Chapter 735: The Competition Started
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
If it were not for the fact that they were holding on because of their idols, the fans on the audience seats would not have been able to stand listening to such long speeches.
“We invite the judges of the competition: the Manager of the Artist Department from the Han Corporation, Mr. Hao Zhonghai; the famous actor from the National Theater Troupe, a teacher in the Donghua Film Academy, Teacher Li Lingmei; Sesame Theater’s famous actor, a teacher at Donghua Academy of Drama, Teacher Sun Changfang; a teacher for the performing major at the National Film Academy, Teacher Zhang Guangtao; a teacher for the performing major at the National Drama Academy, Teacher Liu Lijin; a teacher for the performing major of the National Media University, Teacher He Shuxin.”
“Now, let me explain the rules of the competition,” the emcee said. “The first round will be a competition in small groups. We’ll draw lots to choose the groups, with 23 participants in each group. The top five with the best scores from each group will pass this round. The participants will draw lots to choose what script they get, and each person will be given half an hour to memorize the script and understand the character.”
“Everyone will draw a different script. The scripts have been chosen from famous television dramas. There is no other actor who can help you to finish the performance. We request the participants to settle the problem of lacking an actor to act with. There are no teleprompters here, and what this is testing is the basic skill of memorizing the scripts and your ability to adapt to change.”
Because it was only the first round, there were really too many students, so each round of performances was only around ten minutes.
Having to show your good points in that short time and win the competition was a very big test.
It was alright for the students of the four big schools. Those who came were ones who had been famous for a long time, with experience in performing on stage. They were students who were used to this kind of big stage.
But most of the other students from the other schools had yet to experience this kind of big stage. The first time they went on it, they would probably have a bit of stage fright.
That was why they were given only very little time for performing in the first round.
The first reason was to conserve time, the second was that, for the preliminaries, most of the students would really not need a lot of time.
Even if the time given was longer, they probably would not be able to continue on anyway.
And the truth was really like that.
Lu Man was put in the third group for the competition, and she was able to perform today.
For the first two groups, there were a few who did not even need 10 minutes.
There were students who were stunned as soon as they went on stage. They did not think that the scale of the competition was so large.
Standing on the stage, seeing the audience that had so many people, they were so nervous their minds went blank, totally forgetting their lines.
There were students who met the situation where they needed someone to come up and act alongside them, but the requirements of the competition were that they had to do it by themselves and could not find someone to help them.
This made people feel very troubled. They were totally stunned on stage and could only act towards empty air.
But without an actor to act opposite, the effects of their acting were reduced by a lot. They did not manage to reach the expected effects.
There were a lot of students who returned backstage, face totally white.
Very soon, it was Lu Man’s group’s turn. The female student from Nan Hua Media University who was in the same group as Lu Man continuously took deep breaths then walked on stage.
And in the end, she had not said many lines before she became so nervous she was stuttering. In her fluster, she could not even think up some words on the spot, and in the end, she cried and left the stage.
Not long after, Lu Man’s name was called.
Lu Man thought about her lines. The lines she had drawn was a part of the classic Great Earthquake movie. That was a real tearjerker.
She was acting as the mother who had been separated from her daughter for many years before finally meeting her but was hated by her daughter in the end.
Before Lu Man went on stage, she did a simple hairstyle for her long hair and stuck it to the back of her head, then she picked a few strands of hair from the front of her head to let it down and dressed up to look like a simple middle-aged lady.
