Studio Superstar: Chapter 17 Part 2

Su Shijin applauded again. “Very good. I am actually quite surprised. Before your performance, many audience members might feel the same as me. Since the two and a half hours of live rehearsal for the other group isn’t enough and the rehearsal time of your group is even shorter than theirs, can you perform well?”

They were suddenly cued. Fan Xue, Wang Minghai and Hu Lang finally withdrew from the shock that Xue Xiao brought them just now and their expressions became distorted in embarrassment.

Su Shijin was really ruthless and cold. She continued, “What’s more, the three of you don’t have as much acting experience as the other group. Zhao Dong has been in the industry for three years but you have been doing group acting. You haven’t even read a line in the script, right? But your line skills are very good. You must’ve worked hard in private!”

Zhao Dong smiled with a bit of embarrassment. “I am usually addicted to practicing in private. Maybe one day, I will receive some lines and this ability can be used?”

The audience laughed.

“Jin Xiaochen is an amateur but you definitely have acting talent. You just aren’t as confident.”

After being confirmed by Su Shijin herself, Jin Xiaochen said stupidly, “Teacher, I seem to suddenly be very confident now.”

Su Shijin was stunned before laughing. The audience also laughed.

“Then there is Xue Xiao…” Su Shijin paused before suddenly laughing meaningfully. “Hey, I’m suddenly curious. Teacher Shen, you cued this group so simply and bluntly just now. Did you recognize that your little fan will prepare for this play well and not let you down?”

The eyes of the audience finally focused on Shen Tingyan at the mentor table again.

Shen Tingyan didn’t speak just now. It wasn’t until Su Shijin cued him that he moved.

Xue Xiao held his breath.

He finally tensed up.

He wasn’t nervous before and during the performance, but Xue Xiao was still nervous at the moment when he had to wait for Shen Tingyan’s evaluation.

His heart was pounding and his ears could no longer hear other sounds.

How would this man evaluate his performance just now? Would he be satisfied? Still…

Shen Tingyan’s first words were:

“It isn’t that he will prepare well for this play. It was that it was obvious that the three of them were eager to act at first glance,” the man said with a lazy smile.

The moment these words came out, everyone was slightly stunned.

Many of the participants suddenly had an indescribable feeling in their hearts. Zhao Dong directly lowered his head on the stage, his eyes slightly red.

At the end of the day, for actors like them, every script and every role was hard-won.

Even if there was only one line, it would be pronounced after repeatedly smacking and testing it in their mouths.

Maybe it wasn’t good enough but they would definitely try their best.

They thought this was nothing at first and could laugh it off when Su Shijin mentioned it just now. But after hearing Shen Tingyan say this, they couldn’t hold back their hearts.

There were people who looked at them and people who understood them.

After dropping this sentence, Shen Tingyan’s words pointed directly at Xue Xiao.

“Xue Xiao.”

This was the first time he called out Xue Xiao’s name.

These two words came out from between his lips and teeth through his slightly cold voice. It brought a strange feeling that caused goosebumps to appear on Xue Xiao’s spine.

His Adam’s apple moved and his hands instinctively clasped in front of them, waiting for the next words.

Shen Tingyan stopped.

For these two or three seconds, he seemed to be pondering on it.

The audience was a bit surprised.

Um? It seemed that this was the first time they saw Shen Tingyan thinking before commenting on a participant!

Before, he was either sarcastic without hesitation or gave a simple two or three word evaluation that showed his disinterest. When had they ever seen him thinking?

What was he thinking about? How to praise Xue Xiao?

After around two or three seconds, Shen Tingyan opened his lips again.

The man raised his eyes and looked at Xue Xiao, saying in a light tone. “You showed the changes of this role in an okay manner. The changes in some small actions in the early stage are in line with the age you reset for the character, but—”

“The whole first part of the performance was too boring.”

The audience was shocked.

It wasn’t because Shen Tingyan still wasn’t satisfied despite the wonderful performance but it was also because—

He was actually giving detailed comments!

This man was actually commenting in such detail!

The word ‘boring’ made the hearts of many actors’ hearts tighten.

