2 A New Life
This is a stage that has driven countless people crazy, simply because it has a name: Broadway. Now that the performance is over and the audience has dispersed, the seats below are quiet again, and the entire theater has fallen silent. Broadway, in its tranquility, still possesses its unique charm. The history settled on the stage, between the seats, and the years floating in the air, all make this place filled with a special kind of grace.
On the stage, there is only a single solitary light casting down, enveloping a tall and slender figure, stretching long and long. This figure holds a pair of shoes in his right hand, barefoot on the stage, feeling the softness and faint warmth of the floor. The drooping head, the gentle lift and placement of his steps, all reveal his reluctance to leave. Under the lazy lighting, the shadows of his eyelashes on his cheeks flash twice, then he exhales a long breath, as if performing a farewell ritual.
Standing on the stage is none other than Evan Bell, who had just said goodbye to Travina and has now returned to the stage. At this moment, the audience has all left, and the theater lights are completely out, leaving only a single chandelier on the stage for the cleaners who will come later. Evan Bell takes off his shoes and steps barefoot on the lake-blue stage, filled with nostalgia.
Ten years, he has been immersed on this stage for ten years. From entering Outer Broadway at the age of eight to performing today, he has poured as much effort as anyone else. He has undoubtedly earned today's applause with his own talent, and in this, he has a clear conscience.
Precisely speaking, Evan Bell also has a Chinese name: Gu Luobei. As for his age, thirty from his previous life plus eighteen from this life, he has already lived for forty-eight years: this is his second life.
After a car accident, as he parted the thick, inextinguishable blood, the world he saw was entirely different. He moved from Beijing to London; he went from Singles' Day in 2012 back to Singles' Day in 1982; he changed from a pure Chinese person into a Caucasian whose native language is English. Most importantly, he regressed from a thirty-year-old grown man to a newly born baby. After reading too many novels and watching too much television, even the dullest person would know what happened: he was reborn, reincarnated as a baby.It's quite ironic— in his previous life, he had a car accident while witnessing his fiancée's affair with his own eyes. One was his fiancée of ten years, and the other was a friend he had known for fifteen years. The two of them were laughing and kissing like lovers madly in love. Standing across the street, although only a street apart, he felt as if it was two different worlds. Anger consumed his mind, and he dashed forward in a single stride. Even when the car struck him, he still clearly saw the sweetness on the faces of the two people across the street. Until his death, he never truly saw what their expression was when they witnessed his accident—were they gloating? Relieved? Or regretting, or saddened?
After being reborn, he spent his childhood in unfamiliar London. Once, because he neither cried nor fussed as an infant and was somewhat sullen, his mother, Catherine Bell, even speculated that he might be mentally impaired, worrying about him day and night. His brother, Teddy Bell, indulged him in every wish, cherishing him, his little brother, in the palm of his hand. Once, when a neighbor's child called him a dumb baby who couldn't speak, Teddy Bell beat the boy until he was covered in blood.
After a car accident, as he cleared away the thick, unrelenting blood, the world he saw was completely different. He had moved from Beijing to London. He went from Singles' Day in 2012 back to Singles' Day in 1982. He went from being a purebred Chinese to a native English-speaking white person. Most importantly, he degraded from a thirty-year-old man to a newborn baby. Having read many novels and watched a lot of television, even the dullest person would know what happened—he had been reborn as a baby.
It's quite ironic— in his previous life, he had a car accident while witnessing his fiancée's affair with his own eyes. One was his fiancée of ten years, and the other was a friend he had known for fifteen years. The two of them were laughing and kissing like lovers madly in love. Standing across the street, although only a street apart, he felt as if it was two different worlds. Anger consumed his mind, and he dashed forward in a single stride. Even when the car struck him, he still clearly saw the sweetness on the faces of the two people across the street. Until his death, he never truly saw what their expression was when they witnessed his accident—were they gloating? Relieved?Still regretful and sad? After rebirth, in a strange London, he spent his childhood. Once, because he neither cried nor fussed as a baby, and was even a bit gloomy, his mother, Catherine Bell, even thought he might have a defect in his brain, worrying day and night about him; his brother, Teddy Bell, always fulfilled his requests, treating his younger brother like a precious treasure. There was even a time when a neighbor's child called him a mute who couldn't speak, and Teddy Bell beat that child until he was bleeding from the head. After Gu Luobei was born, the family he knew consisted only of his mother and brother. As for his father, maternal grandparents, and paternal grandparents, he knew nothing at all. He had only vaguely heard from neighbors that Catherine Bell was originally a young lady of Savile Street but fell in love with a penniless father, then eloped with him and severed all ties with her family. As for the male protagonist of this dramatic love story, he had divorced Catherine Bell before Gu Luobei was born. In the end, reality defeated idealism. In life and love, life always wins. When Gu Luobei was six, Catherine Bell took her two sons to New York, USA, to seek their fortune. The story of a single mother raising two sons on her own is always moving. To lighten his mother's burden, Gu Luobei didn't worry about being extraordinary and wanted to use the advantage of rebirth to make a big fortune. Isn't that how novels describe it? Write a few screenplays, compose a few hit songs, shoot a few movies, dabble in the stock market, and then become wealthy. But after careful consideration, Gu Luobei realized that ideals are full, but reality is lean. Stocks? He had no idea how to trade them, though he did remember the winners of the 1994 and 1998 World Cup, so he could have gambled on football, but unfortunately had no capital and was underage, so it was impossible. Screenplays? Firstly, thinking about writing a screenplay is easy, but executing it is hard. A film lasts ninety minutes, with so many lines—he's not a computer, how could he remember all those lines? Secondly, he did write two screenplay outlines: one was for the 83rd Academy Awards Best Picture, “The King's Speech.” Calling it an outline is generous; it was crude, just a framework. He also wrote a screenplay for the century blockbuster “Avatar,” which was relatively detailed, but still not a complete script.Just with these two scripts, he struggled for nearly half a year. After sending them to a few major film companies, they vanished without a trace, with no response at all.
