馬黎?黃小星
“我今天出來了?!?/p>
茅威濤說著,向后靠在酒店房間的沙發(fā)上。此前6小時接受各路媒體采訪,她一直挺著腰板,不靠椅背,端著咖啡杯,地中海藍的指甲,像一片平靜的湖水。
今年年初有一條新聞,同時刷屏了好幾個領(lǐng)域——馬云、宋衛(wèi)平和茅威濤等人聯(lián)手創(chuàng)辦的新公司“百越文化創(chuàng)意有限公司”正式對外揭牌,茅威濤卸任浙江小百花越劇團團長,成為“百越文創(chuàng)”董事長。
她的這句“出來了”,簡單,又意味深長,像松了一口氣,也像凝著一股氣。
“我是一個戲班子的班主,團長是在體制內(nèi)當班主,董事長是在體制外當班主,僅此而已?!?/p>
采訪前一天,除了美美地做了指甲,上午,她又去醫(yī)院做康復(fù),打了肌肉針,扎了一下針灸?!俺鰜怼边@天,沒有人注意到她臉部的不自然,她努力把臉部肌肉“抬起來”?!皨寢?,你可以露出尷尬而不失禮貌的微笑?!背鲩T前,女兒教了她一招。
年初,醫(yī)生讓她立馬住院的那天,她坐在車上,突然看到杭州已經(jīng)是春天,花開了,她的頭轉(zhuǎn)過去,眼睛卻沒聽從神經(jīng)的指揮跟過去。她被診斷為格林-巴利綜合征,即“多顱神經(jīng)炎”,治療過程極其尷尬而痛苦:以各種醫(yī)療器械撓動麻痹的神經(jīng),比如用冰的棉簽刺激喉部。最近,她才逐漸有了“想吐”的感覺,這意味著逐漸康復(fù)。
茅威濤感覺自己的身體像一具高負荷運轉(zhuǎn)、年久失修的老爺車。過去,這具身軀馬力十足,指向的是一個演員的情懷修為、一個劇團的榮耀夢想、一個劇種的輝煌復(fù)興;如今,它以神經(jīng)的麻痹、器官的疼痛、精神的極度疲憊發(fā)出尖銳抗議。
即將從藝滿40年的她,和改革開放同齡。她的身上,經(jīng)歷各種“倒錯”:她是個女人,又在臺上出演男人;她是個藝術(shù)家,又有很多行政職務(wù);她既是團長,又要在舞臺上和自己的演員你儂我儂,卿卿我我。
圍繞著茅威濤身上的種種復(fù)雜性,破和立,在她“走出來”的今天,或許可以說說了。
茅威濤記得很清楚,1999年7月29日,剃光頭演《孔乙己》后一年,她開始擔任小百花越劇團的團長,這意味著,她放棄了茅威濤工作室——這是當時中國第一個以著名戲曲表演藝術(shù)家個人名字命名的民營企業(yè)。
茅威濤不止一次地說過:如果我人生中有什么后悔的事,就是放棄工作室當團長。不然,我可能很早就摸索出一個商業(yè)模式去更好地經(jīng)營越劇,經(jīng)營一個真正實現(xiàn)自己戲劇理想的劇場。
團長一當就是18年,破了一個紀錄,成為“在位”時間最久的團長。
多年以后,茅威濤看到同是坤生的裴艷玲老師說的一句話:什么是角兒,角兒就是一個人能養(yǎng)活一個團。
她深以為然。
“能堅持當18年團長,旁人對這份韌勁,可能有不同的看法,但是對我來說,其實很簡單,那就是對越劇藝術(shù)的人文定位和發(fā)展前景,以及個人情懷,以團長組閣一支藝術(shù)理念相通的團隊去推廣和執(zhí)行?!泵┩f。
“為人謙和有禮,反差萌,很女人,愛憎分明,追求完美……”