When this man was sarcastic, the person who received the sarcasm felt extremely embarrassed and ashamed.

But when he stood from the perspective of a theatrical performance and gave the evaluation ‘boring’ in a serious and objective manner, the heart-piercing feeling was completely different… any actor who took acting seriously should be instantly frustrated to death when hearing such an evaluation.

Not to mention that such an evaluation came from his own idol…

Everyone carefully looked at Xue Xiao on the stage.

Beside him, Zhao Dong and Jin Xiaochen turned their heads in a worried manner.

…But Xue Xiao didn’t look sad, depressed or shocked at all.

He was stunned like he hadn’t expected his performance to give people such a feeling.

Then after his momentary daze, his expression became focused.

He listened carefully to Shen Tingyan’s every word like a sponge. It didn’t matter whether the water rushing toward him was salty or light, sweet or astringent. He was ready to welcome it all.

Seeing Xue Xiao’s performance, Shen Tingyan paused again.

How many students before showed panic just seeing him? Even if he said ‘it is okay,’ their faces were mournful. If he said a few more words, he was afraid they would burst into tears and directly break the record for the number of times a contestant cried in a domestic variety show.

Admittedly, there were reasons why he spoke in quite a ruthless manner before. Which one of those performances wasn’t ridiculous?

It might be because he wasn’t as good as the other three mentors and hadn’t purely praised any student from beginning to end. But so far, how many students were worthy of complete praise?

A nurturing style of education wasn’t Shen Tingyan’s style. So in the past, he never considered going on this type of show to become someone else’s mentor, even though Old Gao always thought he could do it.

Old Gao repeatedly emphasized that he just had to be a bit gentler, just a bit!

However, Shen Tingyan felt he was gentle enough when he wasn’t mocking others. If he was gentle, wouldn’t he become the other person’s father rather than their teacher?

Their fragile, vulnerable and trembling faces made him bored.

Xue Xiao’s reaction brought him a new experience.

So Shen Tingyan smiled.

“Once the performance is boring, the audience’s attention will drift away from you and the main character will become the passerby. Fortunately, you knew very well where the dramatic conflict points on Zhang Yang are. You erupted at several key points where it was necessary, not letting the character be drowned out.”

“The reason why your method worked today was because you only acted for eight minutes. This is a very short part of the whole movie. Then what if you put this routine into the whole movie, 150 minutes?”

Xue Xiao didn’t have stage fright. He thought along Shen Tingyan’s train of thought and opened his mouth to reply, “…The front will look cumbersome and the back will be very abrupt.”

“Yes. Do you know what you are missing?” Shen Tingyan asked him.

Xue Xiao pursed his lips in thought.

Seeing him look a bit uncertain all of a sudden, Shen Tingyan directly told him the answer. “You only achieved becoming Zhang Yang at a critical moment but you didn’t manage to become Zhang Yang the whole time.”

“Maybe you thought you did it. You even grasped every movement and demeanor. But if you think about it carefully, except for the first movement of handling the cigarette and the last part, have you completely immersed yourself in the role of Zhang Yang at other moments or were you just rigorously presenting each of your designs?”

Xue Xiao was stunned.

Guan Ruoying, Su Shijin and Feng Wei didn’t expect Shen Tingyan to directly point out this deeper problem.

There was no way. Many of the previous performances today were so elementary that they simply couldn’t discuss these performance techniques in more depth.

Guan Ruoying thought for a while. Then she accepted Shen Tingyan’s words and said, “In fact, this isn’t your problem alone. Your performance today might be very exciting but both Zhao Dong and Jin Xiaochen have the same problem.”

“Your acting is generally in line with the role and the outbreaks at key points have been achieved, but there are still many times when you aren’t ‘alive’ enough. How to solve this problem? First of all, you have to go further into understanding the character. Don’t just read the script. Write a short biography of the character and imagine what the character will look like. Try to live and communicate in the shell of the character outside the script.”

“For living people, each one is interesting. When you deeply feel that you are one step closer to the character, there will be many details you don’t have to design. It will naturally come out so that every detail is ‘alive’.”