Songs? He could hum the melody, but composing a tune required professional training; and he also needed to write lyrics, but who could do that? Nowadays, very few people can sing in a KTV without memorizing the lyrics, and at least the songs he remembered in his mind didn't have lyrics. In the end, he had no choice but to give up.
Making a movie? Even if it was an independent film, without funding, he could only continue dreaming, not to mention he was only six years old. So, Gu Luobei realized that novels and TV were deceptive—everything seemed so easy, like writing a few scripts would attract big companies, shooting a few films would make one a renowned director, composing a few songs would make the world go crazy. Novels are just novels, with a huge gap from reality.
If we were to discuss the advantages of reincarnation, Gu Luobei did know which movies would be hits, which movies would win awards, and which actors and singers would become popular in the future. These directional insights came from his three years as an entertainment reporter; he had just become the deputy editor before the car accident, so he was quite knowledgeable. But when it came to execution, he couldn't remember all the details. Therefore, reincarnation did not offer many advantages; he still had to rely on his own hands and efforts to carve out a world for himself.
Life is like a summer flower; it's easy to speak of, but difficult to achieve!
Therefore, at just eight years old, Gu Luobei entered the Outer-Outer Broadway, partly to fulfill the dreams of his past life and partly to try to earn money with his own abilities, easing his family's burden. Sure enough, on his ninth birthday, Gu Luobei brought the first income to his family: sixty dollars.
The so-called Outer-Outer Broadway is literal—it refers to the area farthest from the global musical theater hub, Broadway. Broadway, Off-Broadway, Outer-Outer Broadway—this is how the terms came about.
Off-Broadway refers to theaters outside Broadway Avenue. Due to a disdain for Broadway's commercial atmosphere, Off-Broadway thrived. For producers wishing to launch experimental or overly avant-garde productions that Broadway theater owners would not approve, Off-Broadway became the perfect stage to showcase their talents.Thus, a group of elites from the theatrical world left the expensive productions of Broadway and moved to other areas of New York City, such as near Greenwich Village, using nearby old churches, abandoned warehouses, and semi-basements as rehearsal spaces and even performance venues. These places gave audiences the opportunity to witness performances by new acting talents, as well as many experimental plays not recognized by Broadway. Sometimes, performances on the smaller stages of Off-Broadway theaters were more effective than those in large-scale theaters. True New Yorkers often preferred going to Off-Broadway theaters because they knew which plays were worth seeing. However, nowadays Off-Broadway has also followed in Broadway's footsteps and embarked on a high-cost path, leading to the emergence of Off-Off-Broadway, whose reach even extends to Brooklyn and Queens—areas once considered New York's slums. Katherine Bell and her family of three lived in Brooklyn, and Gu Luobei's theatrical career began on Off-Off-Broadway, moved to Off-Broadway, and eventually broke into the sanctuary of Broadway. Ten years truly passed in the blink of an eye. Standing on the stage, Gu Luobei felt immense emotion, knowing that he had gone from knowing nothing about acting, music, or dance to becoming proficient, confident that he would not be overlooked even on a Broadway stage filled with stars. This time, the challenge of playing the role of Grizabella succeeded not only because of Gu Luobei's solid foundation, which made it a natural achievement, but also because he was only eighteen, with a relatively high voice that allowed him to sing the female parts without major flaws, and additionally, because his experience in past lives made his understanding and portrayal of the character exceptionally authentic. Today's performance could also be seen as placing a beautiful comma at the end of his ten-year Broadway journey. Yes, a comma—he will surely return because he has already fallen in love with this stage. This article comes from Qidian Literature. Everyone can go support the book and show support for their favorite authors! Poster: SunYLY Mask (ID: 34621)