茅迷組織“秀虎雅集”的負責(zé)人、85后戲迷蘇津津,一口氣列了“我茅”吸引她的諸多特質(zhì)。多年追隨,她也感受到茅威濤的復(fù)雜人格:“她有矛盾的一面,她心里很看重戲迷,但表面上又會予人距離感,比如不管去多遠的地方演出,茅毛都會把粉絲送給她的鮮花全帶回家。但有一次茅迷會,粉絲不按秩序涌上臺拍照,影響了謝幕,茅毛當場就不高興了,和他們合照時都還黑著臉。她說不在乎自己的創(chuàng)新粉絲會不會喜歡,但又非常在意他們的意見,有戲迷不接受新戲,她又會向我吐槽:想做貓咪,前提必須是‘懂得我?!?/p>
翻開2011年8月3日錢江晚報對小百花藝術(shù)中心破土動工的報道,當時肩題寫的是“兩年半后建成運營”。今年,已經(jīng)是第7年。明年杭州春暖花開的時候,中國越·劇場將正式開放。
她的朋友王群力說:聽說過當年的困難,拆遷、經(jīng)費、設(shè)計、施工乃至其他大小事情,她親自苦口婆心,跑上跑下地解決……很多事情,驚心動魄。這等魄力,除了她,無人可以搞定。
她也曾以為只要她想做的事,一定能成。
現(xiàn)在的曙光路上,有一塊石碑,上刻“護國仁王寺遺址”,石碑旁斜立著一種樂器:尺八。
這是中國樂器。南宋時,日本名僧心地覺心到杭州護國仁王寺習(xí)禪,在此學(xué)會了吹奏尺八,從此,尺八在日本廣泛流傳。而在中國,因為戰(zhàn)亂,尺八失傳。
護國仁王寺的原址,后來成了浙江省藝校,1985年,藝校重修大雄寶殿,茅威濤讀書時,去食堂的路上,一定會路過,護國仁王寺堆滿了她們演出的道具、樂器等等。
但是,作為尺八祖庭的杭州護國仁王禪寺,因為建設(shè)用地需要,于2003年1月拆除。茅威濤把護國仁王寺拆下來的木頭、石頭等建筑構(gòu)件,全都堆放在小百花越劇團的基建辦。她想,今后要把石頭恢復(fù)起來,多多少少恢復(fù)當年的樣子,在中國越·劇場后山上,做一個尺八遺址陳列館,“可以真的把這里變成浙江傳統(tǒng)藝術(shù)的原點,有越劇,有尺八?!?h3>(三)
外人眼中,榮譽、美名、權(quán)力、藝術(shù)成就……所有光環(huán)環(huán)繞著茅威濤,而她為此失去的東西,所作出的犧牲,讓人失語。
作家李杭育看了肖全給茅威濤拍的一張素顏照后,寫了這樣一段話——
在上世紀80年代,起碼浙江人沒有誰不知道她。我在什么會議上見過她,當然更多時候是在舞臺上和電視屏幕上見過她——那可真叫俊美無比,光彩照人!三十多年過去了,而今的茅威濤年過半百,還在登臺演出,容貌自然不比當年。在這幅撐膝而坐的照片上,她甚至還有些憔悴。可我覺得,這一個茅威濤更是楚楚動人,讓我看到了她這一生獻身戲劇的辛勞,也看到了戲劇藝術(shù)反哺給她這一生的滋養(yǎng)、升華、美好的一切。
Q:有沒有哪件物個是您一直珍藏至今的,是否有特殊意義?
答:有很多。比如以前房子的墻上,女兒長大的身高刻度;貼在我臥室墻上的女兒寫給我的字,現(xiàn)在鄰居還替我保留著,我挺不舍的,但現(xiàn)在一定要學(xué)會舍。
有一馮阿姨,已經(jīng)去世了,她是上海的婦產(chǎn)科專家,上世紀80年代去美國的大學(xué)當教授,也開私人門診。我在桐鄉(xiāng)越劇團的時候,她來看戲,就很喜歡我的戲,后來每年圣誕,她一定會回上海,也會抽出幾天來杭州看我,有時候會隨著我出去演出。她父親和梅蘭芳有私交,梅蘭芳畫了一幅梅花圖扇面送給他,他又送給妻子作生日禮物。馮阿姨后來送給了我,還配了一封信。她說,我想了想這把扇子留給我的孩子沒有任何意義,我只能留給你。
Q:在工作中,最在意的是什么?
