I am a Big Player
Chapter 522 - 516, Advanced Level Acting (Second Update)_1

Chapter 522: 516, Advanced Level Acting (Second Update)_1

Actually, attending Chen Da’s classes was somewhat interesting too, because you could watch other people’s performances of liberating their innate nature, especially the dormitory brothers’ acts. Others could basically talk about those skits for a year...

Yang Runrun was asked to play a shoeshine boy polishing a girl’s shoes, but the girl was so pretty that the shy kid hemmed and hawed for a long time without the courage to approach her within a meter. In the end, it was the girl who moved closer, which left Chen Da very dissatisfied.

After class, Chen Da criticized Yang Runrun for over twenty minutes, "Are you still you in the play? You have your own character, and it’s this character who polishes her shoes, not you! If you cannot immerse yourself in this role, how can you act? What’s most important for an actor is to be convincing in whatever they play, not to look like themselves no matter what they are playing! Drop your bashfulness, once you enter this circle, you will have to experience everything!"

But from this speech, Ren He understood which side Chen Da took in the factional disputes at the Central Academy of Drama.

Ren He and his peers were quite aware of the serious factional disputes within the Academy. One group insisted that actors must merge with the character and express emotion, while another group insisted that actors must rise above the character, be dispassionate, and rely purely on the physical movements of acting to drive the interpretation of emotions.

Clearly, Chen Da aligned with the former.

In this place, art appeared even more refined. A student from one faction shouldn’t even dream of getting a teacher from the other faction to speak kindly to them...

Therefore, choosing one’s personal tutor was also a major event at the Central Academy of Drama, a significant yearly drama...

As for Ren He himself, he didn’t have much empathy for these factional disputes, feeling that as long as the actors he chose later on performed their roles well, it would be stronger than anything else, regardless of what faction they belonged to.

If the acting was bad, even if a god descended, it would be useless!

After reprimanding Yang Runrun, Chen Da turned to Li Shuaizhen. Li Shuaizhen’s issue was that his acting was too rough. He was pair up with a female classmate to play a married couple. He wasn’t embarrassed, but his expressions were a bit exaggerated.

Chen Da, with his discerning eyes, quickly spotted something amiss and scolded, "Can theater and TV dramas be the same? TV dramas have close-up shots that allow you to show your expressions, but in theater, the audience is sitting below, at least five meters away from you. What they can see is your physical performance! Go back and ponder over this. Masters perform well on TV dramas and can do equally well in other forms. That’s called flexible application. Don’t let your TV drama habits ruin you. Make your acting more solid!"

When it was Zhang Jinglin’s turn, he just stood there with a subdued demeanor. After all, the brothers had already set a precedent, and no one could laugh at anyone for getting criticized together.

Surprisingly, Chen Da didn’t criticize Zhang Jinglin. Instead, he praised him for using his eyes well and encouraged him to keep striving.

All this made the others in dorm 313 envious...

When it was Ren He’s turn, the other three were looking forward to Chen Da giving him a thorough scolding!

This guy was a wealthy mogul, fitting the role of a ’Fierce Dragon Crossing River’ in the Central Academy of Drama. To see him get chided by a teacher would be incredibly amusing.

Yet, when usual class days came around, Chen Da often gave Ren He plenty of performance pointers, but now he didn’t offer a single comment and moved on to critique others instead.

He went through the entire class without missing anyone, except for Ren He and Zhang Jinglin, both spared from critique.

Chen Da had a nickname within the academy: Chen Yidao. It was said that his reputation was made when once, he believed there wasn’t a single reliable student in the class and cut all of them without mercy—none passed their exams that year, and all had to retake them.

At that time, the drama department was shattered, a bunch of students consoled each other in tears, a scene too painful to imagine...

Ren He was already an outlier in the class, but Chen Da’s actions made it worse by giving comments to everyone else and not to him, accentuating his outsider status even more!

Could it be because the teacher found out he doesn’t take things seriously and deliberately isolated him?

Thinking about it, it was indeed possible! Chen Da always seemed to have something against Ren He, so he frequently called on him to perform, right?

Everyone knew it too well. We’re all students with over a decade of schooling; don’t teachers usually single out the ones they don’t like and pick on them by calling on them when they daydream?

Sun Yu stood among his classmates, lost in thought. He had reported the issues of dorm 313 to Chen Da before, but Chen Da didn’t respond directly at that time, making Sun Yu think he didn’t care about such matters.

But now, thinking about it, it seemed like Chen Da always had an aversion to Ren He...

After Chen Da had commented on everyone, Sun Yu suddenly spoke up to remind him, "Teacher, you haven’t commented on Ren He’s acting yet."

The class suddenly went quiet. By pointing this out, Sun Yu seemed to rub people the wrong way—after all, they were all classmates, and no matter how competitive they were, it wasn’t right to kick someone when they were down, was it?

However, there were also those who took pleasure in the misfortune, as many people inherently dislike those who are different from themselves, akin to those in medieval Europe who wanted to burn heretics at the stake. It wasn’t as severe, but they were nonetheless displeasing to the eye.

The four people in dorm 313 paid for six people’s accommodation fees, yet they lived in a four-person room. While others discussed drama, these few would loudly talk about Dota.

Now, with the accumulation of dissatisfaction since the beginning of the term, they were eager to see how Chen Da would respond since Sun Yu had brought it up, and it seemed unavoidable that Chen Da would follow through.

What would Chen Da say about Ren He? That was somewhat interesting.

Upon hearing Sun Yu’s words, Li Shuaizhen, Yang Runrun, and Zhang Jinglin all tensed up. Although they always looked forward to seeing Chen Da discomfort Ren He, they no longer wanted to see it once Sun Yu brought it up bluntly.

A brother’s faults could only be mocked among themselves; there was no reason to let others put the boot in!

Li Shuaizhen looked coldly at Sun Yu, who seemed blissfully unaware with his purely innocent expression, acting to the hilt.

Given Sun Yu’s family background, he didn’t need to worry about a small fry like Li Shuaizhen.

Chen Da glanced at Ren He first, then turned his gaze to Sun Yu’s face, "Since you all want a critique, I will provide one. Ren He is the most outstanding among you, letting go when he needs to let go, rolling on the ground without blinking an eye when required, his acting, expressions, movements, language, even the modulation of his voice, he has a good grasp of them all. At your ages, there is nothing left for him to nitpick."

As Chen Da was speaking, he suddenly shifted his tone, "After coming to Central Academy of Drama, I don’t care how you live your personal lives. As long as you polish your acting skills, you can do whatever you want. But the Central Academy of Drama is a place for serious study. Keep your little schemes to yourselves—playing politics here won’t help you get better roles!"

Sun Yu’s expression instantly froze, and he could no longer smile because he knew the last sentence was directed at him!

Ren He, on the other hand, was somewhat surprised. He thought Chen Da was dissatisfied with him but ended up receiving such high praise. The advanced level acting skills were indeed worth it!