Taipei welcomes the fringe

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With the 10th Taipei Arts Festival under way, theater buffs get to see some highly accomplished and well-established performance troupes. But the organizers — Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs (台北市文化局) and the Taipei Cultural Foundation (台北市文化基金會) — also see festival time as an opportunity to showcase new artists, while audiences are in the mood.

Enter the first ever Taipei Fringe Festival, which starts tomorrow and takes place at different venues throughout the city until Sept. 14. The event features 61 local artists in 166 shows over the next two weeks. The performances cover a wide spectrum, from solo theater and modern dance to classical music recitals and rock bands. There’s even a theater performance combined with a real wedding banquet.

The spirit of the festival lies in experimentation, “free of limits for artists,” says Yoyo Kung (貢幼穎), a project manager for both the Taipei Fringe Festival and the Taipei Arts Festival.

The Taipei Fringe Festival is inspired by the Edinburgh Fringe, which started in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, a major European event for classical music, opera, theater and dance.

As large crowds were expected at the international festival, alternative and underground theater groups saw an opportunity to try their material on new audiences, so they went to Edinburgh uninvited and put on their own shows in neighboring venues. The number of “fringe” groups grew over the years, which prompted the formation of the Festival Fringe Society, which helped the groups find venues, and handled ticket sales and publicity. Today the Edinburgh Fringe is considered a major training ground for aspiring artists. Past participants have included well-known entertainers such as Hugh Grant, Eddie Izzard and Emma Thompson.

The society adhered to one basic, but important principle: there would be no artistic vetting or juries — a core idea that remains with the festival and other similar events in Australia, Canada and France, and one that the Taipei Fringe Festival has adopted. To participate in Taipei, artists only needed to show that they were either Taiwan citizens or part of a legally registered performing group, and then submit their application on time.

The Taipei version also aims to play a supporting role for “emerging and independent artists,” says Kung. The festival covers all venue, equipment and box-office costs, and helps promote the show.

In keeping with the fringe spirit, participating artists are both novices and experienced performers, and content ranges from silly comedy to avant-garde. Here are a few shows of note:

The Story of a Tiger features Chongtham Jayanta Meetei, an actor and artistic director of Taipei-based Ex-Theater Asia (亞洲劇團). Based on Italian dramatist Dario Fo’s A Tale of a Tiger, Meetei tells the story of a Chinese soldier injured while fighting Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) army and is saved from starvation by a mother tiger.

The Aiki Art Group (合氣藝團), a group of middle-aged and elderly Aikido students, use music, dance, and drama to tell the story of their master and his teachings in Music and Dance in Honor of the Legend — A Predestined Relationship With Aikido.

World music sensation A Moving Sound is teaming up with rising star DJ Shiuan Liu (劉軒) to present new compositions with improvisational and electronic elements. Come ready to dance.