Xue Xiao listened carefully to their words. Zhao Dong, Jin Xiaochen and many actors in the audience were also thinking while listening.

This question couldn’t be explained on the stage today, so Guan Ruoying pointed things out very simply.

But Xue Xiao probably understood.

He bowed deeply. “Okay, I see. Thank you, Teacher.”

He straightened up. Then Shen Tingyan, who they thought had finished speaking, said coldly, “However, today’s last expression is indeed quite scary.”

Xue Xiao: “!”

He looked up and saw that Shen Tingyan was smiling playfully.

Xue Xiao was stunned before smiling as well.

He raised the corners of his lips high and his cheeks were crimson. His apricot eyes seemed to be mixed with honey and sweetness emanated from the curved arcs.

“Thank you, Teacher!”

He bowed again and his voice seemed sweet when he shouted loudly.

Shen Tingyan: “……”

This voice was quite loud, silly and cute.

How did this little lightbulb perform with such a crazy appearance just now?

He snorted gently.

The atmosphere in the studio was pleasant and peaceful for a while and the spring breeze was full.

Su Shijin and Guan Ruoying praised the three people on stage with a few more words. The audience was discussing it in excitement while the actors Chang Yun and Jiang Lianlian sighed one after another.

At this moment, a certain man once again transformed into a demon and said casually, “By the way, I almost forgot that the comments for the previous group aren’t over.”

Fan Xue, Wang Minghai and Hu Lang in the audience: “……”

Just forget about them, TAT.

When they went on stage again, all three people’s heads were almost hanging down to their stomachs. They couldn’t look at anyone at all.

Demon Shen continued to cue them. “Director Feng seems to have not commented just now. Why don’t you come first?”

Feng Wei: “……”

People shouldn’t mention other people’s private matters!

On the stage, Fan Xue quietly raised his head and looked at Feng Wei nervously.

He secretly looked forward to it. Perhaps…

Feng Wei sighed. He was silent for a moment before saying, “I really want to praise you.”

Fan Xue’s heart thumped.

“The three of you are all artists with a lot of fans and there should be many fans present today.” Feng Wei knocked on the table. “I want to praise you so that you are happy, your fans are happy and we are happy. But I really can’t praise you.”

“Teacher Shen asked me to comment but I don’t know what to comment.” Feng Wei withdrew his hand. “I won’t comment. I will just say that it is fortunate we don’t eliminate people in the first round. There are still opportunities later. You should sincerely study hard.”

After speaking, Feng Wei lowered his eyes and said he wouldn’t speak again.

Fan Xue also lowered his head, his heart cold.

The host Jiang Quan tentatively said, “Teacher Shen, do you have anything else to say about this group?”

Shen Tingyan said, “Director Feng spoke quite tactfully. Then I’ll say it directly. Are two and a half hours of live rehearsal time enough?”

Fan, Wang and Hu replied, “It… It is enough…”

“Do you know how you acted?”

Fan, Wang and Hu replied, “I know… I’m sorry…”

“So are you satisfied with a difference like this?”

Wang Minghai and Hu Lang almost blurted out, ‘satisfied, I’m satisfied.’ Then as the answer was about to emerge from their mouths, their brains reacted violently.

What did it mean by ‘Are you satisfied with a difference like this?’

Who was he talking about?

They raised their heads in a confused manner. Then they followed Shen Tingyan’s line of sight and realized something. They looked at Fan Xue standing in the middle in amazement.

Fan Xue stiffened and was at a loss.

He looked at Shen Tingyan blankly, his face pale.

“Why? You think that no one can tell?” Shen Tingyan scoffed. “You broke the jar since the second time you almost fell on the stairs, right?”

The audience was shocked.

“Every wrong acting done after that was done on purpose. Deliberately falling, deliberately jumping and deliberately shouting lines. You felt that since you can’t act well anyway, you just have to make this performance bad enough. Then as long as you perform a bit better in the next work, the audience will change their opinion of you, right?”

At this moment, it wasn’t only Fan Xue who turned into a stone statue. Even Director Zhang backstage froze.

Shen Tingyan looked at Fan Xue and said with a smile, “But are you so sure you can turn things around later?”

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