou Zifeng said.
Learn to be a social person
Unlike other art troupes, in addition to providing professional guidance, Meiai Fusion also focuses on guiding members to learn to be social beings.
“We can’t just call on the public to care for the visually impaired. Why can’t we use an equal way to let them find their own value, self-respect and self-love, and actively and better integrate into society?” Yu Huan said, just like “beautiful love” The name is taken from the transliteration of the English “May I help you? (Need help)”. The “I (me)” and “you (you)” here can be sighted people or visually impaired people, regardless of No one is just a helper or a recipient.
In the group, Yu Huan laughs at herself as a “long-winded second mother” who cares about every detail and cares about the children’s studies, ideological trends and how to treat others. Having worked with blind children for more than 30 years, Yu Huan said frankly that the visually impaired group is more sensitive than the sighted. Some children are habitually silent, while others protect themselves with “thorns all over” and a nonchalant attitude. “But if you don’t get in touch with society, how can you change other people’s prejudices and misperceptions, and how can you find your place in social interactions?”
To this end, she started with small daily things and told them over and over again: when someone hands you a meal, remember to say “thank you”; when you say it, you can speak louder and more enthusiastically, and don’t act reluctantly, which will make people feel happy. The people who care about you are sad… Regarding stage performances, Yu Huan also gave them advice, “Don’t stand on the stage like a piece of wood, increase your body rhythm and interact with the audience.”
The reminders day after day brought about huge changes. Bian Yiting, the “cool girl” who used to be able to express herself word by word, can now talk to the audience who met her for the first time. Yu Tianli, who was once dull, is now “Manager Yu” who can proactively greet guests. Even if he only has weak eyesight, he will take over the job of cleaning the room after rehearsals. During the performance, he will pack, count, escort and move the musical instruments and equipment in an orderly manner. .
There are actually many things that visually impaired people can do. Except for Yu Tianli, who lives in Huangpu District, all the members of the Unreliable Band live in the suburbs or even the outer suburbs. They take the bus independently to commute to rehearsals every week, and it doesn’t matter how many times they back up. But some sighted people don’t know that when they see a group of visually impaired people, they have to take them across the road and find their destination. Some subway staff feel “like they are facing an enemy” when they see a visually impaired person traveling alone and ask for support through the intercom. Being “helped” without explanation, or being ostracized by colleagues as “deliberately not saying hello” because you have low vision, or being “overly” cared for by a tour guide who doesn’t know how to introduce the scenery when traveling to a scenic spot. It happened in their lives and caused them embarrassment and distress. During the musical performance, everyone interpreted these experiences in a humorous and witty way, and “popularized” the correct ways to help the audience.
Because it is real, it is moving. Through “Accessibility·Love”, the Mei-Ai Fusion Art Troupe builds a bridge of communication between the general public and the visually impaired. The actors were also able to express their true feelings in their favorite way: “Although I know everyone has good intentions, we can do a lot of things independently. When we need help, we will take the initiative to speak out.”
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