Acting master class

"The first lesson that I will teach the students is, 'a play is bigger than the sky'," says Pu, 69, who has been working with the theater since 1986. "It's a slogan that has been inherited by the theater for more than 70 years and is printed on a huge banner that hangs on the rehearsal room wall."

"We love and respect drama," he says, adding that, as a novice, he was taught from the first day he joined the theater that a play is a like cabbage, and that everybody is a single leaf, meaning that, for the play to be full and complete, each "leaf", big or small, must fit together perfectly.

"It means we all work as one for the play, regardless of the size of our respective roles," Pu explains.

He Bing, 55, became an actor with Beijing People's Art Theatre in 1991, after he graduated from the Central Academy of Drama. He can still recall the acting classes he had, which were taught by Su Min (1926-2016), one of the company's first actors, who later became a director.

"I was a young student in the training program jointly launched by Beijing People's Art Theatre and the Central Academy of Drama. Su told us that the theater is a place full of magic and, after three decades of being an actor, I agree with him," says He. "Here we take acting seriously. We work for many years together, which is a romantic thing. I hope that the young people can cherish the opportunity of studying with us, and we will learn from one another."

One of the new recruits is 26-year-old Gong Yuquan, who graduated from Shanghai Theatre Academy. He learned about Beijing People's Art Theatre by watching a video of the theater's classic play, Teahouse, when he was a high school student.

"I became interested in acting after watching the video. I was deeply impressed by the acting and the story," recalls Gong. "Now, I am here with the actors and actresses who I saw on the video. I am very excited."