答:最在意的是理解和信任,最不容忍的是不被理解和不被信任。
Q:除了專業(yè)工作之外,你平時最喜歡做的是什么?
答:收拾家,種花草,看書,聽音樂,發(fā)呆——工作之余能做其中一件,就很幸福。
Q:你對改革開放最想說的一句話是什么?
答:感謝這個時代。
Mao Weitao: Total Dedication to Yueju Opera
By Ma Li, Huang Xiaoxing
A celebrated Yueju Opera artist born in 1962 with a career for nearly 40 years, Mao Weitao embodies perfection, innovation, ambition, dedication. She also presents some small but fascinating contradictions: she is a woman, but she appears as a man onstage; she is an artist and she is an able-minded administrator; she promotes Chinese culture, but she has a passion for coffee and we noticed her blue fingernails in the interview for this report.
Maos performing career on Yueju Opera stage is brilliant. She is a representative image of the opera, which originated in Zhejiang more than 100 years ago. She appeared in numerous performances staged by Xiaobaihua Yueju Opera Troupe. Each of these plays can be a chapter in a history of modern Yueju Opera. Many of her roles and performances are memorable. For example, she shaved her head for the protagonist role she performed in a Yueju Opera play in 1998. In 2016, she appeared as Coriolanus in , a modern Yueju Opera play based on works of Shakespeare (1564-1616) and Tang Xianzu (1550-1616).
On July 29, 1999, she assumed the directorship of Xiaobaihua Yueju Opera Troupe. The responsibilities she took meant that her private undertaking, Mao Weitao Studio, had to go. It was the first private theater undertaking named after a celebrated artist in China. Mao Weitao has said on many occasions that giving up her private undertaking and working as director of a troupe in the government system could be her biggest regret. “I could have long since figured out how to make a private Yueju Opera troupe profitable and translated my theater dream into realities,” said wistfully the artist in the interview with us.
She served as the director of Xiaobaihua for over 18 years. Early in 2018 she became the president of Baiyue, a show business that engages in theater operation, show production, international cooperation, art education, theater talent training, and project investment. At present, Baiyue has run two projects. One of them is a theater version of , which will make its debut in London in 2019. The other is , a musical first staged in 2017. A Chinese version will be performed. Among the co-founders are Alibaba headed by Jack Ma and Green Town headed by Song Weiping, and Xiaobaihua Yueju Opera Troupe.
One of the biggest things of her career is China Yueju Opera Theater, located near where she learned the basics of Yueju Opera as a student of a performing art academy. The academy was where the Huguo Renwang Temple, a Buddhist sanctuary first built in the Southern Song Dynasty, stood for centuries. It was in this temple that a Japanese monk learned how to play , a vertical bamboo flute, and carried the instrument and the art to Japan. The temple was dismantled in 2003, making room for a new development. Mao salvaged some building materials of the dismantled temple and these building materials will be installed as souvenirs on the site of the new theater, which will be operational in the spring of 2019.
It took her about 16 years to translate her dream theater into reality. The land was approved for the theater project nearly 16 years ago when she was pregnant. Construction started in August 2011. The theater was scheduled to be operational in 2014, but problems mushroomed. Mao solved all these problems one by one. “No one else could have solved all these problems,” commented a friend of hers.
And no one in Zhejiang has worked as a troupe director for so many years. She agrees that a Yueju Opera star can singlehandedly keep a troupe alive. She agrees that she is just such a star. She believes that Yueju Opera should position itself as a cultural undertaking and a troupe should work toward such a future. She has total dedication to Yueju Opera. She wants to see a troupe that totally embraces and performs her artistic concepts and ideals.
Baiyue is a turning point in Mao Weitaos career. She has not indicated if her performing career is over, but her health would be a challenge if she wants to continue the acting career. She is still rehabilitating from multiple cranial neuritis. She can do more at Baiyue than performing onstage. After all, Baiyue is a new theater for her and she is full of confidence that she will be a star on the new stage.